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secede, except South Carolina. In every other cotton Stat, thero was a large minority against secession; and up to April 15th, 1861, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Arkansas refused, by large majorities, to secede, while Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri adhere to the Union to this day. In the very midst of secession, if any fair and adequate eompromise had been proposed by Congress, especially if the "Crittenden propositions" of December 1860, had been adopted, secession would have perished. Mr. Davis and Mr. Toombs both declared that they would be content. That is the statement of Mr. Pugh. It is the testimony of Mr. Douglas also. But those propositions never received a solitary Republican vote in either the Senate or the House. "Hence, the sole responsibility for our disagreement," said Douglas, on the 3d of January, 1861, "and the only difficulty in the way of our amicable adjustment, is with the Republican party."

Sir, these are facts which it is useless to deny, and senseless to quarrel with; and they are part of the many circumstances upon which I found my immovable hope of a final restoration of the Union, in spite of the folly and madness and wickedness every day exhibited, uniting the South, and dividing the North and West.

These

The South is now well nigh united as one man; and for nearly three months we have met with little else than defeat. What united the South? What changed the fortunes of the war? In the beginning it was declared to be for the Union and the Constitution. were noble objects, and success attended our arms. Before the battle of Bull Run, Mr. Crittenden sought to offer his now often quoted resolution, defining the objects of the war, and the Republicans did not allow it to be even so much as received. It was met with sneers and contempt. The day after the battle, when Washington was full of escaped soldiers, and fugacious Congressmen from the battle-field, it was offered again, and without objection. But two men, both Republicans, voted against that part of it. I voted for that part of it, but not for the first, because it did not speak the whole truth; because it did not denounce the Abolition disunionists of the North and West also, and hold them responsible too. Six hundred thousand men were soon afterward enlisted. The victories of Hatteras, Port Royal, Mill Springs, Donelson, Roanoke, Winchester, Newbern, Island Ten, New Orleans, Norfolk, and others all followed. Then was the hour for wisdom and sound policy. But, no; it was the exact time selected by Abolitionism for the very saturnalia of its folly and madness. Every scheme and project of emancipation, execution, and confiscation, Congressional and Executive, of the whole session, was pressed forward, and many of them consummated during this same period of victory. The war was everywhere to be perverted from the spirit of the "Crittenden resolution." And with what result? The South, before that time divided, was now united as one man. Even the border slave States were shaken to the center, and thousands of their citizens driven into the Confederate service. The armies of the South were rapidly filled up. A spirit was breathed into each man's breast which made him a host.

It was these things, and such infamous orders as Butler's at New Orleans, which inspired their armies, making them invincible-and not overwhelming numbers. Victory everywhere was theirs. McDowell, The Seven Pines, Front Royal, Winchester, Cross Keys, Port Republic, James Island, Vicksburg, and the Great Seven Days Battle of Richmond all followed. The men, and the women, too, of the South said, If indiscriminate execution, confiscation, and emancipation are to be the rule of the Federal Government, let us perish rather on the battle-field.

This is what Abolitionism has cost us already-an unnecessary and injurious civil war; a united South; a divided North and West; a diminished Federal army; an increased Confederate army; the one dispirited, the other confident; fifteen months of most vigorous war, with the largest army and most numerous navy of modern times; and yet not a single State restored; but a public debt of a thousand millions of dollars incurred, and two hundred and fifty thousand brave men lost to the army, no man knows how. For all this, Abolitionism is responsible. Let it answer at the bar of public opinion. Let the people judge. Let the inexorable sentence go forth, and just and speedy judgment be executed upon it.

