15 rebellion, he is now maligned, proscribed and his record falsified. Mr. Lincoln is assailed by traitors, because he has done what Buchanan should have done, but shrunk from, upon the cowardly plea that it could not be done under the Constitution. For believing that the Constitution could not be perverted to its own destruction; acting on that belief, and punishing treason promptly and fearlessly, Mr. Lincoln is how held up as an object of opprobrium. If the advice given on the 3d day of December, 1860, by James Buchanan, and sanctioned by the leading rebel sympathizers ever since, had been followed by Mr. Lincoln, he would not have responded to the popular acclaim of the people against the rebellion, after the fall of Sumter; he would have allowed Washington and Baltimore to fall into the hands of the traitors, and these cities would now be occupied by the rebel armies; he would have permitted traitors all over our country to revel in their work of riot and bloodsheed ; he would have encouraged clandestine correspondence with the public enemy; and he would have taken to his confidence the men; who have, ever since the war began, in every possible way, labored to embarass the Government in its efforts to put down the rebellion. But because he would not do this, and has labored night and day, in season and out of season, to save the Union, and to presetve the Government, he is assailed by every disloyal man in the country, as a violator of the Constitution, an assailant of the rights of the people, of freedom of speech and the freedom of the press, and as unworthy of his high position. Sir, there is one very remarkable fact about the men who assail the President and his Administration. They can never find anything unconstitutional the rebels have done, and have no terms of opprobrium for the men who have been killing our.brothers, fathers, and children, and are still seeking the life blood of the nation. All their denunciation is carefully preserved for Mr. Lincoln and the friends of the Government. Sir, my confidence is unshaken in the mass of the- people, and the time is not distant, when these men will be made to feel their indignation. The soldiers in the field who have left all to serve their country, are already beginning to speak out on this subject; and soon the people will take up the spirit that is breathed by our gallant troops. The brave, uuconquered and unconquerable troops of Illinois have spoken as follows: Corinth, Miss., January 30. At a meeting of the officers of the different Illinois regiments stationed at th|ypost, the following proceedings were had. The meeting being called to orcrer, Lieutenant Colonel Philips, of-the Ninth Illinois regiment,$was elected President, and Adjutant Letton, of the Sixty-Ninth Illinois, Secretary. Colonel Chetlain, of the Twelfth' Illinois, stated that the object of calling the Illinois officers together was to adopt resolutions to show Governor Yates and the other officers of Illinois, and all our friends at home, that we are still in favor of the vigorous prosecution of the war, and that we will uphold our President and Governor in all their efforts to put down this rebellion. On motion, a committee on resolutions was elected, consisting of the following officers: Colonel Chetlain, Twelfth Illinois, commanding post; M. M. Bane, Fiftieth Illinois, commanding Third brigade; Lieutenant Colonel Wileox, Fifty-second Illinois; Colonel Burke, Sixty-sixth Illinois; Colonel A. J. Babcock, Seventh Illinois; Colonel Mersey, Ninth Illinois, commanding Second brigade; Lieutenant Colonel Morrill, Sixty-fourth Illinois. . The committee on resolutions submitted the following, which were unani-* mously adopted: Whereas our Government is now engaged in a struggle for the perpetuation
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