aass_L-4-5 ^- 
 Book i2) 
 
OUll SOLDIERS IN THE FIELD- ARE THEY NO 
 
 LONGER THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THEIR 
 
 FELLOW CITIZENS AT HOME? 
 
 —*-•—•-*— 
 
 SPEECH OF COLONEL T. C. H. SMITH, 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE COURT HOUSE, AT MARIETTA, 
 Sativrday Evening, Feb. 21, 1863. 
 
 Col. Smith being at home, on his way 
 West, was invited by a number of lus 
 fellow-citizens in Marietta, to addmss (lie 
 people upon the War and (he Condition oT 
 the Country. He accepted the invitation, 
 and on Saturday morning, February 2Jst, 
 public notice was given of the meeting for 
 that evening, in the Court House, at 0,'^ 
 o'olock. The Court Room was filled to 
 overliowing, the standing places being oc- 
 cupied. Quite a number of ladies graced 
 the meeting with their presence. Col. Wm. 
 R. Putnam was called to the Chair. 
 
 On taking the stand, Col. Smith proceeded 
 in a conversational manner to give some 
 account of the Washington county soldiers 
 whom he had met in the field. He first 
 lueiitioned Company L, First Ohio Cavalry, 
 a company raised chiefly in Harmar, Ma- 
 rietta, and vicinity, under the command of 
 Capt. T. J. Pattin. It was a very fine 
 company, under fine carbine drill, and 
 Pattin was a superior officer. He excelled 
 in the handling of his men, and in the 
 figJiting drill. The fight at Carolina Church, 
 near Corinth, last Spring, was instanced, 
 where Capt. Pattin, with only 48 men of 
 his own and another company, successfully 
 repulsed 250 rebel cavalry, who charged 
 repeatedly upon his command, but after a 
 fight of three quarters of an hour, were 
 driven off by Capt. Pattin's superior skill 
 and tactics and pluffk, with a loss of five 
 killed and twenty wounded. Seven only 
 of Capt. Pattin's men were wounded, but 
 not one broke ranks till the fight was over ! 
 
 Col. Smith then paid flattering tribute to 
 the 39th and 63d Regiments, in which 
 Wasiiingfon county is strongly represented. 
 He gave full credit to the 77(h for i(s con- 
 duct at Shiloh, and paid Col. Hildebrand 
 a very high and deserved compliment for 
 his heroic action. After (he battle of 
 Pittsburg Landing, Col. Smith went upon 
 the field, and met a sergeant, who said he 
 belonged to the 12(h Illinois, and at once 
 began (elling about (he battle. This ser- 
 geant said: "Our field officers were all 
 gone, when a Col. Hildebrand came along, 
 rallying the men. He gathered up parts of 
 four regiments, and we all fought under 
 Col. Hildebrand the rest of the day." In 
 answer to a question, " Who is Col. Hilde- 
 brand?" the sergeant replied, "I don't 
 know to what regiment he belongs, or what 
 State he is from, but I tell you he is the 
 real grit!" [Applause.J 
 
 The 36th, Col. Smith first saw at War- 
 renton Junction, and the sight of the regi- 
 ment was enough to do the heart of a 
 Washington county man good; no one 
 could see it and not feel the strongest emo- 
 tions of pride; its drill was extraordinary. 
 
 Gen. , a Regular, and a Mexican 
 
 war veteran, remarked in his (Smith's) 
 hearing : " That is the best Volunteer Reg- 
 iment I ever saw." 
 
 Col. Smith then proceeded : 
 
 Now, what spirit sent these men into the 
 field ? That which broke out in the Free 
 States, when the guns of traitors opened 
 against Sumter. That which Democracy 
 
2 
 
 throughout the world felt when it heard 
 resound the first blow struck against its 
 supremacy in this land. The unanimous 
 sentiment that forgot party, thought only 
 of the country, gavw men and treasure 
 without stint, and accompanied with mill- 
 ions of acclamations the march of these 
 troops to the field. That sentiment re- 
 mains among the soldiers uru-harifjed — only 
 deepened, confirmed. Have you changed V 
 A.re we no longer your representatives V 
 
 If you have changed, what are your 
 reasons? We desire to know them. The 
 sooner the better. We have looked in vain 
 to your public discussions for any consist- 
 ent ground of opposition to this war, for 
 Anything that will bear the light. 
 
 is it the doctrine of peaceable secession, 
 that treason, assuming- the garb of States 
 iiights Democracy, put forth? Is it the 
 right of revolution, or of separate nation- 
 ality, that a crude radicalism was willing, 
 when the outbreak occurred, to concede, 
 and bid the revolting States go in peace? 
 Has the length or the cost of the war chan- 
 ged you? Has the destruction of slavery, by 
 the application of the laws of war, chilled 
 your ardor ? 
 
