The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1879-11-22
"HARK, FROM THE TOoMBS!"

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mittce of arrangements of the Chicago Gran
Boom to be present on that great occasion wa
one to Bob TOombs of Georgia and to it he il
credited with sending the following response
ATLANTA, Ga, Nov. r.
Your telegraph received. decline to an
swcr, except to say: Present my personal con
CALCULATIONS to Gen. Grant on his safe arrlva
70 his country. He fought for his country hon
oraby, and won. | fought for mine, and los,
am ready to try it over again Death to the
Union. r. ToOMBs.
All the comments Of the stalwart papers on
this response are substantially condensed in
the remark of the Aurora BeacOn, that
1t Is evident the Government of the United
States made very grave error in Omttlng to
hang Robert Toombs just as soon as 1t could
LAY hands upon HIM after the rebellion was
crushed
Why? Grant said in both his little speeches
at Chicago, and the stalwart press is reiterat.
ing it constantly, that the war of the rebellion
involved the issue whether this shall be Ma.
ton with big NJ or coniedcracy of states,
and that the result of the war made this Ma.
ton. That is exactly what Bob Toombs saws.
You fought" he says to Grant, "to make this
= Naton-I fought for confederacy. ack
knowledge that was beaten, but not converted"
If Toombs is to he hanged then every stalwart
equally deserves hanging, for both are perfect
y agreed that it was not the constitution but
the result of the war that made this nation
The doctrine of Toombs and the stalwarts thus
is, that the question before the war was an
open one and it needed the arbitrament of the
sword TO settle it. Thus stated, it places the
rebels, as to the justice of the plea on which
they took up arms, in the right, for in that
view when the war commenced this was not n
nation but confcdcracy, and only became a
nation by defeating and crushing the confeaer
ates and crownng with victory the arms that
fought to make this a nation.
The democrats, it is needless to saw believe
no such doctrine. They hold Bob Tovmbs to
be "a professional fire-eatcr, a national NUS
ance and political IDIOT" as Georgia paper
justly called him in response to his denuncia
ton OF his own state periodically abandon.
ing the confederate idea and giving in its adj
w tlic oHiou, anu LOT lllc same reason
democrats hold the stalwart batherskie who
insists that the war made this a nation to be
equally political idiot. The doctrine of the
Democratic party has always been that it was
not the war but the constitution that made this
"A nation, and that the war IN no respect chang
ed or modified the constitutional force and IN.
tent on the subject. Before the adoption of
the constitution this was a confederacy of
states but the constitution did away with that
and made 1t unlon-a merging into one-CfI
the statcs-a nation-and there never was day
since then that the democratic party was not
ready to put It's foot down with Gen jackson
and say that "'rhe Union must and shall be
preserved" The traitors that want to be
hanged are the traitors to that Union-the
Toombescs of the south and salwarts of the
north, who llaunt in our faces the reasonable
doctrine that the result of the war made this
nation and that the rebels were right in fight |
ing to maintain il a confederacy.