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 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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 CONTENTS.— Official Report, of Assembly in Case of Speaker Callicot— 
 Journal of Assembly, giving Official Proceedings of Trial — Voice of the 
 Press— Speaker Caluoot's Defence— Notes on Mr. Calltcot's Speech- 
 Letter from the Hon. FT. 11 Low— Speech of John J. Crittenden— The 
 Sentence of Yallandigham— Bnrnside's Letter in the Vallandigham Case. 
 
 IN ASSEMBLY, } 
 
 April 16th, 1863. \ 
 
 Of the Majority of the Select Committee, appointed to investigat; tJie charges 
 made against T. C. OALLIGOT, Member of Assembly from the Fifth District 
 of Ivini/i County. 
 
 — ». -♦■*- •<» — 
 
 STATE OF NEW VORK : I 
 
 In Assembly, Albany, March 11, 18ti;>. \ 
 
 Whereas, certain resolutions were passed by 
 this House on the 5th clay of February, 1863, to j 
 the effect that the House would elect a committee, i 
 to investigate aDV specific charges that might be 
 made. by. ny member, against the official conduct 
 ot the Hon. T. C. Callicot, as a member of this 
 Assembly ; and 
 
 Whereas, The Hon. T. C. Fields has presented 
 charges with specifications against said member; 
 therefore, 
 
 Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed | 
 by the House to investigate all the charges made ] 
 against the said T. C. Callicot, aa such member, | 
 bo Inr as such charges and specifications »rc in I 
 conformity to the resolutions aforesaid, and the i 
 action of the House in relation thereto ; and that 
 said committee have power to send for persons i 
 and papers, and they report to this House the 
 evidence taken by them, with their conclusions \ 
 hereon.. 
 
 Rctiolveil, That said committee consist ol Messrs. 
 Prindle, of Chenango ; S. SstiTH, of Putnam ; 
 P. E. Havens, of E6sex, Like, of Chautauqua, 
 and Weaver, of Oneida. 
 
 Hemlved, That said committee be au open com- 
 mittee. By order. 
 
 .I.E. CL'SHMAM, Clerk. 
 
 The select commitee, appointed to investi- : 
 gale the charges against T. C. Callicot, mem- , 
 her of Assembly from the 5th district of 
 Kings county, respectfully reports to the 
 House the evidence taken and the proceed- 1 
 ings had before the committee. 
 
 The evidence taken, in the opinion ot the 
 committee, establishes the following facts : 
 
 That Mr. Callicot first bee: me it eaudidate 
 for Speaker of this House, and was voted for 
 as such on the 16th day of January, 1863 ; 
 that on Saturday the 17th day of the 6ame 
 month, the Assembly took a recess without 
 having elected a Speaker, and that during 
 that recess, and on Monday, the 10th of said 
 
 I 
 
 month, M*. Thomas Hope, at Brooklyn, the 
 son-in-law and agent of Mrs. Mary A. Wood, 
 also of Brooklyn, called npon Mr. Callicot, 
 at his room in Congress Hall, in Albany, for 
 the purpose of obtaining payment of a debt 
 of twelve hundred dollars which Mr. Callicot 
 then owed Mrs. "Wood. That Mr. Hope 
 threatened to use a certain document against 
 him. which he had in his pocket, addressed 
 to lion. T. C. Fields, the character or nature 
 of which iie did not state to him, unless he 
 settled the claim that day, and Mr. Callicot 
 finally promised to telegraph to him at New 
 York nest day in relation to the matter ; that 
 Mr. Callicot 4hen sought the legal advice of 
 Reynolds, Cochran and Harris, a law firm of 
 the city of Albany, and Mr. Hamilton Harris, 
 oue of the members of the firm called upon 
 Mr. Callicot on the afternoon of the same 
 day, the 10th of January, at his room in Con- 
 gress Hall. That Mr. Callicot then stated to 
 him his circumstances, in relation to the claim 
 of Mrs. Wood, and the threat that had been 
 made, and Mr. Harris advised him that he 
 better pay the demand, Mr. Callicot saying 
 tliat he thought he could borrow the money 
 of his landlord or other friends ; that on the 
 following day Mr. Harris again called upon 
 Mr. Callicot, and upon learning that Mr. Cal- 
 lioot had not been able to borrow the money, 
 offered to loan him twelve hundred dollars to 
 pay the demand, and Mr. Callicot accepted 
 the offer, and telegraphed to Mr. Hope to 
 come up ; that Mr. Hope came up immedi- 
 ately, and remained all night at Congress 
 Hall ; and on the following morning, the 
 morning of the 21st, Mr. Harris again called 
 upon Mr. Callicot, and loaned him $1,200 in 
 pursuance of the offer made on the previous 
 
day, and took his note on demand for that I is not alleged in either of the specifications 
 amount, and that Mr. Callicot immediately > mentioned, that there was any understanding 
 thereafter paid Mr. Hope the claim of Mrs. or agreement by which they were to be giv- 
 Wood. That there was nothing said at either : en otherwise ; nor are there any allegations 
 of the interviews between Mr. Harris and Mr. that they ever were given otherwise. The 
 Callicot, by either of them, in relation to the person or persons with whom the agreement 
 official influence, action or votes of Mr. Cal- i was made were not stated in the so-called 
 
 licot, as member of Assembly or Speaker, or 
 in any manner whatever; that neither before 
 nor after, nor at the time of any 
 interview or interviews, between Mr. Calli- 
 cot and Mr. Harris, was there any argument, 
 arrangement or understanding, express, or im- 
 plied, that the money was paid to Mr, Calli- 
 cot as a consideration or motive for his official 
 action, influence or votes as Speaker, member 
 of Assembly, or any other manner ; or that 
 he should become the candidate or nominee 
 of any party or parties, he having been nomi- 
 nated and voted for, for Speaker, several day: 
 
 specifications, nor was it alleged for whom or 
 for what it was agreed that his vote should 
 be given except that in the Oth specification 
 there was an allegation that his vote and ac- 
 tion were to be influenced upon the question 
 of the election of a United States Senator, 
 and in the 7th specification, upon all ques- 
 tions relating to the election of the elective 
 officers of the Assembly, so that, in the opin- 
 ion of the committee, if they had heard evi- 
 dence under these pretended specifications, 
 they would have departed from the instruc- 
 tions given them, which required the charges 
 
 previous to Mr. Hope's coming to Albany to | to be specific, and would have been groping 
 
 obtain the claim of twelve hundred dollars, 
 which Mr. Callicot borrowed the money to 
 pay. 
 
 Ira Shafcr, Esq., of Albany, appeared be- 
 fore the committee as counsel, and conduct- 
 ed the prosecution, and Hon. Lyman Tre- 
 main and Hon. C. B. Cochran, appeared be- 
 fore the committee as the counsel of Mr. Cal- 
 licot, and conducted the defence. Previous 
 
 in the dark in search of corrupt and crimi- 
 | nal conduct not charged. For these reasons, 
 J the committee decided to hear no evidence 
 j under those specifications. It will appear 
 ; by the proceedings had before the committee 
 •herewith laid before the House, that various 
 ; offers were made by the counsel tor the pros- 
 \ edition to prove the acts and declarations of 
 
 various third persons, without in any man- 
 
 to tlie taking of any testimony, Mr. Tremaiji, ; ner connecting Mr. Callicot therewith. The 
 as counsel for the defence, objected to ahy committee deemed it there duty, in the con- 
 investigation of matters alleged to have tran- , sideration of questions relating to the admis- 
 spired prior to the election of Mr. Callicot as , sibility of testimony, to regard Mr. Callicot 
 a member of the present Assembly, and mov- ! as on trial for the commission of a crime, and 
 ed for a decision of the"committee upon the I and to be governed by the rules of evidence 
 validity of the (objection". After hearing the applicable to all judicial proceedings; they 
 arguments of counsel upon the question, the knew of no other guide by which to receive 
 committee were of the opinion that the res- ! or exclude evidence, and they believe they 
 olution appointing them limited their powers [ have decided the questions of evidence raised 
 to the investigation of the official acts of \ in accordance with well settled elementary 
 Mr. Callicott as a member of this Legislature | principles of law. It must be evident to ev- 
 and that the investigation should extend as | eryone that the declarations and acts ot oth- 
 far back as the date of his election, and so ers should not be given in evidence against a 
 decided. During the course of the investiga- | person, unless he was present, or in some 
 tion the counsel for Mr. Callicot also object- j way assented to them, or authorized them, 
 ed to charge the 8th, and to the 5th, 6th, 7th I for were it otherwise, there might be no end 
 
 and 8th specifications of charge 6th, and mov- 
 ed that all evidence relating to them be ex- 
 cluded, on the grounds stated in the written 
 motion herewith transmitted to the House. 
 The committee, after hearing the arguments 
 of the respective counsel upon the motion, 
 were of the opinion that charge 8th, being 
 simply '-bribery and corruption as a member 
 of this assembly,'' , was not in any sense 
 "specific," and consequently not within the 
 resolution appointing them, and that specifi- 
 cations 5th, Gth, 7th and 8th, of charge 6th, 
 did not contain or express any charge against 
 
 to the testimony, and the innocent' might be 
 quiet as the likely to be convicted as the guil- 
 ty. It would be a hard rule, indeed, that 
 would allow a person to perform acts and 
 make declarations to be used in evidence 
 against a defendant who had no control over 
 the person making the declarations or per- 
 forming the acts ; who had no knowledge of 
 them, and who had in no manner authorized 
 or assented to them. It will be seen that 
 no evidence was given, or offered to be given, 
 showing that Mr. Callicot authorized, assent- 
 ed to, had any knowledge of, or was in any 
 
 Mr. Callicot, of "corrupt or criminal conduct ' way or manner connected with the acts or 
 in his oficial character." The committee : declarations of other parties ruled out by the 
 were of the opinion that it is not corrupt or '] committee ; and the committee were unable 
 criminal for a member of Assembly to ac- ! to satisfy themselves that any reason existed 
 ceptand take a nomination for the office of ' in this case for disregarding plain and well 
 Speaker of this House, with an agreement , settled rules of evidence. The committee 
 and understanding that his vote, influence ( have heard all proper evidence ottered to 
 and action should be given upon any other I show that Mr. Callicot has been guilty otcor- 
 question, in accordance with his duty, and it ! nipt or criminal conduct in his official char- 
 
nctet as a member of this Legislature, orsincc 
 his election, anil linve come to the conclusion 
 that lie is entirely innocent. 
 
 E. II. Prindle, 
 Henry O. Lake, 
 P. E. Havens. 
 
 OFFICIAL JOURNAL,. 
 
 In Assembly April 20, 7 P. m. 
 
 Pursuant to snbdivison 4 Rule, 2, the 
 Sneaker designated the lion. Chautk ev M. 
 Depew to occupy the Chair. 
 
 The Speaker announced the Special Order, 
 being the Report of the Select Committee 
 appointed to investigate the charges of cor- 
 ruption against Theopitii.us C. Caixicot, 
 Speaker of the Assembly, and also the Re- 
 port of the minority of the committee there- 
 on. 
 
 Debate was had thereon. 
 
 Mr. Reddington moved that the subject 
 be made the special order for to-morrow 
 morning, immediately after the third reading 
 of bills. Lost, two-thirds not voting, &c. 
 
 Debate was again had thereon. 
 
 Mr. Dean moved that the subject be made 
 the special order for to-morrow, immediately 
 after the third reading of bills. Lost, two- 
 thirds not voting, &c. 
 
 Mr. O'Brien moved that the House ad- 
 journ. Lost, ayes 7, nays C7. 
 
 Debate was again had thereon. 
 
 Mr. A. Smith mo\ed the previous question. 
 Carried, ayes 45, nays 30. 
 
 The Speaker announced the question to be 
 upon agreeing to the report of the Committee 
 as follows : 
 
 Mr. T. C. Fields raised the point of order 
 that both reports being before the House, 
 the question should be first taken upon the I 
 resolutions appended to the minority report. I 
 
 The Chair decided the point of order not j 
 well taken. 
 
 Mr. T. C. Fields appealed from the deci- j 
 sion of the Chair. 
 
 The Chair decided that the main question \ 
 having been ordered by the House, the ap- 
 peal was not in order. 
 
 The Speaker put the question upon agree- 
 ing to the report of the committee, and it 
 was decided in the affirmative — without a 
 division. 
 
 (From the Newburgh Journal.) 
 
 THE COPPERHEAD LEGISLATIVE 
 
 AOMRESS. 
 