 Let us briefly consider all these : 
 
 First, this puerility of peaceal)le seces- 
 sion. I am a States Eights Democrat of 
 the school of Tiiomas Jeflerson and John 
 Taylor of Caroline. I shall fight under that 
 banner as long as I breathe. 1 shall always 
 go with those who resist consolidation, 
 who confine the powers of our National 
 (government to the strict letter of its writ- 
 ten charter, the Constitution of the United 
 States. I hold that Constitution to have 
 been the work of the people of the several 
 States, and I know that by its terms it is 
 referred to the people of the several States, 
 in conventions or by their Legislatures, for 
 ratification of amendments. From them, in 
 such capacity only, the National Govern- 
 ment derives its life.. To them, in suchcapa- 
 city,in their caaacity os people of the several 
 Stales, it returns from time to tim?, to have 
 its life modified, renewed. 
 
 But within these limits the National 
 Goveriunent is supreme. The States are 
 not interposed between it and tlie people, 
 in the exercise of its legitimate powers, 
 and cannot be. It constitutes our people, 
 a nation. . It is as much the direct Govern- 
 ment of the people of the States as their 
 Stale Governments. 
 
 And it is jvo'petual. There is no limita- 
 tion of the duration of our national life; 
 there is no provision for its destruction — 
 only for its renewal, for its duration to tlie 
 end of time. And woe be to those who 
 would attem])t this national life, who would 
 destroy this nation ! 
 
 These are the cardinal doctrines of 
 States Eights Democracy. There is in 
 them no furtive or sinister glance towards 
 the morbid and suicidal teachings of seces- 
 sion. Firm in their great office of protect- 
 ing the mass of sovereignty reserved to 
 the States, they yield to the National Gov- 
 ernment every just support, and their eyes 
 turned steadily upon it in these great hour? 
 of its trial, are clear with truth and 
 fidelity. 
 
 I/et us, however, for the sake of the ar- 
 gument, turn our backs upon it, as traitors 
 and semi-traitors do, looking in every di- 
 rection but. that to which loyalty points. 
 Suppose that the bond between these 
 States is but tliat of a treaty of amity and 
 comiuerce between States, as independent 
 as England and Fraace. And is not any 
 attempt to recede from such a treaty prior 
 to its period of limitation, or if perpetual, 
 then at any time,' a casus Mli. a just cause 
 for war ? And would it not be the duty of 
 any nation thus injured 1o punish the 
 breach of faith; and to compel a renewed 
 observance of treaty ol)ligations? 
 
 Suppose that the Constitution of the 
 United States is more than a treaty of 
 commerce and amity, and is a treaty of 
 perpetual alliance. Do not the crime of 
 infraction and the cause of war corres- 
 pondingly increase? Are these not still 
 greater if it amounts to a League? a Con- 
 federation ? 
 
 Certainly you will admit tliat it is some- 
 thing more than any of these, than all 
 these; and if you do, what becomes of 
 peaceable secession ? It is an absurdity, 
 a chimera. Turn your backs upon it, and 
 regard it no longer. Cast your looks upoa 
 our National Government. Consult your 
 duties in its contemplation. It is more 
 jthan a treaty, a League, a Confederation. 
 [It is a Government. It is your Govern- 
 ment and mine. It was made by the peo- 
 ple. Its life is their own. Tiiey have 
 conferred upon it the rjght of i)reservation, 
 jif need be, by the stern laws of war. It 
 lis treason to resist it. And, while the law 
 'acts only on overt treason, beware also of 
 
 IN EXCHANGE 
 
 JUN 5 1917 
 
that spirit of treason which, if persisted 
 in, will lead to overt acts. 
 
