20 the great army of the United States, war-broken, toil-worn, and battle-stained, be left without sympathy or aid from you men of Ohio, now enjoying the blessings of peace, careless of dangers of invasion, war’s dread terrors, only ' because we, your brothers and sons, stand “ between your loved homes and war’s desolation ?” Are we. not in war? Is not the whole force of the Government employed in defending the nation against a gigantic effort to destroy it? Has not blood flowed like water, and treasure expended enough to make rich a nation? Is it not worth preserving? Can two or more States be carved out peacefully from the present loved Republic ? Can we give away its rivers, lands, and loyal people to its destroyer ? Can we afford to divide the Republic into contending petty States, and be forever the victim of internecine wars between small principalities ? Can we quietly, calmly, even complacently, sit by and see the grand Republic of the world thus cut off and destroyed by innate weakness ? No honest citizen of Ohio is willing that such should be our fate. What matters now the cause of the war ? By whose fault, or by the adop- * tion of what mistaken policy ? It exists 1 It must he. fought out, or ended by giving up all that it is waged for. For the sake of peace; to be rid of the burdens of taxation; for the fear of the shedding of blood ; would any basely give up his nation, and become the citizens of a ruined and dishonored land ? Then, wherefore opposition to the war? Because a particular party is in power? Because its policy is obnoxious ? Because it has committed errors ? Because it has thrown to its surface and given prominence to bad or incompetent men, or adopted political theories and sought to make them practical which are Condemned by many good men ? Nol the remedy for all these evils, if they exist at all, may be sought in the quiet but powerful means of the ballot, which has power in our Government to change dynasties, where the armies of the world would fail. Is it thought that peace and a voluntary restoration of the Union may be effected by compromise? All that has been tried. Disdainfully the rebels flung back in our faces every proffered olive branch before peaceful men became armed soldiers, and the booming of Fort Snmter’s cannon, with its terrible alarum, called a nation to arms. And now, insolent and defiant, they laugh to scorn all'thoughts of peace on any other terms than recognition of their false nationality. They are stronger now than then. The despots and moneychangers of Europe have given them substantial aid to destroy a Republic; they have more powerful armies, abler generals, and a firmer determination than when the rebellion began. They know their strength, and appeal to it—. not to the poor demagogues of the North, who are their allies. They condemn and despise them,. Read their proclamations, addresses, army orders and newspapers. At nd time have they ever spoken of their Northern friends, except as allies in the war I They deride the foolish appeals of their northern allies for peace and compromise, and preclude all Hope of the restoration of the Union on any terms. What incalculable mischief is being done by these Northern allies—their speeches and newspapers are quoted, and results of elections reported in Southern papers, as evidence not of any hope of restoring the Union, but to show that the loyal people of the North are becoming willing, to submit to any dishonorable and humiliating terms of peace, based even on the full recognition that this fiendish rebellion was right, and that it was well to destroy this Government. ’ People of Ohio! But one alternative is left you. You must pronounce this a just rebellion. You must say that it was right and justifiable to destroy this Republic; that a Republic is a weak, helpless Government, powerless to sustain itself, and to be destroyed whenever conspirators enough can be allied for the purpose, or, you must show to the world the power of self-preservation in the great example of Confederated Republics. That it has a quiet dormant force, which aroused, has gigantic strength and energy. That it not only can protect its citizens in all their rights and privileges, but can sustain itself as well against foreign attack as internal treason. We are fighting for the Republic, to it we have given our hearts, our arms, our lives. We intend to stand between you and the deflating hosts of the rebels, whose most cherished hope and desire has been and is, to take possession of and ravage your own beautiful Ohio. Once already, we have stood as a living wall between you and this fate, and we may have to do it again.
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