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Philadelphia, Octrber 24, 1864./ 2- 
 WM. A. ATKINSON, Esq., B^Sf 
 
 Chairman of the Stale Executive Committee, Dover. -tH ^ 
 
 Dear Sir : Permit me to thank you for the very coraplimentarj^ terms in 
 which you have been pleased to invite me to participate in the proceedings of 
 a mass meeting for the State of Delaware, to be held at Dover, on Tuesday, 
 the 25th inst., and, at the same time, to remind you that, whilst I have 
 never made a political speech in my life, I have every disposition to assist in 
 quieting the trouljles that surround us, in restoring the integrity of our great 
 country, and iu defending a comrade in arms who has been most outrageously 
 and unjustly persecuted. 
 
 With your permission, I will take advantage of this occasion to say a word 
 to the good people of Delaware, who desire to know the truth, and, knowing 
 it, will stand by the truth and the rights guaranteed to them by the laws of 
 the land. 
 
 I need not advise the people assembled at Dover that the rights of all, 
 whether under the laws of the States or of the United States, are plainly 
 written and well understood ; that uidess there be a premeditated intention to 
 violate these laws for some selfish purpose, there need be no collision of authori- 
 ties ; and if there could be a doubtful case of interference, the animus which 
 controlled it would, if the purpose were honest and good, prevent any ill feel- 
 ing and distrust. In the difficulties now assuming so threatening an aspect, 
 we can trace neither "military necessitif^ nor possible excuse for the inter- 
 ference of the Administration with the State elections. That these can be 
 regulated only by the laws of the States respectively is admitted by the 
 President, in his letter of the 22d inst. addressed to W. B. Campbell, Bailie 
 Peyton, Emerson Etheridge, and others, of Tennessee; he therein expressly 
 asserts that his "conclusion is that" the President has "nothing to do with 
 the matter." "By the Constitution and laws, the President is charged with 
 no duties in the conduct of a Presidential election in any State." 
 
 In the late election in Maryland, the condition subsequent, imposed by the 
 Government upon the voters of that State was a clear infringement of their 
 rights— a clear, arbitrary, despotic usurpation of authority ; and the declara- 
 tion that the Constitution of that State has been changed at that election 
 must be_ set aside whenever the subject shall be dispassionately reviewed by 
 proper judicial authority. Among the many issues constantly made in a 
 great commercial State, such as Maryland, this question cannot be avoided; and 
 the Supreme Courts must decide the alleged result of the election unconstitu- "~ 
 tional and void. In all of these questions of collision between the Adminis- 
 tration and the several States, the plea of military necessity will never warrant 
 an assumption of State legislative power, or the substitution of the will of 
 the President for the known fundamental law of the State. The candidates 
 at the elections interfered with by military power in Delaware, Maryland, and 
 Kentucky were all loyal men. The Constitution expressly provides that "no 
 person shall be convicted of treason" (disloyalty) "unless on the testimony of 
 two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court." This 
 is the only authorized means of determining the loyalty or disloyalty of any 
 person ; hence, executive interference with the elections, and the imposition of 
 extra-judicial oaths which, by every decision ever made, are not binding, and 
 not punishable if broken, were arbitrary and despotic acts, which, if repeated, 
 will plunge the country into a war of a far more fearful character than that 
 which now deluges our country with blood. 
 
 Another subject which should claim especial interest with you is that of 
 peace. And who is there in Delaware, and Maryland, and Kentucky, and 
 Missouri, and in all the North, and in all the South, that does not pray and 
 long for peace ? And who is there North or South that does not want an 
 honorable 2^eace? Having become engaged in war, what is the object of 
 
fighting except to obtain an honorable peace ? Mr. Davis fights for the inde- 
 pendence of the Confederate States ; bnt many, and I believe a majority, of the 
 Southern people would most gladly find themselves under the old flag and 
 the old Constitution, if they could be permitted to save their honor and their 
 record l)y coming back under any other than an Abolition ruler. 
 
 On the Northern side, Mr. Lincoln, without authority, fights for abolition; 
 but many, and I believe a majority, a vast majority of the Northern people, 
 would rejoice to find themselves under the old flag and the old Constitution, 
 united with their old friends of the South ; they would be only too glad to 
 know that this dreadful war were over, and that peace, an honorable peace, 
 once more bound us heart and hand. North and South, East and West, from 
 Maine to Louisiana, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, as one people, both de- 
 sirous of burying the implements of war, and each, in an embrace of the other 
 brought about by intense sufl'ering, eager to forget and forgive, and to offer 
 up to Ilim, who uses all things for some great and good purpose, a prayer of 
 l)romise for the future. 
 
