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SPEECH 
 
 HON. CHARlIs D. DRAKE, 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 NATIONAL UNION ASSOCIATION, AT CINCINNATI, OCTOBER 1, 1864. 
 
 Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen : 
 
 In accepting the invitation of the Committee of the National Union 
 Association to speak on this occasion, I have departed from a long-formed 
 ,piu-pose not to go out of my own State to address the people on the affairs 
 of the Country. As you are aware, my home is in Missouri — " the dark 
 and bloody ground " of the border States since the rebellion's rise ; but 
 destined yet to come forth out of all her sufferings and wrongs, redeemed 
 at once from slavery, disloyalty and Democracy, by the Radical spirit of 
 loyalty and Freedom. [Applause.] To the great work of her redemp- 
 tion from that trio of curses, I have pledged in my heart the whole powers 
 of my being, with the intention not to be drawn into other fields of effort, 
 but to labor on there, steadily and unflinchingly, till the day of deliver- 
 ance ; which, God be praised ! is, I trust, near at hand. [Applause.] 
 
 But when this call from my former home and native city came to me, 
 it seemed to come, not from your committee room, but from that spot in 
 your beautiful " Spring Grove," where lie the remains of a Revolutionary 
 grandsire, and those of an honored father, whose name was for more than 
 fifty years identified with your city ; whose life, as many here know, was 
 One of devotion to the public good ; and in whose heart patriotism was as 
 living a principle as the vital courses of his blood. I seemed to hear him 
 say. Come, my son, and speak from near my grave for your country ! and 
 -my soul answered, Yes, father, I come ! and may your listening spirit ap- 
 prove my words for my country. [Great applause.] 
 
 SPEAKS FOR HIS COUNTRY. 
 
 My friends, I came to speak for my country, indeed — for our country, 
 in the day of its trial and affliction, but, as I joyfully believe, the day also 
 of its glory. The hour of triumph over rebellion and treason hastens on; 
 the death-knell of traitors comes on the rushing air from Mobile Bay, 
 Atlanta and Shenandoah Valley — no more our " Valley of Humiliation;" 
 and the voices of the loyal people of this great nation thunder the doom 
 of a perfidious and traitorous Democracy. [Cheers.] Sherman, Sheridan, 
 Grant and Faragut, are freemen's watchwords now; Liberty and Union 
 their battle cry; down with rebellion and slavery together ! their stern 
 and irreversible decree ; [Great applause] and may God have mercy on 
 all traitors, North as well as South, and all Peace Democrats and Copper- 
 heads, from this day forth — for no mercy will the people show them. 
 [Renewed applause.] 
 
 THE BULLET AND THE BALLOT. 
 
 I 6peak thus confidently, not that I under-estimate the tremendous 
 emergency now pressing the nation, and requiring its fate in the field of 
 civil conflict to be decided within the next thirty-eight days, but because 
 of my unfaltering faith in the patriotism and pluck of the masses of the 
 American people, whether in the battle of the bullet or the ballot. 
 £Cheers.] The heroism of the field, where the former deals death to 
 traitors in the South, will be nobly answered from the field where the 
 latter smites down their brother traitors in the North. The day of judg- 
 ment for both is at hand, and it will be the day of their country's redemp* 
 fcion at once from the power of a heartless Southern aristocracy, and from 
 the influence of a corrupt Northern Democracy. [Cheers.] If not so, 
 then has the day of wreck to this groat Republic indeed come, and even 
 apw its grave yawns before it. [j* 
 
merit, and continental extension of an empire, the one sole distinctive idea 
 and principle of which should be the enslavement of millions of human 
 beings then within its limits, and the future piracy of millions more from 
 another continent, to be likewise enslaved, as that empire should be after- 
 ward extended. Not covertly, not apologetically, but openly and impu- 
 dently, they laid the corner-stone of that empire in the institution of Slav- 
 ery, and braved the public sentiment of the world by an attempt to erect 
 a nationality upon a system which nearly all Christian nations has long 
 ago hunted down with fiery execration. [Applause.] They vauntingly 
 told the world that they were an ARISTOCRACY, with a God-given right to 
 enslave the negro ; and that they would not only enslave him, but scorned 
 to live in union with white people who would not do likewise. They 
 spumed the myriad ties that bound them to the rest of their nation, that 
 they might be let alone to bind the chains more securely and gallingly 
 upon those enslaved millions, and the millions more that, by birth or kid- 
 napping, were to become sharers in their pitiless bondage. They scouted 
 every appeal from and for the country, because that was no country to 
 them where Slavery was not the ' ; living principle of social order," and 
 could not be made, as they said, the token of " a higher civilization, a 
 purer liberty, and a better system of human government.'' They pro- 
 claimed that they would not remain in the Union if a sheet of blank paper 
 "were given them on which to write their own terms ; and that because 
 there was not room there for the spread of the institution of Slavery, 
 without which that institution was doomed to suffocation and extinction. 
 They, therefore, demanded more territory for Slavery's extension ; and 
 as that could not be got in the Union, they ferociously determined to go 
 out of the Union, and wrest the coveted possession from their own coun- 
 try, and from Mexico and Central America, and so around the shores of 
 the Gulf of Mexico, realize that " Golden Circle " of empire, where Slav- 
 ery should minister to a bloody and remorseless oligarchy, and Cotton 
 should be king over a nation with but two classes — aristocrats and " nig- 
 gers.'' [Cheers.] And for such fiendish ends as these, secession, rebel- 
 lion, treason, war, and desolation were let loose upon a land, where Lib- 
 berty and Peace had long contended which should bestow the richest bless- 
 ings. For such ends as these, they contemned the moral sense of the 
 human race, and scoffed at the graves and memory of their fathers, whose 
 names are held in reverence, wherever truth has disciples, or freedom, vo- 
 taries. [Applause.] For such ends as these they smote down the eter- 
 nal principles of right, silenced conscience, outlawed themselves from the 
 world's esteem, defied the judgment of Almighty God, and gave them- 
 selves up to the vocation of the bandit and the pirate, with nothing to 
 dignify the act, but the unheard of magnitude of their stupendous crime. 
 [Applause] 
 
 My friends, I feel, and I doubt not you feel, how utterly inadequate 
 has been this effort to depict the hideous deformity and awful wickedness 
 of that crime. Sure I am that I have no capacity to express as I feel its 
 measureless iniquity. Still it was necessary to the line of thought I had 
 marked out for this evening's discussion, that I should attempt, by the 
 presentation of these five great facts, to draw your minds to a renewed 
 consideration of matters which inhere in and appertain to Slavery's war 
 against your country, as much to-day as when the first gun was fired at 
 Fort Sumter, and which will continue part and parcel of that war till the 
 last gun is fired against the rebellion, and the nation, vindicated by itself 
 alone, from its domestic foes, shall turn to the works, enjoy the repose, 
 and reap the blessings of a peace which to the last moment of time domes- 
 tic foes will never dare disturb again. 
 
 THE NORTHERN SPIRIT OF THE WAR. 
 