 This document, which is understood to 
 have been prepared by those members of the 
 present Assembly who were elected to their 
 
 present positions upon an anti-war platform, 
 and who went to Albany in favor of a "vi- 
 gorous prosecution of peace" toward the 
 traitors, and of war against those who were 
 legally entrusted with the administration of 
 the Government — is alike insulting to the 
 intelligence and patriotism of the country ; 
 a paper which the liberal men of all parties 
 unite in condemning, and which even the 
 New York Herald spews out of its mouth in 
 disgust. 
 
 Of one thing, however, we may truly re- 
 mark, that it is a faithful index of the whole 
 ceurse of conduct of a certain class of politi- 
 cians since the commencement of the war, 
 and is made up in about equal proportions 
 of falsehood, cowardice and hypocrisy. 
 
 Utterly regardless of truth, and with an 
 audacity that would do credit to Satan him- 
 self, they start out with the lying assumption 
 that one of their members was bought over 
 to the interest of the Union men by promi- 
 nent Republicans for corrupt and improper 
 purposes, and that they — paragons of honesty 
 and integrity — were struggling so earnestly 
 10 prevent the consummation of the bargain 
 that they brought the State to the verge of 
 revolution, and inaugurated scenes of vio- 
 lence never before witnessed at the State 
 Capitol. 
 
 It matters not that there is not a word or 
 syllable of proof to sustain this lying asser- 
 tion ; it matters not that a committee of 
 their own appointment to investigate the 
 'charges they made against the Speaker, have 
 declared that they were groundless and en- 
 tirely destitute of trutli ; it matters not that 
 the Assembly, composed of men of both par- 
 ties, affirmed this decision of the committee, 
 and by a unanimous vote entirely exonerated 
 Mr. Callioot from all suspicion of corrupt 
 or improper conduct. ; it matters not that 
 their disgraceful and revolutionary conduct 
 in bringing a riotous mob into the halls of 
 the Assembly Chamber, and in forcibly and 
 by threats of outrage and violence resisting 
 and preventing for many days an organiza- 
 tion by the majority of that body, occurred 
 long before there was any pretence of a cor- 
 rupt bargain on the part of Mr. Callicot. 
 Yet they still parade these brazen falsehoods 
 before the public, and meekly ask that pub- 
 lic indignation may be averted from their 
 cowardly and disgraceful conduct. 
 
 The animus and motive of this deception 
 are too apparent to mislead any one. 
 
 The people of this State have not forgotten 
 this first attempt to introduce hired bullies 
 and lawless mobs within the walls of their 
 Capitol, to intimidate and overawe their re- 
 presentatives and thwart and override the 
 will of the majority, constitutionally express- 
 ed. 
 
 They have not forgotten this imitation re- 
 bellion against the laws and constitution of 
 the country, and the threats of bloody vio- 
 lence and revolution that were uttered by 
 these same leaders on the Assembly floor. 
 
They have not forgotten the stern denun- 
 ciation that went forth from almost every 
 cottage in the State, where the facts of those 
 outrages became known. 
 
 They have not forgotten, nor will they 
 soou forget, where this crime and its pun- 
 ishment belongs, nor will their just indigna- 
 tion be averted by these cowardly slanders 
 against the Speaker, who foiled their pur- 
 poses, or by their hypocritical assumptions { 
 of the honesty of their motives or the recti- 
 tude of their intentions. 
 
 Follow this address to its conclusion, and 
 where do* you find one single noble senti- 
 ment — one patriotic suggestion — one word of 
 encouragement for our brave and sacrilicing 
 soldiers — or one generous wish for the sue- 
 cess of that great cause to which the life 
 energies of the country are now devoted ? , 
 Nothing but idle vaunting of their own in- 
 fallibility and superior wisdom, factious caip- 
 ing at the adoption of whatever measures ! 
 
 have been found necessary to save the Re 
 public, and a cowardly higgling about their 
 constitutional prerogatives and right, which 
 the loyal men of the country hare been strug- 
 gling to preserve, and they all the while have 
 been aiding the traitors to destroy. 
 
 Their ill-disguised efforts to avert the 
 odium and condemnation which must follow 
 their unjust veto of the Soldiers' Voting Bill, 
 will fail to shield them from the retribution 
 to come. Nor will their false and feeble 
 pledges of support to the Government at this 
 late day, atone for the lurking, unmasked 
 treason that has rankled in their hearts and 
 paralysed the energies of the Government 
 Bince the commencement of the war, which 
 has caused the sacrilice of millions of treasure 
 and consigned thousands of brave meu to 
 bloody graves, and which now would again 
 raise, its hissing haul at the first sound of dis- 
 aster In flic notional armies. 
 
/ 
 
 SPEAKER CALLICOTT'S VINDICATION. 
 
 T. 0. CALLICOTT, 
 
 1\ REPLY TO THE dURGES AGAINST HIM. 
 
 H0l"BK OF AsNliMlil.Y, ) 
 
 Albany, April 'JO, lSfi.3. S 
 
 The House met at. 7 o'clock, Mr. De.pew, ot' 
 Westchester, in the Chair, and took np the spe- 
 cial order, being the reports of the majority and 
 minority of the select committee appointed to in- 
 vestigate Che charges made against T. C. Calli- 
 cot, member of Assembly from the Fifth Dis- 
 trict of Kings county. 
 
 The majority and minority reports, and the 
 evidence taken before the select committee, were 
 iead by the. Clerk. The reading of the reports 
 and evidence being concluded, 
 
 Mr. T. (S. Cal i.icor, the accused member, arose 
 and addressed the House. He said : 
 
 Mr. Sl'EAKElt: The parliamentary law on the 
 subject of such investigations as are now before 
 the House, requires that the party accused, after 
 the charges and the evidence have been read to 
 the House, should, if he thinks proper, appear 
 before the bar of the House and state whatever 
 he may have to s.jy in defence of himself, and 
 i hen retire from the House, iu order that its de- 
 liberations upon the questions submitted may be 
 conducted without tne embarrassments arising 
 irom, or the influence supposed to proceed from, 
 his presence. In tny action to-night, I shall ad- 
 here strictly to what 1 understand to be the par- 
 liamentary law upon the subject. However temp- 
 ting it may be', or however easy it may be to in- 
 dulge in recrimination and in assaults upon the 
 gentlemen who have thought proper to institute 
 and conduct this prosecution, I shall, in self-re- 
 spect — in respect to my fellow-members on this 
 floor, and id respect to the dignity of my ortice 
 as presiding officer of this House, abstain from 
 any indulgence in reflections of that character. 
 1 shall confine myself strictly to a calm and brief 
 statement ot the whole facts in regard i" the 
 question now pending, and then leave it with the 
 House. The investigation before the committee 
 was, necessarily, conducted by my counsel. The 
 discharge of my dun.'- us presiding officer of the 
 House, made such demands upon my time and 
 attention that it was impossible for me to conduct 
 my defense myself, and I therefore placed it in 
 the. hands of two gentlemen of distinguished 
 legal ability, confiding in their judgment, io con- 
 duct the defence before that committee in such a. 
 manner as they might deem proper, but I am 
 glad that, the prosecution thought proper, previ- 
 ous to closing the case before the committee, to 
 make offers to prove certain alleged tacts, by rea- 
 son of which 1 am at liberty, without being ac- 
 cused of any violation ot order, to make some 
 allusion to charges which are not now properly 
 liefore the House, for trial. 1 therefore ask tne 
 indulgence of the House for a tew moments, 
 while 1 make some allusion to two or three of the 
 principal charges preferred by the prosecutor, 
 which he and every man familiar with parliamen- 
 tary law well knows, could not have been inves- 
 tigated before this House, (because the House 
 had no jurisdiction over them,) before I speak 
 upon the particular charge on which I am ar- 
 o 
 
 raigned liefore this House. In the peculiar posi- 
 tion in which I have been placed, it has been 
 thought proper by the enemies who have pursued 
 me, not-mereiy to attack my action upon public 
 questions, but to ransack my private lite and seek 
 among the details ot my private affairs, some- 
 thing that they might lay before the public to 
 damage my reputation. The first charge which 
 was made in these tbrnial specifications, was one 
 that I had fraudulently taken from one Mary A. 
 Wood eight shares of bank stock. That was a 
 charge nor, properly the subject of parliamentary 
 investigation, but very fortunately, in the course 
 of the proceedings, evidence has been adduced 
 by the prosecution to show the precise nature of 
 that transaction. The counsel for the prosecu- 
 tion (Mr. abater) asked the witness, Thomas 
 Hope, to srate what was the nature of the trans- 
 action, and he said in reply that it was a promis- 
 sory note to return eight shares of the stock of 
 the Bank ot America, and that the tenor of tbe 
 note, as near as he. could state it from memory, 
 was thus: " On the first of July next, 1 promise, 
 to return to Mrs. Mary A. Wood, eight shares of 
 the Bank of America stock, borrowed by me, or 
 the equivalent value of said stock." Then, on 
 the cross examination, this question and answer 
 occur : 
 
 "Q, Uiil not the note promise to return on the. 
 first day of July next the eight shares of stock, 
 or to pay her the then market price of the stock, 
 within any dividends that may be declared there- 
 on in the interim ? 
 
 "A. No tar as the dividends, I do n't recollect 
 that, but the promise otherwise is as stated." 
 
 It therefore appears by the evidence adduifed 
 in behalf of the prosecution, that the transaction 
 was an ordinary loan — that it was a debt justly 
 due— that the stock was loaned to me — that I had 
 promised to return it on a specified day, or the 
 value thereof. So far as that matter wa? con- 
 cerned, I was in the same position as any other 
 man who is unable to promptly meet a liability ; 
 but, I have yet to learn that it is a crime/to meet 
 a debt on its maturity. This debt bad Keen due 
 more than three years,. It was incurred in the 
 Spring of 1859. If there was anything criminal 
 about it, why was it leu to the keen scent of my 
 vindictive persecutor in this House to discover it 
 1 nearly tour years afterward? This is all I have 
 Co say upon that point at present. Then there 
 are other charges set forth with minuteness. — 
 Charge second has three specifications. It is a 
 charge of "Bribery and corruption while a mem- 
 ber of the Assembly in the year 1860." Charge 
 two has two specifications, and both these charges 
 au.' ail these five specifications thereunder, relate 
 to alleged transactions with one Walters. Church. 
 I shall not stop here to inquire in regard to the 
 character of Mr. Church. That is better knbwf 
 to the citizens of Albany, perhaps, than it is ti 
 , me. But, in 1S60, when I first had the honor ol 
 i of being a member of this Assembly, I was up 
 ! pointed a member of the Judiciary Committee! 
 When I was a member of that Committee, I \ 
 
became acquainted with Mr. Church. He was, 
 in manner, at least, a gentleman, and I Lad many 
 interviews of a social character with him. We 
 frequently dined together, and my social and 
 personal relations with him were of the most 
 agreeable character. I knew Mr. Church better 
 and more familiarly than I did any other gentle- 
 man residing in Albany at that time, and being 
 upon such terms with him, when I desired a 
 small pecuniary favor, I wrote to him astcing him 
 to lend me $ 100. He did not grant the favor, 
 politely declaring his inability to accommodate 
 me, and 1 thought no more of it. But, now, the 
 prosecutor in this case, as oneof the specifications 
 under the second charge, alleges that I "did on 
 or about the 5th day of March, 1860, 
 indirectly propose to Walter S. Church to re- 
 ceive as a gift the sum of $100 in money, as a 
 consideration and motive" for my " official vote, 
 action and influence * * * 
 in opposing the passage of a certain bill then 
 pending in and before the said House of Assent- 
 ply, entitled ' An act to amend section 140 of 
 chapter 1, title 2, of the Revised Statutes^ entitled 
 of alienation by deed.'" What is the inference 
 sought to be drawn from this allegation ? It. is 
 that I, as a member of the Judiciary Committee, 
 made a report against the bill entitled " To amend 
 an act of alienation by deed," — that I applied to 
 Mr. Church to lend me .$100, and he refusing to 
 lend it to me, I, in a spirit of revenge because 1 
 tailed to extort money from him, voted for the 
 bill I had reported against. Now, I assert that 
 not only to be a falsehood, but a wiltul falsehood, 
 and so apparent as to be without palliation, for the 
 journal of the House for the year 1860 will show 
 the utter falsity of the allegation . I can trace in 
 the journal the whole progress of that bill, and 
 point out at every stage my action upon it. On 
 page 636, 1 Audit recorded, under date of March 13, 
 that " the House then resolved itself into a Com- 
 mittee of the Whole on the bill entitled as fol- 
 lows : " An act to amend section 140 of chapter 1, 
 title 2, part 2, of the Revised Statutes, entitled 
 " of alienation by deed." * * * After some 
 time spent thereon, Mr. Emerick, from said com- 
 mittee, reported in favor of the first mentioned 
 bill (being the bill mentioned,) which report was 
 agreed to, and said bill ordered engrossed (or a 
 third reading." Then on the 19th of March it is 
 recorded: "Mr. Bingham moved to recommit 
 said bill to the Committee on the Judiciary, with 
 instructions to strike out the words real estate 
 
 * * * and report the same to the House, so 
 amended, &c." This motion was agreed to. Then 
 on the 29th day of March, as appears by page 857 
 of the journal, "Mr. Bingham, from the Com- 
 mittee on the Judiciary, to which was referred 
 the bill entitled, 'of alienation by deed,' with 
 instructions to strike out the words ' real estate ' 
 in the sixth and seventh lines, and insert in place 
 thereof the words ' agricultural lands,' " reported 
 the same amended, according to instructions, 
 which report was agreed to. 
 
