Urbana union. [volume] (Urbana, Ohio) 1862-1872, 1869-09-01

with power topass through 4 State with
out even asking permission. The late
Congress chartered a railroad from
Washington City to New York, and a
proposition is now before Congress to
construct one from Washington to Cleve-
land. If this is a legitimate exercise of
power, what security can there be that
the charters and institutions of the
States will not be annUlled or destroyed
by Congress?
Other Illustrations of infringement up
on the reserved rights of the States can
be given, showing that we are surely
and rapidly becoming Il consolidated,
centralized, venal and corrupt govern
ment, and that our bOasted Democratic
institutions are passing away. The qUeS-
ton may be pertinently asked me, Did
YOU not act with the Republican par
ty, and were you not sincere and ear
nest in the advocacy of its avOwed pTin-
ciples ," To this l frankly answer in
the affirmative.
STATE RIGHTS.
The platforms of the National Conven-
tions Of the Republican party is 1856 and
1860, and 1864, and the candidates placed
upon them had my earnest endorsement
and support. The principles then avOw-
GNl dIt lON lCDuOlUlGu ny llluU Iitll lN
and they are advocating and enforcing
doctrines which were then abhOTTed and
denounced.
Senator Morton, an acknowledged
Radical leader, when he opened the cam
paign in 1865, said: "FrOm the begin
ming of the war up to this time every
message of the President, every prOcla-
nation, every Statepaper, and every act
Of Congress have proceeded upon the
/ hypothesis that no State could secedC
/ from the UniOn.n "But it is now pros
posed by some that we shall practically
admit that the Southern States did Sc
cede; that they did 60 out of the Union;
/ that the work of secession was perfect
was accOmplished-that the States were
/ out of the Union; that we now hold
them as conquered provinces, just as we
/ should hold Canada, if we were to in
/ wade and take possession of it."
! Now this same leader advocates the
very doctrine he then denounced, and
! his distinguished himself by being the
author of the proposition that State
cannot get back into the Union until she
| has first ratified the Fifteenth Amend
ment.
1t was q cardinal doctrine with that
party in its better days, that a State
could not secede or dissolve its relations
with the Union by its own act. be,
/ lieVed secession a heresy, and the at.
| tempt to break up the Union q crime
! When the civil war was inaugurated,
/ took the side Of the Government, anC
was in favor of preserving the integrity
of the Union at any cost. When the
armed enemy surrendered, and in gOOC
/ faith accepted the situation, l Endorsed
fully the views of President Lincoln
with others, I exclaimed Amen, wheT
our President and COmmander-in-Chi
stood up in Richmond, the late capital
of the sO-called COnfederacY, and said tC
our erring cOuntrymen "COme back
! your seats are vacant; we bid you vel
come. Come back with all your right,
and institutions UnimpaiFed, except sla.
very, which has been destroyed by tho
war" These were patriotic UtteTances
and touched q responsive chord in the
heart of his political enemies. The Re
publican leaders found it necessary, il
order to peTpetuate their power, to whee
squaTely upon the platform of jeff Da
Wis, and declare that the Southern States
were out Of the Union, should stay on
until it pleased the party to admit them
that they were conquered provinces, anC
we had a right to reduce them to a ter
IlJOIldl COuulllOlls L LCN u uIlOtSGu bLlS
doctrine, and we know it was not en-
tertained by Mr. LincOlOn nor his Cabi
net. Those who charge me with Treason
ty my party should bear i'll mind that
every living member of the OTigina
( Cabinet of Mr.. Lincoln, except Gamer
on, of Pennsylvania, who was turned
out of it at the solicitation of Congress
stand where l do to-day.
The two members of the Cabinet who
have followed their chief to the othcl
side, lived long enough to repudiate the
doctrines of the present Radical party