 For nearly three years and a half that war has been waged. I need 
 not attempt to trace before you its blazing and blood-stained course. It 
 has been familiar to you through all that long period of woe, brooding 
 oyer you like a nightmare. You see it daily, many of you, in the habili- 
 
ments of mourning in your dwellings ; you note it tearfully in the vacant 
 chair at your table ; you know it in the absence of the manly voice from 
 your home ; you read it in the inscription on the marble monument in the 
 cemetery, or in the simple name on the painted head-board in the burying- 
 ground ; you gaze at it broken-heartedly in the faithful photograph — all 
 that was left by the brave soldier boy who is never to return ; you feel it 
 in the aching void in the heart that has given its loved one — husband, son, 
 father — to your country. And what you, mourning father, or weeping 
 mother, or desolate widow, find embittering your sacrifices for that coun- 
 try, is only what scores of thousands of other fathers, mothers, and widows 
 in the land share with you, as a hard but precious memento of what has 
 been lost that your country might be saved. Never have people brought 
 such sacrifices to their country's altar, as those with which this people 
 have taught the world what patriotism means. [Applause.] Men by the 
 million for the field, women by the ten thousand for the hospitals and 
 Sanitary rooms, money by thousands of millions for the expenses of war, 
 have been supplied and lavished for country and liberty, with a generosi- 
 ty which none but patriots could feel, and which nothing but the pro- 
 foundest conviction of duty to a great and holy cause could inspire. Dis- 
 aster has at times saddened, but never dismayed, the spirit of the people ; 
 but even in the darkest hour they have borne up with stout hearts, and 
 pressed forward with willing hands, to do and dare all that country de- 
 manded, all that patriotism invoked. And the armies of the Republic 
 cheered on by the smiles and benedictions of the loved ones at home, 
 have pressed forward in their work of death to the rebellion and rebels, 
 conquering as they went, and holding as they conquered, till the grim 
 veterans were thundering at the very citadels of treason, and the day 
 seemed dawning when the monster would be strangled in his strongholds, 
 and buried in the blood-filled trenches that surround them. [Applause.] 
 
 THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION COMES ON. 
 
 At this critical juncture in the progress of the war, the attention of the 
 people is of necessity partially turned from the gory field where their 
 brothers are acting so glorious a part, to another field where they them- 
 selves have to perform a part scarcely less important. In the midst of 
 the intense interest which the conflict of arms excu : n every patriotic 
 breast, another contest opens at home, in which the ballot is the weapon, 
 and the control of the national Government, in all its departments, civil 
 and military, is at stake. The quadrennial election of the Chief Magis- 
 trate of the nation has, in conformity with the Constitution, to be made; 
 and the nation rapidly nears that day of all its days, when, fighting with 
 one hand and voting with the other, the fate of the country is to be de- 
 cided between the friends and enemies of the Constitution and the Union. 
 Yes, my friends, its fate to be decided on that day ; and we might as well 
 look at the matter in that single, sharp point, for to that it has come. 
 View it as you please, you can make nothing less or else of it. The ques- 
 tion is not between variant policies to sustain the Government, but whether 
 we shall have a Government to sustain ; not whether this principle or that 
 shall prevail in the construction of the Constitution, but whether the Con- 
 stitution shall remain in existence ; not whether the Union can be pre- 
 served this way or that way, but whether it can be preserved at all; not 
 whether the country needs this or that measure to secure its welfare, but 
 whether it shall continue to be a country for you, or me, or any of us. 
 [Applause.] 
 
 THE ISSUE AT THE POLLS — BACK OUT OR GO AHEAD. 
 Such is my judgment of the nature of the crisis now upon us. But the 
 people have been so long familiar with this war for the overthrow of the 
 Government, Constitution, Union, and Country, that I fear some may not 
 fully realize that the conflict is now shifted from the huttle-field .to the polls. 
 [Applause.] But yet it is verily so. And it is so because the question 
 to be settled at the ballot box is, whether the sword shall continue to cut 
 down the rebel armies until the rebellion is absolutely, completely, and 
 
finally crushed, beyond the possibility of resuscitation, or whether it shall be 
 ingloriously sheathed, and all its conquests dastardly given up. In other 
 words, whether the rebel Confederacy shall be recognized, and the nation 
 cut in two, and the two parts, after a brief respite, go to fighting again, 
 and keep at it. like Kilkenny cats, till both are destroyed ; or whether we 
 shall go on fighting now, while our hand is in, till the authority of the 
 Constitution is re-established over every inch of the Union's territory, so 
 tb remain while the world lasts. [Enthusiastic and repeated applause.] 
 Or, in shorter or sharper terms, whether we shall back out or go ahead. 
 [Cheers and cries of " Go ahead."] That is the essence of the whole case, 
 boiled down into the plainest Anglo Saxon. And, my friends, to use a 
 homely phrase, " you had better believe it;" for upon the people's believ- 
 ing it depends the result of the pending presidential election; and upon 
 that result depends your country's salvation, and upon your country's sal- 
 vation depends the cause of human freedom over the whole earth. [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 HORSES, RATS, "WAR AND PEACE DEMOCRATS, AND SNAKES. 
 
 Of course no such issue as this could come up now, if all the'people in 
 the Northern States were earnestly and truly loyal. But you know, as 
 well as I do, that they are not all loyal, even in name; but that multi- 
 tudes of them are positively and outspokenly disloyal. I need not tell 
 you that there are traitors in the North, and plenty of them, as well as in 
 the South. You can't step out of your doors without meeting them. 
 Perhaps there are some of them here to-night. I hope there are. 
 [Laughter.] They have heard some wholesome truths already, and I'll 
 try to tell them some more. [Cheers.] They call themselves Democrats 
 — an unfortunate name for many who act with them, but who, I believe, 
 really love the Union ; for it is the name to which all rebels, Copperheads, 
 guerrillas, bushwhackers, Sons of Liberty, Knights of the Golden Circle, 
 O. A. K's, Secessionists and Cessationists in the whole country answer. 
 [Cheers and shouts.] Every one of them is a Democrat dyed in the wool, 
 and many of them dyed in blood. [Cheers.] Some, acting with them 
 as the tail follows an animal, call themselves " War Democrats;" but I 
 quite agree with Fernando Wood, that, that is a solecism, a contradiction 
 in terras, an impossible combination. To use a zoological illustration — 
 you may call a horse a rat, or a rat a horse, but it won't transmogrify either. 
 The horse will neigh, and the rat, will squeak, in spite of the misnomer. 
 Horses and rats live together in stables, and eat some of the same kinds 
 of food ; but the horse is still a horse, and the rat is still a rat, lor all that. 
 So a man may run with the Democracy, and call himself a War Democrat, 
 but if he is at heart honestly and truly for the Union, and in favor of the 
 war for the Union's preservation, he is no more a democrat than a horse 
 is a rat, or a rat is a horse. With about equal classicality of expression, 
 Mr. Trainor, of your state, said at Chicago, during the recent Democratic 
 saturnalia there, " There is no difference between a War Democrat and an 
 Abolitionist. They are both links in tin- same sausage, made oat of the same 
 dog." [Cheers and laughter.] A real patriot — but not a sensible one — 
 may befool himself into great error, by calling himself a War Democrat; 
 but when a man calls himself a Peace. Democrat, he neither fools himself 
 nor any one else. He knows, and every body else knows, that he is a TRAI- 
 TOR, [Great and continued applause,] and he might as well be called so 
 in plain terms. This is no time to mince words, or to be afraid of calling 
 men and things by their right names. Here is the proof that traitor is 
 the right name lor this animal. 
 
 THE PEACE DEMOCRAT A TRAITOR — THE PROOF. 
 
 The Peace Democrat wants the war for the Union stopped ; and what 
 more does Jeff. Davis want? "All he asks is to be let alone." [Cheers 
 and applause.] The Peace Democrat wants to smile instead of shoot reb- 
 els into submission, like the old fellow with the cow : 
 
 '•There was an old man who said: 'How 
 Shall I flee from this horrible cow? 
 
I will sit on the stile, 
 And continue to smile, 
 Which may soften the heart of this cow.' " [Laughter.] 
 
