Year: 1863

aud the people fhlnk the condit'on OF


the country would be better BY free
ing them, then change the constitu-
tion in the manner prescribed in the
instrument itself. Any attempt to
destroy it any other way is a warfare
upon other mems rights, unless the
States abolish it themselves. But
the Republicans say that they do not
intend to interfere with it in the
States; they cant do that by con-
gressional legislation without viola
ton of the Constitution. But they
say they can abolish it in the Dis
trict of Columbia and in all the dock
yards, navy yards, and other public
;;SStaces within the slave States, and
exclude it from all the territory in
the United States, all of which they


passed into law in the winter of e.,
any Of which would have caused a


revolution in any period of this gov
ernment. Since, | have tried to study
it's workings, especially the adoption
Of the Wilmot Proviso, or the exclu-
sion of slavery from the territories,
and that, too, after the Supreme
Court had decided that Congress
could not exclude il from the terri
tories.


There is no military necessity in
these measures. 1t is outside of the
President s Emancipation Proclama-
ton; they were the measures advoca-
ted by the party before they came ln-
to power. They say by pennlng up
slavery to its present limits it will die
of it's own weight. Pray tell me the
difference if man intends to kill
you whether by shooting yon or to
shut YOU up and starve yon to death;
or if he intends to destroy your prop
erty whether he sets fire to your barn
directly, or sets it in the wilderness
a mile off in order that it might
communicate and destroy the build
ing if the destruction of property is
intended, where is the difference P
Now, when you put these arguments
to them (the ultras) and tell them
that they should have been the last
party to have urged party measures,
and they alone are guilty of the sin
of party divisions, then again they
will say, ooh, | don't like the idea
of the reorganization of the old dem
ocratic party" Why, sir? What
makes your prejudice so strong P
What has the old National Democ-
racy done to merit your hatred p
Why, sir, they have been the party
that have fought against this war
from the beginning. l me'n the
Douglas Democracy, and those Bell
and Breckenridge men who voted
against the Ordinance of Secession.
1t was the mission of Mr. Douglas to
oppose those revolutionary parties
both North and South. All the
great statesmen that have lived, such
as Clay, Webster, Cass and Douglas,
believed the triumph of the AboIl-
ton party would be the death knell
of this Union. They fought against
it. Now, are we to embrace on a
wrong in order that We may destroy
another wrong? There is no neces-
sity for such a course We have to


fight rebels with bayonets and bull
let's, and we must fight Abolitlonists
with ballots. While either of these
exist there can be 20 peace; the one
has always fed, feasted and fsttened
on the other. If we have peace and
free government, they must both 60
down, the sooner the better. think
the people ought to be pretty well
satisfied, by this time, with secession
aud abolition. They have certainly
brought our country to its present
ruin. Then the great sin is to be
opposed to both secession and aboll-
tion. If so, then | must be a very
great sinner in politics!