 "Said bill then being announced for a third 
 reading, 
 
 " Mr. Robinson moved that the same be recom- 
 mitted to the Committee on Judiciary, with in- 
 structions to amend the same by inserting the 
 word ' hereafter ' in the sixth line after the word 
 covenant, and by striking out the word ' have ' in 
 the seventh line, and changing the word 'taken' 
 to 'take 'and the word 'acquired' to 'acquire,' 
 in the same liue. Debate was had thereupon, 
 when Mr. Garrettsou moved the previous ques- 
 tion. 
 
 Mr. Speaker put the question "shall the main 
 question be now put," and it was decided in the 
 affirmative. 
 
 " Mr. Speaker then put the question whether 
 the House would agree to said motion ofMr. Rob- 
 inson, and it was determined in the negative — 
 ayes 54, nays 51." 
 
 And among the ayes will be fouud my own 
 name — voting with Mr. Robinson, (the present 
 Comptroller of the State) an opponent of toe bill. 
 
 Now let me cali the attention of the House to the 
 date of my note to Mr. Church, upon which so 
 much stress has been laid. The note to Mr 
 Church is dated March 5th, and my vote with the 
 opponents of the bill was recorded on tin' 29th of 
 March, twenty -four days after I had written him 
 to lend me a huudred dollars, and he had failed 
 to do so. And yet it is said that I supported the 
 bill because I failed to obtain the loan. The re- 
 cord proceeds : 
 
 "Said bill was then read a third time. Mr. 
 Speaker put the question whether the House 
 would agree to the final passage of said bill, and 
 it was determined in the negative— a majority of 
 all the members elected to the Assembly not 
 voting in favor thereof— ayes 54, nays 58." 
 I My own name will he found recorded in the 
 negative, in connection with the other gentlemen 
 who opposed the bill. 
 
 "Mr. Milliken moved to reconsider said vole, 
 and that the motion lay on the the table." 
 
 "Mr. Speaker put the motion whether the 
 House would reconsider the vote, and it was de- 
 cided in the affirmative." 
 
 The history of this bill next appears on page 
 1013 of the Journal, under dale of April 5th. 
 
 The record proceeds as follows : 
 
 "Mr. Bingham moved to take from the table 
 the motion to reconsider the vote upon the final 
 passage of the bill entitled "An act to ameud 
 chapter 140, section 1, title 2, part 2, of the Re- 
 vised Statutes, entitled 'Of alienation by deed.'" 
 
 " The Speaker put the question whether the 
 House would agree upon the motion to take 
 from the table, and it was decided in the affirm- 
 ative. 
 
 " Mr. Speaker put the question whether the 
 House would agree to said motion to reconsider, 
 and it was decided in the aftimative— ayes 71, 
 noes 25." 
 
 And there my name will be found recorded in 
 the negative, voting against a reconsideration ol 
 the vote by which the bill waslost— still manifest- 
 ing the same hostility to the bill which 1 had done 
 before I had asked any favors of Mr. Church. 
 The record proceeds : 
 
 "Said bill then being announced for a third 
 reading, 
 
 " Mr. Fitch offered for the consideration of 
 the House, a resolution in the following words, 
 to wit : 
 
 " ' R solved, That the bill, No. 190, entitled an 
 act to amend section 140, chapter 1, title 2, part 2, 
 of the Revised Statutes, entitled of 'Alienation 
 by deed," be recommitted to the Committee on 
 Judiciary with instructions to report forthwith 
 with the following amendments; 
 
 " ' Strike out the first section of the bill and in- 
 sert the following in lieu thereof, to wit :'" 
 
 Now, by looking at the Assembly bills of that 
 year, it will be found that the bill in question, No. 
 190, was composed of two sections, the first of 
 which was proposed to be amended, and the last 
 of which was, "This act shall take eliect imme- 
 diately." Mr. Finch's amendment was to strike 
 out the first section and insert in place of it the 
 following — (and bear in mind that Mr. Finch was, 
 like myself, an opponent of the bill) : 
 
 "Section 1, chapter 98, of the laws of 1S05, 
 passed April 9, 1S05, entitled 'An act to amend an 
 act entitled : An act to enable grantees of rever- 
 sions to take advantage of the conditions to be 
 performed by lessees,' and section 3, of chapter 
 31, of the Revised Laws, passed March 19th, 1813, 
 being a ref-nactment of said chapter 98, of the 
 laws of 1S05, and section 25, of chapfer 1, title 4, 
 part 2, of the Revised Statutes, being a further 
 reenactment of the same, shall not apply to deeds 
 of conveyance in fee made before the 9th day of 
 April, 1805, nor in such deeds thereafter to be 
 made. 
 
 " And amend the title so as to read, ' An act to 
 repeal chapter 98, of the laws of 1805, and the 
 subsequent reenactments thereof." 
 
 Thus it will be seen that the amendments pro- 
 posed by Mr. Finch were to change the title, and 
 
to insert a new section in place of the only one 
 which contained the provisions important to mo- 
 dify the law. In other words, the proposition of 
 Mr. Finch was to give the knife a new handle and 
 a new blade ; yet the prosecutor here, like the 
 Highlander in the jest book, called it the same 
 old knife. And for the new bill, having not only 
 a ditferent title, but different provisions, I voted ; 
 and yet, with the record of the proceedings of 
 the Assembly of 1S60 before him, accessible to 
 him in the library of this House, the prosecutor 
 in this case has had the audacity to sign his name 
 to a paper declaring that I voted tor this bill after 
 having reported against it, because Walter S. 
 Church had not loaned me $100, on an occasion 
 when I wanted him to do so. Now, Mr. Speaker, 
 I say that the prosecutor in this instance is con- 
 victed of uttering a willful, malicious lie; and I 
 challenge the investigation of the journals and 
 records of this House, in 1860, to prove the truth 
 of my assertion. 
 
 Now, the other charges made against me, (with 
 the exception of the charge of receiving the 
 $1200, and in relation to which I reserve my re- 
 marks for the present) are so indefinite and vague 
 in their character, that it is impossible for me to 
 answer them, otherwise than by asserting unqual- 
 ifiedly that they are false. I deny them most 
 emphatically in the same general terms in which 
 they are made. 
 
 In making those charges, the prosecutorneither 
 sets forth persons, nor times, nor places, nor 
 things, with sufficient detail to enable me to meet 
 them specifically. But I do say to the gentleman 
 who preferred these charges, that if, after this 
 Legislature shall have adjourned, he dares else- 
 where through the public press to make the 
 charges which he has dared to make here — if he 
 is where I can reach him with a legal process, I 
 will bring him before a jury of my countrymen, 
 and demand at their hands the redress to which I 
 am entitled. [Applause and hisses ] But here, 
 under the shield of a constitutional privilege, 
 which provides that no member shall be called in 
 question elsewhere for words spoken in debate, 
 any coward may make charges, even though he 
 knows he cannot prove them. Now, then, Mr. 
 Speaker, before proceeding to the investigation 
 and consideration of the particular charge under 
 which I am arraigned before this House, namely : 
 that I have solicited and received the sum of 
 $1200 as a consideration for my official action as 
 a member of this Assembly — I deem it to be due 
 to myself and to this House, and to the people of 
 the State of New York, that I should, as a proper 
 preliminary, make a brief statement of the his- 
 tory of the organization of the House. It is a 
 narrative which has never yet been consecutively 
 told, and I will endeavor to do it as concisely as 
 possible. 
 
 I came to the city of Albany on the first day of 
 January last, having been elected a member of 
 ibis House from the Fifth district of Kings coun- 
 ty, professing the samj political principles which 
 1 had professed all my life, and the same political 
 principles which I cherish to day — I claim to be 
 now a Democrat, as I ever have been, and I in- 
 tend ever to be one. I came to Albany at the 
 commencement of this session as a candidate for 
 the office of Speaker of this Hpuse. In the year 
 I860, 1 was a candidate of the Democratic party for 
 the position of Speaker of this House. And I then 
 received the entire vote of that party. And here 
 let me say, if there is any shame in my past life 
 — if there is any disgrace that attaches to me as a 
 man or as a politician — it belongs to the Demo- 
 cratic and not to the Republican party. I have 
 never joined the Republican party. I am not a 
 member of it now. I am a Democrat, and my 
 past history belongs to the Democratic party, and 
 that party have thought me worthy of such hon- 
 ors as they could hestow, until certain persons, 
 who have assumed to be leaders ot the Demo- 
 cratic part} in this House, have set up a standard 
 of liemocraey, such as I will never subscribe to, 
 nor will the Democracy of my district give their 
 
 assent to it. 
 
 The different parties in the House came here 
 with different expectations. The Democratic 
 party, to which I belonged, imagined that they 
 Inn I a majority in the House, and the Republican- 
 Union party supposed they had a majority. But 
 when the vote came to be taken — when the mem- 
 bers came to be canvassed — it was found that 
 there was a tie, that there was an equal number 
 of members in each of the two parties, and im- 
 mediately a struggle commenced. I found that 
 through the intrigues of a lew gentlemen, who 
 are a portion of the New York city delegation, 
 there was no possibility of a fair discussion in 
 the Democratic caucus of the respective qualifi- 
 cations of the various candidates for the office, 
 and I found, too, that I was to have no fair play. 
 From remarks made to me by leading men in the 
 Democratic party, (whose private conversations I 
 will not relate, desiring not to follow the example 
 of the gentleman who has conducted this prose- 
 cution, and who, in the preliminary discussions 
 during the temporary organization of the House, 
 stated falsely conversations that occurred between 
 me and himself,) I learned that it was deemed 
 necessary to give up the nomination of Speaker 
 to the Democratic delegation from New York city, 
 because there was a certain influence there they 
 had to pacify, which they felt, althonsh they did 
 not like it. They said, ■■' We will yield to it in 
 order to secure certain other influences." I found 
 that members from the country, under the pro- 
 gramme laid out, were to be overridden; that 
 powerful influences were brought to control them 
 — so overpowering were they that there could not 
 be a fair discussion in the caucus. I, therefore, 
 refused to go into that caucus. I never attended 
 it. I remained out of it, and, whatever else I 
 may have done, I have not violated any party 
 obligation whatever. I was elected by the people 
 of my district as a member of Assembly. I was 
 not elected to represent my district in any caucus 
 whatever. I came to represent the whole people 
 of the district, and the whole people of the State 
 of New York, as one of the representatives of the 
 whole people, to legislate for them, and with a 
 full knowledge of the responsibilities belonging 
 to Jliat position. My constituents elected me be- 
 cause they had sufficient confidence in my judg- 
 ment and my character to believe that, as a repre- 
 sentative of the people of the State of New York 
 I would be capable of determining what action 1 
 should take under any circumstances which might, 
 arise. I, therefore, remained out of the caucus ; 
 but I did vote for the first nominee of the caucus 
 (Mr. Dean), and I voted for him as he knows, 
 and as his friends know, with reluctance: but I 
 nevertheless did vote for him. I was anxious 
 that that there should be a Democratic organiza- 
 tion of the Assembly, and as much so as any 
 member of this House. My remaining out of 
 the caucus was, of course, well known to every 
 man in Albany who was concerned in politics on 
 either side. Many gentlemen, of different views 
 politically, conversed with me in regard to it, and 
 it was generally supposed that I intended to pur- 
 sue an independent course, from the fact of my 
 remaining out of the caucus. I said to them that 
 there was one way in which I thought an organi- 
 zation of the House could be effected. I said it 
 was impossible for one Republican to vote for the 
 then Democratic candidate for Speaker, and that 
 it was equally impossible for one Democrat to 
 vote for the candidate of the Republican members. 
 No one upon either side could take such a step 
 as that without exposing himself to an imputation 
 which it would be impossible to resist. It was, 
 therefore, necessary that the Republican Union 
 party should find in the ranks of their opponents 
 some man in whose moderation and justice they 
 had sufficient confidence to admit of their select- 
 ing him as their presiding officer, or it was neces- 
 sary that the Democratic members should find 
 s.ome one in the ranks of the Republican mem- 
 bers whom they could select for presiding officer 
 of the House. That was the only honorable way 
 
it could be done. And, gentlemen, yon will all 
 remember that after the Republican Union party 
 bad done me the honor to select me as their can- 
 didate — and after they had shown by their votes 
 a general determination to make me Speaker — an 
 effort was made by the gentlemen who represent 
 the other side to make an analogous arrangement ; 
 and in that view they.offerifcl a resolution that the 
 honorable gentleman from Westchester [Mr. De- 
 pew] should be elected Speaker of the House, and 
 that Mr. Sickles, the Democratic caucus candi- 
 date lor Clerk, should be Clerk. They offered 
 that resolution to make the very same, kind of a 
 " bargain," it you please to call it such, that they 
 accuse me of making. And, after publicly ma- 
 king that offer to trade off the Speakership, they 
 have the effrontery to call my act a corrupt bar- 
 gain ! What, bave'l done ? What crime or offence 
 have I commitred ? What is there in this alleged 
 corrupt bargain ? What is it but what alwavsoc- 
 eurs between a constituent body and a represent- 
 ative! When a gentleman offers himself as a 
 candidate for Assembly in any district in this Sta i e, 
 have not the people iu that district aright to ques- 
 tion him as to what his action will be in case they 
 gave him their votes ? Was not that right exer- 
 cised all over the State by the Cnfiton League, 
 when they demanded v as the condition ot their 
 support that candidates should favor the passage 
 of a pro rata freight bill in reference to the rail- 
 roads of the State ? The people said to the can- 
 didate : If we. vote for you, what course will you 
 pursue if elected, on that question ? Such inter- 
 rogatories occur during every political contest — 
 the candidate answering the question either ad- 
 versely to or in compliance with the wishes or in 
 terests of those who interrogate him. It is true 
 that it is in one sense a bargain ; bun it is a bar- 
 gain that cannot be entbrced'any more than the 
 hargain (if you choose to so call it) with the gen- 
 tleman who elected me. 
 