 That is just what the rebels would have us do. The Peace Democrat 
 says, let us negotiate with the rebels; and could Jeff. Davis ask anything 
 better? For, once stop fighting to negotiate with them, and it will be the 
 end of war for a while, but if will also be the end of the Union ; and no- 
 body knows that better than Jeff. Davis knows it. [Great applause.] 
 The Peace Democrat wants Slavery continued and established; and what 
 more do the rebels want? The Peace Democrat — white-livered coward 
 that he is!— says we can't whip the rebels; and has not every rebel al- 
 ways said the same thing? [Cheers.] The Peace Democrat says we 
 eraght not to whip them if we could; and is not that the prime article in 
 the rebel creed? The Peace Democrat says you have no constitutional 
 right to coerce a sovereign State ; and is not that one of the very founda- 
 tion heresies of the rebellion? The Peace Democrat says that it is 
 against State Rights to coerce a sovereign State ; and is not that every 
 rebel's opinion, too? The Peace Democrat demands that all the prisons 
 in the North be unbarred, and rebels and traitors set free ; and what bet- 
 ter would they themselves ask? [Laughter and cheers.] The Peace 
 Democrat says, "Down with all gibbets ! " and so says every rebel ; for, 
 
 "No rogue e'er felt the halter draw, 
 With good opinion of the law." [Cheers.] 
 
 The Peace Democrat wants his candidate for the Presidency elected ; 
 and does not every rebel pray for the success of ''Little Mac?" [Great 
 applause.] But, above all, the Peace Democrat demands that Abe Lincoln, 
 the "tyrant, the "felon," the "monster usurper," the "gorilla despot/' 
 shall be defeated; and all rebeldom, with one universal voice, yells "that's 
 it ! " " go it, Democrats ! " " down with A.be Lincoln ! " [Great cheers.] 
 A PEACE DEMOCRAT WORSE THAN A REBEL. 
 
 And so, my friends, we have come to this pass, that traitors North 
 organize in open daylight, as well as in midnight conclave, to fight the 
 battles of the rebellion at the polls, while traitors South are fighting its 
 battles in the field. In what does one differ from the other, except in the 
 means used for attaining the same end? Indeed, may it not be justly 
 said that the Northern traitor is the meaner and more villainous of the 
 two — [Cheers] — because he is doing his devilish work, unmolested and 
 without fear of punishment, right under the flag he conspires to betray ; 
 while the Southern traitor steps out like a man under the rebel flag and 
 makes fight, braving all conserpuences, even unto death ! For my part, 
 I respect the latter twice as much as the former; just as I hold the rattle- 
 snake that warns before he strikes, a more respectable reptile than the 
 copperhead, that bites first and warns afterward. [Cheers and shouts.] 
 At the same time, I say, smash them both! [Enthusiastic cheers.] 
 
 But, my friends, interesting as this zoological garden of horses, rats. 
 Peace Democrats, rattlesnakes and Copperheads is, I must proceed to 
 other matters. 
 
 THE CHICAGO PLATFORM, ALIAS DEADFALL. 
 
 I want to talk a while about platforms, otherwise sometimes known and 
 cursed as deadfalls. I shall not soon forget the feelings with which I first 
 read the deadfall that the Chicago Convention built for itself, and called 
 it platform. [Laughter.] My first feeling was intense indignation, that 
 on the whole continent of America there could be found a body of* men, 
 so lost to patriotism, freedom, truth and decency, as to send forth such a 
 concoction of treason, hypocrisy and fraud. [Cheers.] But my " sober, 
 second thought" made me jubilant; for I saw that their deadfall had, in 
 the instant of its erection, dropped upon themselves, and caught the whole 
 Democrat tribe — [cheers] — War Democrats, Peace Democrats, Copper- 
 heads, Sons of Liberty, Horatio Seymour, Fernando Wood, Vallandigham, 
 and all. [Loud and continued cheers.] And I am still more jubilant 
 now in the belief that on the eighth of next month the great Union party 
 
of the nation will light down on that deadfall, and crush the last breath 
 out of the whole Democratic mass that may then be under it. [Great 
 cheers, and aery, "Where is George E. Pugh ?"] And I said with 
 Sancho Panza, " Blessings on the man that first invented " — platforms! 
 [Laughter and applause.] But if ever a party had cause to curse them, 
 it was the Democratic party in 1864. I was for a time disturbed because 
 the Republican Union party nominated its candidates as early as June ! 
 But the result has shown that it was well ; though in a way that was 
 probably not foreseen. From the 8th of June, when Mr. Lincoln was 
 nominated, to the 30th of August, when Gen. McClellan was nominated, 
 you will remember that hardly a movement was discoverable among the 
 people in reference to the Presidential election. An uninformed observer 
 would not have supposed that we were within as many years of it as we were 
 months. It looked dreadfully like apathy; for which, evidently the 
 Democracy mistook it. Their Convention assembled under the animating 
 conviction that they had only to put their candidate on the track, no 
 matter with how much dead weight about him, and let him win the race 
 to the White House in a walk. Mistaking the nation's quiet waiting for 
 an antagonist to Mr. Lincoln, for disaffection toward him, and judging thence 
 that the people were ripe for any kind of Democratic candidate or plat- 
 form, they took full length of rope and — hung themselves. [Cheers and 
 laughter.] Let us dissect that platform, and see what it is not made of, 
 and what it is made of. 
 
 WHAT IT IS NOT MADE OF. 
 
 Very few words will suffice to tell what it is not made of; for you can't 
 find a single fiber of patriotism, courage, manliness, or honesty in it. 
 [Cheers.] And it is so singularly destitute of common sense, in utterly 
 ignoring great and vital issues, and prating about matters which can 
 never be dignified into issues, and which the country cares nothing about, 
 that it might well pass for the production of an All-fools' Convention, if 
 it were not that a man can't very well be both a fool and a knave. [Great 
 applause.] 
 
 That will do for what it is not made of. Now, as briefly as possible, 
 for what it is made of. 
 
 DEMOCRATIC UNIONISM. 
 
 It begins by saying, " That in the future as in the past, toe toill adhere 
 with unswerving fidelity to the Union, under the Constitution." 
 
 " In the future as in the past." Does that mean that they have, in the 
 past, "adhered with unswerving fidelity to the Union?" If it does, then 
 they do not speak for the Democratic party, or else they do not intend to 
 adhere to the Union at all ; for it was Southern Democrats who attempted 
 to break up the Union ; and it was a Democratic Secretary of War who 
 furnished them with the arms of the Union to assail the Union with; and 
 it was a Democratic President who looked on, without moving so much as 
 his little finger to save the Union. And have we not for nearly four 
 years been fighting Southern Democrats, armed for the Union's destruc- 
 tion ? [Great applause.] 
 
 " THE UNION AS IT WAS," RULED BY SLAVERV. 
 
 " The Union under the Constitution.'" Why did they not say, "The 
 Union as it was, under the Constitution as it is?" for that is what they 
 meant, but had not the manliness, courage or honesty to say in their 
 platform, as they do in their speeches and newspapers every day, all over 
 the country. Why did they not say it? Simply, because they dared not 
 come out before the country and the world, and avow that the " Union as 
 it was," means, with them, the Union ruhd by Slavery — [Applause J — and 
 the " Constitution as it is," means the Constitution recognizing Slavery, 
 and not to be amended so as to prohibit it, and not capable of being so 
 amended, except by the consent of every State. Or, in George H. Pendle- 
 ton's words, spoken in the House of Representatives, on the 15th of June, 
 1861, " Neither three-fourths of the /Stares, nor all tlie States, save one, 
 can abolish Slavery in that dissc7iting Slate, because it lies within the domain 
 
reserved entirely to each State for itself, and upon it the othtr States can 
 not enter." 
 
 george h. pendi.eton's doctrine exposed. 
 
