Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

CHAPTER XV.

EARLY SPEECHES.

HIS POSITION CONCERNING THE DRAFT FOR THE ARMY.- DIFFERS WITH HIS OWN PARTY. -CONTENDS FOR FRANKNESS AND TRUTH.HOPEFUL VIEW OF THE NATION'S SUCCESS.- NATIONAL CONSCIENCE AND SLAVERY. EMANCIPATION THE REMEDY FOR NATIONAL EVILS. DEFENCE OF GENERAL ROSECRANS. —TRIBUTE TO GENERAL THOMAS. — HIS ACCOUNT OF THE BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA,— THE DOCTRINE OF STATE RIGHTS. CAMDEN AND AMBOY RAILROAD VS. THE UNITED STATES. WHAT IS THE POWER AND PREROGATIVE OF THE NATION.

DURING General Garfield's first session, there was much contention over the draft for the army, and the clause in the law which allowed persons who were drawn to commute their service by the payment of three hundred dollars. The speech which General Garfield made illustrates, better than any description could do, certain phases of his character and his manner as a public speaker. In this he was not contending so much with the Democratic party, as with those of his own party with whom he differed in regard to the wisdom of the laws regulating the draft. He said:

"Mr. Speaker, it has never been my policy to conceal a truth, merely because it is unpleasant. It may be well to smile in the face of danger, but it is neither

well nor wise to let danger approach unchallenged and unannounced. A brave nation, like a brave man, desires to see and measure the perils which threaten it. It is the right of the American people to know the necessities of the republic, when they are called upon to make sacrifices for it. It is this lack of confidence in ourselves and the people, this timid waiting for events to control us, when they should obey us, that makes men oscillate between hope and fear, — now in the sunshine of the hill-tops, and now in the gloom and shadows of the valley. To such men, the morning bulletin, which heralds success in the army, gives exultation and high hope; the evening dispatch, announcing some slight disaster to our advancing columns, brings gloom and depression. Hope rises and falls by the accidents of war, as the mercury of the thermometer changes by the accidents of heat and cold. Let us rather take for our symbol the sailor's barometer, which faithfully forwarns him of the tempest, and gives him unerring promise of serene skies and peaceful seas. No man can deny that we have grounds for apprehension and anxiety. The unexampled magnitude of the contest, the enormous expenditures of the war, the unprecedented waste of battle, bringing sorrow to every loyal fireside, the courage, endurance and desperation of our enemy, the sympathy given him by the monarchies of the Old World, as they wait and hope or our destruction, all these considerations should make us anxious and earnest; but they should not add one hue of despair to the face of an American citizen; they should not

abate a tittle of his heart and hope. The specters of defeat, bankruptcy and repudiation have stalked through this Chamber, evoked by those gentlemen who see no hope for the republic, in the arbitrament of war, no power in the justice of our cause, no peace made secure by the triumph of freedom and truth. Mr. Speaker, even at this late day of the session, I will beg the indulgence of the House, while I point out some of the grounds of our confidence in the final success of our cause, while I endeavor to show that, though beset with dangers, we still stand on firm earth; and though the heavens are clouded, yet above storm and cloud the sun of our national hope shines with steady and undimmed splendor. History is constantly repeating itself, making only such changes of programme as the growth of nations and centuries requires. Such struggles as ours, and far greater ones, have occurred in other ages, and their records are written for us. I desire to refer to the example of our ancestors across the sea, in their great struggles at the close of the last and the beginning of the present century, to show what a brave nation can do when their liberties are in danger, and their national existence is at stake.

[blocks in formation]

And can we, the descendants of such a people, with such a history and such an example before us, can we, dare we falter in a day like this? Dare we doubt? Should we not rather say, as Bolingbroke said to his people, in their hour of peril: 'Oh, woe to thee when doubt comes; it blows like a wind from

the north, and makes all thy joints to quake. Woe, indeed, be the statesmen who doubt the strength of their country, and stand in awe of the enemy with whom it is engaged.' At that same period, one of the greatest minds of England declared the three things necessary to her success:

I. To listen to no terms of peace till freedom and order were established in Europe.

2. To fill up her army and perfect its organization. 3. To secure the favor of Heaven, by putting away forever the crime of slavery and the slave trade.

Can we learn a better lesson? Great Britain, in that same period, began the work which ended in breaking the fetters of all her bondsmen. She did maintain her armies and her finances, and she did triumph. We have begun to secure the approval of Heaven by doing justice, though long delayed, and securing to every human being in this republic freedom, henceforth and forever.

Mr. Speaker, it has long been my settled conviction that it was a part of the divine purpose to keep us under the pressure and grief of this war, until the conscience of the nation should be aroused to the enormity of its great crime against the black man, and full reparation should be made. We entered the struggle, a large majority insisting that slavery should be let alone, with a defiance almost blasphemous. Every movement toward the gro's manhood was resisted. ful cost of human lives, the

recognition of the neSlowly, and at a frightnation has yielded its

wicked and stubborn prejudices against him, till at

last the blue coats cover more than one hundred thousand swarthy breasts, and the national banner is born in the smoke of battle by men lately loaded with chains, but now bearing the honors and emoluments of American soldiers. Dare we hope for final. success till we give them the full protection of soldiers? Like the sins of mankind against God, the sin of slavery was so great that without the shedding of blood there was no remission.' Shall we not secure the favor of Heaven by putting it completely away? Shall we not fill up our armies? Shall we not also triumph? Was there, in the condition of England in 1812, a single element essential to success which we do not possess to-day?

[blocks in formation]

If we will not learn a lesson, either from England or our revolutionary fathers, let us at least learn from our enemies. I have seen their gallantry in battle, their hoping against hope amid increasing disaster; and, traitors though they are, I am proud of their splendid courage, when I remember that they are Americans. Our army is equally brave, but our government and Congress are far behind them in earnestness and energy.

Until we go into the war with the same desperation and abandonment which mark their course, we do not deserve to succeed, and we shall not succeed. What have they done? What has their government done, a government based, in the first place, on extreme State rights and State sovereignty, but which has become more centralized and despotic than

« AnteriorContinuar »