Year: 1865

I parted from you at tho country's
call, to become q soldier of the
Union in the terrible conflict which
was to determine whether Ameri.
can Republicanism was a success
or a failure on this continent;
whether the Federal Government
had the power of self.preservation
and the right to defend its exis-
tence, or was a loose compact to be
broken whenev or minorities might
seek in secession remedy for de-
feat at the polls. My last civil
duty was to deny, as your repre-
sentative, tho right of rebels to
dissolve the Union, and to urge
upon the Ohio Legislature, the
duty of upholding the Government
by arms.


To-day we resume in some de-
gree our civil relations; by con-
ferring together upon the present
condition of the country, and dis
cussing some of the questions OF
importancc pressing upon us for
settlement.


When we parted, it was in the
great agony of our first realization
that civil war was upon us, rear
ing its horrid front here in our own
land, where we had believed that
our republican institutions gave us
perpetual immunity from the con-
.vulsions; which from time to time,
have shaken the communities of
the old world. We meet again in
triumph; the foes of the Union
have been vanquished; the rights
of the Government have been vim
dicated; and the banner Of rebel
lion, which was lately Haunting in
our faces on q hundred battlefields,
is now seen only where it hangs in
our national halls as a trophy oI
victory.


Between that parting and this
meeting there is an awful interval
full of mingled hope and gloom,
rejoicing and mourning, for those
who were at home, through faith
In the ultimate triumph of thC
right, lin this case emphatically
''the evidences of things not seen,
kept the hearts of the loyal people
from sinking; while for those who
were in the field it was full of ex
citements, tolls and strifes, tha
made the burden of the contes
lighter after all than tor those who
watched and waited at home.


FOUR YEARS AGO.


Let us review the position whiel
we then occupied politically. W.
were warning against the extension
ofslavery. The Republican party
had for years been opposing tina
system. First, because it was
crime against human nature and
dreadful wrong against another
race. 1t was condemned by the
Judgment of the whole civilized
world. Humanity and philanthro
py both demanded of us, as we be
lieved, that we should by ever,
means in our power, free tho Gov
.crnment and our country from ev
cry responsibility for such a wrong
Second, because it was draggin!
down the poor non-slaveholdin!
white at the South to q condition
little better than that Of the slave
themselves. We proved from th'
assertions made by the Southern
statesmen and the testimony {
witnesses whose statements coul
not be controverted, that virtu
was broken down, intelligence re
duced almost to nothing, thrii
vanishing, and everything whic
goes to make a laboring popula
ton either honest, industrious, G
patriotic, was disappearing befor
the influence of this system upo
those whites who were too poor t
own slaves, and were forced to rel
upon their own labor and their ow
thrift for their advancement. W
opposed it also, in the third place
because wherever the system ext
ted, all the material interests of th
country were sacrificed to it; maj
ufacturers and commerce becam
of little worth, and instead OF th'
progress in wealth and civilizatio
which had been so marked a fe;
ture of our Northern States, "
beheld simply an agricultural a
istocracy, using for their own Luz
ury the product of slave labor an
becoming, apparently, incapao
of understanding even the adyal
tages of that spirit of progre
which we had regarded as the p
culiar pride Of our race. We SAY
in short, that slavery was an irr
concilable antagonism to all tr
institutions; that its tendency W


towards barbarism, and that Il


Republican Government our fat


ers had founded could only be pr
served by its overthrow. The


repressible conflict become year


more engrossing, and in spite


all our efforts to avoid it, we we


obliged to make the issue wheth


our country should ultimately


all slave territory or all free t


ritory. So long, however, as t


Shareholders kept the peace, a


RETAINED from violent oppositi


70 the Government we recogniz


49,.