The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1870-06-15
Holtfral.
From the Galaxy for June.l
HISTORY.
SENATOR WILSON AND EDWIN M
STANTON.
To the Honorable Henry Wilson. SEN
utOr from MassachuSeftS.

/
posed to be panegyric. But before l begin tina
snfer me to correct some of your errors abot
other persons.
In your vituperative description of the Bucbal
an administration, You allege that ''the PreSideT
and his Attorney General surrendered the Co
ernmenis right of self preservation" and ''prt
nounced against lis power to coerce secedin
state You refer Inanifestly TO the opinion of tn
the duties and powers Of the President, and I
| the public acts of the President which show tha
| lac took the advice of the Law Department an
| squared his conduct accordingly. Upon thi
ground mainly, ii not entirely, you deLounce tia
@ lnistration as not only weak and unpatrioti,
nut wllliully wicked and treasOnable. ! propos
70 snow that you have committed cardinal ei
r3r 4 not something worse. The coarse way 1
with the highest crimes, wOnld justify n reply il
language much palmer than intend to use.
our modes of thinking and speaking on sui
y t eL ItiiS kind are 50 loose and inaccurate ti
N y necessary 10 furnish you with an idea Of ceI
tam elementary principles which 10 most othe
men are too familiar To talk about
| r. me goc'rgHaoat of the United States Is tlI
| Constellation dRd kIIr~
| = The preservation Of the government consist
i dI 5i'l,nta'"g the supremacy Of the Constitution
| 3. For this purpose certain coercive powers ar,
Gelegated 10 the Executive, which he may use I,
| defend the laws when they are resisted
| l. But IN this country, as in every other, ev
| cept where the government is an absolute despot
ISM the asthority of the Chief Magistrate Is imi
ted, and his hands are tied up by legal restriction.
the life and liberty ofhis fellow citizens unless il
| certain prescribed ways and ON proper occasions
/
Mlihln those limits II he breaks the law, he de
| stroys the government, he cannot stab the Con
| sttutiOn in the back because he is afraid some
/ body will strike it In the face.
| 6. The government Of the United States, within
| MS proper sphere, is sovereign, much as the
states are sovereign within their sphere. II acts
| Immediately upon the people and claims their Iii
| rect obedience to its laws. As a State cannot
make war upon city. county or town, and put all
its inhabitants TO the sword becauSc some Of them
have acted or threatened To act illegally, so the
General Government is also restrained from exter-
whole O "A fa ff,r ba
offences; actual or intended Of some who live
| among them.
7. The so called ordinances of secession in
lSGO-6l were the declarations of certain persons
who made them that they intended to disobey the
the laws of the United States. 1t was the duty of
Congress and the President to see that fOrcible
resistance to the laws when actually made should
but neither Congress nor the President had an
thority to declare war and begin hostilities bv
anticipation. against all the people at once, and
put them all in the attitude Of public enemies
without regard to their personal guilt or innocence
The opinion OF the Attorney General which Won
nave garbled, ana the messages of President Bu-
chanan, assert these principles in PLAN English
words We held that the whole coerciye power Of
the United states, delegated by the Constitution
TO every branch of the government, judicial, leCis-
ative and eNectve, including its military and ma
val iorce, might and ought, in the appointed way
to be used in the supremacy of the laws against
all opposers, to hold retale the public proper-
ty, and to collect the revenue But we Asserted
also, that powers not given ought 10 he usurped.
and that war upon a State, in the then circum-
stances OF the country, would be, not only usur-
viii make no effort to convince YOU that Mr.
buchanan was right in standing by the Constitu-
uon winch he had sworn to preserve, protect and
defend. That know would be altogether hone
less The declared admirer OF John Brown The
HoIiucal any ot JIM Lane, the partisan of Baker,
the advocate OF general kidnapping and special
murder by military commissions the omen snI.
porter OF measures which abolish the right Of
tlal ny jury and build up an Asidtic dcSpOiism on
the ruins of free gOvernment-such a man would
entirely misunderstood the reason (silnple as il
it) upon which ] put the Justification of n ,eai
offer some apologies which may possibly disarrn
your &C insure or at least mitigate the severity Of
X9ur righteous indrSnation,
IN the hrst place, then, Mr.. buchanan was born
ol christian parents and educated in a Christian
OF his death, he felt that fear Of God which re-
spectacle authority has declared to be, not weak
ness, but the beginning of wisdom" and the only
source Of true greatness He was simply a Chris
tian man and a firm believer in the morality tam
,t ~ 'ite @ .SS~ Iesit'nent Now, yon know lat all
events you must have heard) that persons who ad-
here to that kind of religion always contract n
habit Of regarding the violation Of an oath with
mex prsssible horror, whether Il be coUnmited by
an officer or witness whether the object Of il be
10 destroy the character of a political opponent
70 promote the interests Of a party or enslaye q
State. All kinds of swearing are alike 10 them
Mr. Buchanan being man Of this class | submit
the question whether his prejudices against per-
jary unreasonable rs you may think themJ are
not entitled to some little respect
Apart from the religious obligation of his oath
account, as the best government the world eyer
saw: 40 not expect you 20 sympathiZe with this
Ahother Ihlng: All his predecessors governed
their conduct by similar notions Of fidelity to the
Constitution. la pace aud In war, Ia prosperity
and disaster, through all changes, in spite of all
threats ana proyocUtions, they had kept their
oaths and assumed 40 ungranted power. II was
the most natural thing in the world for Mr. Blu
chanan to follow the example Of such men AS
Washington, Madison and jackson, rather than
the precepts Of those small but ferocions DoIiti
ians who thought their own passions and inter
ests a higher law than the law Of the country.