 Now, my friends, it is no time lost, to stop and look into this doctrine 
 for a moment. It is a phase of States' Rights heresies, which ought not 
 to be overlooked in our public discussions ; for it contains the very venom 
 of those heresies concentrated under a single fang. 
 
 The Constitution of the United States, as every man may read who 
 will refer to it, provides for its own amendment in two carefully- 
 defined modes, either of which may be resorted to. 
 
 Any amendment of it, adopted in either of those modes, is ipso facto a 
 part of the Constitution, and of as much force as the original instrument. 
 
 The Constitution declares that itself " shall be the supreme law of the 
 land, and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in 
 the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding." 
 
 This Constitution, with these two fundamental provisions, was adopted 
 by the people of every State, without exception; and they thereby bound 
 themselves to it, in all its parts, forever. 
 
 In so adopting it, they agreed to abide by, and obey any amendment of 
 it, which might be adopted in either of the authorized modes of amend- 
 ment. 
 
 They did not except from that agreement any subject-matter of amend- 
 ment, but left the whole range of amendments to the will of the nation, 
 whenever, and in regard to whatsoever, that will might be constitutionally 
 expressed. 
 
 Nothing in constitutional history or construction can be more plain and 
 incontrovertible than these simple propositions. They defy successful 
 contradiction or honest question. They exemplify in a striking manner, 
 what history and the Constitution both establish, that the American people 
 are not thirty-four distinct peoples, made up into thirty-four independent 
 States, held together by the Constitution, like so many beads on a thread ; 
 but that they are, in the fullest sense of the term, one people and one na- 
 tion, having as such, the incontestible power to make and amend their 
 own Constitution, and to bind every State and every man in the nation to 
 obedience to that Constitution as the supreme law. whatever form the na- 
 tion may see proper, in a constitutional mode, to give it. [Great applause.] 
 
 IT IS NULLIFICATION, SECESSION, AND REBELLION. 
 
 Mr. Pendleton's doctrine strikes down at a single blow the whole grand 
 idea of nationality, and invests each State with the right to nullify the 
 Constitution, and to resist the will of the nation therein ordained. It 
 goes to the very furthest limit of the doctrine of State Sovereignty, and 
 dwindles the Constitution into nothingness. It says that Arkansas, 
 Florida, Delaware, or Rhode Island is greater than the nation. It is the 
 condensation of State Rights, nullification, secession, and rebellion into a 
 single dogma, which repudiates the Constitution, and shatters the whole 
 structure of the National Government into fragments. For, if there is 
 any aiatter about which an amendment of the Constitution, can not be 
 made, so as to be the supreme law of the land, then the Constitution 
 itself is not the supreme law, and never was. For the power of amend- 
 ment, unlimited in its scope, is declared by the Constitution, and is, there- 
 fore, as much the supreme law as any other part of that instrument ; and 
 if, as to any matter whatever, that power is a nullity, there is no other 
 power there which may not also be nullified, and so the whole noble fab- 
 ric be swept away, piece by piece, into the blank regions of the void and 
 the lost. 
 
 IT IS SLAVERY PERPETUATED. 
 Could disunionists ask more than this ? Can traitorous ingenuity more artfully 
 contrive a doctrine that would at once denationalize America, wreck its Con- 
 stitution, break its Union into formless ruins, throw its elements into warring 
 contusion, and prostrate it in irretrievable anarchy ? Could any devotee of Slav- 
 ery invent a more perfect and eternal safeguard of it ? " The Constitution as ifc 
 is," unamended and unamendable, is Slavery as it was, unmoved and immova- 
 
ble. [Cheers] And to that the Democracy is pledged, and for that it strug- 
 gles. Down with the Democracy, its candidates and its platform, now and for 
 all coming time ! [Enthusiastic and long-continued applause.] 
 
 " FOUR YEARS OP FAILURE." 
 
 The traitors' platform proceeds thus: 
 
 " That this Conventian does explicitly declare, as the sense of the American 
 people, that after jour years of failure to restore the Union by the experiment 
 of.wav, * * * justice, numqnity, liberty, and the public welfare de- 
 mand, that immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities, with a view 
 to au v/timate Cfohveritibn of the states, or other peaceable means, to the end 
 that at the earliest practicable moment peace may be restored on the basis of the 
 Federal Union of' the States." 
 
 And this is what they say about the war whose thunders from Mobile Bay, 
 Atlanta, and Petersburg were even then reverberating over the land. Not one 
 word of cheer or enoqufagement *o our noble soldiers and sailors! Not one 
 breath of condemnation, or even censure, of their ruthless slayers! Not one 
 syllable or any sort of purpose to vindicate or defend the Union! Not one 
 thought for their country in its mortal grapple with the aristocracy of Slavery ! 
 Only a fetid, snaky hiss at " four years of failure!'' Failure! how? when? 
 where? The rebels had Norfolk. Yorktown, New Orleans, Port Hudson, 
 Natchez, Yicksburg, Memphis, Columbus, Nashville, Chattanooga, Atlanta: 
 have they got them now? [Exciting and vociferous cheers.] They had Louisi- 
 ana. Mississippi, and Tennessee: who has them now? [Repeated cheers.] 
 They had the Cumberland, the Tennessee, and the Mississippi : have they a 
 drop of either now ? [Cheers and cries of "No."] They had open ports in 
 Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds, and at Charleston, Port Royal, Savannah, and 
 Mobile : are they open now? They had Forts Pulaski, Morgan, Gaines, Jackson, 
 Henry, and Donelson : have they them now? ["No, no.''] Failure ! Call you it a 
 failure, when the rebellion has been shriveled up like a piece of burnt leather, 
 and Sherman, Sheridan, and Grant have got it in the fire, and will hold it there 
 till it is burned to ashes! [Enthusiastic cheers.] You might as well call a 
 streak of lightning a failure, because it only knocked down three quarters of 
 your house. [Cheers.] Hiss on, serpents! this is your time to hiss; but the 
 lightnings of the people's wrath are gathering, and there will be no failure in 
 their hissing stroke upon you on the eight of November. [Great cheers.] 
 CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES. 
 
 But u justice, humanity, liber/;/, and the public welfare, demand that im- 
 mediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities." Efforts — by whom ? Of 
 course, only by our Government. That is, the nation's Chief, at the very mo- 
 ment its armies have the rebellion throttled, and are choking the life of it, is to 
 beg the rebel chief for a cessation of hostilities ! After forty months of war, 
 and in the very hour of advancing victory, we are to sue for an armistice! 
 After sacrifices of money and lives, such as no other nation ever made, and 
 while the nation is yet in full vigor to cope with the rebellion, we must make 
 ourselves such dastards as the world never saw, and give up the graves of our 
 fallen heroes, to be spit upon by Slavery's pirates! No ! no! no! ten thousand 
 times, No ! [Great applause, and cries of] "No.'] Wherever one drop of the 
 blood of patriots has stained the soil is consecrated ground, not one clod of 
 which is ever to be yielded back to the dominion of their murderers. [Cheers.] 
 That is what 1 pronounce to be "sense of the American people" this day; and 
 it will sweep over this land, scattering traitors and cowards, like chaff before a 
 tornado. [Great applause.] 
 
 " A CONVENTION OF THE STATES." 
 
