The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1868-09-26
sTEUBENVILLE, o.
Speech Of Mr.. Stanton.

tr CTEUBENNILLE. OnlO, sept. % -
The following is Mr.. StantOn's speech
Friends and EslIo1o- Citizens.
The time is rapidly approaching
when you will be called upon to
choose whom you will have for the
Chief Executive power of this ma
tioa for the next four years, who
shall exercise the law-making powers
as your representative la Congress
during the next Congressional term
You have never made a choice so
important 10 yourselves, to your
country, to ma 1kind, for upon it may
rest the issues of peace or Of war, OF
freedom or of slavery. In short, all
the blessings that can follow good
government, or that bad government
can infiict upon the human race.
At the last Presidential election
the country was in the midst of a
bloody war, and had been for three
years struggling for existence against
treason and rebellion. The forerun-
ner of war was so varied, that scme
patriots began to feel doubtful as to
the result, while on the other hand,
the rebels strong in military power,
and encouraged by sympatbizjng
friends in the North and Western
States, were bold in defiance, and
boasted that it needed only for ther
final success, that their friends IN the
Northern States should carry the
Presidential election. These friends
who had resisted the war at
every stage, were equally bold
and confident in their expecta
tion that their hour Of triumph
was at hand, but these hopes aud ex-
pectatlons were doomed to an ignO-
minious overthrow at the polls, by
the election of Abraham Lincoln,
and on the field Of battle by our army
under the command of Gen. Grant.
[Applauss. Overwhelmed by this
disaster, political and military, the
rebels gave up In despair, and deelar
ed the cause, the lost cause" and
humbly sued for life, liberty and
property, processing to be deeply
grateful for the generous terms they
were offered. Of the cause that led
to the rebellion, and the justification
of nation in prosecuting the war, it
is needless here to dwell. They are
fresh in your recollection The graves
of 30, 600 patriotic soldiers s.ain in
battle by the rebels, are still green.
The tears of orphans and widows
and bereaved parents still flow, and
the manned and wounded soldiers
around US. are living memorials of
the cruelty OF the rebels 10 their war
against the Government of the Unite
States. You will bear In mind, how
ever, that the rebellion was caused by
thirty years conspiracy of those whom
Mr.. johnson happily termed the
slaveholding oligarchy of the South
ern States-an oligarchy based upon
landed monopoly and slave labor.
This slaveholdiBg aristocracy thirsted
to extend their territorial and politi-
cal power, and by extending their
system into the free States, and OBJ
tain a monopoly of the fertile laud
and rich mineral of those States, and
ultimately to obtain control of the
Government. Experience has shown
that the system of free labor and
slave labor are hostile, and cannot
exist together, so that foothold of
slavery is an impossible barrier 10
free emigration, and would give to
the slave holders not only a monopoly
of land, products and minerals, but
command of the great channel of
cOmm6IC6 JU luG dCtuC, anu 10 the
nations of the East, and would make
them the richest people on the face OF
the globe. This ambitious arm was
strongly resisted in the Northern
States. Mindful of the fortunes of war,
aud fearful of delay, the first election
of Mr.. Lincoln was deemed by the
slave holders fitting occasion for the
outbreak of the rebellion. On the
day after the Presidential election the
fag of the United States was hauled
down and the Palmetto flag run up in
| Charleston; conventions for seces-
| sion were asked for in the slavehold-
| ing States, and very soon ten States
convened at Montgomery. the SO call
/ ed Confederate Government hostile
| to the Government of the United
States, and transferred its capital to
Richmond. Immediately afterwards
| forts, arsenals, magizines, arms, am
munitions, ship-yaads, ships Of war
and the public money were seized
and converted to the purposes of the
rebellion. The navigation of the
/ Ohio and Potomac Rivers were clos ed /:
/ the Northern men aud Northern wo-
men were imprisoned or banished from
/ the slave holding States; armies were
/ levied, the forts and troops Of the
United States were besieged, bonn
barded and captured. In this condi-
ton of things the first troops we're
called out IN defense of this nation,
and the first war loan negotiated; and
for every life that has been lost. every
drop of blood that has been @expen6
ed, every dollar that has been laid