"THE FIRE IN THE REAR."
The treacherous purposes of professedly-loyal Copperheads being seen
through, and promptly and emphatically denounced to the Country by Union
statesmen, the Copperheads aforesaid concluded that the profuse
circulation of their own Treason-breeding speeches--through the medium
of the treasonable organizations before referred to, permeating the
Northern States,--would more than counteract all that Union men could
say or do. Besides, the fiat had gone forth, from their Rebel masters
at Richmond, to Agitate the North.
Hence, day after day, Democrat after Democrat, in the one House or the
other, continued to air his disloyal opinions, and to utter more or less
virulent denunciations of the Government which guarded and protected
him.
Thus, Brooks, of New York, on the 25th of January (1864), sneeringly
exclaimed: "Why, what absurdity it is to talk at this Capitol of
prosecuting the War by the liberation of Slaves, when from the dome of
this building there can be heard at this hour the booming of cannon in
the distance!"
Thus, also, on the day following, Fernando Wood--the same man who,
while Mayor of New York at the outbreak of the Rebellion, had, under
Rebel-guidance, proposed the Secession from the Union, and the
Independence, of that great Metropolis,--declared to the House that: "No
Government has pursued a foe with such unrelenting, vindictive malignity
as we are now pursuing those who came into the Union with us, whose
blood has been freely shed on every battle-field of the Country until
now, with our own; who fought by our side in the American Revolution,
and in the War of 1812 with Great Britain; who bore our banners bravest
and highest in our victorious march from Vera Cruz to the City of
Mexico, and who but yesterday sat in these Halls contributing toward the
maintenance of our glorious institutions."
Then he went on, in the spirit of prophecy, to declare that: "No purely
agricultural people, fighting for the protection of their own Domestic
Institutions upon their own soil, have ever yet been conquered. I say
further, that no revolted people have ever been subdued after they have
been able to maintain an Independent government for three years." And
then, warming up to an imperative mood, he made this explicit
announcement: "We are at War. * * * Whether it be a Civil War,
Rebellion, Revolution, or Foreign War, it matters little. IT MUST
CEASE; and I want this Administration to tell the American People WHEN
it will cease!" Again, only two days afterward, he took occasion to
characterize a Bill, amendatory of the enrollment Act, as "this
infamous, Unconstitutional conscription Act!"
C. A. White, of Ohio, was another of the malcontents who undertook, with
others of the same Copperhead faith, to "maintain, that," as he
expressed it, "the War in which we are at present engaged is wrong in
itself; that the policy adopted by the Party in power for its
prosecution is wrong; that the Union cannot be restored, or, if
restored, maintained, by the exercise of the coercive power of the
Government, by War; that the War is opposed to the restoration of the
Union, destructive of the rights of the States and the liberties of the
People. It ought, therefore, to be brought to a speedy and immediate
close."
It was about this time also that, emboldened by immunity from punishment
for these utterances in the interest of armed Rebels, Edgerton of
Indiana, was put forward to offer resolutions "for Peace, upon the basis
of a restoration of the Federal Union under the Constitution as it is,"
etc.
Thereafter, in both Senate and House, such speeches by
Rebel-sympathizers, the aiders and abettors of Treason, grew more
frequent and more virulent than ever. As was well said to the House,
by one of the Union members from Ohio (Mr. Eckley):
"A stranger, if he listened to the debates here, would think himself in
the Confederate Congress. I do not believe that if these Halls were
occupied to-day by Davis, Toombs, Wigfall, Rhett, and Pryor, they could
add anything to the violence of assault, the falsity of accusation, or
the malignity of attack, with which the Government has been assailed,
and the able, patriotic, and devoted men who are charged with its
Administration have been maligned, in both ends of the Capitol. The
closing scenes of the Thirty-Sixth Congress, the treasonable
declarations there made, contain nothing that we cannot hear, in the
freedom of debate, without going to Richmond or to the camps of Treason,
where most of the actors in those scenes are now in arms against us."
With such a condition of things in Congress, it is not surprising that
the Richmond Enquirer announced that the North was "distracted,
exhausted, and impoverished," and would, "through the agency of a strong
conservative element in the Free States," soon treat with the Rebels "on
acceptable terms."
