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people, upon whom an unholy war has been waged by a tyrant and a despot," and "all they ask is 'to be let alone,"" and who are now exhausting every energy to involve the powers of Europe in their own unprofitable and ruinous strife.

I derive no small degree of satisfaction from the reflection, as all can bear me witness, that at every step of their unhallowed and iniquitous proceedings I have promptly, and without a calculation of the cost, arrayed myself against them, and warned the people in public speeches, and by publications innumerable, in different forms, that the design of the leaders of Democracy was the disruption of the Union, accompanied with the entreaty that they would not follow them. The people knew nothing of my deep-rooted devotion to the Union, and of my utter disregard for all parties and for all men, even for myself, when contrasted with the prosperity and happiness of my country. They did not know that I had made the Union the god of my idolatry on earth, and they set it all down to an excess of party feeling, and would not heed what I had to say. All can bear me witness, too, that on all such occasions I have offered an earlier, more persistent, and determined resistance to their measures of mischief than any other living man, which not only exposed me to the most violent denunciation and abuse of the Democratic press and party for what they were pleased to term a want of fidelity to the South, but also subjected me to the groundless suspicion on the part of many of my own political cotemporaries, who could not be made to believe in the dangers with which we were encompassed; and in this way and for this reason it was that I was so often left to stand alone in the breach, and battle single-handed against all parties in the state, until the most bitter and unrelenting of my foes were those who should have been found fighting by my side.

And now, in conclusion, let me say that, whether the responsibility rests upon the North or the South, whether upon the Abolitionists of the North proper or the Secessionists of the South, for breaking up, even for the time being, such a government as our fathers had formed for us, which was the pride and boast of every true American heart at home and abroad, and the wonder and admiration of an enlightened world, and involving 32,000,000 of people on this continent in all the horrors through which we have and are yet to pass before we see the end, and all mankind in a greater or less degree in its consequences, the party that is responsible for the loss of the dead, the sufferings of the living, the sacrifice of human happiness and general prosperity of the whole country, to say nothing of the infuriate, incarnate feeling that has been engendered between the different sections of the country and between citizens of the same states and neighborhoods, will, as I firmly believe, have to answer hereafter, both in this world and in the world to come, for the most atrocious and stupendous crime that has been committed since the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

APPENDIX.

THE GREAT STRIKE FOR HIGHER WAGES.

In the preceding pages I have given a faithful and succinct history of this "GREAT STRIKE FOR HIGHER WAGES," under the direction of the Trades' Dis-UNION ASSOCIATION, and traced the progress of the movement, step by step, for a period of nearly thirty years before it broke out into open and defiant rebellion. I have shown, too, how and under what circumstances the plan of the leaders had been changed from their original purpose of separation to a fixed design to usurp the whole power of the general government—to seize upon the Capitol at Washington, inaugurate their chief as the head of the nation, and thus force Democracy upon the nation, and, if they could accomplish it, extend the institution of slavery over the whole country, in which gigantie work the active co-operation of a number of the leaders of the Democratic party North stood pledged to come to their assistance.

I have already explained why that contemplated aid was not rendered at the time; but, since the foregoing history was written, circumstances have occurred, and facts have been developed, which, I think, fully reveal the plot, with a necessary change of actors in some of the parts to suit the shifting scenes of the times. The timely-discovered and, fortunately, defeated Democratic insurrection, which was crushed out just before the late presidential election in 1864, and of which Mr. Vallandigham was at the head, and participated in by that very extensive political organization known as the "KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN CIRCLE," with the substitution of General McClellan for Mr. Davis (though I acquit General McClellan of all connection with the ulterior and principal designs of the leaders of the insurrection, who hoped to mould him to their own purposes if elected), was only the delayed action of the party, rendered necessary by the circumstances already explained. I think there is little room to doubt that, but for the precipitate and unexpected action of the authorities of South Carolina in their attack on Fort Sumter, instigated by the hot haste of the secession leaders in the Virginia Convention, which did not

leave full time for the completion of their organization, Northern Democratic insurrection would have developed itself in the spring or summer of 1861 instead of the fall of 1864.