 If you wish to study the causes of a 
 pestilence, <^o to the place where it began. 
 There you will see in naked and apparent 
 force the poisonous influences whicli orig- 
 inated it, and which elsewhere, tliough 
 more hidden and not jtotent enough to have 
 brought it nito existence, supply its food 
 and are sufficient to maintain its de9,dly 
 spread. 
 
 Wliere, then, did the doctrine of seces- 
 sion originate ? In the Eastern Parishes of 
 South Carolina. Yon are aware that the 
 Constitution of that State gives to those 
 "arishes, which are mostly filled by slaves, 
 .m undue proportion of the Legislature, 
 xnd thus constitutes a virtual Aristocracy, 
 •■nabling it by this property representation 
 to dominate over the much larger white 
 population of the Western portions of the 
 State. The Governor is not elected by 
 jM)pular vote, but l)y the Legislature. The 
 wiiole system existing there is the farthest 
 removed from popular government of any 
 in the United States. And the clasfe that 
 rules there, though from tlie fact of its 
 owning labor alHed by interest in certain 
 provinces of Federal legislation with I)e- 
 mocracy,has never been so in spirit, and has 
 always shown itself in its State legislation 
 its deadly enemy. 
 
 At the beginning of his political career, 
 .lohn C. Calhoun, a man of great intellect, 
 but not regarded by his neighl)orS as pos- 
 sessed of high courage, contended against 
 this class. He was crushed, and became 
 their supple tool, the defender of their spe- 
 cial privileges in the government of his 
 State, the exponent of their ideas, the rep- 
 resentative man not only of this aristocratic 
 •Jass in South Carolina, but of all who af- 
 liliated with them in other States. He 
 perverted the true doctrines of States 
 Rights, falsely deducing from them princi- 
 ples at variance with those of the fathers, 
 and intended not to check but to destroy 
 our National Government. 
 
 It was in these P^astern Parishes that the 
 secession conspiracy, instructed and com- 
 pacted by the subtle brain ef Calhoun, 
 ■originated. It was there that the first at- 
 tempt was made to take a State out of the 
 Union, thirty years ago; that attempt 
 which Jackson defeated. It was there 
 that the lirst gun was fired which began 
 this war; there that a slaveholding Aris- 
 
 tocracy began this bloody contest against 
 Democracy. 
 
 Neither have the secessionists any proper 
 claim to the right of revolution. Republi- 
 cans cannot recognize the right to revolu- 
 tionize a Government of the people, to 
 sul)siitute for it a Government of a class. 
 But if any right of revolution can be found 
 in popular government as such, the obliga- 
 tion that its freedom imposes is such that 
 i-evolution must only be the last resort, not 
 the first; must wait till the safeguards 
 that conserve the rights of the minoi-ity 
 have been successively overleaped, and the 
 offensive measures passed, befoi-e its right 
 can accrue. Every right, every privilege, 
 carries with it and imposes a corresponding 
 duty. The corresponding duty to the right 
 and privilege of governmental liberty, is 
 this : that inasmuch as a free government 
 dispenses as far as possible with force, 
 conceding to each individual, and to each 
 minor organization of society within its 
 limits, the largest liberty consistent with 
 the liberty of others, force should only be 
 adopted when all legal resistance has fail- 
 ed. Without this obligation, liberty de- 
 stroys itself, and is mere anarchy. Of all 
 Governments, i-epublics have the right t<i' 
 be and should be the sternest in the en- 
 forcement of such mild political obligationis 
 as their laws imjw.se. 
 
 Thus the secessionists, by their revolt, 
 not only violated the law, but, tried with- 
 out the pale of law slid by abstract prin- 
 ciples, are guilty of the highest of crimes 
 against liberty. They do not pretend that 
 any mea^iure was passed b3- the General 
 Government impairing their rights under' jr 
 and we all remember that the balance of ' 
 pai'ties, at the time of the outbreak, was 
 such as to make the jiassage of any such 
 measure impossiUe. U the Democratic 
 party had, by the violence of these seces- 
 sionists, been demoralized, divided and de- 
 feated, there was stiil a majority in the 
 Senate adverse to the Kepublicans. The 
 resolutions of the Ilepublicans at Chicago 
 were greatly more moderate in tone and 
 more conservative than those at Philadel- 
 phia in the previous Presidential canvass, 
 and tlie legislative measures in regard to 
 tlie territories passed, with a Republican 
 majority in Congres.s, in the winter after 
 Lincoln's election, accorded with the doc- 
 trines of the Douglas Democracy rather 
 than with those of the Republican party. 
 