 But these "immediate efforts for a cessation of hostilities" are to be made 
 "ivith a view to au ultimate Convention of all the States, or other peaceable 
 means, to the end //hit ii/ the earliest possible moment peace may be restored ;" 
 and upon this idea the promise is lavishly spouted on every stump in the land 
 where copperheads and traitors can be got to listen, that if we will only elect 
 McClellan and Pendleton, the Union and peace will be restored, in anytime you 
 can name, from one month up. [Hisses and laughter.] My friends, if there is any 
 thing cheap in the world it is promises, particularly with those who have neither 
 capital nor credit. The devil, that old serpent, was full of them in the garden 
 of Eden, when he betrayed our first mother; and his American progeny do no 
 discredit to their great ancestor in their efforts to betray their country with ly- 
 ing and empty promises. [ Laughter and shouts.] This whole scheme of a 
 Convention of the States is a stupendous cheat, and a shameless imposture, de- 
 signed to gather the weak, the cowardly, and the sordid into the great Demo- 
 cratic drag-net, wherein, as in the great sheet in St. Peter's vision, " are all 
 manner of wild beasts and creeping things." [Laughter and shouts.] Remem 
 
ber, my friends, that no Convention of the States for amending the Constitution 
 can be lawfully assembled, except under the authority of the Constitution, and in 
 the mode prescribed by it. Under the Constitution what is necessary to the 
 lawful convening of such a body ? 1st. " The application of the Legislatures of 
 two thirds of the several States;" and 2d. After such application, the passage 
 by Congress of a law calling the Convention. 
 
 HAS THE SOUTH ASKED IT ? 
 Mark, now, that the words "the several States," include the whole thirty-four 
 States, of which twenty-three are two thirds. Does any sane man — did any 
 man in the Chicago Convention — believe for one moment that in the present 
 circumstances of the country the Legislatures of twenty-three States could be 
 induced to apply for the calling of a Convention ? No ; every man there knew, 
 and every sensible man in the country now knows, that it would be as impos- 
 sible as to call a convention of the stars to make peace with a comet. The 
 South would reject it, because it would be, practically, an abandonment of 
 Slavery, and of the empire of Slavery, for which they inaugurated the war; and 
 would, moreover, subject them to the control of the majority coming from the 
 Northern States ; and did not Jeff. Davis declare, and does not the whole South 
 declare, that it was to throw off the rule of that very majority that the rebellion 
 was precipitated ? Has the South ever proposed to submit to the arbitrament 
 of such a convention? Never. Does this platform say that the South is will- 
 ing to go into such a convention ? Not at all. Has any Democratic speaker at 
 Chicago, or elsewhere, or any body else, in the United States, or in Canada, 
 venture 1 to say that there has come from any source in the South, authoritative 
 or unauthoritative, the most distant intimation that the rebels are willing even 
 to consider such a proposition? Not one. 
 
 WOULD THE NORTH AGREE TO IT? 
 But suppose the South willing to come into such a measure, do you believe it 
 would be possible, with all the experience we have had of the domineering im- 
 periousness, and cold, calculating perfidy of Southern aristocrats, to induce the 
 requisite number of Northern States to go into a Convention with them ? If 
 the whole sixteen Slave States — including West Virginia — should apply for a 
 Contention, it would be necessary for seven of the Northern States to join in 
 the application; and what seven of them would do it? Would Ohio? No, 
 never. [Many voices, "never"] Nor would a single other Northwestern 
 State ; nor would a single N ew England State ; nor would New York or Penn- 
 sylvania, California or Oregon. There is but one free State that 1 suppose 
 might do it. New Jersey [laughter]; and I will not slander even her — politi- 
 cally, miserable as she is, or was — by affirming that she would. 
 WOULD THE FORMER SLAVE STATES ? 
 But would it be possible to induce the whole sixteen former Slave States to 
 apply for a convention? Let us see. West Virginia has prospectively abol- 
 ished Slavery, is loyal to the Union, and has no interest in common with the 
 South. Maryland is in the act of abolishing Slavery immediately: and so is 
 cut loose from the South. Delaware is, practically, a free State, and is stead- 
 fast to the Union. Missouri has adopted bogus emancipation, and presently 
 will take a step forward, and wipe out the accursed institution, instantly and 
 forever [great applause] ; and I promise you she would not ask for a conven- 
 tion. Arkansas and Louisiana have ordained new Constitutions abolishing 
 Slavery, and Tennessee is marching on to the same glorious consummation. 
 [Applause.] Here are seven of the so-called Slave States, of which, it may 
 safely be assumed, not one would join in the application for a convention. If 
 the other nine Slave States asked it, then you must find fourteen free States to 
 concur with them; and they could never be found. 
 
 WOULD AMENDMENTS BE RATIFIED? 
 But suppose a convention called and amendments of the constitution adopted 
 by it, there is yet more to be done, Those amendments would have to be rati- 
 fied by the Legislatures of, or by conventions called in, three-fourths, or twenty- 
 six of the States, before they would be a part of the Constitution. And 1 ven- 
 ture to say, that in the present state of the country no amendment can be de- 
 vised, which would be ratified by that number of States, except that one, as 
 sure to come as to-morrow's sun, and like it to come in glory, which shall de- 
 clare Slavery abolished, and forever prohibited in the whole United States of 
 America. [Great applause repeated. J 
 
 THE PROPOSED CONVENTION A CHEAT. 
 
 What, then, becomes of the Chicago project of a Convention ? The South 
 
 rejects it with scorn; the North rejects it from principle; and there is not a 
 
 human being on earth that has the semblance of authority from the South or the 
 
 North to propose it as a measure of peace. To propose it, is therefore to pro- 
 
pose an impossibility; and to propose an impossibility in the present strained 
 and anxious condition of tbe public mind, is a bald imposture, a vile cheat, a 
 lying delusion, and a cruel and devilish wickedness; and every man in the 
 Chicago Convention knew it was so, and was intended to be so, and knows it 
 now. [Applause.] 
 
 " AN ULTIMATE CONVENTION" A JACK o'LANTERN. 
 
 But, my friends, we have not yet reached the lowest depth of Democratic 
 dissimulation and fraud, as exhibited in this portion of the Chicago platform. 
 Please observe that they do not demand a cessation of hostilities for the pur- 
 pose of going into a Convention which has been authoritatively proposed to be 
 now held ; but an effort for an armistice is to be made, " with a view to an ulti- 
 mate convention of the States, or other peaceable means." That is, cease hos- 
 tilities, not to go directly into a Convention, but with a view, or intention, of 
 having such a Convention. But of what use is such an intention, when its ac- 
 complishment is impossible? It does not even merit to be classed with those 
 "good intentions" with which the proverb says the way to hell is paved. Why, 
 those traitors at Chicago, with all their ingenuity, could not completely cover 
 up the cloven foot; it would stick out in spite of them. They perfectly knew 
 the impossible character, the absolute nothingness of their plan of peace, and 
 they tried hard to keep those features of it out of sight; but, they tried in vain. 
 They'say, give us an armistice, with a view to — what? An immediate Conven- 
 tion of the States? Not a word of it! But " with a view to an ultimate Con- 
 vention ;" or in other words, a Convention at some indefinite time in the eternal 
 •future, they say not, know not when ! That is, drop everything, and take after 
 a jack o'lantern, that will ever elude your grasp, and ever lure you on further 
 and further as you approach it, and at last leave you floundering in the mire of 
 the swamp from which it rose! [Great applause.] 
 
 WHAT BECOMES OP THE COUNTRY AND THE UNION. 
 
