Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-02-28
sand men was issued the quota of each
State was filed with alacrity. iaf

July A, 1861, reassured the people that
the object of the war was only to restore
national quiet and order. I will quote
his precise language: "Lest there be
some uneasiness in the minds of candid
men as to what is to be the course of
the Government towards the Southern
States after the rebellion shall have been
suppressed, the Executive deems it
proper to say it will be his purpose
then, as ever to be guided by the Com
stitution and the laws -
And further: ".Thenghts of the States
and the people under the Constitution,
will be respected and maintained, as he
pledged himself they should be in his
inaugural, and furthermore, he signifies
that he has no intention of conquest or
subjugation."
After the unfortunate and disastrous
battle of Bull Run, when the safety of the
Capital was imperilled, and when even
the President and the Congress of the
United States there assembled were, in
danger of being captured by the Confed-
crate army-in the midst of all this, the
Congress of the United States thought
it proper, by resolution, to again state
the objects of the war, and on the 22d of
July, 1861, that illustrious old man and
statesman, John j. Crittenden, of Ken
lucky, offered the following resolution,
which was unanimously adopted by the
House and Senate Of the United States:
,''Rcsolved, That the present deplorable
civil war has been forced upon the coun-
try by the disunionists Of the Southern
States, now in arms against the Consti-
tutional Government, and in arms around
the capital; that in this national emer-
gency Congress, banishing all feeling
of mere passion and resentment, will
recollect only its duty to the whole coun-
try that the war is not waged on their
part in any spirit of oppression or of any
purpose of conquest or subjugation, or
purpose of overthrowing or interfering
with therights or established institutions
of those States, but to defend and main
tain the supremacy of the Constitution,
and to preserve the Union with all the
dignity, equality andrights of the States
unimpaired, and that as soon as these
objects are accomplished the war ought
to cease"
After the passage of that resolution,
nearly all opposition to the prosecution
of the war ceased, and the Congress of
the United States Immediately appro-
priated five hundred millions of dollars,
and authorized the enlistment of five
hundred thousand soldiers, and the fife
and the bugle and the drum were heard
in every school district in the North, and
every highway and railroad swarmed
with tens of thousands of men rushing to
the field of battle, and all the North
seemed to be unit on the question.
LINCoLN's PERFIDY.
Now, Mr.. Speaker, the gentleman from
Warren (Mr. Scott informs us that these
solemn promises and assurances laid
down in the Crittenden resolutions and
in Mr.. Lincoln's messages were not in
tended to be carried out in good faith,
but were merely a soothing syrup to al
lay the fears of restless Democrats and
get them into the army
If, under the solemnity of an oath,
Republican members of Congress voted
for this resolution only to entrap Demo
Gratis and draw them into the army un-
der false pretense, for the purpose of
subjugating the South and abolishing
the institution of slavery, then declare
on this floor they stand before God and
the world set of perjured Williams.
If the remarks of that gentleman be
! true, that in this particular the Republi-
can party in Congress, acting under oath,
had perjured itself and acted the hypo-
critic from the beginning of the war, and
Was, therefore, unworthy of public COIL
fdence-was it not time, when that be-
came known. for the people to draw back,
under suspicion that the war was to be
carried on for the subjugation of the
South and for the liberation and free
dom of their slaves, contrary to the sol
emn pledges that the war was inaugu-
rated for no such purpose2
THE PROCLAMATION.
No President of the United States
ever received a more generous, sincere
and earnest popular support than Presi-
dent Lincoln IN the prosecution of the
war from the Democratic party. Up to
the issuing Of the Emancipation Procla-
nation this support was constant and
unremitting. This support was based
on the condition that he would adhere
inAexibly to his numerous declarations
and pledges that the sole object of the
war was simply to enforce the laws, and
that it should be conducted to the end as
it had been professedly undertaken, and
when the insurrectionary States laid
down their arms they should be restored
to their rights in the Union, under the
| Constitution.
In the publication of Mr.. Lincoln's
Proclamation of the 22d of September
1862, his treachery-his perfdy-his
gross violation of every pledge and de.
claration previously made was so appa-
rent and undeniable that it created a
feeling of the most profound disrespect
and contempt; and the President, and his
minions, were held, by deceived and
outraged public as class of base falsi-
fers and unworthy of the confidence Of
generous and high-minded people.
In this proclamation the President
violated every pledge and declaration he
had made to the people in his inaugural
and messages; violated the principles
adopted in the Crittenden resolutions
ignored the declarations set forth in the
Republican platform at Chicago; and
thus chilled the patriotic impulses Of
the people, and created an anti-war par,
ty extending throughout the North.
There were few Democrats who op-
posed the war from the commence
ment, believing then as now. that treach
cry and corruption lurked beneath
every proposition and act of the dom
! inant party, and that the war "for the
/ Union'' would end in disunion. And
when that apprehended treachery be-
i IL L - 4 l.