I read what is called the Democratic Platform, and I find nothing against the rebels who are in arms against the best government in the world; but I find numerous accusations against the authorities of the government, who are struggling to…
John Sherman
The Public Record
John Sherman was an American politician from Ohio who served in federal office throughout the Civil War and into the late nineteenth century. A member of the Republican Party, he served in both houses of the U.S. Congress. He also served as Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of State. Sherman sought the Republican presidential nomination three times, coming closest in 1888, but was never chosen by the party. Between 1861 and 1897, John Sherman served in the U.S. Senate for nearly 32 years and holds the record for longest serving senator from the state of Ohio.
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I had supposed, fellow-citizens, that nowhere in the wide world did people live as free from oppression as in the State of Ohio.
Now, as I do not desire to be a slave, and do not wish the people of my native state to be slaves, I will so far depart from my usual course in political discussion as to examine the personal issue thus made.
And we are told that if we don't do all this we are helpless slaves and deserve no better fate.
Vallandigham has been illegally convicted and illegally banished; and that if we are fit to be free we must stop and examine the record in his case, and not be turned from it by clamors about prosecuting the war, or of concluding peace.
The immediate stake involved is nothing less than national existence; while the ultimate stake involves nothing less than civil liberty for generations yet to come.
We are in the midst of a great civil war, in which it is safe to say that one million of men are now arrayed in arms against each other.
We told him the condition of feeling in Ohio, and of our confident belief that if his order of banishment was revoked, it would result in riots and violence, in which Vallandigham would be the first victim.
I heard men of character and influence say distinctly that if Vallandigham came into the state he would be killed, and they, if necessary, would kill him.
A public meeting was held in New York on May 16, which denounced this action as illegal--as a step towards revolution.
His arrest for words spoken, and not for acts done, created great excitement throughout Ohio and the country.
If our armies were commanded by such generals we could not fail to have a speedy restoration of the authority of the government, and an end of the war.
You can neither take the back pay, nor leave it where it is, nor draw it and redeposit it, without subjecting yourself to the yelping of the damned curs, that bark at the heels of every honest man.
I do not recall any example in history where a peaceful nation, ignorant of military discipline, becoming divided into hostile sections, developed such military power, courage and endurance as did the United States and Confederate States…
I insisted that if a special fund for hiring substitutes was raised, it ought to be by a tax upon all wealthy citizens, and not confined to the man who was drafted.
It was denounced by the Confederates and by timid men in the north, but the beneficial results it aimed at were accomplished, not by law, but by the proclamation of the President and by the armed forces of the United States.
Is it not, therefore, possible to frame a bill which will punish the prominent actors in the rebellion, proclaim amnesty to the great mass of citizens in the seceding states, and separate them from their leader?
If nothing is confiscated, you array against you all who wish in a civil war merely to preserve their property and to remain quiet.
War is a horrible remedy, but when we are compelled to resort to it, we should make our enemies feel its severity as well as ourselves. . . .
That some one should be enacted, and that speedily, is not only my conviction of duty, but it will be demanded by those who will have to bear the burdens of the war.
Confiscation is not only justified by the laws of war, by the practice of many nations, but it is practiced by our enemies in the most obnoxious way.
Confiscation in such a war is not a measure to be applied to individuals in a revolting section, but if the revolt is subdued, the property of revolting citizens is subject to the will of the conqueror and to the law of conquest.
The law of nations treats such a war as a contest between two separate powers, to be governed by the laws of war.
The response of the loyal states to the call of Lincoln was perhaps the most remarkable uprising of a great people in the history of mankind.
This was the beginning of the end of slavery.
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