Again; All his adyisers-not l alone, but all Of
them-eX pressed the clear and unhesitsting opin-
ion that his view of the law the subject of CO.
ereing States was right His legal duty being
settled, not one among them ever breathed q sup-
gestion that he ought TO violate it..
Besides; There was 4 question of natural ms
tlce IS well as legal prOpriety, involved in making
war upon the States at That time Nine tentbs ~
the Southern people were thoroughly deySieJ 10
the Union, and had committed no sin against il
even in thought Would il have been we'll a.
bring the visitation of fire. sword and flmine upon
whole communities of innocent persons? yon
VIII probably answer this in the affirmative You
think that no opportunity to shed the blood and
plunder the property Of men, women and child
rem who live beyond the Potomac ought ever to
be lost ar: Buchanan might have seized that
occasion " initiate John Brown on n large scale
and thus made himself an "heroic Character in
your eyes But you must be aware that he would
nave been regarded by the mass ofmen as q NOR
al monster, ane the admiration of yourself and
your party N Massachusetts would have been but
poor COMPENSATION for the eternal weight of in
fanny with which the rest of the world would have
loaded his memory.
Further stll: You know that the General IN
Chief OF the army had reported FIVE companies as
the whole available force for operations in the
South, and you never proposed to increase it Yet
you wanted war, Why? You must have desired
the Union cause to he disgraced and defeated for
nothing else could have resulted from sucb a
war as you nov abuse Mr.. Buchanan for not ma
king You and your party in Congress were
strictly non committal. YOu refused TO settle
and you made no preparation for contest But
you reveal now what was then the secret desire
OF your heart-that the administration, in defiance
of law and without means would declare war ON
its own responsibility. This would have been
an expulsion Of the Southern States from the
Union, for it would have placed all their people
beyond the protection OfFederal law, they would
@ LtsS ~ sii IeiIeel our LtNe army OF hVe hund-
red men would perish in fortnight, before the
fourth Of March the independence of the south
would be settled fact.
But this is not ALL You give vour unouaIised
appreciation to Mr.. LincOln's administration /
do not say you were true to il (fOr / believe the
evidence Is eXtant which proves you were nOt
but you have landed il as strong and faithful
Dr. lLncOlh adopted precisely the same legal
principles with regard to the coercion Of the
States that Mr.. Buchanan had acted upon, and
yOnd him. lie ayowed his intention not to make
war or provoke It as plainly rs his predecessor
had ever done. He received coninissIoners
from the Southern States. He promised to con
tinue the mail service in the seeded States if
they would permit him. He went further still
onj rplIicly ogsnreI tI,a S,,,,,I-E, 1. 80,
he would not irritate ti-ra by attempting to exc
cute the federal laws = place where it would
concessions TO the SOath which Mr. buchanan
had steadily refused TO make, and if he had made
them reasonable But the Lincoln administra-
tiOn did not stop there The Cabinet voted six 70
one in favor Of surrendering Fl Sumter-Mr.
Blair being the OILY dissentent. YOu will not
deny these facts, but you will continue As here
tofore, 10 say that the Buchanan administration
weakly and wickedly favored secession, while
that Of Lincoln was firmly and faithfully opposed.
have given more time and space than inten-
ded to this part Of your paper But ] am ad-
dressing man of peculiar character. To a per
son whose moral perceptions are healthy and nat
ur2l, ] could make my defence in a breath But
being required to apologize for not violating a
sworn duty, some ctrOumiOcution j. necessary.
Your naere railing accusations against Mr.. Bu-
chanan are hardly worth a reply. The place he
is destined to occupy in history does not depend
on anything you can say or forbear to say. You
have no knowledge whatever of his charaeter-I
Morally, intellectually and politically he was alto
gether too much o. man for you TO comprehend.
The world will look for its information concern
ing him 20 the acts Of his life and to the testi-
mony OF men who knew him and had minds large
enough to take his dimensions. / would not offer
You the word OF 4 democrat, but among those
who with him continually during the last weeks
OF his administration are some who have since
supported Radical measures with a zeal warm
enough TO make them good witnesses. Let Gen
DIX speak his knowledge and say whether he
saw anything of the treason weakness or the
wickedness which you impute so boldly and so
recklessly. Dir. Holt has already, on several oe-
caslons, delivered his testimony. 1t is a ferYent
tribute to the wise craftsmanship and unsullied
patriotism" OF Mr. Buchanan, as well as to "the
hrm and generous support" which he constantly