 In the meantime, as we follow the jack o'lantern, what becomes of the coun- 
 try ? Its whole vast armies, wherever they may be, will be halted in their 
 tracks; its magnificent navy cast anchor and float 
 " As idle as a painted ship 
 Upon a painted ocean ; 
 
 and the nation of twenty millions of Micawbers sit down to wait for "something 
 to turn up." [Laughter and cheers.] And while they wait what becomes of 
 the Union? Gone! gone forever! For a rebellion powerful enough to lorce a 
 Government into an armistice, has power enough to defy it afterward. [Voice, 
 " that's so."] Once grant an armistice, and all hope of conquering a peace is 
 postponed indefinitely, if not blasted finally, Believe me, my friends, when I 
 say that there is not one faint ray of hope for the Union, but in hammering it 
 together with the tremendous trip-hammer of war, kept pounding right on while 
 the iron is hot, until every grain and fiber is so welded into another grain and 
 fiber, that neither State Rights nor Slavery, nullification or secession, man or 
 devil, can separate or break them till the end of time. [Tremendous and con- 
 tinued applause and cheers ] 
 
 ON WHAT BASIS IS PEACE TO BE ? 
 
 One more point, and I will leave this portion of the traitors' platform. If 
 peace is restored, on what basis do they want it restored ? They say, " On the 
 basis of the Federal Union of the States." Do you not see the serpent's fang 
 there again? What do they mean by that form of words ? Just what they 
 meant when they spoke of " the Union under the Constitution," namely, " the 
 Union as it was under the Constitution as it is," which I have shown you means 
 nothing but the Union dominated by Slavery, and the Constitution to protect 
 its domination, and never to be amended so as to overthrow it. Well, my friends, 
 let him who chooses uphold that kind of Union, 1 never vr'\\\;Jbr it is perpetual 
 disunion in the Union. [Applause.] The Union must be restored with the 
 cause of convulsion completely removed, or the volcano will ever and anon 
 burst forth, until at last America will become the Pompeii of nations, buried 
 under the mud and cinders of the Vesuvius of Slavery. [Great applause.] 
 REMAINING POINTS OP THE PLATFORM. 
 
 Time warns me to hasten to a close ; and }'et 1 have hardly passed the 
 threshold of the almost illimitable field of discussion which the Presidential 
 canvass opens. Long as 1 have detained you, favor me yet a while with your 
 attention — [Cries of "go on, go on"] — as I dissect yet further the Chicago dead- 
 fall. What remains of it to be considered may be arranged under four heads. 
 
 1. Denouncement of President Lincoln's Administration for the exercise of 
 the war power and the military authority of the Government against the rebel- 
 lion, and its aiders and abettors in the North. 
 
2. Condemnation of the alleged interference of the military authorities in the 
 elections in Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, and Delaware. 
 
 3. Censure of the Administration for disregard of its duty in respect to oar 
 •oldiers who are prisoners of war in the hands of the rebels. 
 
 4. Expression of sympathy for our brave soldiers and seamen. 
 
 I do not propose an extended discussion of these points ; but will, as briefly 
 as possible, endeavor to expose the true character of each. They are, singly 
 Snd collectively, the double-distilled extract of pro-slaveryism, treason, hypoc- 
 risy, deceit, and fraud. [Cheers.] Each contains much more than to a casual 
 reader would be apparent; and the whole comprise all that any rebel could ask, 
 of aid and comfort in his infernal work. 
 
 WAR POWER OF THE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 First. As to thejwar power of the Government, in the exercise of which they 
 affirm that the Constitution has been disregarded in every part, and public lib- 
 erty and private right alike trampled down. 
 
 Why did they not point this high-sounding generality with a specification? 
 Because that did not suit the purpose of deception which marks every line they 
 wrote. Why did they not say that the particular exercise of the war power at 
 which they launched their thunderbolts, was President Lincoln's Proclamation 
 of Emancipation ? Because they did not dare to go to the people as the avowed' 
 elainpions of Slavery ; much less would they venture to tell the people, as they 
 otovertly and basely told the South, that if they obtained power, that proclama- 
 tion would be treated as so much blank paper, and the three millions and a 
 half of Southern negroes be snatched from the embrace of freedom, and driven 
 back into the iron arms of a hopeless and eternal slavery And yet that is just 
 what they meant; and may the bondage of eternal infamy hold them for mean- 
 ing it. ["Amen" and cheers] 
 
 PROCLAMATION OP EMANCIPATION. 
 
 It is of course impossible to enter now upon any proper discussion of that 
 great proclamation. As I said to a public meeting in St. Louis, on the 28th of 
 January, 1S63, so I say here, that " my firm and unquestioning conviction ia, 
 that that proclamation was constitutional, expedient, and just, and ought to be 
 enforced with all the strength of the army and navy of the United States; to 
 the end that the power of Southern traitors shall be broken, scattered, and 
 crushed forever and ever !" [Applause.] And such I believe to be the con- 
 viction of the whole loyal people of the nation. Most certainly all the South- 
 holds the exact reverse ; and as certainly every Northern traitor agrees with 
 the South. Let the people understand that, and all will be well. Let them fully 
 ■iee that the mantle of the Constitution is to cover up so dark and damning a 
 deed as the annulment of that proclamation, and the riveting anew the chains 
 erf slavery upon those millions of negroes, and the result will nobly vindicate 
 their incorruptible patriotism and their resolute devotion to the cause of human 
 freedom. [Applause.] 
 
 USURPATION OP EXTRAORDINARY POWERS. 
 
 But under this head they appeal to the people against " the administrative 
 Usurpation of extraordinary powers not granted by the Constitution; the sub- 
 version of the civil by the military laic in Stales not in insurrection ; the arbi- 
 farary arrest, imprisonment, trial and sentence of American citizens in States 
 inhere the civil law exists in full force; the suppression of freedom of speech 
 «Oid of the press; * * * the employment of xinusual test oaths; and the 
 interference with and denial of the right of the people to bear arms in then' 
 defense.'' 
 
 Every line of this is a text for a full discourse ; but I can hardly devote more 
 than a line to each line of it. 1 say it is false that the extraordinary powers 
 exercised by the Government were not granted to it by the Constitution. The 
 very existence of the Constitution — to say nothing of the expressly granted 
 tpower to suppress insurrection — confers all powers, ordinary and extraordinary, 
 to preserve itself, whether they be expressed in detail or not; [Voices — " That's 
 ■it — that's it"] and the Government is, of supreme necessity, the sole judge in 
 the first instance, whether any power, ordinary or extraordinary, shall be exer- 
 elsed. Traitors, rebels, and conspirators, have no right to judge of that The 
 Constitution's silence as to the particular means for its own protection, is not a 
 lioense to treason, or a refuge for traitors. [Applause.] 
 