Oa what, in sucli a stale of things as this, I place a very ]avise \)vu}wvi'um of their num- 
 oan you base a ri.uht of revolution? he "s in the field; that tlies-e would be no 
 
 Certainly no member of the Democratic shive insurrections to weaken them; and 
 party can concede this light to these se-ilhpt shivery in tliose Stales would have to 
 cessionists. At Clia^'leston we offered them .be liroken up, to presirve the Union. 
 all that our principles would allow us to .My reading in (he matter maybe im- 
 concede. We said wliat we would do, and perfect, l)ut I have yet to learn of any for- 
 what we would not do. Wliat we would midable or <;eiieral rising among negro 
 do they declared to be insufficient, and slaves, afler being held for a iew uenera- 
 prepa red to (/rcny <Ac.swo/v/. They did moie. ■Ii')n8 in servitude. Tiie insurrection in 
 They endeavored to defeat the election of a Hayli was caused by an attempt to reduce 
 President by the people, in order the better the blacks to slavery after tliey had been 
 to inaugurate disorder and rebellion. And enlVanciiised by law. It was an insurrec- 
 thev took care that if any President should tion of freemen, not of slaves. Tliose 
 be elected hy the people, it should be t lie among us who have such apprehensions of 
 candidate of the Republican party. In insurrection, will do well (o study tiiis in- 
 view of the legislation in regard to \\\q ter- stance, and in accordsince with tlseir views 
 ritories, the preceding winter, and of our oppose, any attempt to return the slaves of 
 attitude at Charleston, the Democratic Ireliels. made free b}^ tiie late proclamation, 
 party, when the secessii)nists drew (he to slavery again. They will thus aid iu 
 sword, was as thoroughly committed to secuiiiig us from a reproduction of tlve 
 the war as the bitterest abolitionist , in the bloody scenes of Hayti within our borders, 
 land. We took our position, and I for onej Why the South can place the bulk of its 
 have seen no reason to recede from it. | white population in (lie held, is easily seen. 
 
 x\s regards the right of separate nation- A lew years ago an ingenious book, Help- 
 ality, it can be said to exist only where a er's '^ Impending Crisis," was much circula- 
 nation has had a previous separate exist-' ted by some perhaps too willing to blind 
 ence. The people of tliis land have al- i themselves as to the power of the South, 
 ways been one in nationality, and we' The fallacy of this book lay in this, that i.t 
 intend with the blessing of God to preserve 'compared the pound crojjs and various 
 them so. lother productions of the iNortli, which rep- 
 
 Has the lengtli of the war changed your resented in great part but the necessary 
 opinion as to its justice and necessity ? consumption of our climate in excess of the 
 lias its cost? Is not the true economy to | milder Southern latitudes, with the agricul- 
 tight it .,out now, once and for all, and tural products of the slave States; and 
 thereby prevent forever its recurrence? from the very great excess of these upon 
 Has the strength of the South changed I our side of the balance sheet, inferred an 
 your convictions? Was that your idea, to 'enormous superiority of wealth in the 
 maintain the Union if treason should prove, North, whereas wealth is the excess of 
 .weak, but to yield its cause should treason production over necessary consumirtion. 
 prove strong? The hay crop, for instance, the bulk of 
 
 It is this military strength of the South,! which with us is necessarily consumed iu 
 hosed as it is an slavery, that has made it feeding our stock through long winters, was 
 necessary to choose between Slavery and I reported in full in this work. But what 
 the Union; and we have decided accord- dillerence does it make, in the matter of 
 insily that it shall mt be the Union that wealth, whether the grass in the flelds has 
 hliail be destroyed, but it sMI he slavery. been cut by the scythe, gathered and fed 
 For one, I aiiticipate'd this at the begin-|out to the cattle, through the winter 
 ning- of the war, and expressed to friends months, or whether it is cut by the teeth ot 
 the" apprelionsioii founded on observali(m the cattle themselves, grazed by them in 
 in those States, that the population of the inontiis iu which in a northern climate the 
 more southern States, whose economical, : fields are bound in frost and snow. Simi- 
 politic^l^and social system was more ex- lar reasoning will apply to our root crops 
 clusively1)ased on slavery, would be found, and grain. 
 