These, men of Dayton, are my opinions. They are my convictions. And yet, for these I am denounced as "disloyal!" What is loyalty? Obedience, faithfulness to law, or, in Norman-French, to Loy; and there is no higher law than the Constitution. Whoever obeys the laws is loyal; whoever breaks them, whether one in authority or a private citizen, is disloyal. There is no such thing yet in the United States, thank God, as loyalty to a President, or to any Administration. And yet, I have heard of loyalty to Abraham Lincoln, to a man, a public servant, whom the people made, and can unmake! Whoever talks thus is fit only to be a slave. If these men mean that I am opposed to the Administration and party in power, and to the doctrines and policy of Abolition, and think them false to the Constitution, and disastrous to the country; if they mean that I am a Democrat, devoted to the principles and policy, and faithful to the organization of that grand old party which made this country what it is, and am for the old Constitution and the old Union, then I am disloyal, and bless God for it. But if they mean that I am false to the Constitution, untrue to the Union, or disloyal to the country of my birth, in thought, or word, or deed, then, in the language of an eloquent citizen of Indiana, (Mr. Voorhees,) "they lie in their teeth, in their throats, and in their hearts." (Loud cheers.)

Who is an Abolitionist? Whoever is for indiscriminate confiscation, in order to strike at slavery, is an Abolitionist. Whoever is for emancipation and purchase of the slaves of the border States, and the pretended colonization of them abroad, but really their importation North and West, to compete with our own white labor, is an Abolitionist. Whoever would reduce the southern States to Territories, in order to strike down slavery in them by Federal power, is an Abolitionist. Whoever is in favor of arming the slaves, or of declaring slavery abolished by executive or military proclamation, is an

Abolitionist. And, finally, whoever is for converting the war, directly or indirectly, into a crusade for the abolition of slavery, is an Abolitionist of the worst sort; and he who votes for those who favor these things, is also an Abolitionist in practice, no matter what his professions or his party name may be. Whoever is opposed to these projects and votes accordingly, and is for the Constitution as it is, and the Union as it was, is a truly loyal citizen, whether he fights Secession rebels in the field, or Abolition rebels at the ballot-box.

And now, men of Montgomery, if you desire that the rebellion at the South shall be suppressed, that the Confederate armies shall be dissolved, and that the Constitution shall be maintained, the Union restored, and all laws obeyed, unite with me at the ballot-box in speedily and forever crushing out the execrable Abolition rebellion in the North and West. Whoever feels it his duty to fight armed rebels at the South, let him enlist at once; let him not buy up a substitute, but go himself. Whoever remains at home, it is his duty to join with me against Abolition rebels in our midst. This is loyalty; this is fidelity to the Union. The hour of trial and of vindication will soon come. The GREAT HEREAFTER is at hand. In six month-I repeat it-in three months, in six weeks, it may be sooner or later, come meantime what may, the question will be, ETERNAL SEPARATION, OR THE UNION THROUGH COMPROMISE. Which will you then choosenot now, not yet; for amid arms reason, too, is silent-but when it does come? Come it will, and then you must choose between the Union which our fathers made, or a hopeless, cheerless, eternal, and belligerent disunion. I believe that the Administration will declare for separation. Then, as now and ever, I shall be for the Union and against separation. Sir, the choice must be made, and made soon. We have already an enormous debt. A thousand millions would not pay it. We spend three millions a day. How long can you stand that? Our army of six hundred and thirty-seven thousand last January, has melted away to four hundred thousand; and now three hundred thousand more volunteers are demanded, and will soon be in the field. Yet, only fifteen months ago, just seventy-five thousand militia were called out, and the "insurgents" officially commanded to disperse in twenty days! A government paper currency of hundreds of millions is upon us; and a taxation the most onerous and unjust ever levied upon any but a conquered people. A tariff, too, of from forty-one to one hundred and thirteen per cent., as if to heap up the utmost measure of the load, is now added. Stand in the doorway of your farm-house and behold and feel nothing, nothing not taxed, except the air you breathe, and the bright sun-light or star-light of heaven! And yet, you must pay it to the uttermost farthing. None but a madman or a traitor will talk of resistance or repudiation. It was not so in Democratic times. For sixty years that party governed this country in peace and prosperity, and with wisdom and sound policy. Try it again. I am a party man more from conviction than inclination. There must be parties under every free government, and if there are not good parties, there will be bad ones; and "when bad men combine," said Burke, "good men must associate." Why did