 Now, my good friends, I know this can be done. General McClellan can and 
 will say to the Southern people: We love our nationality better than our lives; 
 it must not, it shall not be destroyed. He can say that he regrets, as all good 
 people must regret, the wild fanaticism of bad men North and South. He 
 can promise that all unconstitutional acts shall be ignored. He can entreat 
 that bygones shall be bygones, and that in the adjustment of present difficul- 
 ties the rights of all shall be respected and protected, leaving to the courts of 
 the country to determine those rights whenever there is doubt concerning thera. 
 To accomplish this he can send properly authorized persons to Richmond, and 
 if proper, honorable, legally authorized terms are accepted, as I am assured 
 they will be, a cessation of JwstUities can be ordered, and peace, an honor- 
 able peace, a glorious peace will follow, and the heart of every woman, and 
 widowed mother, and orphaned child in the land, now weeping in mad despair, 
 will be made glad. Thus will be stopped the waste of blood, which must 
 otherwise increase, from the intensified bitterness and hatred unnecessarily and 
 fiendishly thrown into the contest by wicked men. 
 
 In this connection, we may be permitted to mention that during June, of 
 1862, before the Seven Days'Fight, while endeavoring, under a flag of truce, 
 to eff"ect a cartel for the exchange of prisoners, Gen. McClellan instructed one 
 of his staff officers to sound the Confederate officer upon the subject of a peace- 
 ful restoration of the Union. The proceedings of the conference were duly 
 reported, and Gen. McClellan was severely reprimanded by the authorities at 
 Washington. 
 
 Again, in Oct. and Sept. of 1863, before resorting to severe measures, the 
 commanding General of the District of Virginia endeavored to establish some 
 proper understanding with the people within his lines south of the James 
 River, and between it and the Albemarle Sound, and so successful was he that 
 a number of the people in North Carolina, outside of the lines, desired that 
 their counties should be included withiu them. Finally, the reasonable pro- 
 tection thus ofl'ered was so influential that there was a strong probability of the 
 State of North Carolina coming back into the Union ; and an application was 
 made through Mr. Chandler, member of Congress, for permission to_ open 
 neu'otiations between the officer above named, and the authorities and citizens 
 of ""that State, to the eflect that North Carolina should no longer oppose the 
 United States Government, but elect members of Congress, who would support 
 it, and send them to Wasliington, leaving all issues of property to take their 
 ai)propriate judicial course. I need hardly advise you now that this applica- 
 tion was refused at Wasl)iugton, unless upon the grouiul of an acceptance of the 
 Proclamation of the Emancipation made by the President, and that the whole 
 country was shocked when he proclaimed that the war should go on until 
 terms, unauthorized by law, and which involve the whole industrial existence 
 
■- i 
 
 of the South, should first be conceded by the Southern people. And thus has 
 Mr. Ijincohi, for the fourth or fifth time, refused to permit any attempt at a 
 reconstruction of the old Union, plainly indicating his purpose and that of 
 his party to have no termination of the war short of an absolute extermina- 
 tion of the South, or a division of the country. 
 
 The people of the Eastern States are relieved of the heavy burthen of the 
 war by the immense immigration which continually pours in from Europe. 
 The Western people, on the contrary, have no such relief, but have most 
 manfully and patriotically responded to every call, until they necessarily feel 
 the eifects of the exhaustion already carried to such an extent, that many of 
 their farms are abandoned, and those that are not abandoned, are only worked 
 by the old men and women. Under such circumstances, little does it become 
 the Eastern States to attempt to cast opprobrium upon their Western friends 
 because they want peace upon proper and constitutional terms. 
 
 The army of the Potomac, after a loss of over 140,000 men, will winter 
 before Richmond, and we may well conclude that we want no more slaughter 
 from tlie experiments of the President, and that whilst we are willing to shed 
 our blood freely for the restoration of the Union, we will not consent to the 
 loss of a drop of it after that object can be attained. 
 
 The expeditions to the Red River have been unsuccessful ; Missouri is 
 overrun ; the Mississippi River is of no use ; and we may well fear that 
 the Army of the Cumberland will winter in Tennessee. 
 
 Whilst referring to the array let us all shed a tear of sympathy with the 
 families of the hundreds of thousands of brave men, who have, with a patriot- 
 ism now only to be found among the less favored of our country, devotedly 
 sacrificed their lives, in the terriljle contest that, unless soon stayed, may ter- 
 minate in the destruction of the most happy people that ever lived. 
 
 With the experience of the past four j^ears before us, how can we expect 
 to succeed ? Our armies have been fought by politicians, not soldiers. The 
 councils of the nation have been directed by a cabinet, the members of which 
 were so hostile to each other that the President feared to bring them together, 
 lest there should be personal collision among them ; and the Secretary of War 
 has studiously offended, in the most brutal manner, every officer of the army 
 that has come in contact with him. The rule of promotion now is that a 
 Brigadier shall promise to sanction the legal and illegal proclamations of the 
 President, and that, in addition, every officer of a superior rank shall promise 
 some confidential friend of the President — unknown to the latter — that the said 
 officer will not become a candidate for the presidency. 
 