 because of their want of' industrial devel- It recpures hardly more than one-third 
 opmenis, peculiarly disposed to war; that of the labor, to give a white laboring man 
 their system of labor would allow theiu to a comfortable support in the plantation 
 
states on the Gulf, that is necessary on 
 the Lakes. If we consider the essentials 
 of food, clothin?;, the liouse and fuel, we 
 sliall Ihid that the amount and description 
 of these required in the southern family 
 make tiieir cost less than 40 per cent, of 
 what is needed in the North. Tlie fariiier 
 south, the more vejj!,etable food and cotton 
 clothing are all that are wanted. The 
 farther north, the more expensive supplies, 
 as meats for food, and woolens for cloth- 
 ing, and these in greatei- <(uantity, are re- 
 quired. In the North houses are buile sol- 
 idly, and with a care to resist the ri,u,ors of 
 the climate. In the South you often (ind 
 even wealthy planters living in "mere 
 sliells." The ease of living, in short, more 
 than compensates for any enervating- influ- 
 ence of the Southern climate on the white. 
 It is from causes growing out of the degra- 
 dation of labor that the mass of poor 
 whites in the South c:ire little for comforts 
 or retinements, or to accumulate wealth. 
 
 It is for these reasons that the enforcel 
 lalnr of the planting States is an enormous 
 source of wealth. An hour or two of the 
 negro's labor per day pays his master the 
 cost of his sxipport. The rest of the ten, 
 twelve, or fifteen hours of his labor, gives 
 the' masters their wealth — the incomes 
 from which come the high salaries that the 
 white employees of the South receive, and 
 the dispensation of which makes the own- 
 ers of slaves tiie ruling class. 
 
 The power of such a social and political 
 system applied in war is at once seen. The 
 slave labor is sufficient to sustain in ease 
 the entire population. Nearly the whole 
 while population, capable of bearing arms, 
 can be put into the field, and with much 
 less violence to its habits than military 
 service brings in the case of a people of 
 ' high industrial civilization. Had the se- 
 ceding States half our numbers, had the 
 character of its people less i)assion and 
 more persistence, it could with its ports 
 ®pen, tight us evenly for many years. 
 
 These considerations, wiiiJe they show 
 us the strength of the rebellion, make it all 
 the more imperative that we put forth all 
 the power that our resources, and the laws 
 of war, give us to prevent its success. They 
 show us what kind of a neighl)or we shall 
 have if we allow ourselves to fail. 
 
 We must look the power and the charac- 
 ter of the system with which we contend 
 in the face, in order to know our duties and 
 
 how to perform them. Otherwise we shall 
 fail in a contest with a class which, through 
 years of counseling witlia view to this con- 
 test, has accjuired unity of sentiment and, 
 distinct |)urposes. They well understand 
 the nature of the struggle. We also must 
 know ourselves and them. The evidences 
 are many and plain, that it was the spread 
 of Democratic .sentiment and the impulse 
 towards poi)ular jeforms among their own 
 pe(>ple, which they dreaded most of all, and 
 which they determined to control, by sepa- 
 rating themselves from tlie fiee people of 
 the North - . • 
 
 The seceding States liave thus far in 
 our n'ational history, shown no proficiency 
 — achieved no distinction — in art, in litera- 
 ture, in science, tior in the mechanic arts. 
 Tiieir great men have been statesmen or 
 soldiers oidy. Their system of labor has 
 cramped their development in all tho.se di- 
 rections, which belong to a high industrial 
 civilization, and afford a guaranty of peace. 
 The nation (hey would form would find its 
 pride in war and conquest; its men of ge- 
 nius and talent would seek their careei- 
 only in diplomacy or arms. The masses of 
 its people vi'ould remain what they are 
 [)roving themselves now, ignorant and will- 
 ing instruments. We should resist the 
 creation of such a state as strenuously as 
 we would that of a monarchy. Its pres- 
 ence on our border would re(|uire the main- 
 tenance of an army, whose yearly expen- 
 diture would far exceed the interest of any 
 debt we can incur in crushing this rebel- 
 lion, and would operate to change our 
 republican institutions and impeiil our 
 liberties. 
 
