Year: 1863

and another respecting lndemnl1ylnS Ior
offences which officials might commit
agains the rights and liberties of the Amer
lean people. They also passed. the Con
scription Act, if may be allowed to call i
such. daughter and applause.) AT that
time in conversation with political friends,
and opponents too-for l have had no Sc
crcts since I entered upon the discharge
of my duties-I have had no views in re-
gard to public affairs which | have not
willingly expressed freely to ALL have
had no correspondence which l have not
submitted most cheerfully to the examina-
ton of the post-office authorities-I then
expressed the opinion that when this
measure of conscription was put into oper-
alton, an act which ignores the power of
the States and trenches upon constitution
al rights, in my judgment, which is incon-
sistent with the genius of the American
people, then ventured the opinion which





result of that experiment would be not the
destruction of the rights of the States, not
an undue increase of the power of the Gen
eral Government. but that when they put
it in operation they would find themselves
weakened and bafled, simply because they
had undertaken to do that which was in
consistent with the nature of our Govern
ment. What is the result? One year
ago-I think it was within a few days of
that time that you and | and others met in
this room-the people had voluntarily
given half a million of men to the national
army; they poured forth their trersure
without stint all over the land, in every
school district and township, and country
men went forth to swell the national forces
Why? Because they were forcibly COM
PEELED No, but because they were sent
by the popular will expressing itsclfin cy-
cry minor locality throughout the land
At that government was armed with mill
tary power unequalled in the history of
the world Forgetting the source of that
power, and that with all that military
strength their >urest reliance must be OH
the popular will, they entered upon line
of policy which We deemed Inconsistent
with public right, and opposed to public
sentiment We took issue with them
when we went out before the people, and
eolnbatel them in the very hour of their
strength, when they hal the largest mill
'ary array to be found on the face of the
globe and we beat them. Then in those
acts which We deemed inconsistent with
the rights of the States, and the rights of
persons, and which they supposed were
acts calculated to strengthen their power
and diminish the power of localities, they
found their own defeat and discontinue.
They paased the Conscript act They set
aside that system which had heretofore
prevailed, of filling our armies by enlist
mcnt of men from different States and diff
ferent sections of States, and undertook to
say they would fill their armies by coercion
What is the result today? This State
that voluntarily one year ago gave 40 600
men to +" II the armies of the Union-the
State of New York which, beyond any 9th
er spot in the Union, was distinguished
for its contributions of men and money
what do we see in that State to-day Men
going cheerfully and voluntarily forth to
sustain the flag that floats aroud us here !,
No, but that very government whose re-
quest was enough to summon hosts to the
field, finds itself compelled to put forth its
utmost power to drag few unwilling men
from their homes Is this strength, or is
it weakness Is it success or failure p
Let us go a little further. Wa are told
that it was impossible any longer to fill our
armies by the system Of volunteering, and
yet during the very time that that system
has been destroyed by the operation of the
Conscription law, the State of New York
since the first of January last, according to
the reports of the paymaster general, has
raised more than $1,000 men--more than
will ever he taken out of the State by that
very Conscription law. do not say but
a number of men may be carried to the
army by the system of substitution, but
that is volunteering, and | venture to say
that ont of the whole draft made upon this
great State, under the existing Conscrip-
ton law, there will never be even six thous-
and who will 60 because they were draft
cd


AS / said before, l am full of hope for
the future, because | believe that any at
tempt that may be made by the General
Government to pass beyond its Legitimate
bounds, so far from endangering the rights
Of the States, simply endapger the power


IL IL