Speech Of Hon Cl Vallandigham Of The State Of Ohio Before The Democratic State Convention

Author : Clement L. Vallandigham
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781331123804
Total Pages : 28 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (238 download)

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Download or read book Speech of Hon. C. L. Vallandigham, of Ohio written by Clement L. Vallandigham and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-10 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Speech of Hon. C. L. Vallandigham, of Ohio: Delivered in the House of Representatives, February 20, 1861 The special order - namely, the report of the committee of thirty-three being - under consideration - Mr. Vallandigham addressed the House as follows: Mr. Speaker: It was my purpose, some three months ago, to speak solely upon the question of peace and war between the two great sections of the Union, and to defend at length the position which, in the very beginning of this crisis, and almost alone, I assumed against the employment of military force by the Federal Government to execute its laws and restore its authority within the States which might secede. Subsequent events have rendered this unnecessary. Within the three months or more, since the presidential election, so rapid has been the progress of events, and such the magnitude which the movement in the South has attained, that the country has been forced as - this House and the incoming Administration will at last be forced, in spite of their warlike purposes now - to regard it as no longer a mere casual and temporary rebellion of discontented individuals, but a great and terrible revolution, which threatens now to result in permanent dissolution of the Union, and division into two or more rival, if not hostile, confederacies. Before this dread reality, the atrocious and fruitless policy of a war of coercion to preserve or to restore the Union has, outside, at least, of these walls and of this capital, rapidly dissolved. The people have taken the subject up, and have reflected upon it, till to-day, in the South, almost as one man, and by a very large majority, as I believe, in the North, and especially in the West, they are resolved that, whatever else of calamity may befall us, that horrible scourge of civil war shall be averted. Sir, I rejoice that the hard Anglo-Saxon sense and pious and humane impulses of the American people have rejected the specious disguise of words without wisdom which appealed to them to enforce the laws, collect the revenue, maintain the Union, and restore the Federal authority by the perilous edge of battle, and that thus early in the revolution they are resolved to compel us, their Representatives, belligerent as you of the Republican party here may now be, to the choice of peaceable disunion upon the one hand, or Union through adjustment and conciliation upon the other. Born, sir, upon the soil of the United States; attached to my country from earliest boyhood; loving and revering her, with some part, at least, of the spirit of Greek and Roman patriotism; between these two alternatives, with all my mind, with all my heart, with all my strength of body and of soul, living or dying, at home or in exile, I am for the Union which made it what it is; and therefore I am also for such terms of peace and adjustment as will maintain that Union now and forever. This, then, is the question which to-day I propose to discuss: - How shall the Union of these States he restored and preserved? Sir, it is with becoming modesty and with something of awe, that I approach the discussion of a question which the ablest statesmen of the country have failed to solve. But the country expects even the humblest of her children to serve her in this, the hour of her sore trial. This is my apology. Devoted as I am to the Union, I have yet no eulogies to pronounce upon it to-day. It needs none. Its highest eulogy is the history of this country for the last seventy years. The triumphs of war and the arts of peace, - science; civilization; wealth population; commerce; trade; manufactures; literature; education; justice; tranquility; security to life, to person, to property; material happiness; common defense national renown; all that is implied in the blessings of liberty; these, and more have been its fruits from the beginning to this hour.