 They had a right to ask upon what basis 1 
 would consent to an organization of riie House, if 
 I were selected Speaker by the votes of the Re- 
 publican members. 
 
 Those are public considerations : consideration', 
 of no private advantage. They are considera- 
 tions which even' voter and every candidate has 
 a right to entertain. Viewed in this light, what 
 was the alleged bargain here ? It was that I con- 
 sented upon being elected Speaker of the House, 
 to vote for the Republican Union candidates for 
 the election of officers of the House, reserving to 
 myself as a Democrat the right to appoint Demo- 
 crats to the offices not elective. Has not that been 
 done ? The Postmaster, Assistant Postmaster, 
 Assistant Sergeant-at-Arms, Assistant Door- Keep- 
 ers, the Janitor, the Keeper of the Assembly 
 Chamber, are all Democrats, appointed by me, 
 from the Democratic Party in the various sections 
 of this State. On the other hand, the Clerk and 
 his deputies, the Sergeant at- Arms, Doorkeeper, 
 and the Librarian, are all Republicans, elected by 
 the House. 
 
 By this arrangement, the officers of the House, 
 as nearly as might be, were equalized between 
 the two parties. What could be more fair; what 
 could be more just; what could be more honora- 
 ble, in a House that was equally divided ? Then, 
 in regard to the organization of the committees 
 of the House, 1 acted upon the same principle, so 
 constituting the committees cbat in about one- 
 half there is a majority of Democrats, with a De- 
 mocratic Chairman, and in the other half a ma- 
 jority of Repnblicau Union members, with Repub- 
 lican Union chairmen. 
 
 It is true that in the arrangement, of these 
 committees I have encountered more than ordi- 
 nary difficulty. It is always difficult for a pre- 
 siding officer in any legislative body, to so con- 
 stitute the committees as to give general satis- 
 faction, and in my case the difficulties were 
 doubled. 
 
 Yet I think I can look every man in this House 
 In the face, and say that I have done my duty 
 honestly, fairly and impartially. I have made no 
 
 distinction. Relying upon the best information I 
 could obtain in regard to the various pursuits and 
 qualifications of different members, I have con- 
 stituted the committees accordingly, desiring to 
 put members upon those, committees the duties of 
 which they would be best qualified to perform. 
 Had I chosen to have been actuated by the spirit 
 of resentment which dictated the. tierce invective 
 which the gentlemen who have conducted this 
 prosecution have indulged in. I might have given 
 the entire control of everv committee of the House 
 to the members who elected me. But in thespirii, 
 of impartial justice I ignored all personal feeliug. 
 ami so constituted the committees as near as might 
 lie. as to have an equalization. 
 
 What other understanding was there between 
 myself and the Republican-Union members who 
 elected me as the Speaker of this House? On»* 
 condition they required 1 should carry out, and 
 ir was a condition which I should have carried 
 out had it not been required. I said that although 
 I was a Democrat, and had always been so, ami 
 that many differences ot' opinion would probably 
 continue to exist between us, yet upon the single 
 question of sustaining the Government in a vig- 
 orous prosecution of the war — supporting every 
 measure necessary to contribute men ami monev 
 to that end — they would find me with them. That 
 was the only assurance that I gave them. There 
 are gentlemen here who will remember the occa 
 sum upon which I was called upon to state what 
 were my views with regard to that, and they will 
 bear me out in saying that I truthfully state what 
 then occurred. Until 1 came to Albany and be- 
 came associated with somegentlemen who pretend 
 to represent the spirit and be the leaders of the 
 Democratic party here, I believed that a man 
 might tic a loyal citizen— that lie might tie true tu 
 his Government — and might lie earnest in his de- 
 sire to suppress the rebellion, without any one 
 questioning his Democracy. I remember flu- 
 speech which the Hon. Horatio Seymour made in 
 Brooklyn on the 22d day ot October last, in which 
 he enunciated the idea of a vigorous prosecution 
 of the war as good Democratic doctrine, and it 
 was upon that doctrine that I conducted the can- 
 vass in my district. In that speech Gov. Seymour 
 said : 
 
 " I recognize the. fact now that it is the duty of 
 every man who loves his country, of every true 
 man who would stand by its institutions, to see 
 that the whole measure of his influence and all 
 the weight of his power is thrown in that battle- 
 field on the side of the flag of the Union."— 
 [Cheers.] 
 
 Again, he said : 
 
 " I have done all that was in my power to do to 
 uphold this Government. Although it was not, an 
 Administration of my choice, vet still it was the 
 Government of my country; I have invoked ad 
 men to stand loyally by it, because such was their 
 duty." [Cheeri ] 
 
 And again, he »aitl : 
 
 " We tender, then, to this Government no con- 
 ditional support. We recognize Mr. Lincoln a* 
 President of the United States — as the representa- 
 tive of its honor, of its dignity and its strength ; 
 and though I am politically opposed to him, I 
 never have allowed myself to utter against hint 
 one disrespeetfuUterm, nor will I ever allow- my- 
 self to do so. We say. then, to this Government, 
 you have our lirm reliance, our confidence, our 
 "unconditional loyalty. We imposeno terms upon 
 you, we do not ask you to adopt our policy, but 
 to mark out another that will receive our unwa- 
 vering, our cheerful support." 
 
 And again : 
 
 "The national life cannot be saved, unless, in 
 addition to furnishing your Government with all 
 it demands of arms and armed men, it has, in ad- 
 dition to all that, a loyal support on the part of 
 the people of the country. It's in vain you far 
 nish arms; it is vain to furnish material strength, 
 except, also, there be obedience to law and respect 
 to constitutional authority. Now, my friends, we 
 give to the Government, that unity of action, that 
 
9 
 
 entire cOTcert of opinion, which is to bring the 
 
 war to a prompt and triumphant close." 
 Again, he said: 
 
 "{^onie to us on tiiis plain and simple platform, 
 that laying down and putting away from anions 
 us distinct and disturbing views and opinions, we 
 will all unite in declaring that the laws shall be 
 sustained and the constituted authorities of the 
 country respected, anci this war brought toa short 
 Mnd successful termination, because we are a uni- 
 ted people." [Applause.] 
 And Again, in the same speech, he said : 
 " Now, when the men of the South made the 
 bayonet and the sword the arbiter flhey elected, 
 not we); when they determined 10 settle it by 
 Mood (and not we), the sword, so tar as the pre- 
 sent is concerned, must, he the arbiter, and in our 
 strong right arms it shall strike vigorous and true 
 blows for the life of our country, tin- its institu- 
 tions and for its flag." [Applause.] 
 
 I have read these extracts from Governor Sey- 
 mour's speech, uttered within hearing of the De- 
 mocracy of my own city, ro show that in what I 
 have done and said, in the pledges which I have 
 made and carried out in good faith, and which I 
 mean to carry out not only in this House but else- 
 where, T have done nothing inconsistent with the 
 principles laid down by Governor Scyinourin his 
 Brooklyn speech as sound Democratic doctrine. 
 1 did pledge niv faith to the Republican-Union 
 members of this house that if they elected me 
 speaker no vote of mine should ever be cast ad- 
 versely to the policy of prosecuting this war vig- 
 orously to a speedy and successful conclusion; 
 and when 1 gave that assurance, it was given in 
 perfect conformity with the ideas uttered by Gov- 
 ernor Seymour during the canvass hist Kali. That 
 was the. doctrine of the loyal city of Brooklyn, 
 which Governor Seymour carried by a large ma- 
 jority, and upon which I was elected a member 
 of this Bouse. 
 
 I remember well that in canvassing my district 
 I maintained everywhere that this contest should 
 be conducted in a patriotic spirit, of rivalry as. to 
 which could do the most to sustain the Govern- 
 ment in a vigorous prosecution of the war. The 
 fault that we as Democrats found, was that the 
 Administration did not prosecute the war with 
 vigor enough, and whenever 1 gave my assur- 
 ances upon this subject, I believe I save, them in 
 perfect conformity with the sentiment of the peo- 
 ple of niv district. 
 
 What I said then and what I say now is in har- 
 mony with the opinions expressed by leading 
 men of the Democratic party, who since the 
 gloomy daysof last January, when " copperhead- 
 Ism' 1 seemed to tie rampant, have come forward 
 in " loyal leagues" and elsewhere to sustain the 
 Government. Nay, more, it is in harmony with 
 the historic spirit of the Democracy. 
 
 "I have oeen fifty years an active, ami un- 
 swerving Democrat," says Mr. Sh'ufeldt, of Kirjg- 
 sr.on, Ulster county, in a recent letter to the 
 Atlns and Arpv-s, the copperhead organ here, " 1 
 have been fifty years an active and unswerving 
 Democrat, and for the little time I mnv remain I 
 do not think that it is worth my while to change 
 to the old federal grounds which we Democrats 
 for years repudiated as founded on the worst of 
 heresies. Depend upon it, the thinking par* of 
 the people despise extremes. Let us, Democrats, 
 then, stand bv the Government to put down re- 
 bellion, and after this is done, settle with the Re- 
 publicans. The. Federalists in 1812, Sec , eiied 
 out ' Peace, peace,' when there was no peace. 
 Let our cry be as then, ' War, war, while there 
 is war, and peace afterwards.'" 
 Chief Justice Caton, of Illinois, another un- 
 P questionable Democrat, lately writing to Gov. 
 Seymour, also declared ; 
 
 " We must heartily and cordially live up to 
 our professions during the canvass. We must 
 show no hikewarmness, or hesitancy in sustain- 
 ing and prosecuting a war, which, if abandoned 
 by the people, must result in a dismemberment 
 of the Union, the destruction of the Constitution, 
 
 and a disgrace to this people which must attacn 
 to them and their posterity through all time. .V 
 dissolution of tile Union once admitted — a de- 
 struction of the Constitution once effected — then 
 this community of States will he resolved into it 
 original elements, and who can foretell where will 
 be the end? There never was a clearer light 
 shining before public men than ttiat which illu- 
 minates the way in which we should wall;," 
 
 James T. Brady, whose lifelong Democracy 
 none can dispute, in the course of the. eloquent 
 speech recently delivered by him in New York, 
 saitl : 
 
 " I did hope that the Southern people would 
 put their feet upon the necks of their leaders, and 
 insist upon the maintenance of the Union. But 
 they have informed us that they would consent 
 to no such conditions. They have told us that if 
 we gave them a blank paper and pencil to write 
 the terms of a new compact, they would not agree 
 to it. Therefore, it is a war declared for all ulti- 
 mate results that can come, and I spit upon the 
 Northern man who takes any position except for 
 the maintenance of the Government." 
 
