Year: 1866




Union and went into armed rebellion
liagainst the Government, and for i've
years sought 10 destroy 1t, Rhall resume
their former relations to the loyal
States. Are they harsh conditionsR
Are they not the most magnanimous
and generous conditions ever before
accorded by a Government to an over
thrown rebellion9 History furnishes
us no precedent of such lenieney and
kindness. Already the States have
commenced ratifying them. New
Hampshire, New Jersey and Tennessee
have passed them. Within the next
year or eighteen months three- -fourths
lof all the States will follow their exam
lple. West Virginia will be called upon
to doso at the assembling of her Legis-
lature next January. 4y5s


Why should've be divided as to the
necessity and justice of these amend
ments2 The fate of one part Of our
people Is to be the fate of all. If the
amendments are necessary for the fu-
ture well-being and security of the
commonwealth and the nation, every
voter should support them at the polls
on Thursday next. IF they are not
thus necessary, all should reject them.
A common interest should impel us
one way or the other. We shall not be
saved or destroyed by piecemeal or as
parties; in this great crisis, but as a
whole people.


What are the dangers that threaten
you, fellow citizensP Let us present
them very briefly to you.


The States lately in rebellion claim
the right to come back again into Con-
gress and into their old places under
the Government. without any condi-
tions, guarantees, or securities what
ever. They claim to have forfeited
nothing atall by their rebellion. They
claim to stand just as fair before the
world in all respects as the loyal States.
Nothing was lost or gained by the re-
bellon, say they, In the way of our
rights to power in the Government.
True, they admit that Il, their rebel
lion had succeeded the nation would
have been destroyed. But it did, not
succeed, and therefore their former
standing, power and influence is unim-
paired. This is their argument, every
day repeated in all their newspapers
and in the mouths of all their
spokesman. It is also the argument OF
all their sympathizers In West Virginia
and in every loyal State.


To present their argument to loyal
raoT,lo 7aey1e, q :, F,,.,,,,. {t,
nant rejection. There is no need. to
characterize it as impudent, insolent,
presumptuous,o ,oyerbearing and incred-
ible beyond anything that the world
ever knew. And yet it is the most ut
terly audaclous and shameless claim
ever made since governments were In
stituted among men. Look at it. Exam
Inc it. l5ig


We are asked to restore men to pow
,er whose hands are dripping with the
nations blood, without the slightest
pledge from them that they will keep
the peace of the country in the future.
We are asked TO commit the legtsla-
ton Of the government into their keep
ing. They declare that they have no
apologies to make-no recantations to
oher-no retractions whatever of any
thing done or said during the rebellion.
to agree to. But on The contrary, they
stand defiantly upon their record. The
principle of secession they regard as
sacred as ever. They declare openly
and boldly, that without any change of
mind whatever, they simply accept
their rpresent defeated situation because
they have no power to change it. They
proclaim that they will not agree that it
shall be a part of the law of the land that
their rebel debt shall never be paid by
the nation, or byany State in the Union.
They refuse to sign any guarantee that
the Union debt will not be repudiated
by them at the first opportunity. They
would not even put it in their Phila=
delphia platform last August that their
slaves should not be paid for by the
people of the North. In all their con-
ventions held since the return Of peace
they have nowhere e9acknowledged the
rightfuIor constitutional overthrow or
slavery. In those conventions they
denounced the war as a war OF invasion
upon their rights. In those conyen-
tions they declared their own rebel
debt just as sacredIas the Union debt.
Provisional Governor johnson, ofGeor-
gia, telegraphed the President time
and again that the convention in that
State would not repudiate the rebel
debt unless the power of the United
States Government was brought to
bear upon it, and at last under all
this pressure Il was barely decided in the
convention not to assume that debt, the
vote standing 1888 to- III. The same
convention refused to acknowledge the
right OF the Government of the United
States to abolish slavery, but simply
passed resolution declaring that @the
Government of the UnitediStates hay-
ing as war measure proclaimed all
slaves held or owned in this State
emanctpated from slavery. and having
carried that proclamation into full
eBect, p they, therefore, having no pow
er to help themselves, acquiesced in
what had been done. Such has been
the temper of all the rebellious States
on all the issues growing out of the re-
bellion. Such Is their unaltered tenn
per to-day.


And yet we are asked to reinstate
such men in the Congress of the nation
and commit its destinies to them. IT
could scarcely be more astounding and
incredible If We were asked to commit
direct and Immediate national suicide.