Things indeed had reached such a pass, in the House of Representatives
especially, that it was felt they could not much longer go on in this
manner; that an example must be made of some one or other of these
Copperheads. But the very knowledge of the existence of such a feeling
of just and patriotic irritation against the continued free utterance of
such sentiments in the Halls of Congress, seemed only to make some of
them still more defiant. And, when the 8th of April dawned, it was
known among all the Democrats in Congress, that Alexander Long proposed
that day to make a speech which would "go a bow-shot beyond them all" in
uttered Treason. He would speak right out, what the other Conspirators
thought and meant, but dared not utter, before the World.
A crowded floor, and packed galleries, were on hand to listen to the
written, deliberate Treason, as it fell from his lips in the House. His
speech began with an arraignment of the Government for treachery,
incompetence, failure, tyranny, and all sorts of barbarous actions and
harsh intentions, toward the Rebels--which led him to the indignant
exclamation:
"Will they throw down their arms and submit to the terms? Who shall
believe that the free, proud American blood, which courses with as quick
pulsation through their veins as our own, will not be spilled to the
last drop in resistance?"
Warming up, he proceeded to say: "Can the Union be restored by War? I
answer most unhesitatingly and deliberately, No, never; 'War is final,
eternal separation.'"
He claimed that the War was "wrong;" that it was waged "in violation of
the Constitution," and would "if continued, result speedily in the
destruction of the Government and the loss of Civil Liberty, and ought
therefore, to immediately cease."
He held also "that the Confederate States are out of the Union,
occupying the position of an Independent Power de facto; have been
acknowledged as a belligerent both by Foreign Nations and our own
Government; maintained their Declaration of Independence, for three
years, by force of arms; and the War has cut asunder all the obligations
that bound them under the Constitution."
"Much better," said he, "would it have been for us in the beginning,
much better would it be for us now, to consent to a division of our
magnificent Empire, and cultivate amicable relations with our estranged
brethren, than to seek to hold them to us by the power of the sword. *
* * I am reluctantly and despondingly forced to the conclusion that the
Union is lost, never to be restored. * * * I see neither North nor
South, any sentiment on which it is possible to build a Union. * * * in
attempting to preserve our Jurisdiction over the Southern States we have
lost our Constitutional Form of Government over the Northern. * * * The
very idea upon which this War is founded, coercion of States, leads to
despotism. * * * I now believe that there are but two alternatives, and
they are either an acknowledgment of the Independence of the South as an
independent Nation, or their complete subjugation and extermination as a
People; and of these alternatives I prefer the former."
As Long took his seat, amid the congratulations of his Democratic
friends, Garfield arose, and, to compliments upon the former's peculiar
candor and honesty, added denunciation for his Treason. After drawing
an effective parallel between Lord Fairfax and Robert E. Lee, both of
whom had cast their lots unwillingly with the enemies of this Land, when
the Wars of the Revolution and of the Rebellion respectively opened,
Garfield proceeded:
"But now, when hundreds of thousands of brave souls have gone up to God
under the shadow of the Flag, and when thousands more, maimed and
shattered in the Contest, are sadly awaiting the deliverance of death;
now, when three years of terrific warfare have raged over us, when our
Armies have pushed the Rebellion back over mountains and rivers and
crowded it back into narrow limits, until a wall of fire girds it; now,
when the uplifted hand of a majestic People is about to let fall the
lightning of its conquering power upon the Rebellion; now, in the quiet
of this Hall, hatched in the lowest depths of a similar dark Treason,
there rises a Benedict Arnold and proposes to surrender us all up, body
and spirit, the Nation and the Flag, its genius and its honor, now and
forever, to the accursed Traitors to our Country. And that proposition
comes--God forgive and pity my beloved State!--it comes from a citizen
of the honored and loyal Commonwealth of Ohio! I implore you, brethren
in this House, not to believe that many such births ever gave pangs to
my mother-State such as she suffered when that Traitor was born!"
As he uttered these sturdy words, the House and galleries were agitated
with that peculiar rustling movement and low murmuring sound known as a
"sensation," while the Republican side with difficulty restrained the
applause they felt like giving, until he sadly proceeded:
"I beg you not to believe that on the soil of that State another such
growth has ever deformed the face of Nature and darkened the light of
God's day."