 J>ut these are not the greatest dangers 
 to be feared. 1 cannot express my appre- 
 hensions in any less degree than by saying 
 at once that it is my deliberate conviction 
 that the contest in which we are engageci 
 is not more a matter of life and death 
 to the South than it is to us ; and that we 
 have to-day to choose between tlie. viler sup- 
 pression of this 7-ehellion, or an anarcluj toith a 
 million and a half of men uivier arm^. Con - 
 cede a separate existence to the so-called 
 Confederate States, and what would be 
 the result upon the States now united un- 
 der the National Flag 'i Can we not read 
 the signs of the times ? Are they not so 
 plain that he who runs may read? New- 
 combinations of interests, new disruptions 
 must ensue, and wars to which the blood 
 
6 
 
 and burthen of the present are but child's 
 play, wars hero at home — war at your 
 doors. 
 
 Tliere is one way by which to prevent 
 these evils, to make sure and consolidate all 
 our success as the war proceeds, and that 
 is, to phick away and ilestwy tlie corner- 
 stone of the superstructure these traitors: 
 endeavor to raise, and thus prevent forever i 
 the possibility of its construction. . 
 
 It was due to the people of the loyal! 
 slave States that a faitlifid etfort should be! 
 made to preserve the Union and the sMum : 
 *jf. slavery as it existed b*iore the war. i 
 And such faithful effort was uiiquestionj 
 ably made. As for the rebels they never! 
 fiad any rights in this regard after they! 
 drew the swo)'d. The laws of war give the! 
 right to <lecree emancipafion, and who willi 
 protend to say that these laws should be 
 more mildly construed and enforced, be- 1 
 '-ause wo are dealing with traitors in arms?! 
 While there is no direct provision in thcj 
 roustitulion foremancipation, the war povv- i 
 cr gives it, and thank ( Jod that it does. ] 
 Is there, however, one man in tins com-' 
 f lunity, is there one man of northern brain 
 and nortiiern heart, l)red under free insti- 
 mtions, who will feel no satisfaction, will 
 lind it in no sense whatever one of the 
 i<>mpensafions of this war, if the blood 
 which is poured out so freely to preserve 
 <>«r national unity and vindicate the au- 
 ihoritv of Hepublif^an (iovernment, siiall at 
 the same time wipe out from our national 
 t'scutcheon the stain that has clouded half 
 it-s bars, and furnished argument to the en- 
 emies of freedoni in the old world where- 
 with to decry its friends in the uevv' ? Is 
 there one man among us who, whatever 
 may be his doubts, as to the benefit free- 
 dom may prove to the black race, is not 
 willing to invoke the blessing of God to go 
 with the boon? If there is one such man, 
 let us pity him ! 
 
 There is a consequence of emancipation 
 much apprehended, which, if it occur, will 
 certainly belie all experience in regard to 
 the Afriean. viz : that there will be a large 
 inllux of negroes into the Northern States, 
 ft is certain that heretofore the mass of 
 those that have come among us iiave been 
 impelled to it l)y the pressure of slavery in 
 the South. It is not probable one in o:ie 
 hundred of the blacks that have com*^ into 
 the free States would have left the South 
 of choice. The constitution of the black 
 
 man impels him tyuHU'd the warm countries, 
 not from them. It is certain that some sys- 
 tem will prevail in the South, employing 
 black labor. It is certain that the capa- 
 bility of the negro for labor is as inferior 
 to that of the white in a northern climate, 
 as it is superior in a Southern, and that 
 thus as a laborer the negro must seek the 
 South. It is equally certain that if he wishes 
 to live with as little labor as possible, he 
 can live more easily iii idleness in a. South- 
 ern climate than here. All our knowledge 
 of negroes leads us to suppose that so far 
 from their numbers increasing among us as 
 a consequence of the abolition of slavery 
 the contrary tiiay be expected, and that 
 many of those who are now among us. will 
 emigrate Southward, when the opportuni- 
 ty shall be opened for them. Whether ail 
 should be coniident in this conclusion or 
 not, certain it is, that they are rash who 
 are confident of any other! 
 
 But whatever may be our opinion as to 
 the expediency of emancipation we are 
 bound as loyal men to sustain it, and every 
 other luiofid mMvvire which our Government 
 may adopt, to put down this reljellion. 1 
 do not, foiN one, approve of the employment 
 of negro soldiers, l)ut I expect to do what 
 every one should do, yield the .measure a 
 loyal support. 
 
