Year: 1863




Il know that there are men who
think we exaggerate the Importance Of
preserving the Union, and who even
imagine that the Government might
be divided, and we could still get along
very well. They sigh for peace; but
there are wars better than peace, ano
there is a peace worse than war, and
worse than any thing else in the world,
and that is the peace and quietude
which ends in enslavement. Mr.. Val
landigham proposes peace that is not
only worse than war, but worse than
any national evil that you can imag-
inc, and that is the peace which leaves
YOU in the quiet of servitude, with all
its abasing evils. Let US see if it will
not" ........ ....r..,, .....-


The above is an extract from the
speech of Colonel Charles Anderson,
at Mount Gilead, Ohio, and it seems
to us deserving of some comment
First, then, we will say that the peace
Mr.. Vallandigham wishes to make, and
which Mr.. Anderson says is worse than
war, is a peace that will lead to re-
union! Is Mr.. Anderson opposed to
such peace? Does he prefer war and
disunion to peace and reunion? There
are men "who sigh for peace, ''-be-
cause war-and especially civil war
is about the greatest evil that can be-
fal country, and is to be avoided in
every manner possible consonant with
national honor and integrity. They
"sigh for peace" because they cannot
see how the war in which we are en-
gagged can lead either to desirable
union or to any good result. They
"sigh for peace" because it is always
honorable to labor for that consumma-
ton, and the more emphatically where
the quarrel is family one-in our
household. They ''sigh for peace, "
because they see the war destroying
that which is even more precious than
our Union-we mean the liberties of
the people, and preparing us for gi-
pantic and crushing military despot-
ism. .........


Mr.. Anderson is of that school who
care more for the territory over which
our Government is to extend than he
does of the kind of Government we
are to have. We prefer Great Bri>
tain to Russia, or Ohio to an Aus
tria or a China. We would rather
have liberty, with the boundaries of
Plymouth Rock or the old Thirteen
Colonies, than to have the whole world
for one nation, if it was to be subject
to the will of a despot. 1t is the qual>
ity of the Government--its freedom
in which the people are interested,
and not the mere extent Of its terrific
ry. We can survive the loss of land,
but not the loss of liberty. Men sigh
FOR peace because they want once
more free ballot, free speech and a
free press-priceless blessings-tliat
weigh more, even more in their esteem
than extended domain. They sigh
for peace, because they know that the
difficult problem before us requires to
be settled by statesmanlike prudence
and skill, and not by the bayonet and
the swoad. They sigh for peace, be-
cause it is that, and that alone, which
can unite the people of our warning



States in the bonds of fellowship and
sffection-the only bonds that make a
union desirable. They sigh for peace,
because it is in accordance with Chris
tianity, with the nature of our institu-
tions and with the spirit Of the age in
which we live. Men sigh for peace,
because never since this struggle be-
gan has an attempt been made to Sc
cure it-no over lures or propositions
of any kind, such as brethren ought
to make to one another to avert, if
possible, the horrors and calamities Of
war. Men "sigh for peace because
they are wearied of the intolerable ex-
actions of the war, and because they
see their treasures and means cast in
to the bottomless gulf Of bankruptcy,
proAigacy and corruption. There
may be peace worse than war; but
there never was war that could not
and ought not to have been averted;
and yet such is human ambition and
crime that all wars have had their de-
tenders and apologists.- Gin. Enq