 John Van Bnren, who was probably the most 
 active advocate of Governor Sey mour's election 
 in this Slate, has also recently made numerous 
 speeches in a like patriotic spirit, appealing to the 
 people of all parties, and especially to his Demo- 
 cratic friends and associates, to rally to the sup 
 port of the Federal Government in the vigorous 
 prosecution of the war. For this he has been 
 subjected to slanderous charges, similar to those 
 made against me. In a recent nnmber of the 
 New York Evening Post, he published some of 
 the defamatory correspondence he has received. 
 One of these epistles may serve tor a specimen : 
 
 " John Van Buren, Esq. — Dear Sir: Within 
 the last month I have heard the following lan- 
 guage from Republicans, at least one hundred 
 times : ' O, we can buy the leaders of the Demo- 
 cracy, and without them (the leaders) the party 
 will have to submit to any measures we may 
 think proper to adopt. We have bought Butler, 
 Dickinson, Dix, Brady, Van Buren,' &c. This is 
 the estimation in which you arc held by a large 
 portion of your new friends. Friend John, you 
 have committed a great blunder; nay, worse, a 
 crime. Return the bribe and repent. It will 
 soon be too late. You are execrated by your old 
 friends and despised By your new ones — themos* 
 lamentabl e position conceivable. We blame 
 Judas, but ut the same time pity him. He atoned 
 as far as possible for his error; do thou likewise. 
 '•Your old friend." 
 
 This letter to Mr. Van Buren evidently ema- 
 nates from the same spirit which has animated 
 tnv persecutors. There are creatures of such 
 b.ise, nature that they cannot see any man rise 
 above partisanship to patriotism without accusing 
 him of mercenary motives. 
 
 Now, in regard to the question of the election 
 of a Senator to represent this State in Congress, 
 it is alleged that I made a corrupt bargain by 
 which I agreed to use. my influence and action as 
 a member of this House, so as to secure the elec- 
 tion of a Republican to the United States Sen- 
 ate. I deny most emphatically (and I challenge 
 any man to produce any evidence, either verba 
 or written, to prove the contrary,) that I ever 
 agreed to contribute to or promote the election 
 of any particular man for the office of United 
 States Senator. I reserved to myself entire in- 
 dependence of action upon that subject. There 
 is evidence, however, which could be produced, 
 did I think it proper to make the charge, or the 
 House think proper to investigate it, to show that 
 there was a bargain that in case a certain other 
 gentleman — a Democratic member of this House 
 — should be elected Speaker of this House, he 
 should, as a condition of his election, support a 
 certain Republican candidate for United State 
 Senator. But there was nothing of that, kind — 
 there was no such agreement in my case. No 
 one dares to say that there was. All I said on 
 this subject was, that I would obey the law. The 
 
In 
 
 )f this State, vol. 2, page «G, mafcr. You will all remember that Horn the 5th 
 
 t " on the first Tuesday of February i unttT the 15th of January inclusive, ballottrog 
 
 e. the expiration of the term for which j was steadily continued in this House for the of- 
 
 or was elected to represent this State lice of Speaker— that, during those ten days, /S 
 
 if the Legislature shall be then in ' ballots were had, each of which resulted in a tie, 
 
 then within ten days after a and, consequently, no choice was effected. ( 
 
 /ess, 
 ,1, and if not 
 
 ..orum of both Houses shall be assembled at the Friday, the 16th day ot January, the gentleman 
 then next meeting of the Legislature, an election ■. from Steuben (Mr. Sherwood), who had been from 
 shall be held for a Senator in Consress, at the | the beginning the candidate of the Republican- 
 
 place where the Legislature shall be then sitting, 
 in the room of such Senator as going out of of- 
 fice." I said that on that question I would do 
 nothing that was illegal or revolutionary, that as 
 a member ui this House I would vote according 
 to the dictates of my conscience and judgment 
 for whatever man I thought best fitted to repre- 
 sent the State in the United States Senate. I did 
 m>. 1 voted for John A. Dix, a Democrat, who 
 
 Union party ."rose in his place on the Hoar of this 
 House, withdrew his name as a candidate, and 
 nominated as the candidate for Speaker the gen- 
 tleman from Westchester (Mr. Depew). You 
 will also remember that Mr. Depew, after his 
 nomination, arose and withdrew his name, and 
 stated that, as it was obvious no Republican could 
 he elected Speaker, he should vote for me. 
 This was on the morning ot Friday, January 16. 
 
 i Horatio Sevmour himself, had the largest ! My position was then publiciy taken. The fact 
 number of votes in the last Democratic State Con-! that I was likely to become the candidate of the 
 vention for Governor. General Dix is a life-long I Republican-Union party was known to a great 
 Democrat. His Democracy none can question, j many gentlemen in town several days before, 
 unless it be because he said on one occasion, " if : But on that day my position was publicly taken, 
 any man dares to haul down the American flag, I so that there could be no possible mistake in re- 
 shunt him on the spot." [Applause.] That is the | gard to it. On the morning ot Friday, the 16th, 
 only thing that has made General Dix distasteful j I was publicly nominated as Speaker ot this 
 to a class of men who disgrace the glorious old House, and the voting was commenced, and it con- 
 Demoeratic party by their secessionism. I voted | tinued until the name of Mr. T. C. Fields was 
 for him and I am proud of it, and I would do it I reached, when that gentleman arose in his place 
 again to-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow. I and asked to be excused from voting, and tor the 
 He is a representative man of my peculiar views. | ostensible purpose ot stating his reasons for de- 
 lle is a Democrat, who conscientiously believes ; siring to be excused, favored the House with an 
 it to be his duty to sustain this Government in its I eloquent address, occupying some five hours and 
 efforts to put "down this rebellion. I say that , a half in its delivery, until the patience ot the 
 while there are Democrats upon this floor, and , House was entirely exhausted, when an adjourn- 
 ihev know it, a number of them, who expressed : ment to the following day was consented to 
 m ray presence a willingness to vote for a certain | The following morning the same scene ot nlli- 
 Republican for United States Senator, I said to ' blistering was continued, and finally the House 
 them "No gentlemen, I never will ; I will vote . took a recess until Wednesday, January 21st, by 
 for a man who represents the viewswhich I hold, general consent. Many members, no doubt, 
 which I have always held forth to my constitu- hoped that the interval would enable gentlemen 
 ents in every public address which I have made to reflect and act more calmly when they came 
 to them " and I did so. What would have been together again. The tierce invective that was be- 
 the effect of anv other course ? Was there any stowed upon me, gentlemen will all remember; 
 other possible way under heaven by which these | you well remember the denunciation heaped upon 
 men could have accomplished their revolutionary j me; every epithet that could be used— every 
 
 purpose to defeat the election of a United States 
 Senator ? My action did not in any way affect 
 the result ; my vote was merely a public expres- 
 sion of my views. If 6f members of the House 
 had absented themselves from the House, and left 
 a minority or less than a quorum, those who re- 
 mained would have the authority to send officers 
 
 threat that could be made, was uttered with revo 
 lutionary ferocity. One of my assailants from 
 New York declared that you might elect me, but 
 you could never inaugurate me. Another de- 
 clared that if I was inaugurated it would be amid 
 scenes which all would regret. Another declared 
 that if I was elected, I should not live to take the 
 
 I l.U I1C U *> OUlll 11*1 , v HIV HUH."... •vj w ...... .. .......... - . — — , 
 
 ;o brin<* the absent members back. Every man chair. That there may be no doubt ot the accu- 
 of them could have been arrested and brought to i racy of my present recollection ot these brutab- 
 the bar of this House. It was impossible to evade i ties, I appeal to the newspaper reports ot that 
 the execution of the law. time. The New York Evening Post, ot January 
 
 Now, gentlemen of the Assembly, what you i 19th, says: . 
 
 are to determine to-night is whether I am guilty ! " When the Assembly adjourned on i nday, it 
 of a charge which has" been preferred against me I was with the express understanding on both sides 
 of soliciting and receiving the sum of #1,200, as ! that at the hour of 12 on Saturday, the election ol 
 a motive for my official action and influence as a ; Speaker should be the special order, the vote to he 
 member of this House. I ask you, gentlemen, j taken without debate. But nothing was plainer 
 h i deti-i mining that question, to act as you would I on Saturday than that the promise was to lie 
 it you were jurors empannelled in a court of j kept with Punic faith. The lobby, cloak room. 
 
 justice, acting under your oaths of office. I ask 
 you to discard every question of a party charac- j 
 ter, to act independently of caucus dictation.— 
 Do not imagine that by sacrificing me to pari ; 
 spirit you will thereby commend yourselves .o | 
 the people of your respective districts. If' ou j 
 iroti i o convict me of the charge which is pend- 
 ing before this House, against the deliberate con- 
 victions of your own judgment and conscience, 
 will you dare to) go home and look honest men in 
 i be face? Each member upon this floor is now 
 acting under a solemn responsibility — a responsi- 
 bility not only to the people, but to our common 
 Maker. 
 
 Fortunately, there is a mutter of time iuvolved 
 in the consideration of this question, dates and 
 figures which appear in the proofs in this case 
 (and it is said that they cannot lie) which are 
 
 sergeant-at arms room and vestibule of the capi- 
 tol were thronged by a crowd such as is common 
 at primary meetings in New York. Mayor Perry, 
 of Albany, promptly provided a police force to 
 suppress any demonstration of violence. 
 
 " After prayer the Journal was read, and Mr. T. 
 C. Fields rose and demanded a correction, by 
 striking out the word "interruption," which had 
 been included in Mr. Sherwood's resolution of the 
 dav previous. The leadingRepublicans attempted 
 to "make the required alteration; but were pre- 
 vented by Mr. Fields, and Mr. Murphy of F.rie. 
 who consumed the time in debate till the hour of 
 twelve, when the special order was announced. % 
 
 " The old game of " flllibustering," which had 
 thus been initiated, was now carried on in full 
 force. Mr. Fields declared that the Journal, till 
 it was corrected, was no evidence in the matter 
 
 stronger than all the testimony, all the inferences, i of a special order; that the ruling of the Clerk 
 all the ingenious imaginings anil all the conjee- j had no binding authority. He interspersed his 
 one . that can possibly be made in regard to this language with the most insulting and intlamma 
 
11 
 
 tory express in us, for the apparent purpose ol ex- 
 asperating the persons in the lobby and gallery, 
 who responded to liim with cheers. Every effort 
 of other Democrats for order in the lobby and 
 gallery met his constant disapprobation; and 
 finally everything was given np to the spirit ol" 
 disorder. " Points of order are played out," said 
 Mr. Fields. 
 
 " Mr. Murphy, of Buffalo, threatened that, if 
 Mr. Callicon, were elected, he would never be 
 permitted to take his seat; Mr. Grovery of this 
 city, littered a threat of assassination, urging the 
 withdrawal of Mr. Callicott out of regard for his 
 family and children, " for God knew what the re- 
 sult might be. If the gentleman was elected, he 
 even feared that he would never like to take the 
 post, which in such case would he a post of dis- 
 honor." Mr. Fields of this city, in the midst of 
 an inflammatory speech, said, ominously, that, 
 " if Theophilus b. Callicott was elected Speaker 
 of this House, it would be under circumstances 
 which both sides of the House would regret for- 
 ever. Other members followed in a similar 
 strain . 
 
 " Meantime, the ruffians who had been sent up 
 to Albany, in obedience to a telegraphic dispatch 
 from these men, crowded the galleries and lobbies, 
 and their hisses, yells, stamping of feet, cries to 
 " bring Callicott out," and threats against that 
 gentleman and others, filled up the intervals, 
 
 the minds ol members, and 1 feared that by t lie 
 
 gross misrepresentations, so recklessly emploj eel 
 by the gentleman from New York, it might be 
 successfully used to defeat me, without my h.n 
 ing an opportunity to explain the facts and deti id 
 myself. I knew it, was not only possible- but pro 
 liable that the gentleman from New York ( Mr. T. 
 C. Fields), would rise and with his fluency ol' 
 speech dilate upon the enormous crime which be 
 would assert I had committed — that I had been 
 guilty of defrauding a poorwidowof $1200, when 
 in fact I had simply borrowed that amount, of a 
 lady of considerable wealth and who was not. at 
 all necessitous — that there was no circumstance 
 of that character connected with the debt. But 1 
 felt anxious that it should be disposed of. 1 made 
 to Mr. Hope, therefore, the offer which he testifies 
 to. I found a friend who was willing to lend me 
 $200 and I offered to makean assignment of my pay , 
 #'300 more. The reply was, that those who wen 
 pursuing me had offered to buy the claim, and un- 
 less I gave him the whole amount he would trans 
 fer the claim to my political enemies, to be used 
 to gratify their malice. I had been introduced, 
 by a friend, to Hon. John H. Reynolds, one ol 
 the most eminent lawyers of this city, one of the 
 firm of Reynolds, Cochrane & Harris, as it was 
 thought that, under the difficulties which had 
 arisen, I might require the advice of legal coun- 
 sel, Mr. Reynolds had told me that he was go- 
 
 while they responded vociferously and with inde- i ing to New York to try some causes, and thai 
 
 cent language to every appeal made to their baser 
 passions by the speakers we have named." 
 