 Parties should be maintained and their 
 lawful check upon each other is always 
 needed. ]>ut no party should be allowed 
 to exist now, or at any time, that is not 
 thoroughly and unmistakably loyal. It is 
 one thing 'to maintain parties, and another 
 to make them factions, to destroy the Gov- 
 ernment; it is their healthy olHce to invig- 
 orate and preserve. These may be truisms, 
 Imt they should be kept in mind. !Xo man 
 should be voted for who is wanting in pat- 
 riotic and loyal zeal and determination 
 fully to support the Government in allnec- 
 essarv measures, or who countenances dis- 
 loyalty in others. The bane of free Gov- 
 ernments has been jjarty violence, and 
 many of them from this cause have been 
 overthiown. This is a time in which to 
 remember this, and to rise above party 
 and look to the country and that aloiie. 
 
 .Vnd this, too, is the time in which to 
 summon up and put in force the (lualities 
 of courage and endurance, without which 
 no nation can be great. Wars are more 
 often won bv ])lucky persistence and game 
 than bv aught else. Jellerson Davis un- 
 
defstands this well, and constantly en- 
 deavors to inspire his followers witli this 
 spirit. In a late speech he declared that 
 the South had endured for a year unllinch- 
 ingly the severest pressure of war, but that 
 the North when at length it feeis the pres- 
 ure, at the lirst touch of the gail' shows a 
 disposition to lly the ring ! Do any of you 
 feel this taunt V Have any of yon felt lliis 
 disposition ? Washington county was lirst 
 settled by soldiers of the Kevolution, and 
 she lias never failed yet to respond tu the 
 wants of the country in men and means. — 
 .Sons of the men of 1812 ! Grandsons of 
 the men of the Kevolution ! Is it you who 
 v/ill fail now? The sacrifices that they 
 made are we not ready to repeat? It is 
 llie diviuQ law tliat all strength and purity 
 of character can only be acquired by sac- 
 •ritice. The life of nations is not in this 
 respect different from the life of inditidual 
 men. Every trial our people endure, every 
 sacrifice we make, will be returned to us as 
 a nation a thousand fold. 
 
 We have considered here, to-night, the 
 power of the Soutli, and our dangers, and 
 have endeavored to look these fully in the 
 face. Let us now, before separating, look 
 at some of the -grounds of encouragement. 
 
 And lii'st, let us remember that all wars 
 of any magnitude are filled with varying 
 success and failure, and at intervals vvilli 
 great discouragement. It is the boast of 
 England that she is ready to begin fighting 
 when those ^\\lO contend with her are 
 ready to ([uit. In all her wars she has 
 begun with blunders and failure. She has 
 succeeded nearly always in the end by her 
 great qualities of courage and endurance. 
 Success in war is a <iuestion of physical 
 and moral exhaustion : physical exhaus- 
 tion by the loss of men and material; 
 moral exhaustion by the demoralization of 
 defeat. 
 
 V\'e have acquired a large portion of the 
 territory of the seceding States; but that 
 we have no more, proves nothing against 
 our speedy success. Kussia became ex- 
 hausted at Sebastopol, and made an igno- 
 minious peace, when the allies had hardly 
 penetrated a day's ride into her territory. 
 
 The rebels are now for the first time, 
 since their conscription, feeling sorely the 
 need of men. I am informed by Southern 
 Union men, well able to judge, that the se 
 ceding populati^i had not in all at the be- 
 ginning of the war to exceed 500,000 men 
 
 that could do service in tiie field, and that 
 atthis time they have not to exceed 2.50,0(K^ 
 effective' men in the (jonfederate armies- 
 Their Stales have an enrolled force, corrc^s- 
 ))onding \vith our liome guards, or three 
 montlis' men, for service in the protection 
 of their cities on the coast, and for police; 
 l)ut these are of little avail to bear the 
 brunt of the Avar. 
 
 Again tlie reoels now feel for ihe first 
 time the full o])eia1ion of the blockade in 
 depriving them ofwar sujjplies. They had 
 at the beginning, as has any country, in the 
 siiops and storehouses of their merchants 
 and in their homes sujjpiies of clqths and 
 leather on hand sullicient, perhaps, for a 
 year. These were appropriated in great 
 part tor their armies in the field and art" 
 now consumed. They are almost out of 
 leather and woolens; and without these, 
 troops cannot be maintained in the field 
 without great loss from sickness by ex- 
 l)osure. 1'he occasional passage of a ves- 
 sel through the blockade cannot prove suf- 
 ficient to maintain great armies in the field. 
 
