The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-05-29
Senators or Representatives from the

drafted IN my district was one. / did
not resign my seat in Congress. I did
send substitute. What would the
honorable Senator have done?
Mr.. Williams ST should have gone.
Mr.. Blaine-You should have gone
MIR. Williams would have gone to
the fight. i,
Mr. Blame am, glad you would
have gone in any way on the Union
side But the Senator was not drafted
and he went and fought against the
Government, even when his State did
not secede. | consider this reference
to substitute as irst-class sarcasm,
and, as the Senators from Kentucky
have each tried their hands on it twice.
[ hope they will repeat it again.
Mr.. Williams-When nv, country
calls for my services'in the army, / am
ready. a...., lG.,5 milton
Mr.. Blaine-I am not disputing it.
l only say the honorable Senator went
into the Rebellion because his State
did not go.
Mr.. Williams should like to ask
the Senator did his substitute fight?
Mr.. Blaine-No. found afterward
that he was Democrat. I was in
veigled into hiring him without know
ing who he was. 1858
, Mr.. Eaton-Did he sell himself for
half price? H. . ..,'.'@>
Mr.. Blaine--I do not know. I paid
full price for him, more than an average
Democrat was worth in the war. And
that leads me to remark that the honor
able Senator from Georgia took .occa-
sion to felicitate his Northern Demo
cratic associate that they were men-I
regret that the honorable Senator from
Connecticut is not in his seat [ dis
Like to lose sight of his pleasant coun-
tenance, as [ am going to refer to him
the honorable Senator from Georgia
made the astonishing assurance that this
Union had been saved by the Northern
Democrats; they were the men that did
it! 1t was the Northern Democrats!
Why, in Connecticut it was not William
A. buckingham or Joseph R.Hawley
that helped save the Union. The
honorable Senator from Connecticut
did il" Twas just referring to the hon
orable Senator; I see he has come back.
It was not in New York VIM Ell. Seward
that did anything for the Union; = it was
Gov. Seymour. Out in Ohio it was not
Salmon P. Chase that helped along the
Union cause, it was Clement L.. ,Vallan-
digham! Of course; and what pro-
digious delusion Mr.. Lincoln was labor
ing under during the whole of that time!
What great loss Mr.. Lincoln met with
when he did not have the advice and
counsel and aid of the honorable
Senator from Georgia, because I have
here very remarkable document of
Mr.. Lincoln's, from which the casual
reader of history would infer that some
how Mr.. Lincoln did not think the
Democrats we're helping him along as
rapidly as the Senator from Georgia
says they were. [ do not think the
honorable member from Connecticut
would himself say that he helped along
the war for the Union very much. 10
Mr.. Eaton-If the Senator from
Maine has any desire to make personal
attack upon me with regard to any po-
sition that I have ever occupied upon
this or any other question let him pro-
coed to make it.
Mr.. Blaine-Not the slightest. I do
not consider gentleman's public posi-
ton to be the slightest matter of per-
sonal attack.
Mr.. Eaton-Then do not infer any
thing. Make any charge you please.
Mr.. Blaine-I was referring to the
fact that the honorable Senator from
Georgia at the time he rested his eye
directly on the Senator from Con
necticut, whose pleasant face love to
look into gave us the assurance on
this side that we were tremendously
mistaken in supposing the Republicans
had done anything toward saving the
Union; it was the Democrats that had
saved it, the Northern Democrats.
Well, I said, if that be so Mr.. Lin
coin was the victim of prodigious
deiusion. Mr.. Lincoln did not think
so. It happened under the authority of
a military officer who now graces this
body with his presence, the Senator
from Rhode Island (Mr. Burnside), that
Mr.. Vallandigham was arrested. His
release was sought by committee of
great convention of the Democrats of
Ohio. They had a very notable inter-
view and very notable correspondence
with Mr.. Lincoln, and I beg, after the
lapse Of fifteen or, sixteen years, to refer
to that correspondence. I will read an
extract, the moral of which will ex-
plain itself:
At the same time
Says Mr.. Lincoln -.....
your nominee for Governor, in whose behalf
you appeal, is known to you and the world to
declare against the use of an army to suppress
the Rebellion. Your own attitude therefore.
encourages desertion, resistance to the draft
and the like, because it teaches those who de-
eide to desert and to escape the draft to be-
lieve it is your purpose to protect them, and to
hope that you will become strong enough to do
So
After short personal intercourse with you,
gentlemen Of the committee / cannot say I
think you desire this effect to follow your atti-
tude; but assure you that both friends and
enemies of the Union look upon it in this light
Mr.. Lincoln distinctly understood