Year: 1862

y The Richmond Dispatch has obtained cor
!, of speech of the Hon. Ben. Wood form,


proprietor of the New York Neics "a papt
which was suspended on account of its bol
: stand in favor of the South), in the Feders
= House of Representatives, on the state Of tb
: country. Believing that majority Of our read


ers would be gratifed to understand the position
!, now occupied by Mr. Wood toward the aboI
Z ton party of the North, we publish it entire
= Mr.. Wood obtained the unanimous consent O
4 the House to have printed the following re
= marks:


. Mr.. Wood-Mr Chairman, I have hithert


avoided troubling this House. Content to be


listener, without any other participation in it
proceedings than to oppose my solemn indiYid


ual negative against measures which my con


science and my principles would not approve,
! have said nothing. Indeed, sir, have not hsc
the heart to rise here and speak. A glance al


this hall, of itself, has been enough to prevent
, When l look around and see one-thirl Of the


Union unrepressnted here, and find myself in q


body, though purporting to be one branch of the


Congress of the United States, really in fact but
a tragmentary part Of it, my heart sinks within


me- 1t appears to be a sectional body--a gath


ering Of the representatives of sectional party.


With these feelings and with this spirit have


until now avoided participating in debate


Besides, sir, during the earlier period Of this


session, disaster had accompanied the Efforts Of
;, the Federal arms. felt that the hour of defeat


was not fit one in which to strive to awaken
she great sOuf Of SAe North TO peace felt that


something was due to the sense of mortihcatI0n,


something to the natural desire to retrieve the
| shame OF discontinue. hoped, too, that when


victory should perch upon our banners, others


than myself would seize the occasion to urge
plea in behalf Of peseeable measures; and that


this government itself, feeling secure and strong
enough to be magnanimous would take the


lead and be pioneer in opening path for the


settlement of our difficulties without further re-
course to bloodshed. / even hoped that the
leaders Of the now dominant party moved BY


the sore distress which has visited our country,
would relent from the stern Yigor of their doc


trine of subjugation, and in the flush of triumph,
| would lean little toward a gentler policy than


that which they have hitherto ehampioned with
| so much zeal and with so little forbearance
l hope in vain, The triumph came: long
train Of successes has relieved the North from its
| humiliation. The government claims now to
stand as rock against which the tempest of op-
position must waste itself in futile efforts. The
partisans of the ultra war party laugh to scorn
the idea thatauy effoctual rUBistence can be Of
| fered TO the onward march of our triumphant
armies, and yet no single effort has been made
in these Congressional halls to stay the effusiOn
Of blood. 1t has been left for me, powerle5s as
l am, to speak the first conciliatory word in be-
half of my suffering countrymen. And do it,
sir, in hope that others more capable, will not
be too much engrOssed with the lustof conquest
and the pride Of victory to follow my example.


Sir, it is an inefaeeable reproach to those
either deluded or wicked men Whe in the North
by their unwearied agitation of abolition schemes
have stirred the embers Of this Strife it is an
eternal reproach to them that, through defeat
and victory, throughout every phase of this IN
happy struggle, with the groans of their dis
tressed and tortured country shifting upon their
ears, they have clung, and still cling, with un-
plying pertinacity, and even with ferocitity, to
the doctrine which has been the germ of all the
mischief With the first exulting shouts of Fed
eral victories they set up the echoing cry of
emancipation. With all the energy Of fanaticism,
with ali the subtitle arts and intTigues Of schem-
ing demagogues, with all the appliances and
cunning Of intellect, and patronage at their COM
mand, even at this eveRtiUl crisis, when every
American brain should be at work to bring
about fair and honorable peace, they have no
thought, no hope, no duty but to propagate their
creed, extending its influence into every nook
and corner OF the land, and poisoning the atmos-
pheTe of these sacred halls with Its interminable
discussion Openly and in secret, by the agency
of the press the pulpit, and the political ros
trum, in the camp, in the city, and IN the open
field, they are spreading the eontagion; they are
inoculating the country with this moral pesti-
lence which has already brought US where we
are, at the very brink of the grave Of our ma
tionaity.


Sir, these apostles of abOhtionism will be
traced hereafter, whatever of evil has befsllen 1
or may befall our country. They are building |
its sepulchre with the bones Of their slaughtered
countrymen. / do believe there are gentlemen /
within my vision now whose sWoTne purpose, /
whose first desire, paramount even to the preser-
vation of Repubicanism, is emancipation. They |
and their disciples first threw the apple of dis
cord. They first applied the torch, and are now |
more busy than ever with throwing fresh fuel |
to the flame. Should history ever trace, which |
God forbid, the record of this countrys ruin |
that page will seem the strangest to those that
read which shall tell Of the madness and wick |
edness Of the arch fanatics OF abolitiOnism. In |
the dark recesses of the temple of infamy the |
gloOmiest inches will bear the inscription Of |
their names.


Sir, I counsel none but moral interference |
with the work of these mischief makers. 1
would not have even fanaticism deprived of the !
right of speech, nor would l, in any emergency, |
advocate the slightest Infringement by the gov
ernment upon the liberty Of the press Let /
them sow the seeds of their infamous doctrine |
broadcast over the land. Whatever may be the |
danger, will not eountensnce the greater dan
ger Of establishing dictatorship over the |





But if the abominable theme must be brought /
into the council chambers Of the nation, for /
the sake of decency, if not of Justice, let it /
be at q more seasonable time If there remains
one Union man at the South let US remember |
that he is unrepresented here; that the subject /
of slavery particularly concerns him, and that it |
is ungenerous and unjust, if not cowardly, to |
take advantage of his absence of representation |
to push forward measures in regard to the local |
institutions of his sectiOns-measuTes against |
which, were he present, he would give his ear
nest opposition. It viii quench whatever re-
mains of Union feeling in the South, if it has |
not already done so. 1t will destroy the last |
hope of reconstruction of the Union on friendly /
basis It will prove what has been SO often in
timated, that the first idea of the dominant party
in the North is active and unwavering antago- |
nism to slavery, and fixed purpose to legislate |
it out of the land at all hazards. 1t is with that
theory advanced that we are to conquer a
peaee2 Sir, we are Ainging away the last
chances of reconciliation as recklessly as mad
men cast their treasure into the sea. The agita-
ton of the subject has been the eountrys bane
at every period of its history its discussion st
this crisis is desperate selfdestruction.


Is it while the magazine is beneath US and
about us, bursting with the agencies of ruin,
that we must choose TO sport with the flaming
torch of the incendiary7 Sir, until our beloved
country shall be saved, the word emaneips-
ton" should, by common consent, be banished
from the language of debate in this .assemblage.
It is a spell which has wrought enough already
of desoiation It is a hellish formula Of mean
tstion, which has conjured up the iends Of dis
cord and civil war; and it never was so potent
in its evil tendencies as now, when it is being
passed. like the breath of the plague, from
mouth to mouth, in the council chambers Of the
country it has ruined. 1t should be spoken in
whisper, and with prayer linked to it, as
thing that brings a curse and spreads pestl-
ever living once more ina blessed Union of fra
ternal States, when hear all around me the ut
teTance of that ruin breeding word g 'emanciPa-
tion, 2 mingIng with the shouts of battle, the