 THE LAW OP SELF-PRESERVATION. 
 The civil law is silent, necessarily silent, because of its weakness, in the 
 ipTesence of an armed rebellion. The military law supersedes it, not only on the 
 i£ot where the rebellion is in arms, but on every other spot where any single 
 man stands aiding the rebellion by act or word; whether the State in which he 
 io.ee go is, in its corporate capacity as a State, in rebellion, or not. The pee- 
 
pie of a State may be in insurrection, and the State, as such, speaking and act- 
 ing through its legislative and executive authorities, not be so. Whether the 
 State is so or not. mak es ho difference if the people are so. The Govern- 
 ment deals with individual rebels and traitors, not with a State as a corporate 
 body. It can imprison, hang, and shoot traitors, but not a State. It has a 
 right, through its military arm, to arrest, imprison, try, and sentence them 
 wherever it tinds them, whether the civil law is nominally in force there, or not 
 [Applause.] It has a right to suppress by military force every demonstration 
 of tfeas6n everywhere. If a man talks treason, it has a right to stop his mouth.. 
 [Cheers, j If he prints treason, it has a right to stop his printing. [Applause.] 
 It has a right to search out with a test oath the treason in the heart of every man 
 who comes in contact, with it, whether there is a written law for it or not, for 
 it has a right to know its friends and its enemies. And, finally, it has a right 
 to deny arms to the people, when those arms are intended to be used', or in dan- 
 ger of being used, for its overthrow. In one word, with governments as with 
 men, self-preservation is the first law — higher than any written law, supreme 
 over all law; and he is a traitor in heart who would abridge that law to our 
 Government in this day of its struggle for life. [Great applause.] So far from 
 condemning the acts of the Government, referred to, I condemn it because it 
 has done so little of them. [Cheers.] Had it done more, treason would not 
 now be "on the rampage" in the North. I call upon the Government to put 
 forth its military power more earnestly and vigorously against traitors every- 
 where. [Cheers.] I call upon Mr. Lincoln to put away his heart of flesh, and 
 take a heart of stone. [Loud cheers.] Then, and only then, will the rebellion, 
 North and South, be crushed. 
 
 MILITARY INTERFERENCE IN ELECTIONS. 
 
 2. On the second point this platform thus speaks : 
 
 "That the direct interference of the military authorities of the United States, 
 in the recent elections held in Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, and Delaware, was 
 a shameful violation of the Constitution, and a repetition of such acts in the 
 approaching election will be held as revolutionary, and resisted icith all the 
 means and power under otir control" 
 
 The interference referred to was that exercise of the military power, which 
 was designed to exclude from the high privilege of voting, those who were plot- 
 ting treason against the Government, in the conduct of which they impudently 
 demanded to have a voice; and yet the Chicago serpents breathed not a word of 
 that; but it was a favorite cry with them through the streets of that city: "A free 
 election or a free fight ! " which, interpreted, means a free ballot-box for traitors, 
 or a free fight by traitors ! Well, let them come en ! [Cheers.] Traitors can 
 have as much fight as they want in Missouri, [great cheers,] and doubtless in 
 Maryland, Delaware, and Kentucky ; but if they are allowed a free ballot in 
 any of those States, without interference by the military authorities, then those 
 authorities have yet to learn how to administer that great first law of self- 
 preservation, to which I just referred. Loyalty to Constitution and Govern- 
 ment is the very foundation of the right of the elective franchise. [Cheers.] 
 He who throws off' his allegiance to his Government and seeks its overthrow, 
 forfeits all rights of citizenship, whether the letcer of the law says so or not. 
 [Applause.] He is an outlaw, with no rights under the Constitution or laws, 
 but that of having a rope that won't break when he is hung, or a bullet that 
 won't miss his heart when he is shot. [Cheers.] It is enough for him to be 
 allowed to live; infinitely too much for him to be allowed to vote. Drive him 
 from the ballot-box by the military or any other lawful power; and if he must 
 have a free fight, shoot him down. [Great cheers.] 
 
 DEMOCRATIC DENUNCIATION OP M'CLELLAN. 
 
 But, my friends, the most astonishing feature of this resolution is, that it is 
 a fierce denunciation of the Democratic candidate for the Presidency, George 
 B. McClellan, for he was the very first military officer of the United States who 
 was guilty of " a shameful'violation of the Constitution, by ordering the direct 
 interference of the military authorities in elections." Here is the proof of it 
 in official form, in the shape of a letter from his Chief of Staff, in October, 
 1861, to General Banks, in reference to an election in Maryland, then approach- 
 ing: 
 ^ ~ " Headquarters, Army of the Potomac, Washington, Oct. 29, 1801. 
 
 "General : — There is an apprehension among Union citizens in many parts 
 of Maryland of an attempt to interfere with their rights of suffrage by disunion 
 citizens, on the occasion of the election, to take place on the 9th of November 
 next. In order to prevent this, the Major-General Commanding, directs that 
 you scad detachments of a sufficient number of men to the different points in 
 your vicinity where the elections are to be held, to protect the Union voters, and 
 
' to see that no disunionists are allowed to intimidate (hem, or lh any way to 
 | interfere with their rights. # • ', 
 
 .'"'He 'also desires you to arrest and hold in confinement till after the election, 
 all disunionists who are known to have returned from Virginia recently, and 
 who show themselves at the polls, and to guard effectually against any invasion 
 of the peace and order of the election. For the purpose of currying out these 
 instructions* you are authorized to suspend the habeas corpus. General Stone 
 has received similar instructions to these. You will please confer with him as 
 to the particular points that each shall take control of. 
 
 " I am, sir, respectfully, your ob't serv't, R. B. Marcy, Chief of Staff. 
 
 "Maj.-Gen. N. P. Banks, Commanding Division, Muddy Branch, Maryland." 
 
 Now; I hope the Democracy will '' face the music" of that letter, for to the 
 loyal ear there is music in it — " Hail Columbia," " The Star Spanged Banner," 
 " Rally Round the Flag, Boys," antt all the rest. [Cheers and shouts.] But is 
 it not strange that " Little Mac's 'opponents have to defend him against the 
 invectives and assaults of his nominators and supporters? [Laughter.] 
 THREAT OP NO.RTHERN REBELLION. 
 
 But notice the audacious threat to the Government, with which this resolu- 
 tion closes : " A repetition of such 'acts in the approaching election, will be 
 held as revolutionary and resisted, with all the means and power under our con- 
 trol." Is there not a rebellion in the. North, organized and ready for action? 
 What else does this mean, than that Northern traitors will light, if there is any 
 attempt by the military authorities to Keep traitors from voting in Kentucky, 
 Maryland, Missouri, and Delaware? When before have Northern men dared 
 thus to defy their Government? And is not this defiance strong corroborative 
 proof that the information which came from General Rosecrans' headquarters 
 in St. Louis, of a conspiracy extending over a large portion of the North, to 
 overthrow the Government, was true ? And does it not go far to prove that the 
 men of the Chicago Convention, were a portion of the conspirators, and the 
 doings of that body a part of the plot? [Voices, " Yes, yes."] 
 
 COLORED PRISONERS OP WAR. 
 
 3. Under the. third head we have this resolution in the traitors' platform : 
 
 " That the shameful disregard by the Administration of its duty in respect 
 to our felloio -citizens who are now, and long have been, prisoners of war, in a 
 suffering condition, deserves the severest reprobation, ou'Jhe score alike of public 
 policy and common humanity." 
 
 This is another attempt to deceive and delude the people. How the Admin- 
 istration has disregarded its duty toward our soldiers held as prisoners of war, 
 it does not say ; but I will tell you what it means. It means that the Adminis- 
 tration deserves the "severest reprobation," because it has refused to exchange 
 prisoners with the rebels, unless they will give back our black soldiers as well 
 as our white ones. In effect, it is the Slavery aristocrat's doctrine that a " nigger " 
 is nothing but a chattel, and entitled to no rights which a white man is bound 
 to respect. Against that I say, that he who fights the battles of his country is 
 a man and no chattel, Whatever his color; and were he as black as a moonless 
 and starless night, he is as much entitled to the protection of his Government 
 as any other man. [Enthusiastic cheers.] And 1 say further, that were he 
 twice as black as any night that ever darkened the world, he is as white as snow 
 alongside of any. traitor 'that ever lived. [Shouts and applause.] And I say 
 yet further, that if the President should abandon our colored soldiers to the 
 fiendish malice of slave-driving 'rebels, after having called them into the 
 ranks of his country's defenders, his name would deserve to be execrated in 
 every part of the globe where civilization has redeemed man from barbarism, 
 or Christianity was raised him above the level of a brute. [Great cheers.] 
 DEMOCRATIC SYMPATHY FOR OUR SOLDIERS AND SAILORS. 
 