Not having had access to Northern newspapers since the war, it was by mere accident that another piece of evidence has fallen under my observation, of which, I dare say, a great deal more has appeared of which I have no knowledge, and of which no doubt much more will hereafter appear. That to which I now refer was the statement made by "General Gantt," of Arkansas, who was himself an active secessionist in 1861, and afterward a general in the Confederate service, was taken prisoner, relented, and testified against his Northern Democratic friends, who did not "come to time," as promised, in '61. I cut the following article from the New York Tribune, the date of which I have forgotten:

"PROOF DIRCET-General Gantt, of Arkansas, has been the subject of fierce abuse in the Copperhead journals, for which we were unable to account until we recently observed that, in speaking for the Union cause some weeks since, he made the following statement. He said that, after his capture by the Union forces (he was a general in the rebel service) at Island No. 10, he was brought North to this state as a prisoner of war, and declared that prominent Democrats of Pennsylvania then conferred with him, and assured him that if the rebels would hold out a little longer they would be successful, for the Democrats of the North would arrest the war by defeating the conscription, and otherwise rendering the administration powerless to prosecute it.' And he added, with withering emphasis, 'I COULD GIVE YOU THE NAMES IF WHAT I SAY IS DISPUTED.' There were a number of Democratic members of the Legislature present, and they did not dare to question the statement or call for names. said 'the Democrats of the North ADVISED THEM TO WAR, PROMISED TO COME TO THEIR ASSISTANCE, AND THEN LEFT THEM ALONE IN THE STRUG

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GLE, and confined themselves to cowardly, perfidious, and stealthy assaults upon their own government.' He said that, instead of Northern Democrats coming to their assistance, the soldiers of the Union came in overwhelming force and conquered them; 'but,' said he, 'they brought government with them, and rescued us from a tyranny more terrible than death.""

General McClellan was no politician; had never, as far as I knew, been in public life except as a soldier; had never filled any political office or place; had little idea, perhaps, of the quirks and quibbles, acts and tricks of practical professional politicians, and lent his name unwittingly,

I am prepared to believe, to those adroit managers and skillful manipulators, who, if they could have once had him under their thumb, hoped to mould and fashion him to any shape the Democracy might see fit to demand. Fortunately for himself, he did not fall into the potters' hands; fortunately for his country, they had no opportunity to entangle him in their political cobwebs before he was aware of it, from which extrication would have been difficult.

I have called this rebellion A STRIKE FOR HIGHER WAGES, and so it was, nothing more and nothing less. It was a bold and wicked strike to hold on, per fas aut nefus, to the power and control of the government, which they found was naturally and certainly falling into the hands of the majority of the North. The government had been in operation for seventy-two years; during the greater part of this time the North had had a considerable numerical majority; but, by a pretty well united South on the slavery question, the minority had been able to retain sufficient strength in the North, through the patronage of the government, to secure its continuance in power. Accordingly the South had had General Washington at the head of the government for eight years, Mr. Jefferson for eight years, Mr. Madison for eight, Mr. Monroe for eight, General Jackson for eight, Mr. Van Buren (who, although a Northern man, was nominated and elected by the South while running against a Southern candidate) for four, Mr. Polk for four, Mr. Tyler (who, though elected by the Whigs, was bought up by the Democracy) for four, Mr. Pierce (who, like Mr. Van Buren, was nominated and elected by the Southern Democracy against a Southern candidate) for four, and Mr. Buchanan for four-making in all sixty years; which was offsetted by twelve only on the part of the opposition to Democracy, to wit, John Adams for four, John Quincy Adams, four, and General Taylor and Mr. Fillmore, four; and, during the whole terms of the two latter, the Democracy had control of one or both of the two houses of Congress; and such had been the success of this minority, by the perfection of their organization and their system of rewards and punishments, that they grew bold, insolent, and insane in their demands, and, throwing off all disguise in an hour of weakness and madness in 1854, they repudiated all compromise, old and new, and planting themselves firmly on the doctrine of "SQUATTER SOVEREIGNTY," which they had previously—and have again, since they found it did not pay as well as they expected-so indignantly repudiated, declared all compromises evasions or violations of the Constitution not to be tolerated for the future, fairly and squarely tendered the issue to the North, that the powers of the

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