 We must remenibei', too, that the reac- 
 tionary influence among us is corresponded 
 to b}^ a reactionary spirit among them. The 
 revolt in Northern (Georgia and the moun- 
 tain portions of North Carolina, are but 
 the beginnmg of what must more and more 
 curb the power of the i-ebellion, as its mil- 
 itary strength wanes. The intercepted 
 dispatches and letters of the rebel leaders 
 to their emissaries in Europe, and those 
 between their generals, and all we know of 
 them, seem to indicat<^ that their strength 
 has passed its culminating point, while 
 otus, as we know, but begins to culminate. 
 Those who know the character of the peo- 
 ple of the seceding States, know that the 
 rebellion when it ends will probably end as 
 suddenly as it Ifeegan. A single great 
 Union victory would, to-day, cause it to 
 tremble throughout with throes of dissolu- 
 tion. 
 
 I>ut let us st ill look to our own strengtli 
 and determination lor success, for it is im- 
 possible that they can long maintain their 
 unholy cause if we put forth our poAverand 
 persevere. 
 
 And, my friends, to conclude, if we can- 
 : not attain success, let us at least deserve 
 I it. If we are to yield, if we are to behold 
 a new nation established on this Continent 
 I with slavery as its corner stone, with its 
 people in ignorance, and wielded by the 
 
8 
 
 ;^trong hand of a military aristocracy for 
 purposes of ageiression and conquest, and 
 in turbulent and formidable and eternal an- 
 tagonism with the free industiial democracy 
 who have supposed that this land was a 
 heritage given them of God; if (his must 
 be, let not you nor I be found in the number 
 '.)f those who did not exert all their inilu- 
 ence and ail their powers to prevent it. 
 AVhen our soldiers return, what will be their 
 feeling towards these men, who, having first 
 joined in the millions of acclamations which 
 .tttended their march to the field, Ihen 
 turned against them, decried their motives, 
 sneered at their efforls, had only denuncia- 
 tions of the war and complaints of its 
 burthens, discouraged enlistments, encour- 
 aged desertions, knelt to armed tieason, 
 otfered tribute to it, invited its rule, and 
 only rose from this despicable attitude 
 when it had utterly spurned their abject 
 profler. What the feeling of our volun- 
 teers will be you may discern now, as you 
 see them in the field, turning to send one 
 curse back upon the traitors at home before 
 grasping their muskets to march against 
 the traitors in their front. 
 
 May God change the hearts of these 
 men, inspire them again with loyalty, pa- 
 triotism, and that spirit of sacrifice in fa- 
 vor of freedom which can alone make 
 worthy of it. But if they will ])ot change, 
 
 if they will still persist in aiding the erie- 
 
 mies of our national life — the enemies of 
 
 human progress itself — then I pray equally 
 
 that by some means, by any means, they 
 
 ma;^y in the vengeance of God be driven 
 
 from our border* — yes, if need be, scourged 
 
 from the face of the earth. And I tell you 
 
 that the one sole satisfaction there is in 
 
 looking forward to the troubles they would 
 
 1 bring upon us, is that when they begin 
 
 their treasonable work openly we shall at 
 
 I least be able to get at them with arms in 
 
 jour hands. I would rather to-day fight 
 
 jthem than fight the rebels who follow Jef- 
 
 I ferson Davis. They, at least, /ire true to 
 
 'a- bad cause. These men are true to no 
 
 j cause, and can be true to none. They are 
 
 'pure gangrene on the body politic, for 
 
 1 which the sharpest are the only remedies 
 
 — caustic and steel. Apply the caustic 
 
 |wheno»er they show a disloyal symptom, 
 
 and stand always ready, if violated law 
 
 requii'e it, to give them the steel ! 
 
 [ In our report, the " cheers," "applause," 
 &c., are left out, but the audience often 
 made manifestations of great satisfaction ; 
 otherwise there was' almost breathless si- 
 lence. At the close three thundering che irs 
 were given " for Col. Smith," and three "for 
 the army." — Ed. Reg. ] 
 
 Printfd at tlie Marietta Register O'ffice.