12 Mr. Cox. The gentleman does not answer my question. Wendell Phillips states that such a conversation was held with a Republican member of this House from Ohio. Now, what I want to know of my colleague is, who is the Republican member that furnished that sort of testimony. Mr. Blake. In the first place, the whole statement is merely an irresponsible newspaper report. No authority is given for it. The gentleman will not himself vouch for its correctness, and I protest against bringing in here such vague, irresponsible newspaper statements as the ground of a charge against menbers of this House. The gentleman brings in here such a report and then wants to know which one of my colleagues made the statement. Sir, I do not believe any one of them made it, and it is not true whether it was made or not. Mr. Cox. I merely wanted to know whether any of my colleagues had made it. Mr. Blake; I do not believe any one of them made it. I tell the gentleman there is no such sentiment among the people of Ohio; and if any one asserted such a thing to me, I would tell him he was mistaken ; if he persisted in it, I would tell him it was a falsehood. Mr. Cox. Andthen there would be a fight I suppose. (Laughter.) Mr. Blake. I suppose so, unless, as is probable, the man who made the assertion would be too cowardly to fight. Mr. Speaker, I am admonished by my time being limited that I can submit to no further interruption—I trust therefore, gentlemen will excuse me. I said sir, this cry against New England first made its appearance in Richmond, the so-called Capital of the Southern confederacy; and from that point it has spread to the sympathising friends of that nest of traitors in the free States. But a few months since, and General G. T. Beauregard, the rebel general commanding in the South, issued an order to all his men to call our troops by no other name than abolitionists; and thereupon, every man in the loyal States, and ill the United States Army every where, who is in favor of sustaining the Government, maintaining the Constitution, enforcing the laws, and using all the means, justified by civilized warfare, which God and nature have placed within our reach to put down the rebellion, was denounced by every sympathizing traitor in the North as an abolitionist. Now sir, what means all this? Is it possible that Jeff. Davis has extended his dominions into the loyal States, and that these men have taken the oath of allegiance to his government, and forsaken our own, with all of its hallowed memories ? Has Davis a branch of his government established in the free States? I cannot account for the striking agreement between the rebels and their sympathizers in sentiments and actions upon any other hypothesis, than that there is, a full understanding on both sides on these questions. If the rebels of the South and their sympathizers in the North, are not acting in concert, they are at least in harmony. Sir, the sons of New England, scattered as they are, all over the West, will yet make these gentlemen who live in their midst, and who are known to give publicity to such sentiments only for the purpose of discord, feel their power. What has made the great West, but New England enterprise ? Talk about a union without New England I Sir, you might as well talk about a solar system without a sun.
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