 The New York World, in the interest of the 
 copperhead school, had the effrontery to deny 
 that the gentleman from Erie (Mr. Murphy ) had 
 made any such threats of violence or used any 
 such language. But every man in the Housewho 
 was present knows that it is true ; and the Buffalo 
 Express, a highly respectable journal, published 
 in the city where the gentleman from Erie re- 
 sides, reaffirmed its truth, in its issue of the 28th 
 of January as follows : 
 
 " Of course the World has not, a shadow of war- 
 rant for thus positively denying Mr. Murphy's 
 guilt; but in its apprehension of the damaging ef- 
 fect of his too outspoken expression of the revo- 
 lutionary spirit of Toryism, it does not scruple to 
 confront the danger with a lie. Mr. Murphy did 
 use the language attributed to him, openly and 
 repeatedly in this city. He dare not denj it 
 himself, in the face of those who heard him, 
 nor dare his political friends here dispute the 
 charge." 
 
 It was in the midst of such scenes of violence 
 as these, with my reputation traduced and my 
 life threatened with such reckless and unparalleled 
 malignity, that on the 10th day of January, three 
 days after I had been publicly nominated, and 
 had publicly taken my position as a candidate fbr 
 Speaker of the. House, Mr. Thomas Hope, of 
 Brooklyn, came to me and demanded payment, of 
 the debt which I owed Mrs. Wood. Although 1 
 may have seemed calm under the fierce assaults 
 that were made upon me, I felt, all those strong 
 emotions within me, which every man must feel 
 under such circumstances, who has a heart. 1 
 felt exceedingly anxious in regard to my position. 
 The animosity that had been manifested — the de- 
 liberate determination, too plainly visible, tocrush 
 me in any way in which it could he accomplished, 
 made me unduly sensitive when the oemand for 
 the payment of this debt was made, and was 
 pressed with such evident determination to de- 
 crease the difficulties of my position, if 1 did not 
 at once pay. It has been stated to me that the 
 gentleman who made these charges, [Mr. T. C. 
 Fields,] had had a conversation witli Mr. Hope, 
 and that offers had been made to purchase the 
 claim, in order to press it. upon and harass me. It 
 is no wonder that I felt exceedingly anxious to 
 settle that claim or dispose of it in some manner, 
 that no improper use of it might be made against 
 me. I knew that, under the spirit of malignity 
 with which! was pursued, the character of the 
 transaction might be distorted, so as to influence 
 
 he would not return until Wednesday ; that il 
 I had occasion to consult with him during his 
 absence I might send for one of his partners. 
 I sent for Mr. Cochrane, and in response, Mr. 
 Harris called upon me. 1 told him, frankly, tin- 
 whole of the circumstances, and asked his advice. 
 He told me that he thought I had better pay the 
 debt; that under the peculiar circumstances in 
 which 1 was placed they might make use of it 
 against me; that they might use it to prejudice 
 the minds of gentlemen who were disposed to 
 sustain me. This was on the 19th. It was im- 
 possible, situated as I was, to leave Albany ; 
 being anxious to be on the ground to watch 
 everything that took place during the contest, 
 and therefore had not time to go elsewhere fbr 
 the assistance I wanted. The following day, Mr. 
 Harris, in a spirit, of friendship, seeing the anxiety 
 I was laboring under, advanced the sum of $1200 
 which I paid over to Mr. Hope, and this is the 
 whole truth of the matter. The charge is here 
 made by the geutleman from New York (Mr. T. 
 C. Fields) that the money came from the chair- 
 man of the Republican Union State Central Com- 
 mittee, and that too without a particle of proof 
 .(i show the fact. I never knew who the Chair 
 man of the Republican Union State Central Com- 
 mittee was until after I was elected Speaker, and 
 I never spoke to nor was I in his company pre 
 viiuis to that, time, and the subject of this §'1200 
 loaned to me by Mr. Harris was never alluded to 
 by either the chairman of that committee or my- 
 self, nor did I know that Mr. Harris was a mem- 
 ber of the Republican Ceutral Committee until 
 after my election. No allusion was ever made In 
 the conversations between myself and Mr. Harris, 
 in Hint committee. Why should there have 
 been ? My position had been already token. For 
 two days I had held out firmly against the assaults 
 of these gentlemen ; during Fridayarid Saturday, 
 they had hurled their fierce phillippics at me be- 
 cause 1 had consented to become the candidate of 
 the Republican Union party for Speaker, and yet 
 I stood firmly to the position I had taken. 
 
 Let me read the testimony of Mr. Harris on this 
 point, from pages 37 and 3Sof the printed minutes 
 of the evidence as taken by your committee of 
 investigation. Mr. Harris is tiie witness of whom 
 Mr. T. C. Fields avers in his charges against me 
 that he is " a highly esteemed and distinguished 
 gentleman." I need not say that he is unim- 
 peached and unimpeachable. 
 
 Q. Before or at the time of loaning this $1200 
 to Mr. Callicot was there anything said by you to 
 him, or by him to you, in relation to his official 
 
12 
 
 vote, action or influence? [Objected to; objac- 
 tmn withdrawn. 
 
 A. There was not. 
 
 Q. Before the money was paid, or at tbc lime 
 , i rwimla, was there any agreement or under- 
 standing, directly or indirectly, between you and 
 Mr. CaJUcot, that his official action or influence 
 should Ik, in any maimer, affected by reason o) 
 the payment of that money i 
 
 A. There whs no 
 
 Q. Did Mr. Callicot, before or at the time the 
 money was paid, or at any time, propose 10 re- 
 ceive the sum of 81200 or any other sumajj aeon- 
 suleration and motive of his official action in the hpeakei 
 
 y. Had you, previous to thattiiue, had any con- 
 versation with Mr. Callicot in relation to the or 
 ganizatton ol' the House or any question connect- 
 ed with it ■' 
 
 A. 1 had not seen him at all to speak with him. 
 
 Q. [By Mr. Cochran.] Until the nineteenth ? 
 
 A. No, sir. 
 
 Q. [By Mr. Cochran.] You had not seen him 
 to apeak with him tins Winter, before the nine- 
 teenth ? 
 
 A. No, sir. 
 
 Q. AttlK- tunc von spoke to him, had he recen ed 
 the nomination of the Republican-Union party, foi 
 
 organization of the House, by the election pf 
 Speaaer : 
 
 A. He did not. 
 
 Q. Hid Mr. Callicot, before the money waspaid, 
 or at the time it was paid or on any occasion, pro- 
 pose to receive the sum of $1200, or any other 
 sum, as a consideration or motive for Ids official 
 action in relation to the election of United Male 
 
 A. He had ; that is, they had been voting foi 
 l.nn. 
 
 Q. In the House ': 
 
 A. Yes, sir. 
 
 Q. The Assembly had adjourned 
 
 A. Yes, sir. 
 
 Q. Previous to that time, had you had any com- 
 munication, directly or indirectly, with Mr. Calli- 
 
 Senator from this State to the Congress ot the cot, or any one acting in bis behalf, in relation l 
 
 United States 
 
 A. He did not. 
 
 Q. Hid you pay, or did he receive $1200, or any 
 other sum of money, as a consideration and mo- 
 tive tor his official influence and action as anaero- 
 be] "i the Assembly i 
 
 A. 1 aid not. 
 
 y. Y'ou neither paid nor he received it with such 
 motive or object : 
 
 A. 1 did hot, ami he did not from me so tar as 
 I know. 
 
 Q. Did he receive from you directly or indi- 
 rectly, or anv other person to your knowledge, 
 Hie sum of $1200, or any oilier sum as a consid- 
 eration and motive lor his official action upon the 
 question of the election of United States Senator 
 to the Congress of the United Slates : 
 
 A. He did not. 
 
 Q. Was there ever before the loan, at tin- tune 
 of the loan or alter me loau any conversation or 
 communication between you and Mr. Callicot in 
 
 try money to be paid or loaned to him i 
 
 A. 1 bad not. 
 
 What new inducement did 1 want to maintain 
 the position I had taken aim had for two days 
 maintained : Whatpccurs to-day eauuot be said 
 ii i.e an inducement for anything that tool; 
 place last week. Can the remarks 1 am making 
 here co-night be said to be an inducement foi 
 something which was done yesterday ? Three 
 days before Mr. Hope ever came to me, as the 
 evidence will show, I had publicly taken my po- 
 sition and declared the basis upon which 1 would 
 , tiei i an organization of Ibis House. In view ol 
 those facts, gentlemen, 1 say that it is impossible 
 for anv man, upon his oath as a member of this 
 House, to honestly say that the favor which was 
 done me by Mr. Harris on the 20th and 21st. of 
 January, was the inducement for what I hail 
 done on the 16th,. five days previous. However 
 much it may suit the partisan purposes of the 
 men who are disgracing the Democratic party in 
 
 I ha vi 
 
 relation to either one ot the subjects upon which this House to cany on tins persecution; 1 have 
 
 you have been interrogated on your erpss-exami- an abiding confidence that there are those on the 
 
 .,,,,„, Democratic side ot the House, who will not be 
 
 nation 
 
 A. There was not. 
 
 Q. Was there ever any negotiation, proposal or 
 agreement that this money should be paid, re- 
 ceived or loaned for any corrupt or illegal pur- 
 pose : 
 
 A. There was cone. 
 
 <i. Did anvtbing transpire as, far as you know 
 Irom which Mr. Callicot could learn where the 
 money came from : 
 
 A. No other than 1 told him that I would lota 
 ii to bun myself. 
 
 Q. Was there anything said in any ol the mtcr- 
 \icivs between you and Mr. Callicot in relation to 
 in Republican-Union Suite Central Committee . 
 
 A. There was none. 
 
 Q, Did he to tar as you know have any knowl- 
 edge that you were a member of that committee : 
 
 A. He did not. 
 
 ■J. I think you said you went up there 10 see 
 Mr. Callicot bv reason of some communication 
 which Mr. Cochran made to you. What was tin- 
 language that Mr. Cochran used on that occasion 
 
 whipped by the party lash into voting against 
 the conviction of their own conscience and juclg 
 ment. Proudly conscious of the rectitude, of m> 
 conduct, and relying, firmly, gentlemen, on the 
 justice of your determination, 1 have the inattei 
 in your hands without the slightest apptetieh'ajati 
 as to the result. 
 
 [Mr Callicot then retired trom the House. '. 
 
 Abe: a long debate, in which Messrs. T. C. 
 Fields, Davis, Priudle, Murphy, Weaver, Hughe 
 and Leslie participated, and which lasted till 2 
 .v. m., me previous question was moved by Mr. 
 A. Smith, (Dem 1 and the ayes ami noes being 
 demanded by Mr. Dean, (Dem.,i iwcive mem 
 bers rose, and the main question was ordered to 
 he now put by a vote of -to aye* to 39 noes. The 
 Speaker proiem then put the question upon agri e 
 iug with the committee m their report, and it 
 was agreed to without a dissenting voice. 
 
 The report, agreed toby the House couclu.i . 
 as follows; The committee have heard all propel 
 evidence offered to .-how that. Mr. Callicot bus 
 been guilty of corrupt or criminal conduct m bis 
 
 1 cannot give the language ; the substance official character as a member of this Legislalui 
 
 of it was that he had received some coramunica- or since his election, and haye come to the ran 
 
 lion from Mr. Callicot, and he wished ine to go up elusion tBat Aets entirely iweeul. 
 
 and see him, there was much more said 1 have E. H..PKINMJS, Hkmiv C. Lai.j ., 
 
 no doubt, but that is all 1 remember. * P. E. Havens. 
 
1* 
 
 NOTES ON MR. CALLICOT'S SPEECH. 
 
 Mr. T. C. Fields having asserted iu one of 
 liie harraugues, with characteristic disregard 
 of truth, that " out of thirty-four chairmen 
 of Committees, seven are Democratic,'' it is 
 proper to state here by way of note that of the 
 thirty-four standing Committees of the As- 
 sembly, Mr. Speaker Callicot appointed fif- 
 teen Democratic Chairmen, viz : 
 
 1. Mr. Trimmer on Canals. 
 
 2. Mr. S. Smith, on Banks. 
 
 3. Mr. King, on Insurance Companies. 
 
 4. Mr. Brooks, on two-thirds and three- 
 fifths bills. 
 
 5. Mr. Van Buren, on Grievances. 
 
 (i. Mr. 0. Brien, on Petitions of Aliens. 
 
