gentlemen would only look at this calmly for
a moment they would see that it does not
effect them, if they are friends of the Union.
We must exist or perish. We propose to
exist rather than perish. We know who are
our enemies. They are those who are against
the existence of this government and against
the existence of this people as a people, the
existence of the form of government handed
down to us by our fathers. Those are our
enemies. Those are the enemies of the gen-
tleman from Somerset; because we have all
taken the same oath here; and I do not doubt
their full intention lo sustain the government
of the Unit ed States, and the constitution of
the United States, and the laws made in pur-
suance thereof, as they have sworn to do. It
is for their protection as well as for mine.
Where is the hardship? It applies to none
but our enemies.
Do the gentlemen object that the Union sol-
diers should go out and kill rebels? Do they
object to crushing out the rebellion in every
possible way? I have not heard one of them
object to it. What their sentiments may he I
know not. If they do not object to that,
why not be consistent? These rebels being
here—and gentlemen will not deny there are
plenty of them in the State of Maryland—if
they propose to injure our cause in any other
and meaner way than by going and taking
up arms and fighting manfully, where is the
hardship of excluding them or of preventing
them from doing us that injury? What a
farce it would be to go out in the field and
shoot down the rebels, what an infamy it
would be to shed blood in this way, if we
were constantly to overlook the fact of our
enemies being in our midst; constantly feed-
ing the flame of this war, by allowing them
in our counsels, by giving them the power,
which is the strongest power, of voting for
the coming man, for instance, as has been
suggested by the gentleman from Somerset
(Mr. Jones.)
But, says the same gentleman, let all these
things be forgotten. Let us forget that there is
any war I have no doubt that if I could only}
get into the amiable state of feeling indicated
by the gentleman from Somerset (Mr. Jones)
I might arrive at his conclusion, and let
these things be forgotten, It is absurd. We
cannot forget when our house is in danger
We cannot forget when the whole land is
convulsed in the civil war now raging, of
which no man can foresee the end.
But he further suggested that there might
be a coming man who would quiet all these
troubles. He did not name any one. I have
no doubt at all the gentleman will know
shortly after the 29th of August, I know
that several have been suggested as the com-
ing man. Does the gentleman from Somerset
come here and say that that coming man
the representative of that party, be he George
B. McClellan, or James Guthrie, or Judge |
Nelson, Millard Fillmore, Vallandigham, or
any of that tribe—does the gentleman pre-
tend to say to the convention that each one of
these men whose names I have mentioned
here is not a representative of our enemies
to-day? that all those I have named are sub-
verting this republic to-day? If the gentle-
man denit's that to be the fact, I tell him that
if time is given me I can show him by their
words uttered and by their conduct, as al-
ways displayed by each one of those gentle-
men, that there is not south of Mason and
Dixon's line, a more bitter enemy to the na-
tion. as we understand it, the people of the
United States, and certainly not a meaner
enemy, because they are really fighting (or
their cause at home, and doing infinitely
meaner work than fighting in the field, than
these same men I have mentioned.
Go with me to the city of New York; 1
bare been there in the course of my business
repeatedly ; and I undertake to say that there
are to-day more rebels at heart—1 do not
mean people squeamish about the construc-
tion of the constitution, but I mean Jeff.
Davis' men; I mean people in favor of the
slave trade, people in favor of the system of
slavery as a system; that there are a. ma-
jority of voters in the city of New York to-
day, more bitter rebels, certainly meaner
ones, than can be found in the city of Rich-
mond,
If this coming man should happen to be a
representative of these enemies of our country,
when he comes into the chair what will be
the result? I shall put it as mildly as I can,
for the sake of the gentleman from Somerset.
in the first place, the system of slavery will
be protected, so that it cannot be destroyed ;
for these gentlemen are all in favor of a re-
construction of the Union with the system of
slavery sustained and secured. I do not ad-
mit that the rebels in the south are at this
time prepared for reconstruction; but if there
is to be reconstruction they demand that the
corner-stone of that reconstruction shall be
the re-establishment of the system of salvery,
and the prevention of its being destroyed by
any of the incipient movements that have
already been made towards its destruction.
That is to he the result. Slavery is to be re-
established, We will take the old battered
ship and fix her up as well as she can befixed
up under the circumstances, if it is possible
' to fix her up at all. I do not think it is pos-
sible, but that is what they will try to do.
They will try to patch it up again, and set
us adrift.
What is the result? What can possibly be
the result under these circumstances? if we
could go on for a few years with this same sys-
tem of slavery in our midst, with this same cause
of disturbance in the country, if we were to
, be set afloat again under these circumstances,
the result would simply be that the war
would be deferred. The result would be that |
