Year: 1864

o1IA l. AxlV11)104O AOS AOOGs
served its unity and its concord. We had
peace and our country was an asylum for
the oppressed of every land. Our Repub-
lican friends at Chicago, four years ago,
did not mean to instigate this national
strife. They did not want civil war. God
forbid that should charge them with this
intention. But their views tended to
strife, and such was the consequence, as
we then believed. We had read that med
ding leads to strife, and we believed the
safest policy was to observe the old adage
and "mind our own business" The republi-
cans told us that they would not infringe
upon the rights Of States. But what do
we seer They were led on by their doo-
trines, passions and prejudices to violate
the pledge. It was the necessary conse-
quence. We had been told that the south
could not manage their own sectional af-
fairs. We were told that if we were to
stop the mouth of the Mississippi the
Southern people would starve. We were
told much about the superior cost of
Southern mail carriage, and that the South
could net be driven out of the Union.
This course of dangerous agitation con-
tinued, until to-day the dominant party
approves acts from the contemplation of
which they once would have turned away
with horror. Had said here in Milwau-
kee three years ago that general of the
federal army this year would issue an
edict denying to the people of the north
west the right to bear arms, or that the
writ of habeas corpus would now be sus-
pended and your citizens be subject to
military arrest without the right OF
trial by jury, should have been scorned
and derided as mad man. The pas
sions and prejudices to which republi-
| cans have been educated for SO many
years have led them to a position which
they cannot retract. Their folly is illus
trated by their actions in Congress. At
the moment when our armies were forced
to abandon Southern soil, Congress was
legislating to cOnfscate Southern property.
Confiscation laws, however, apply more to
the North than to the South. At the
South they are Intellectual and do not pay
the expenses of their execution. It is
your property-the property of Northern
ax-payers-whch is confscated by this
system of legislation. What is the draft
itself but confssation law7 1t takes one
mans person, but it takes another mans
property Reason seems to be blind with
these men. Congress was ahsurdly ex-
pending its time con6scating Southern
property the very moment Lees army was
within sight of the dome of the federal
capitol We of the North did not know
the strength of the South. We did not
dream even of the power of the North, and
we are disappointed.


The party in power has become 30 en-
tangled by it's own policy, that no door is
left open for its retreat. Those who have
visited Washington the past winter, may
have seen the hospitals filled with groan.
ing and dying men. Going to the capitol,
you heard the language only of sectional
bitterness and hate. The measures advo-
Gated there, if persisted in and sustained,
will overwhelm the country with COM
mon ruin. We see in LincOln's re-elec-
tion no hope for the future. We cannot
do worse. We don't claim to be better or
wiser men than our opponents. God
knows that the poor weak nature of man
|
from our fathers. They told us that great
armies would bring ruin with them, and
bring horde of tax gatherers in their
train. Mere arbitrary government may
possibly sometimes be blessing, but there
never was tax gatherer who was a bless
ing anywhere. Our fathers told US that
with national debt would come vast
army Of office-holders, and We behold
them already present now. There is
another principle against which our ia
theirs warned us, and tear it is the rock
upon which we have split. You began to
have a centralization of power. Where
is that to end2 The trainers of the Con-
stitution understood the principle that the
people in the several localities knew what
they needed best. So we made govern
ment ofStates with State rights We have
States of different size. Missouri is larger
than all New England Our fathers had
this difficulty before them We of New
York then had not as large population as
Massachusetts, or Pennsylvania. We said,
let US be generous. We said, take care
that Rhode Island has an equal power as a
State with ourselves, and like ourselves
ConIrOI lCS own lOCdl affairs, CudC GHeIe
may be no jar in the political system. Now
What7 We are told that we must have
more power in the federal government.
The end of that is less power. That might
be shown in few words Place more
power in the federal government and
few States may rule over all the others.
Taxation would become unequal, and be
made to fall heavily upon particular
branches of industry. The inequality
which exists as to the States becomes CEN
tralized, and the power of the federal
government will be unequaliy exercised.
When men feel that the tribunal by which
they are governed is not equally con-
stituted, there is danger of perpetual
war. We of New York wish to live on