the Democratic party always govern this country wisely and well and all other parties fail? Because our institutions are Democratic, and the principles and policy of the Democratic party are consistent with them; just as a piece of mechanism can only be made to work upon the principle or theory on which it is constructed. That is the philosophy of the historic fact. But the Democratic party could not conduct the British government three months without signal and disastrous failure. Let the people lay these things to heart. Let them restore the Democratic party to power, if they would be rescued at last. And, meantime, if the President would be sustained, let him resist fearlessly the spirit of Abolitionism; let him adhere to the Constitution; and himself obey all laws, and execute all laws; let him unmuzzle the press, and unfetter the tongue, and give freedom again to assemblages of the people and to elections; let him liberate his so-called prisoners of State, and henceforth arrest no man without due process of law; in a word, let him look to love, not fear; to law, not terror, as the support of his administration; and every true patriot in the land will rally round him; and then, in God's good time, our eyes shall yet be gladdened, dark as the hour now is, with the blessed vision of the Constitution maintained, the Union restored, and the old flag of our country known and honored once again in every land and upon every sea. (Great and long-continued cheering.)

NUMBER EIGHT.

POLITICAL CAMPAIGN OF 1862.

THE Democratic Congressional Convention, composed of the counties of Butler, Montgomery, Preble, and Warren, met at Hamilton, in Butler Co., September 4th, and nominated Hon. C. L. VALLANDIGHAM, by acclamation. Mr. V. being informed of his nomination, and conducted to the stand, signified his acceptance by reading the following address:

To the Democrats and other loyal Union men of the Third Congressional District of Ohio:

Just after the congressional election in 1860, acknowledging my very many and great obligations to you for past favors, I declared my fixed purpose to decline another candidacy. In this mind I con

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tinued through all the extraordinary changes of the past two years. I learned, indeed, some time ago, from many sources, and upon unmistakable evidence, that it was the general desire of the Democracy of the District that I should be their candidate again, and I thanked them for the confidence implied. But recently circumstances have changed. The "reign of terror " has been renewed with more severity than ever before. Freedom of the press and of speech has been repeatedly and causelessly stricken down. Political and personal liberty has, over and over again, been assailed by illegal and arbitrary arrests; and thus a determined purpose evinced to break down the ancient, customary, and constitutional means of opposition to the political party in power, under the false and tyrannical pretence that it is "opposition to the Government.' To shrink from a pressed upon me by the unanimous voice of the Democracy of the District, would be cowardice now. You have never deserted me; I will not, in this hour of peculiar trial and peril, desert you. With many and most heartful thanks, therefore, I accept the unanimous nomination just tendered to me, content with your indorsement here to-day, and the ratification of it, by the Democrats and other loyal Union men of the District at the polls, as of more value than an election purchased by the sacrifice of the party and the principles which my judgment and conscience approve, and which I have adhered to and maintained from my very boyhood to this day; a party, too, the success of which is so essential, at this moment, to the reunion of the States, and the peace and prosperity of the country; for, if there be any one fact proved now beyond a reasonable doubt, it is the utter imcompetency of the party in power to successfully administer the Government. I know, indeed, that the District in which I have been three times honored with an election, has been changed by a "no party" partisan Legislature, and made heavily Republican, for the purpose of preventing the return of a Democrat; and that at the election last fall, the counties which now compose this District, gave the Republican or Fusion candidate for Governor a very large majority. But districts made for party purposes have more than once been changed by the people at the polls, and greater majorities than this many times overcome, as was, indeed, done last spring, even in the District as now constituted. In any event, the vindication of Democratic principles and the Democratic cause is, at this time especially, of far more importance than mere success in any election.

At your demand, therefore, men of the Third District, I accept the nomination, and present myself to the people for their suffrages, upon no other platform than THE CONSTITUTION AS IT IS AND THE UNION AS IT WAS.

It is a platform broad enough for every patriot. Whoever is for it, I ask his support. Whoever is against it, I would not have his vote. Every faculty of body and mind which I possess shall be exerted unremittingly for the great purpose implied in this platform.

As a Representative, it is my duty to visit the constituency of the old District, still a part of the new, and to render to them an account

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