 7. Mr. J. S. Havens, on Internal affairs of 
 Towns and Counties. 
 
 8. Mr. Seymour, on Affairs of Cities. 
 
 9. Mr. Clark, on Manufacture of Salt. 
 
 10. Mr. Adgate, on State Prisons. 
 
 1 1 . Mr. Gilbert, on Engrossed Bills. 
 
 12. Mr. Fletcher, on Militia and Public De- 
 fence. 
 
 18. Mr. Ward, on Roads and Bridges. 
 14, Mr. Lott, on Public Lands. 
 16. Mr. Marshal, on Expenditures in the Ex- 
 ecutive Department. 
 
 It must also be remembered that three 
 Democratic members, (Mr. T. C. Fields, 
 Mr. Loutrei. and Mr. Dakcy — par nobile 
 fratrum) refused to serve upon any commit- 
 tee, and were excused by a vote of the 
 House. 
 
 A majority of the Select Committees ap- 
 pointed by Mr. Speaker Callicot during the 
 Session had Democratic Chairmen. His lib- 
 eralty towards those who opposed his elec- 
 tion, was unprecedented. 
 
 Mr. T. C. Fields attempted to sustain his 
 charges by showing that, about the same 
 time Mr. Callicot borrowed twelve hundred 
 dollars from Mr. Harris, a draft for the like 
 amount was drawn by Senator Low, Chair- 
 man of the Republican Union State Centra! 
 Committee, upon Mr. Sherman, Treasurer of 
 the Committee, and endorsed by Mr. H. Haii- 
 ■kis and Thcblow Weed. But the evidence 
 utterly fails to connect that draft with Mr. 
 Callicot in any way whatever. On the 
 contrary, there is affirmatives, positive and un- 
 
 contradicted evidence by Mr. Harris that 
 Mr. Cali.ioot had no connection with it and 
 no knowledge of it. . Mr. Tjiurlow Weed 
 notoriously opposed Mr. Cali.icot's election, 
 and advocated the election of Mr. Trimmer. 
 In the speech which Mr. T. C. Fields made 
 to the House (after Mr. Callicot had retired) 
 he pretented to believe that this draft was 
 drawn on the 15th of January and shown to 
 Mr. Callicot. Before the investigating com- 
 mittee at their sittiug on the 4th of April, 
 (see p. 52 of the printed minutes) Mr. Sha- 
 i'ei:, the prosecuting counsel employed by 
 Mr. Fields, offered to show that the draft 
 was drawn on the 21st of January in faot, 
 and that it was ante-dated the 15th by de- 
 sign! So far as Mr. Callicot is concerned, 
 this is a matter of no consequence, as he never 
 saw or heard of this draft until after the in- 
 vestigation was commenced, but it will seem 
 to illustrate the recklessness and inconsis- 
 tency with which the prosecutor shifted his 
 ground. 
 
 At the same meeting of the Committee, 
 j Mr. Harris, one of the witnesses, said: 
 
 "In justice to Senator Low and myself. I 
 feel that it is due to me to say, that no such tes- 
 timony could be obtained from me as that 
 ["which was offered to be proven by the coun- 
 I sel for the prosecution, concerning my con- 
 1 suiting with Senator Low and the various 
 persons he mentions in his offers — Senators, 
 members of the House, and others of the 
 Republiam party, in reference to Mr. Calli- 
 cot." 
 
 _ Letter I'roni tile Hon. H, K. Lon. 
 
 _New York, April 27, 1863. 
 Hon. H. J. Raymond. — Sir: I observe in 
 the limes of this morning, in its editorial no- 
 tices of the proceedings of the Legislature, 
 an unjust and unmerited attack upon the 
 officers of the Union State Central Commit- 
 tee in connection with the Speakership of the 
 Assembly. 
 
 I shall assume that your purpose is not to 
 
 intentionally injure or traduce the members 
 
 of that Committee, but as your charges and 
 
 inferences are entirely without proof or foun- 
 
 ! dation, I respectfully ask that you will pub- 
 
 I lish the following statement of facts which 
 
 i were sought to be given in evidenoe and 
 
14 
 
 sworn to before the Committee, both by Mr. ' 
 Harris and myself, but was ruled as not re- ! 
 levant to the matters under consideration. 
 
 First, as to the nature of the transaction to 
 which you allude. Several days after Mr. Cal- 
 licut was publicly nominated for Speaker by 
 the Union members, a creditor presented 
 himself and demanded the payment of a claim 
 against him, and in the event of a refusal 
 threatened a public exposition of the matter. 
 Mr. Oallicot being unable to pay the claim, 
 sought legal advice as to what course he 
 should pursue, and consulted Hamilton liar- 1 
 ris, Esq., to whom he had been recommend- 
 ed — a gentleman of the highest character 
 and legal standing. 
 
 Mr. Harris, upon looking over the whole 
 subject, advised him to pay the debt, and as 
 he (Oallicot) was unable to go to hi- home 
 to raise the money at the time, he loaned 
 him the amount and took his note. This is 
 the whole transaction as shown by any proof. 
 It is claimed that Mr. Harris obtained this 
 money from the Central Committee, of which 
 he was a member, upon a draft at that time 
 for the same amount as the claim so paid. 
 Of this I have only to say, that the draft 
 which was alluded to, but not given in evi- 
 dence, was signed by me without any know- 
 ledge, belief or information that it was to be 
 used for any other than the ordinary and 
 legitimate expenses of the Committee; that 
 i had not the most distant idea that it was 
 to be paid to Mr. Oallicot or to Mrs. Woods, 
 his creditor ; that it went into the hands of 
 Mr. Weed, who was known to be opposing 
 the election of Mr. Oallicot, and who was. its 
 I believe, unfriendly to myself, and was ne- 
 gotiated at Mr. Coming's Bank* — facts 
 strangely at variance with the theory which 
 yon seem to have adopted. 
 
 I must also further say, in justice to Mr. 
 Harris, that he has accounted to the Com, 
 mittee for every dollar which he ever drew 
 from it, and that the whole amount has been 
 applied in the payment of clerk hire and 
 printing. I wish also here to further say 
 what I have not deemed it necessary to al- 
 lude to so long as these charges were confin- 
 ed to the publications of my opponents — that 
 I never at any time or place spoke to Mr. 
 Oallicot, or was in his company, or had any 
 conference, correspondence, or communica- 
 tion with him directly or indirectly, upon or 
 in relation to any subject whatever, until af- 
 ter he was elected Speaker of the Assembly, 
 and never at any time in regard to any mat- 
 ter of a pecuniary nature. 
 
 I had hoped and still trust that these at- 
 tacks and criminations would be confined to 
 our opponents, more especially when, as in 
 this case, they are without foundation, and 
 cannot serve any useful or public purpose. 
 Yours truly, II. R. Low. 
 
 KPEEC1I OF JOHX ,T. CMTTEKWEX. 
 
 •It was Mr. King's and not Mr. Coming's 
 Bank— though the discrepancy is not material,— 
 
 [Ens, 
 
 IB i* Ri'bnkv to Xortliern I*eaceBiionsrers — 
 Vli€» ftiupiiort of tile 4wovernBit«>nt every 
 VfliiH'* First Dlflf.r. 
 
 The recent speech of John J. Crittenden at 
 Lexington, Kentucky, on the war and the duty 
 of the people, was in marked contrast with the 
 addresses of many of those with whom Mr. Crit- 
 tenden lias heretofore cooperated. Mr. Critten- 
 den is by no means an abolitionist or a radical; 
 he has all his life been distinguished as a con- 
 servative of the strictest sect, and yet, while dis- 
 approving of many things, he declares unreserv- 
 edly for the prosecution of the war and the sup- 
 pression of the rebellion at whatever cost, holding 
 that to do anything less than this would be "an 
 ignominy the like of which lias never been heard 
 of in history." In his speech he said, after al- 
 luding to the rejection of the resolutions offered 
 by him in the House of Representatives : 
 
 "Still, 1 was for the war. Notwithstanding 
 the Confiscation act, notwithstanding the Eman- 
 cipation Proclamation and the emancipation laws, 
 notwithstanding the policy of raising nesro ar- 
 mies and the talk about negro equality with white 
 men as soldiers— and I voted against them all — 
 notwithstanding their adoption, I have still ad- 
 vocated the prosecution of the war. While the 
 rebellion was before me, while the great enemy 
 of my country was before me, I was stiil for the 
 war, without an armistice, regardless of foreign 
 intervention— fighting all the world, if necessary 
 — till the rebellion is put down. I was dissatis- 
 fied with the policy ot the Administration. I 
 thought it my duty to tell Congress and the Gov- 
 ernment that we thought these measures were 
 impolitic and unconstitutional. But still it was 
 our duty to light the rebellion ; it was the great- 
 est danger, and it was right in our faces. Our 
 constitution and laws might all be violated or 
 suspended ; it would be of no use to stop to talk. 
 After the war is over the people may, in their 
 wisdom, correct the errors and repair the mis- 
 chief, and prevent further encroachments on the 
 constitution and their rights. 
 
 " I am, therefore, for the prosecution of the 
 war, until it shall have accomplished its end. To 
 the dissolution of this Union I never will sub- 
 scribe. I am an old man, and could scuffle out 
 the few remaining days of my life without being 
 compelled to sanction a proposition for the dis- 
 memberment of the Union; but, notwithstand- 
 ing, from principle, for the perpetuation of free 
 i^overnment, I would prosecute this war as long 
 ! as there is a rebel in arms threatening that gov- 
 ernment, and threatening Kentucky especially. 
 The rebel government claims Kentucky as its 
 own, because some of tier recreant sons have gone 
 ' oft into its service. Yes, the rebels say, we will 
 have Kentucky anyhow; it isn't worth while for 
 j her to struggle. You have, therefore, something 
 more than a general interest, in this war; you 
 have a particular oue. The South wants you; 
 I you have a rich country, and are prosperous ; you 
 j c«n pay taxes; you are a soldierly, fighting peo- 
 ple, aiid if they can conquer you, you maj be 
 made to serve them well. AVhat Kentuekian will 
 i not say the war shall be prosecuted to the last ex- 
 tremity by those who were burn in ' the land of 
 j fair women and brave men r" [Great cheers.] — 
 I tell you, the rebels never shall, never can subju- 
 gate you, if you are determined they shali not.'- 
 
 In the following remarks Mr. Crittenden shows 
 the utter fallacy of hoping to correct errors in the 
 policy of the Government, if such there be, by 
 violence and harsh dealing, instead of by tempe- 
 rate criticism, or by menaces of a withdrawal of 
 men and means for the support of the war : 
 
 " It is proposed by some, in their anger againsl 
 the government, to refuse to light the rebellion — 
 to refuse to give money or men for the prosecu- 
 tion of the war. Will that better the matter?— 
 Will that course save vou, and save our glorious 
 
15 
 
 country and government ? If you oiler no resist- 
 ance, yon surrender to it, and lose your manhood. 
 It is not by denouncing the views of the President, 
 it is not by the language of passion and reproach 
 that errors in public affairs can be righted, and 
 the government conducted successfully. You are 
 a portion of the people of the United States ; act 
 in a manner becoming your high condition. Se- 
 dition does not become it; clamor does not become 
 it. Action, at the proper time and in the proper 
 manner, according to legal and constitutional 
 provision, is what we want, and what the world 
 has a right to expect." 
 
 In concluding, Mr. Crittenden said : 
 
 "The nation will get through its difficulties. 
 We have the power and will to do it, and we shall 
 accomplish it. That great Providence that has 
 made us the standard-hearer of freedom will not 
 permit our government to go down and leave 
 the world in gloom. I have faith ; ' there is a 
 Divinity above that shapes all our ends,' and He 
 will shape the destiny of our nation. Its career 
 has only just begun, and Providence does not 
 permit a half-finished work of such momentous 
 proportions to fail and be abandoned ; and I trust 
 in God, that we, the people do not intend it. — 
 Our hearts must be filled with the noble determi- 
 nation to maintain the integrity of our govern- 
 ment, while we grow greater and greater, mighti- 
 er and mightier, richer in civilization, grander in 
 prosperity, until our glory shall cover the whole 
 land." 
 
 " But you must prepare to fight the rebellion 
 through to the last, no matter whether England 
 or France, or any other power make common 
 cause with them or not. We must tight them all, 
 if need be; and we can whip them all, in the de- 
 fence of right. I do n't want to extend the boun- 
 daries of this war ; God knows I do not! I have 
 tried to make peace, as long as peace was consist- 
 ent with national safety. Now, I believe war 
 alone can save us, and war it must he." 
 
 Those rebel sympathizers who make the sup 
 port of the war secondary to their support of 
 party, and who, with armed rebellion menacing 
 the life of the nation, clamor for peace and com- 
 promise, would do well to emulate the example 
 which Mr. Crittenden has set them. 
 
