General S. F. Carey was next introduced. He referred to the deliverance
of Dr. Brownlow as a release from dangers greater than those that
surrounded Daniel in the lion's den, and from beasts far worse than
beset the prophet. His deliverance was not to be credited to their
magnanimity, but their fears.
He did not like to find fault with the Government, but it did seem to
him that it was time it should bestir itself, and prosecute the war
with greater vigor. Nor did he approve the policy pursued towards those
taken in rebellion against the Government, referred with much bitterness
to the tenderness displayed in the cases of Magoffin, Buckner, and the
rebel prisoners at Columbus. He didn't think the penitentiary the place
for them, and would not have the convicts contaminated by them. There
was no inmate of the penitentiary, though he had been guilty of
murdering his father, mother, or brother, whose crime was not innocence
itself compared with that of these rebel prisoners, who sport their
uniforms in the streets of Columbus, insulting the fathers and brothers
of those men who had fallen in defence of the Union, and sitting in
privileged seats in the legislative chambers of the State.
The audience had heard the narrative of the sufferings of loyal women in
the South, and yet we have women in the State of Ohio who go to
Columbus, with the avowed purpose of making the rebel officers
comfortable,--conduct that in his opinion, and notwithstanding their
sex, deserved the halter. He had no sympathy with the rebellion or with
rebels, and was for cleaning them out root and branch.
In speaking on this subject, he felt the utter feebleness of human
language. After it was exhausted, the great crime of rebellion looms up
in all its terrible proportions. God speed the day when we shall be
delivered! And yet he had no hope for the country till all the remnants
of miserable partyism are swept away; he had no hope for it, while
politicians were busy at the Capital intriguing and scheming for the
preservation of some old broken down faction called a party. We need
patriotism, not party.
Referring to the remarks of Mr. Brownlow, respecting the treatment that
should be meted out to disunionists North and South, Mr. Carey said that
while he respected the right of free speech, he was for hanging any man
who favored disunion and dared to say so. Every man has his rights, the
convict on the gallows, the thief in the penitentiary, but when a man
abuses his rights, the right of free speech, to express himself in favor
of disunion, be he Wendell Phillips, or any other man, cut him down.
The masses of the people in the North are in favor of a restoration of
the Union as it existed before the war. But if the war continues, and
the people of the rebellious States are given over to hardness of heart,
if they shoot our pickets, if it proves necessary to send a few more
thousand men from the loyal States to put down the rebellion, and people
Southern grave yards, a cry will go up from Maine to the Pacific to
clean out the rebels, niggers and all.
He believed the whole purpose of the Administration in the prosecution
of the war, was to preserve the Republic and all its institutions as
they existed when it came into power; and nothing is more certain than
that the Union will be preserved, though it cost all our property and
half the lives in the Republic.
He appealed to mothers to exert their influence in kindling a spirit of
exalted patriotism, and to teach their sons not to be Democrats or
Republicans, but to be patriots; and appealed to the ladies of the city
to visit the hospitals, comfort the sick, point the dying to the land
where there is no secession and no rebels, and give of their time,
sympathy, and means to soothe the sufferings and lighten the afflictions
of those who had volunteered in defence of the Union.
Gen. Carey, of whose vigorous speech we give but a brief outline,
retired amid prolonged cheers. The "Star Spangled Banner" was sung, and
Lieutenant-Governor Fisk, of Kentucky, introduced by the Chairman.