Year: 1864

his place in the Senate, in which he said


There are but two sides to the question.
The one Is Union without slavery; The 9th
er is the immediate and unconditional
acknowledgment of the Southern Confed-
eracy.





Therefore let the elements Of opposition
at once combine 50 that the friends of the |
Union may determine upon the best course
to secure peace. If these elements are too
strong TO be subdued except at the expense
Of own liberties and the loss of every good
for which the government was established.
the, sooner we know the fact and act upon
it the better.


If it becomes evident that the friends of
slavery are strong enough in this country to
resist all efforts TO subdue them, / shall act
upon it. | am not prepared to ruin the
country IN vain effort to do what cannot
be done. Shall this war 90 on for ever p
Is the common cry of "thc last man and the
last dollar poetry, patriotism or braeea-
doclo? Should the war go on until the
public debt equals the entire wealth of the
country? Should the whole capital of the
people be forced into Federal securities. and
these securities made the basis of an ire
deemablc paper circulation? Should it 20
on until misery broods over the whole land;
until civil authorities shall become impotent
and all rights of persons and property stand
at the mercy Of military power


Should it go on until the members of the
Senate and House of Representatives shall
| owe their places here to the bayonet instead
of the ballot-box until they become as
contemplate as the Rump Parliament that
| 50 long enacted the military usurpation to
the overthrow Of the English Constitution.
to be finally expelled from place BY the
power they had so basely served? Should
! it go on until corruption and fraud, the
necessary concomitants of civil war, shall
| have crept into high places and put on the
garb of patriotism; until officers become 50
numerous that official patronage may quar-
ter one half Of the people upon the other
half, and give them the means Of perpetu-
ating their own power? Should it continue
! until, exhausted, the nation would welcome
the coming Of Cromwell or Bonaparte;
until Provost Marshals with military policy
shall be stationed at every village in the
Northern States displacing the civil au-
thority, issuing orders for governing people
heretofore supposed to be able to govern
themselves, teaching how God shall be wor-
shipped, prescribing new and strange often
ses, and Furnishing them by court-martial
Should 1t continue until financial ruin
! brings misery, and misery rushes into an
archy, when no hope but despotism is
left


Mr.. President, few years more Of civil
war and the outline of this picture will be
seen. 1t cannot be otherwise. 1t is the
necessary result of long civil strife. Peace
parties will spring up; the war party will
denounce them as traitors; the publication
of newspapers will be suppressed and free
dom of speech denied; mobs will retalate
the plumbers as well as the corruption OF
the war party will tend to strengthen the
g convictions Of the peace party; the period
being one of violence, each party appeals to
violence, the one to hold, the other to OBJ
tain power; the ballot-box becomes mock
cry, cheat instead Of proclaiming the
voice Of free people it speaks the subdued
language of base subserviency or the bold
tone OF military despotism.


Such is history We are not exempt
from the frailties that woye this web of his
tory for others; Party pride, blinded van
many nations from the enjoyment Of liberty
to to profoundest depths of tyranny. To
prevent this state Of things we are all in
terested; one party no more than another,
for when it comes, all parties will suffer
alike


When the Roman legions had subdued
Carthage, the enemies of Hannibal, who,
in party blindness, had compassed his de-
feat, shared the same fate with his friends
;. Party revenge may be satisfied when politi-
cal enemies come to grief, but this is no
compensation for ruined country. When
anarchy comes we are overwhelmed alike
The Girondist and the Jacobin followed
each other in rapid succession to the guillo-
tine. The Royalists and the Republicans,
the Presbyterian and the Leveler suffered
when party divisions sacrificed the blessings
of the revolution, established despotism
for England more loathsome than Charles
had ever proposed.


In this moment of danger let all parties
abandon the ,prejudices Of the past, and
resolve to follow the dictates of right
Whatever establishes justice tends to re-
store the Union. Whatever perpetuates
wrong will continue to disturb our peace -
| Let US unite to restore the Union, and if
that be impracticable let us abandon the
war.


The party in power should remember the
past. The responsb bility of this occasion is
momentous. Will they be able to save the
Union, and if so, will they save anything
else that is desirable? These are plain
questions and they ought to be discussed in
all candor have never doubted that the
rebellion could be crushed if the proper
course of policy were pursued. But have
always feared that when the Southern lead
ers, who had so long domineered over the
minority, left these halls, the political pen
dulum would sweep too far to the other
: side. Every wrong had been previously
committed in defense of slavery 1t was
but reasonable that thereafter some wrongs
might be committed in the name of anti
slavery. In the days of Louis Nv the
French people had been oppressed in the
name of the Church. When oppression
had been thrown off, they not only sought
and worshipped the ashes of Voltaire, but
Knocked the emblems of true religion,


| once before stated, and l now repeat the
opinion, that if the people of the seeded
States were all united as men are united
when inspired by just cause, when urged
on by convictions of duty to self, to coun-
try, and to God, they never could be con-
quered History furnishes no example of
such thing, and | saw no special reason
why the general current OF experience
should be broken in this. thought, how
ever they could be conquered, because l
did not believe they were united.





Mr. President, we have expended two
thousand millions of treasure; we daily ex-
pend three millions more: The daily des-
n :. 4 II