 4. And finally, my friends, we come to the last clause of this platform of trea- 
 son, wherein, as in the scorpion's tail, we find a sharp and fiery sting to those 
 who, least of all in this land, deserved it. The serpents attempt to be sweet 
 upon our brave soldiers and sailors, but can only hiss, in the following terms : 
 
 " That the sympathy of the Democratic party is heartily and earnestly ten- 
 dered to the soldiers of our army and the seamen of our navy, who now are and 
 have been in the field under the fag of their country ; and in the event of its 
 attaining power, they will receive all the care, protection, and regard that the 
 brave soldiers and sailors of the Republic have so nobly earned." 
 
 If ever an insult, undeserved, unprovoked, wanton, and wicked, was offered to brave 
 men, that is one. And to such men I Men who have left home, and all that endeared 
 it, to court the dangers and the horrors of the battlefield on bind and the battle-deck on 
 the water, for their country's sake ! Men who for nearly four years have fought their 
 way to a proud rank among the heroes of any country or age ! Men who all that time 
 have seen and known what it is to do and die for country and Freedom, as familarly as 
 
we havje seen and'Tsriown^Crr difiiy business ! Men, any one of whom is, In manhood, 
 courage, and patriotism Wetter (Hian the whole Chicago Conyentjon made-jip into, one f 
 [Cheers.] And that Convention, dared to offer " the symtyrthy*bf the Dfemoc'r.afrf *' *** " 
 worthless, sordid, and rotten as it is, to American soldiers and sailors — to such " ~.3 
 as Grant and Sherman have led to victory — to such sailor^' as under Farragut, Porter, 
 and Win slow have made our Navy a glory among nations. [Rounds of cheers.] Sym- 
 pathy ! Do they mean it as a word of encouragement, of approbation, of applause? 
 How can they, when every other line andword of their platform sneaks Sympathy for 
 the rebellion into which those stalwart soldiers and sailors are pouring the volleys of 
 death ? If they intend to be considered as meaning that, how transparent and con- 
 temptible is the lie! Do they meiin compassion, commiseration, pity — all synonyms of 
 sympathy? If so, is it for the " four years of failure" with which they had before 
 Contemptuously reproached our Army and Navy? If not, what soldier or sailor wants 
 their pity ? [Derisive shouts.] Do they mean fellow-feeling — another synonym of 
 sympathy? If so, then has the age of miraclesreturned, and patriotism and treason 
 are the same, good and evil are no longer apartr^nd dogs and men have become one J 
 [Cheers.] For such sympathy, from such men'^*To euoh men, there is no language of 
 scorn but is poor, no vocabulary of derision tha^it/not barren. The spurn of the foot, 
 the stamp of the heel, is all it deserves, and th-at it will receive from every soldier and: 
 sailor in the Army and Navy of the Republic. , ;'T ( fhere let it lie 1 [Great applause.] 
 CONCLUDINC^RE^MARKS. 
 
 My friends, I have completed, according to my capacity, the work which I assigned 
 to myself to do on this occasion. My aim*v^as to set forth, in as clear and strong a 
 light as I could, the position, aimi, and spirit' of that party in the Union whioh locks 
 hands with the Union's enemies, and is )»5&/day a more formidable foe to the Union 
 and to Freedom than all the armies of their/ rebel brothers in the South. Time does 
 not permit even a slight examination of the position, aims, and spirit of that great 
 Union party in the nation, to which we adhere. Suffice it to say, that they are in every 
 conceivable particular the direct and immovable opposite of those of the Democracy. 
 Our position is open, manly, patriotic, and truthful, and appeals to the judgment and 
 heart of every manly, patriotic, and truthful citizen. It is for Freedom, and against 
 Slavery ; for the Union, and against disunion ; for the war for the Union's preservation, 
 and against any cessation of hostilities which traitors could' devise. [Cheers.] It is for 
 the Constitution, and against all its assailants, South and North. It is for the Ameri- 
 can Nation, and against any possible division of it, under any possible pretense. [Ap- 
 plause.] It is for the rule of the people, and against the despotism of an aristocracy. 
 It is for the constitutional right of the majority to govern, and again st'*"t'he domination 
 of a minority. It is for the perfect integrity of the nation's territory, and- against giv- 
 ing up one hair's breadth of it to any power on earth, and least of all to' traitors. [En- 
 thusiastic applause.] * 
 
 In one word, whatever, from the greatest to the least, rebels, traitors, Copperhead?, 
 pro-slaveryites, or Democrats ask, we refuse; whatever they*embrace we reject; what- 
 ever they purpose we oppose; for they demand nothing, embrace nothing, purpose no- 
 thing, which will not, if accomplished, bring disaster and disgrace to our country. 
 Above all things we are against any imaginable form of peace which traitors could patch 
 up with traitors. [Great applause.] If peace is to come, as it surely will in God's otfto 
 good time, it must be the peace of unconditional, absolute, and complete submission to 
 the rightful authority of the National Government. [Tremendous appjause.] 
 
 And, if we are true to ourselves and our cause, it must be a peace, aS Abraham LFh- 
 eoln said in his " To whom it may concern," with " abandonment of'Slavery ; " for 
 any other peace would be as monstrous a delusion and sham as the Chicago platform. 
 [Great cheers.] Strike the shacki.es off the last slave in the Republic 1 is the only 
 watchword of real peace. [Renewed clieers.] And it must be a peace that will last. 
 We can not afford to fight this war over again. Whether in this Republic, and in all 
 republics, rebellion is to be periodical and chronic, until, as in Mexico, despotism 
 emerges from anarchy, to seize the reins of power and make itself nferpetual, depends 
 npon how we vindicate in this struggle the integrity of a republican /orm of govern- 
 ment. God has committed this great trust to our hands, and he will 'take account of 
 how we keep it. The world looks across continents and oceans to see b/ow we discharge 
 it. We are responsible to the past and^he future for what we do, anji, what we leave 
 undone. Freedom commits her cause in the whole earth to our keeping, and Despotism 
 strains his blood-shot eyes from all his strongholds, greedily watching the issue. We 
 can not, if we would, avoid the conflict, for it is'upon us now, and we must see it through 
 to its end in glory or in shame. The leprosy of treason infects the nation, and only a Jor- 
 dan of blood will cleanse it away. [Cheers.] We can not buy ourselves out of it if we 
 would. Liberty scorns to sell her glorious privileges : they are for those alone who wiU 
 fight for them. We may suffer in her cause, but it is a cause worth suffering for. We 
 may die in her service, but it will be a death to be envied ; for the body of every brave 
 freeman slain for her sake holds the doors of Freedom more widely open to the genera- 
 tions coming on. [Great applause.] Onward 1 then, friends of the Union and of uni- 
 versal freedom, onward I Liberty and Union is the peerless prize ; disunion and Slavery 
 the dread alternative. The last tremendous hour is at hand. Lose no time I harness 
 for the combat I forward in solid column to the front 1 and then 
 " One last great battle for the right — 
 <3 i ryrj *\£L ® De short, sharp struggle to be free 1 
 
 • *J>/ f •fcO To do is to succeed — our fight 
 
 C/L Is waged in Heaven's approving sight — 
 
 * The smile of God is victory I" 
 
 [Enthusiastic cheers and applause.] 
 
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