Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1879-09-26
PRESIDENT HAYES.
His speech at Youngstown sept. II.

| almost year spent in Washington, engrossed
In public affairs, IL is great pleasure to visit
again my friends in Ohio and especially to
meet SO many of my old comrades at this year
| ly reunion Of the Twenty-third Regiment.
Since we last met at WillOughby, year ago,
| there has been vast Improvement in the bus
| iness condition of our country. Whatever
differences Of opinion may be stil found
among the people OF this part of Ohio as to
| the Importance Of the resumption of specie
| payments, and as to the methods by which It
has been accomplished, there Is one kind OF
| resumption which is very noticeable in Youngs-
town, and which is making rapid progress In
the whole country, about which | imagine we
are all heartily agreed When | last visited
| this beautiful valley Of the Mahonng, four
| years ago, the financial crisis, and the gloomy
| outlook for business and labor and capital oc-
cupied the thoughts and depressed the spirits
/ OF the people wherever | met them, whether
| in public assemblies, at their places of busi-
ness, or at their hospitable homes. Now how
| ever, how great and how gratifying is the
changel All around us here, and throughout
| the country generally, we see cheering and
| hopeful indications of better times. Not only
| have specie payments been resumed, but bus
mess activity and profitable employment for
| capital and labor have come also. The chief
| industry and interest Of this valley-the great
| iron interest-already begins to share largely
| in the benefit of our improved condition, and
| therefore heartily congratulate all classes of
citizens In this large assemblage ou the pres.
/
| bright and encouraging prospect which the
| future holds out.
There is a subject interesting to every cti
zen, and especially TO those who served in the
| Union army, in regard to which | wish to say
| a few words:
| Since our last reunion in several OF the
| States and In Congress, events have occurred
| which have revived the discussion of the
| question rs to the objects for which we fought
| in the great conflict from 1861 to 1865, and as
to what was accomplished by the final tri-
| umph of the Union cause. The question is,
what was settled by the wsrl What may those
| who fought for the Union Justly claim; and
| what ought those who fought for secession,
| faithfully to accept as the Legitimate results
| of the war.
An eminent citizen Of our State, Mr. Groes.
| beck, said some years ago, that "war legis-
lates.n He regarded the new constitutional
amendments as part of the legislation of the
| war for the Union, and said, with significant
emphasis, "an1 they will stand.h The equal
| rights amendments are the legislation of the
war for the Union, and they ought to stand.
Great wars always legislAte. A little more
| thana hundred years ago. this land, where we
now are, was claimed and held by France.
| General Wolfe, on the plains Of Abraham,
settled that claim, and the result was the
transfer OF the title and jurisdiction OF this
| entire section of the country TO England. For
a few years its chief ruler was the English
| King. The revolution followed, and the ques-
| tiOn of its ownership was again the subject of
| war legislation, and 1t became part of the
| United States, no longer under a monarchy,
but under free Republican Government.
/ need not enter into any discussion of the
causes of our civil war. We all know that the
men who planned the destruction of the
| Union and the establishment of the Confeder-
ate States, based their attempt on a construc
tion of the Constitution called the State
rights doctrine, and on the interest of the peo-
| pie of those States in the extension and per.
petuation of slavery. The doctrine of State
| rights was, that each State was sovereign and
| supreme, and might nullify the laws OF the
Union or secede from the Union at pleasure
| They held that slavery was the natural and
| normal condition of the colored man, and
that, therefore, slavery in this country could
| and should be the cornerstone of free Gov
! ernment.
No man has ever stated the issues of the
| civil war more fully, more clearly, or more &C
| curately than Mr.. Lincoln. In any inquiry as
to what may fairly be included among the
| things settled by our victory, all Just and
| patriotic minds instinctively turn to Mr.. Lin
| coin. To him, more than to any other man,
| the cause of Union and liberty is indebted for
! its final triumph. Besides, with all this won
derful sagacity, and wisdom, and logical fac
| ulty, dwelling intentIy, and anxiouslv and
prayerfully, during four years of awful trial
and responsibility, on the questions which
were continually arising to perpleX and al
most confOund him, he at last became the
| very embodiment of the principles by which
|
| good citizens may now well listen and heed
| mis- words. None have more reason TO do 1t
with respect and confidence, and a genuiae
regard, than those whom he addressed in his
| first inaugural speech as "my dissatisfied fell
low countrymen." The leader of the Union
cause was so just and moderate, and patient
| and humane, that many supporters of the
| Union thought he did not go far enough or
| fast enough, and assailed his opinions and his
| conduct; but now all men begin to see that
| nlQiD W IN at ast ga m tO low inn
| and to lean upon his wisdom and frmness
| with absolute trust, were altogether right,
and that in deed and purpose he was earnestly
devoted to the welfare of the whole country,
| and OF all its inhabitants.
Believing that Mr.. Lincoln's opinions are
of higher authority on the questions of the
| war than those of any other public man on
either side OF the controversy, desire to pre-
sent them quite fully in'his own language.
| In the third year of the war, and while its
result was still undecided, Mr.. Lincoln made
his memorable address at the conservation of
| the Gettysburg National Cemetery, on the 18th
of November, 1853. He was standing on the
6eld of the greatest battle of the war. He
was, no doubt, deeply impressed with the
heavy responsibilities which he had borne so
long. he spoke not as partisan, embittered
and narrow and sectional, but in the broad
and generous spirit of a patriot, solicitous to
say that which would be worthy to be ponder
| ed by all OF his countrymen throughout all
time. In his short speech of only two or three
paragraphs he twice spoke of the objects of
the war, once in its opening and again in its
closing sentence. The words have been often
quoted, and they cannot be too familiar. They
bear clearly and forcibly on the question we
are considering.
-Four score and seven years ago." said
Mr.. Lincoln, tour fathers brought forth on
this continent a new Nation, conceived in
liberty and dedicated to the proposition that
all men are created equal. Now we are en-
gagged in great civil war, testing whether
that Nation, or any Nation so conceived
and so dedicated can long endure.n
And again, in closing, he said: 4" II is rather
for us that we here highly resolve
that the dead shall not have died in vain I;
that the Nation shall, under God, have new
birth of freedom; and that Government of
the people, by the people, and for the people,
shall not perish from the earth.n
No statement of the true objects Of the war
more complete than this has ever been made.
1t includes them additionally, Liberty,
Equal Rights aud Self-Government. These
are the principles for which the Union soldier
fought, and which 1t was his aim to maintain
and perpetuate.
If any one supposes that that construction
of our National Constitution, which is known
as the State-rights doctrine, is consistent with
sound principles, let him consider a few para
graphs from Mr.. Lincon's first message to
Congress, at the extra session OF 1861.
Speaking of what was called the right of
peaceful secession-that is, secession In Ac-
cordance with tae National Constitution-he
said:
"This sophism derives much, perhaps the
whole OF its currency from the assumption
that there is some omnipotent and sacred su-
premscy pertaining to Stdte-tO each State
OF our Federal Union. Our States have neither
more nor less power than that reserved TO
them in the Union by the Constitution, no
one OF them ever having been State out OF
the Union. The original ones passed into the
Union even before they cast OIL their British
colonial dependence, and the new ones each
came into the Union directly from condition
of dependence, excepting Texas. And even
Texas, in its temporary Independence, was
never designated State. The new ones only
took the designation of States on coming into
the Union, while that name was first adopted
for the old ones In and by the Declaration
Of Independence. Therein the United Col