 Tile Sentence of Vallaucligliana. **— 
 
 Headquarters, Department op Ohio, ? 
 Cincinnati, May 18, 1S63. S 
 
 General Order No. 6S. — I. At a Military Com- 
 mission, which convened at Cincinnati, Ohio, on 
 the 6th day of May, 1863, pursuant to Special 
 Order No. 135, of April 21, 1863, current series, 
 from these headquarters, and ot which Brigadier 
 General Robert B. Potter, United States volun- 
 teers, is President, was arraigned and tried Cle- 
 ment L. Vallandigham, a citizen of Ohio, on the 
 following charge and specification of charge, to 
 wit: 
 
 Charge.— Publicly expressing, in violation of 
 General Order No. 38, from Headquarters De- 
 partment of Ohio, sympathy for those in arms 
 against the Government of the United States, and 
 declaring disloyal sentiments and opinions, with 
 the object and purpose of weakening the power 
 of the Government in its efforts to suppress an 
 unlawful rebellion. 
 
 Specification— In this, that the said Clement C. 
 Vallandigham, a citizen of the State of Ohio, on 
 or about the 1st of May, 1S63, at Mount Vernon, 
 Knox county, Ohio, did publicly address a large 
 meeting of citizens, and^lid utter sentiments in 
 words or effect as follows : Declaring the present 
 war "a wicked, cruel and unnecessary war; a 
 war not being waged for the preservation of the 
 Union; a war for the purpose of crushing out 
 liberty and erecting a despotism; a war for the 
 freedom of the blacks and the enslavement of 
 the whites;" stating that, "if the Administration 
 had so wished, the war could have been honora- 
 bly terminated months ago ;" that " peace might 
 
 have been honorably obtained by listening to the 
 proposed intermediation of France;" that propo- 
 sitions " by which the Southern States could be 
 won back, and the South guaranteed their rights 
 under the Constitution, had been rejected the day 
 before the late battle of Fredericksburg by Lin- 
 coln and his minions," meaning thereby the Pres- 
 ident of the United States and those under him in 
 authority ; charging that "the Government of the 
 United States was about to appoint Military Mar- 
 shals in every district to restrain the people of 
 their liberties, to deprive them of their rights and 
 privileges ;" " characterizing General Order No. 
 38, from Headquarters Department of Ohio, as a 
 base usurpation of arbitrary authority ;" inviting 
 his hearers to resist the same, by saying " the 
 sooner the people inform the minions of usurped 
 power that tbey will not submit to such restric- 
 tions upon their liberties, the better;" declaring 
 that he was, " at all times and upen all occasions, 
 resolved to do what he could to defeat the at- 
 tempts now being made to build up a monarchy 
 upon the ruins of our free Government;" assert- 
 ing that "he firmly believed, as he said six months 
 ago, that the men in power are attempting to es- 
 tablish a despotism in this country more cruel 
 and oppressive than ever existed before." All of 
 which opinions and sentiments, he well knew, 
 did aid, comfort and encourage those in arms 
 against the Government, and could but induce in 
 his hearers a distrust of their own Government, 
 sympathy for those in arms against it, and a dis- 
 position to resist the laws of the land. 
 
 To which charges and specifications, the pris- 
 oner refusing to plead either " Guilty " or " Not 
 guilty, " the Commission directed the Judge- 
 Advocate to enter on the records the plea of " Not 
 guilty." 
 
 The Commission, after mature deliberation on 
 the evidence adduced and the statement of the 
 accused, find the accused, Clement L. Vallandig- 
 ham, a citizen of the State of Ohio, as follows : 
 
 Of the specification, (except the words, " That 
 propositions by which the Northern States could 
 be won back, and the South guaranteed their 
 rights under the Constitution, had been rejected 
 the day before the last battle of Fredericksburg 
 by Lincoln and his minions," meaning, thereby, 
 the President ot the United States and those un- 
 der him in authority ; and the words asserting 
 that " he firmly believed, as he asserted six 
 months ago, that the men in power are attempting 
 to establish a despotism in this country, more 
 cruel and more oppressive than ever existed be- 
 fore; ") "Guilty." 
 
 And as to these words, " Not Guilty," 
 
 Of the charge, "Guilty." 
 
 And the Commission do therefore sentence him, 
 the said Clement L. Vallandigham, a citizen of 
 the State of Ohio, to be placed in close confine- 
 ment in some fortress of the United States, to be 
 designated by the Commanding officer of this De- 
 partment, there to be kept during the continu- 
 ance of the war. 
 
 II. The proceedings, finding and sentence in 
 the foregoing case are approved and confirmed, 
 and it is"directed that the place of confinement of 
 the prisonei* Clement L. Vallandigham, is accor- 
 dance with said sentence, be Fort Warren, Boston 
 Harbor. 
 
 By command of Maj.-Gen. Bcrnside. 
 
 Lewis Richmond, Assistant Adjutant-General. 
 
 llin Vallaiidisliam Case-Xlie. Applica- 
 tion for a Writ of Habeas Corpui— A 
 Statement toy Gen. Burnsiile. 
 
 Headquarters Dept. op the Ohio, ) 
 Cincinnati, 0., May 11, 1863. > 
 To the Honorable the Circuit Court of the United, 
 States within and for the Southern District of 
 Ohio : The undersigned, commanding the De 
 partment of the Ohio, having received notice 
 from the Clerk of said Court that an application 
 for the allowance of a writ of habeas corpus will 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 16 
 
 \ 
 
 be made this morning before your Honors on be- 
 half of C. L. Vallandigham, now a prisoner in 
 my custody, asks leaveto submit to the Court 
 the following statement. 
 
 If I were to indulge in wholesale criticisms of 
 the policy of the Government, it would demoral- 
 ize the arms under toy command, and every 
 friend of his country would call me a traitor. If 
 the officers or soldiers were to indulge in such 
 criticisms, it would weaken tho army to the ex- 
 tent of their influence; and if tins criticism were 
 universal in the army, it would cause it. to be 
 broken to pieces, the Government to be divided, 
 our homes to be divided, and anarchy to reign. 
 My duty to my Government, forbids me to in- 
 dulge in such criticisms; officers and soldiers are 
 not allowed to so indulge; and this coarse will 
 be sustained by all honest men. 
 
 Now, I will go further. We are in a state of 
 civil war. One of the States of this Department 
 is at this moment invaded, and three others have 
 been threatened. I command the Department, 
 and it is my duty to my country and to this army 
 to keep it in the best possible condition ; to see 
 that it is fed, clad, armed, and, as far as possible, 
 to see that it is encourneed. If it is my duty and 
 the duty of the troops to avoid saying anything 
 that would weaken the army, by preventing a 
 single recruit from joining the ranks, by bri 
 the laws of Congress into disrepute, or by causing 
 dissatistaction in the ranks; it is equally the duty 
 of every citizen in the Department to avoid the 
 same evil. If it is my duty to prevent the pro- 
 pagation of this evil in the army, or in a portion 
 of my Department, it is equally my duty in ail 
 portions of it; and it is my duty to use all the 
 force in my power to stop it. 
 
 If I were to find a man from.the enemy's coun- 
 try distributing in my camps speeches of their 
 public men, that tended to demoralize the troops, 
 or to destroy their contidence in the constituted 
 authorities of the Government, I would have him 
 tried, and hung if found guilty, and all the rules 
 of modern warfare would sustain me. Why 
 should such speeches from our own public men 
 she allowed ? 
 
 / The press and public men, in a great emergen- 
 / cy like the present, should avoid the use of party 
 / epithets and bitter invectives, and discourage the 
 J organization of secret political societies, which 
 are always undignified and disgraceful to a free 
 people, but now they are absolutely wrong and 
 injurious; they create dissensions and discord, 
 which just now amount to treason. The simple 
 names " Patriot " and " Traitor " are comprehen- 
 sive enough. 
 
 As I before said, we are in a state of civil war, 
 and an emergency is upon us which reco 
 operations of some power that moves more quick- 
 ly than the civil. There never was a war carried 
 on successfully without the exercise of that power. 
 
 It is said that the speeches which are con- 
 demned have been made in the presence of large 
 bodies of citizens, who, if they thought, them 
 wrong, would have then and there condemned 
 them. That is no argument. These citizens do 
 not realize tbe effect upon the army of our coun- 
 try, who are its defenders. They hiive never been 
 in the field ; never faced the enemies of their 
 country ; never underwent the privations of our 
 soldiers in the field: and, besides, tbey have been 
 in the habit of hearing their public men speak, 
 and, as a general thing, of approving of what 
 they say; therefore, the greater responsibility 
 rests upon the public men and upon the public 
 press, and it behooves them to be careful as to 
 what they say. They must not use license, and 
 plead ha', they are exercising liberty. In this 
 depar ment it cannot be done. I shall use all the 
 power 1 have to break down such license, anil I 
 am sure I will be sustained in this course by all 
 honest men. At all events, I will have the con- 
 sciousness, before God, of having done my duty 
 to my country ; and when I am swerved from 
 Standard & Statesman Print 
 
 013 709 208 6 £? 
 
 ; the performs 
 public or pri 
 
 i longer bo a i 
 
 j I again ass 
 
 ; earth, or tha 
 
 | U6ed in defense of ray Government, on all occa- 
 sions, at all times, and In all places within this 
 Department. There is no party— no community 
 — no State Government — no State legislative 
 body — no corporation, or body of men that have 
 
 i tbe power to inaugurate a war policy that has the 
 validity of law and power, hut the constituted 
 
 I authorities of the Government of the United 
 
 ! States: and I am determined to support their pol- 
 icy. If the people do not approve that policy, 
 they can change the constitutional authorities of 
 that Government, at the proper time and by the 
 
 I proper method. Let them freely discuss that 
 
 ! policy in a proper tone ; but my duty requires me 
 
 I to stop license for intemperate discussion, which 
 
 i tends to weaken tho authority ot the Govern- 
 ment and the army; while tho latter is in the 
 presence of the enemy, it is cowardly to so to 
 weaken it. This license could not be used In our 
 camps— tho man would be torn in piecees who 
 would a 
 
 There is no fear of the people losing their liber- 
 ties; we all know that to bo the cry of dema- 
 
 j gogues, and none but the ignorant will listen to 
 it; all intelligent men know that our people are 
 
 I too far advanced in the scale of religion, civillza- 
 
 . tion and freedom, to allow any power on earth to 
 interfere with their liberties: but this same ad- 
 vancement in these great characteristics of our 
 people, teaches them to make all the necessary 
 sacrifices for their country when an emergency 
 requires. They wilt support the consti.uted au- 
 thorities of the Government, whether they agree 
 with them or not. Indeed, the army itself is a 
 part of the people, and is so thoroughly educated 
 
 1 in the love of civil liberty, which is the best guar- 
 anty of the permanence of our republican insti- 
 tutions, ihat it would itself be the first to oppose 
 any attempt to continue the exercise of military 
 authority after the establishment of peace by the 
 overthrow of the rebellion. No man on earth 
 can lead our citizen soldiery to the establishment 
 of a military despotism, and no man living would 
 have the folly to attempt it. To do so would hs to 
 seal its own doom. On this pointthere can lie no 
 ground for apprehension on the part of the people. 
 It is said that we can have peace if we lay down 
 
 I our arms. All sensible men know this to be un- 
 Drue. Were it so, ought we to he so cowardly at 
 
 j to lay them down until the authority of the Gor- 
 
 : eminent is acknowledged ? 
 
 I beg to call upon the fathers, mothers, broth- 
 ers, sisters, sons, daughters, relatives, friends anil 
 neighbors of the soldiers in the field to aid me in 
 
 ■ stopping this license and intemperate discussion, 
 
 ! wh'ch is discouraging our armies, weakening the 
 s of the Government, and thereby strength- 
 i lie enemy. If we use our honest efforts, 
 less us with a glorious peace and a uni- 
 ted • ■ -dry. Men of every shade of opinion 
 :e vital interest in the suppression of 
 i in ; for, should we fail in the task, 
 rots of a ruined and distracted nation 
 alike on all, whether patriots or traitors. 
 These are substantially my reasons for issuing 
 " General Order No. 38," my reasons for the de- 
 termination to enforce it, and also my reasons for 
 the arrest of the Hon. C. L. Vallandigham for a 
 supposed violation of that order, for which he 
 has been tried. The result of that trial is now in 
 mv bands. 
 
 In enforcing this order I can be unanimously 
 sustained by the people, or I can oe opposed by fac- 
 tious, bad men. In the former event, quietness will 
 prevail; in the Jotter event, the responsibility and 
 retribution will attach to the men who resist the au- 
 thority and the neighborhoods that allow it. 
 All of which is respectfully submitted. 
 
 A. E. Bcrnside, Maj.-Gen. Commanding. 
 
 , No. 873 Broadway, Albany. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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