Year: 1861

Just before the close of the Union Demo
cratic Convention, held here on the 18th inst,
Major Bidwell being called for by the Conven-
ton, made the following remarks. which were
crowded out of our last weeks issue:


Mr.. President and Felloro Citizens:


Our meeting on this occasion has been
under circumstances of more than usual i'm
portance cordially endorse the Union senti
ments we have lust heard SO eloquently
expressed, and yield to no man 10 devotion to
our common country. In the present crisis
there can be but one issue,-Our Government
must be sustained or it will go down. There
can be no middle ground. He who is not for
it is against it, Such was our progress in all
the attributes of national greatness and power,
that no statesman, however wise, no human
sagacity, however profound, could have formed
the least conception of the high position we
were destined to hold among the Powers of the
globe Must all this be lost to us and the
world Shall we aid the madness and folly
that now seeks the destruction of the greatest
and best government ever devised by human
wisdom? No loyal citizen can give but one
response The laws must be executed and the





matter by whom administered. 1t is now
twenty years since crossed the parched and
trackless waste which then separated the At
lantc from the Pacific slope of the continent.
have learned to appreciate the advantages of
a free and efficient Government, and | feel,
in this hour of peril, more determined than
ever before in my devotion to my country


Secession cannot be maintained in any other
manner than by force of arms. Peaceabe Sc
cession is impossible because it would, if car
ried to its legitimate consequences, be destruc-
tion of all government.


Other elements must conspire, TO dissipate
the falacy of Secession. Cast your eyes over
the map of this great country; trace its rivers
and its mountains survey It's various produc-
tions and resources, and consider the natural
dependence of one portion on the other for
many of the necessaries and luxuries of life,
and tell me where you will draw the dividing
line. Above all only consider the matter Of
population. The South, to vast extent, has
been peopled from the East and the North !;
the West, from the East, the South and the
North. When, therefore, all our interests
combine to unite US in one nation, and to these
we add the ties of consanguinity, | ask again
can there be any neutral or permanent separa-
tion


There is now no time to expatiate on the
causes of the present troubles. Every patriot
must deplore their existence and look with
painful anxiety to the future. My confidence
is mistaken in the American people. They
certainly have not become so degenerate as to
cast away this glorious government as thing
of no value. The difficulties to separation are
so great that the scheme at once becomes i'm
possible without total anuihilation. In con-
clusion, will venture to express my deliberate
convictions This Government ought not and
cannot be destroyed we shall become more
firmly united than ever before. Who is to be
the peace-maker, or have the ability to arouse
The patriotism in those States where loyalty
has become a crime l pretend not to know
But great events will bring forth great men
The country must and will be preserved.