The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-02-19

Of June, 1863, .that under the Constitution
there is no power In the federal government tc
coerce the States, or any number of them, by
military force. That the Democratic
party, II true to its time-honored principles, can
not sustain a war against sovereign States; that
We oeiieve 1t to be the duty of the party to pro-
claim these sentiments boldly, that the people
may feel that there is at least one political or,
ganization which will deal honestly, and indie
pendently, and truthfully with them"
Hard upon this general utterance of his party.
July 4, 1863. MIR. Seymour followed it oy an In
dlvidual assault upon the national administra-
ton. He said:
when ] accepted the invitation to speak. with
fall of vicksburg. the opening of the Mississippi, and
the probable capture of the confederate capital and
the exhaustion of the rebellion. By common consent
al parties had fixed upon this day, when the results
of the campaign should be known. to
make out a line OF policy which our country
should 1 pursue ~ But IT. in The the moment of expected
Pennsylvania to save it's despoiled fields from the in-
yading foe; and, almost in sight of this great CONNER
Sam %e to fba xat ans s aags o siy your iha merchants tisas ut th were Z
have occupied every hour of my time, to the point of
physical exhaustion. to rally our troops to rescue an
ad1oaning sister Sta-te|ltremendous epplausel-to Or
ganize the militia of our own State for our defense,
and TO place it in that condition of dignity and pow
er which q great State should ever hold, that truly re-
spects its own rights. fGreat applause.1 L have con-
cerned myself with those measures that j thought
were calculated to protect the commerce of this great
city.
He then recurs to the past. and his efforts to
prevent the war by compromise, and goes on:
Our prayers were unneeded. Again, when the con-
test was upon us, we stopped to invoke those who had
the conduct of affairs not to underrate the power of
the advefsary,-not to underrate the courage, and re-
sources, and endurance of our own sister States. All
this warning was treated as sympathy with treason.
You have the results of these unheeded warnings and
unheeded prayers; they have stained our soil with
blood; they have carried mourning into thousands of
homes; and. to-day, they have brought our country to
the very verge of destruction.
1t is here to be noticed that he either spoke in
ignorance OF the victory at Gettysburg, and the
fall of Vicksburg, or willfully suppressed the
facts. Otherwise he would not have sneered at
the Administrations broken promises. What is
more important to my purpose, however. is that
his e~xertions have been made lin aid Of a sister
State, for the protection Of New York and her
commerce, and to raise her to the condition of
dignity and power which a great State should
ever hold" Nothing has he done to maintain the
national authority, or even the existence of the
Nation. What he does say of the general gov
ernrnent all goes to its disparagement and dis
honor. he does not touch it. but to withdraw
from it some power that had been uniformly con-
ceded to it in earlier times. and which it's Con-
%Stitution confers in express terms; and concludes
by denying the right to suspend the privileges of
the writ of habeas corpus, thus:
This doctrine of the suspension Of the Constitution
this doctrine of the suspension of the laws, is I'M
constitutional. is unjust, is reasonable. lTremen-
dous applause and waving of hats and handkerchiefs.
Ten days later New York city was in the hands
OF a mob. AS he sowed so he reaped; he sowed
the wind and harvested the whirlwind. This
harvest came, too, just when he had done all he
could to disparage the national and exalt the
State COVE rnment-just when he had worn him
self out ITO organize the militia Of our own
State for our defense, and to place it in that con-
dition of dignity and power which a great State
should ever hold Yet but for that very govern
ment for which, on the anniversary of national in
dependence, he had nothing but sneers and con-
domination, the great metropolis of his State
would have persisted at the hands of the mob
which his own speech had melted to deeds of
brutality and blood.
Nor did Mr.. Seymour and his coadjutors cease
to oppose the national cause even after the
bloody riots they had stimulated in July, 1863.
Without words of earnest condemnation for
these disgraeefuI combinations. they did not fail
to denouncef and condemn, and threaten to op-
pose by military force the exercise Of such force
by the Nation as they made necessary to prevent
the defeat of Union arms during the spring and
summer of 1864 While the terrible conflict in
the Wilderness was going on, and when in even
scale the battle hung" on which the fate of the
Nation was suspended, they blazed out all along
the line for the encouragement of rebels in arms
against the Union and its government. Their
press in many places and ways gave aid and
comfort openly to the public enemy, and made it
necessary to our success to suspend such treas
enable publications. The Journal of Commerce,
W 1N0W 1OTh, pTONOh0U SUCH FlSlbdLlOu. lucu
Mr.. Seymour, who less than a year before had
given his hand to the rioters of that city. and
addressed them as his friends, openly offered to
oppose the military force OF his State to the
measures deemed necessary by the national ad-
ministration to the safety o. the Republic. With
this view he instructed A. Oakey Hall, the dis
trict attorney Of the county of New York,
ITO look into the facts connected with the seiz-
ure of the Journal OF ommerc and of the New
York World and informed him that, in max
49, - ~nr,u.n A~1 @hA nnf,n
implicated, he should call upon the sheriff of the
county, the heads of the police department,
for any needed force or assistance and assured
him that 1.-THE failure to give this by any official
under his control would be deemed sufficient
cause for his REMOVAL And this press had al.
ready declared that IF that is not sufficient,
Governor Seymour is pledged by his message to
employ the whole military force of the State to
that object" Under such promises from the
Governor of May "a, 1864, it vas but natural for
the Now York News of May 80, of the same
year, to proclaim:
The war has been an abortion and failure hereto
fore, and will be none the less so hereafter. Shall it
terminate, or is it to be recorded on the pages of his
tory that the people of tho North lost their own
liberties in the wicked attempt to ~subjugate their
brethren OF the South2
Such a career naturally pointed Governor
Seymour out as the fttest man in his party to
be the President of the great confederate con-
vention that assembled in Chicago in August,
1864. The position was accorded to him by the
party. The convention was worthy of it's presi-
dent, and he Of the convention. 1t was known
before the end of the political contest of that
year that the platform of the convention, so far
as it touched the war, was made with concur
renee. if not at the d~ictation, of rebel leaders, as
sembled at the Clifton House, on the Canada
side Of the Niagara Falls. A man whom the
world will believe, and who was there at the
time, publicly declared at Lexington, KY, in
September, 1864, that
It so happened that I was at Niagara Falls at the
Zine; it happened that | saw gentlemen there who
1Sere making these terms. l was satisfied that they
we're there FOR devilment and not for good. The talk
Of peace was mere bosh. They didn't want to make
peace With Us. They wanted peace with the Confeder-
acy. II was that portion Of the Democratic party
fighting in the South. and the other portion of it. sun
porting it in tie North, who were negotiating terms
9f cooperation. The one,half. I say, aresighting us at
she North: and they of the North sent commissioners
20 the Clifton House, Canada; and they Of the South
already had commissioners there. They met and