Year: 1868

hands of the fatherS-all departments OF


Government, all sections of the country,
all parties, alike, yielded obedience TO its


mandates. There was none so lost to all


shame, so destitute of all honor. so utterly


depraved, as not to do it reverence. Each
department of the Government, each Sec
ton of the country, each State, seemed


to vie with the others in seeing who could
| live nearest to its teachings. t5-
| Yes, Mr.. President, it was reserved for


the present decade to produce party base
enough to lay violent hands upon that sa


cred instrument and to destroy the proud
| fabric that has grown up under Its benign


infiaence. Humiliating as it is to every


lover OF his country; to every admirer of
the Constitution; to every one who desires


the blessings of free government for him.


self, and wishes to transmit them to his


chlldren-yet nevertheless tits true that


there Is party in this country to-day that


is willing to see this Constitution trampled


in the dust, the union which it constitutes


despo1ied CT It's fair proportions, and ten OF
| the States composing it crushed beneath


the iron heel of military despotism; a


party that is willing after having sworn to
support the Constitution, to work outside
Iof its provisions; party that is willing


to disfranchise eight millions of our own


race, and place them under the domination


OF semi-barbarian, inferior negro race; a
party that at one fell swoop would strike


down ten of the States ofthe Union for the
purpose of purpetuatingr themselves in
power; a party that, rather than peacea-
| bly, yield the places they now detile, would
strike down the President of their choice,


and court that refuses longer to do their
| bidding. e-r. -tr .f .rttfio. .is'.t
1t is against the tyrannical acts and mon
strous outrages against free government


and civil liberty committed already, and
threatened to be committed by the party in
power at Washington, the so-called Con-


gress of the United States, that these reso-
lutions protest. In the name of the people
| OF the State OF Ohio, we enter our solemn
| protest against these acts, "because they
are subversive of the rights OF the States
and the liberties of the people," -'fv
| Is it possible that there is Senator upon
this floor, or man in the State of Ohio,
who can have the unblushing effrontery to
stand up and claim for one moment that
the acts complained of in these resolutions


are Constitutional, or are calculated to con-
serve the best interests of the people?


| The Constitution, article five, says "no
State, without its consent, shall be deprived


of its equal suffrage in the Senate." Yet


we find ten States deprived of their equal


suffrage, or any suffrage at all in the Sem
ate. But if 1 attempt to enumerate the
different articles of the Constitution vio-
| lated and disregarded by the cabal calling


themselves Congress-, 1 will have to begin
with article one and 60 to the last amend


ment. .s big g. Ga. .a.iI I-lts
By virtue of what section of the Constitu-
| ton does Congress assume to make the mill
itary superior to the civil power; to make


the General of the army superior to the
/ President; to prescribe the number of
Judges who shall concur in an opinion be-


fore it shall be binding, and accepted as the
decision of the Court; to declare that a
State has no legal state government. To
suspend the privileges of the writ of habeas
n mi


districts out of ten of the States of the I'm
ion, and place over them military COM
nandants, with absolute and uncontrolled


power over the lives, liberties and proper
ties of the people?


sob! Liberty What crimes are commit
ted in thy name."


In eXtenuation we are told that the peo-
pie in the States affected by those Infamous
measures are rebels, and have forfeited all
their rights under the Constitution.


That we have had long, bloody and
cruel war between the different sections of
the country, can not be denied. But that
che people of either section forfeited all
their rights under the Constitution, L most
emphatically deny. What was the object
OF the war? For what was it waged on our
part? Let the Crittenden resolutions,
adopted at a time when the army of the
North had been driven from the field, and
Congress was anxious for its own safety,



in order to fill up the decimated ranks of
the army, to induce the young men of the
country to come forward and save them, to
induce the fathers of the country to send
their sons to the field, to meet death that
they might live, they solemnly pledged the
faith of the nation " that this war was not
waged on their part in any spirit ofoppres-
sion, or for any purpose of conquest or SUBJ


jugation, or purpose of overthrowing or in
terfering with the rights or established in
stitutions of those States, but to defend and
maintain the supremacy of the Constitution,
and to preserve the Union, with all the dig
nifty, equality and rights of the several
States unimpaired; and that as soon as
these objects are accomplished the war
ought to cease" Never was the faith of
this, or any other Government, more SOL
emnly or surely pledged.


When it is suggested by a Democrat that
the Government debt should be paid in the
same kind of money that other debts are
paid in, and that the debt was contracted
in, our Radical friends hold up both hands
in holy horror, and inform US that we must
not violate the faith of the nation. Yet how
have they kept the faith plighted by those
resolutions? The history of the wrongs,
the expressions, the outrages, the crimes
they have committed against those States
and people for the past five years, will an
Swer.


Were they in earnest? were they honest
in the passage of those resolutions, or did
they intend them as lie, a cheat, AID a de-
ception? l charge it upon them, that their
whole party, from its organization to the
present time, has been fraud upon
the people. 1t is based upon revolu-
ton and fraud. Its main idea is revolution,
ard it not soon checked in its mad career,
it will have accomplished its purpose, rev.
olutionized the Government, destroyed the
liberties of the people, and placed, not the
South alone, but the whole country under
an unbearable despotism. But the Critten-
den resolutions are not the only pledge they
have made to the country and violated.


In the proceedings of the Chicago Con-
vention that nominated Abraham Lincoln
for President, we find pledge-at that
State had some rights. They there passed
the following resolution.


'sResoloed, That the maintenance invio-
late of the rights of the States, and espe-
cially the right of each State to order and
control its own domestic institutions accord,
ing to its own Judgment exclusively, il
essential to that balance OF power on which
the perfection and endurance of our politi- /
cal fabric depends; and we denounce the
lawless invasion by armed force of the soil
of any State or Territory, no matter under !
what pretext, as among the gravest oil
crimes" f.-


Such were the pledges made, when they
were trying to induce the people TO entrust
them with the administration of the Gov
ernment. But how have they kept these
pledges? Let history answer. If the Pen
dleton Club of this city, or any other Dem I
Ocratic Club in the county, should adopt
that resolution to-day, one half of the
Radical newspapers in the country would
brand it as treasonable-and nine-tenths Of
the party would say amen.


The Constitution of the United States \
was ordained and established by the people
of the States in order to form more per-
feet union, establish justice, insure domes-
tic tranquility, and contains ample pro-
vision for the protection of the lie, liber-
ty and property Of every citizen. Yet