 In a letter dated Septemljer 2Tth ult., I asserted that a prominent command 
 had been offered by the President to Gen. McClellan, but that it was coupled 
 with dishonorable terms; that prior to this similar terms had been offered by 
 letter. Immediately after the publication of the aljove, an article a]ipeared 
 in one of the Washington papers, of which the following is an extract : — 
 
 " GENERAL NAGLEE'S LETTER— ONE OF HIS STATEMENTS ABOUT PRESIDENT 
 LINCOLN AUTHORITATIVELY DENIED. 
 
 [From the National Republican (Official), Oct. 3.] 
 
 "We are authorized to say that the President has no recollection of sending 
 any message or messenger to General McClellan, or of receiving any from him, 
 at any time since he was relieved of the command of the Army of the Potomac, 
 and certainly none such as mentioned in the published letter of General Naglee. 
 If the President sent a message in writing, the writing can be produced ; if a 
 messenger, he can be named. Let either be done, if it can." 
 
 On the 5th of October, a letter was published over the signature of F. P. 
 BlaiE, i'tj-'which he admits that he mentioned to Mr. Lincoln the attempt he, 
 
4 
 
 Mr. Blair, had made at "the couciliation of ])arties in New York, with ft view 
 to defeat the opposition in the Nortli." My ohject in referring to it again 
 is merely to add that, since the publication of Mr. IJlair's letter, I have been 
 informed that he would not consent to the publication of the correspondence 
 held with the friends of Gen. McClellan, but said he considered it confidential. 
 We will be governed accordingly, satisfied to leave the question of veracity 
 between all parties concerned for the decision of the public. 
 
 Are we willing to admit that the American people have become so demoral- 
 ized that they will accept constant, studied falsification in lieu of truth, and 
 this, too, at a time when our very existence as a nation is at stake, and when 
 thousands and tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of our friends 
 are being slaughtered without compensative military results ? — these frightful 
 losses being frequently made by most incompetent leaders, and justified upon 
 the grounds of experiment ? This is a time, of all others, when we want truth, 
 not falsehood ; this is a time when we want competency, not inefficiency ; when 
 we want decency, not vulgarity ; and, above all, when we should insist that 
 good solid common sense, and honesty and dignity of character should become 
 the rule of conduct, not alone of the lower, but of the highest servants of the 
 people. 
 
 The most outrageous abuse and falsehood have been heaped upon the head 
 of Gen. McClellan, because, when most unjustly driven from the army, he dared 
 to be an aspirant for the Presidency. But all that has been said against him 
 has been said in vain ; his record h'ds become the sacred record of the country, 
 and has been indelibly written upon too many fields of battle, and his senti- 
 ments ai'e impressed upon too many hearts that beat in unison with his, to be 
 effaced by any slander that may be uttered at this late day. The hirelings of 
 The press may issue their columns of vile falsehood, and lying politicians may 
 belch forth the biddings of their vulgar master, but, rely upon it, " truth is 
 mighty, and will prevail." 
 
 All that is said and all that is written against Gen. McClellan may cloud 
 his fair fame for a day, but the future will disperse the passion and evil of the 
 hour in which we live, and justice and truth will illumine the wreath upon the 
 brow where it properly belongs. 
 
 The people of the United States are now engaged in one of the most dreadful 
 wars that have ever occurred. The people of the North are arrayed politically 
 against each other with more animosity than has ever been exhibited since the 
 existence of our country. There are acknowledged inefficiencies and acknow- 
 ledged usurpation attempted to be justified on the plea of military necessity in 
 States where civil authority and law only should exist. All can perceive a 
 most extraordinary misdirection and waste of the resources of the country. 
 The most responsible military positions have been filled by unscrupulous poli- 
 ticians, which has resulted in the most direful disaster ; and there has been so 
 systematic a falsification of the truth by the Administration and the press that 
 intelligent people find it impossible to ascertain the progress and true history 
 of military and political events. All of those that have had sufficient spirit 
 and determination to express a preference opposed to the Administration have 
 been classed with those who are in open rebellion, and wdiere they have been 
 officers of the army they have been dropped from the rolls. And it is pro- 
 claimed by the friends of the Administration that, if necessary, the present 
 incumbent will hold the Presidency by fraud and force. 
 
 We demand a fais election, and we further demand that if George B. 
 McClellan is elected, Abraham Lincoln shall peaceably or by force yield to 
 him the executive chair. 
 
 Again thanking you for your very kind and friendly invitation to visit 
 Dover, I am, 
 
 Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 ■ HENRY M. NA< 
 
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