The hush that followed was broken by the suggestive whisper:
"Vallandigham!"
"But, ah," continued the Speaker--as his voice grew sadder still--"I am
reminded that there are other such. My zeal and love for Ohio have
carried me too far. I retract. I remember that only a few days since,
a political Convention met at the Capital of my State, and almost
decided, to select from just such material, a representative for the
Democratic Party in the coming contest; and today, what claims to be a
majority of the Democracy of that State say that they have been cheated
or they would have made that choice!"
[This refers to Horatio Seymour, the Democratic Governor of New
York.]
After referring to the "insidious work" of the "Knights of the Golden
Circle" in seeking "to corrupt the Army and destroy its efficiency;" the
"riots and murders which," said he, "their agents are committing
throughout the Loyal North, under the lead and guidance of the Party
whose Representatives sit yonder across the aisle;" he continued: "and
now, just as the time is coming on when we are to select a President for
the next four years, one rises among them and fires the Beacon, throws
up the blue-light--which will be seen, and rejoiced over, at the Rebel
Capital in Richmond--as the signal that the Traitors in our camp are
organized and ready for their hellish work! I believe the utterance of
to-day is the uplifted banner of revolt. I ask you to mark the signal
that blazes here, and see if there will not soon appear the answering
signals of Traitors all over the Land. * * * If these men do mean to
light the torch of War in all our homes; if they have resolved to begin
the fearful work which will redden our streets, and this Capitol, with
blood, the American People should know it at once, and prepare to meet
it."
At the close of Mr. Garfield's patriotic and eloquent remarks, Mr. Long
again got the floor, declared that what he had said, he believed to be
right, and he would "stand by it," though he had to "stand solitary and
alone," and "even if it were necessary to brave bayonets, and prisons,
and all the tyranny which may be imposed by the whole power and force of
the Administration."
Said he: "I have deliberately uttered my sentiments in that speech, and
I will not retract one syllable of it." And, to "rub it in" a little
stronger, he exclaimed, as he took his seat, just before adjournment:
"Give me Liberty, even if confined to an Island of Greece, or a Canton
of Switzerland, rather than an Empire and a Despotism as we have here
to-day!"
This treasonable speech naturally created much excitement throughout the
Country.
On the following day (Saturday, April 9, 1864), immediately after
prayer, the reading of the Journal being dispensed with, the Speaker of
the House (Colfax) came down from the Speaker's Chair, and, from the
floor, offered a Preamble and Resolution, which ended thus:
"Resolved, That Alexander Long, a Representative from the second
district of Ohio, having, on the 8th day of April, 1864, declared
himself in favor of recognizing the Independence and Nationality of the
so-called Confederacy now in arms against the Union, and thereby 'given
aid, Countenance and encouragement to persons engaged in armed hostility
to the United States,' is hereby expelled."
The debate which ensued consumed nearly a week, and every member of
prominence, on both the Republican and Democratic sides, took part in
it--the Democrats almost invariably being careful to protest their own
loyalty, and yet attempting to justify the braver and more candid
utterances of the accused member.
Mr. Cox led off, April 9th, in the defense, by counterattack. He quoted
remarks made to the House (March 18, 1864) by Mr. Julian, of Indiana, to
the effect that "Our Country, united and Free, must be saved, at
whatever hazard or cost; and nothing, not even the Constitution, must be
allowed to hold back the uplifted arm of the Government in blasting the
power of the Rebels forever;"--and upon this, adopting the language of
another--[Judge Thomas, of Massachusetts.]--Mr. Cox declared that "to
make this a War, with the sword in one hand to defend the Constitution,
and a hammer in the other to break it to pieces, is no less treasonable
than Secession itself; and that, outside the pale of the Constitution,
the whole struggle is revolutionary."
He thought, for such words as he had just quoted, Julian ought to have
been expelled, if those of Long justified expulsion!
Finally, being pressed by Julian to define his own position, as between
the Life of the Nation, and the Infraction of the United States
Constitution, Mr. Cox said: "I will say this, that UNDER NO
CIRCUMSTANCES CONCEIVABLE BY THE HUMAN MIND WOULD I EVER VIOLATE THAT
CONSTITUTION FOR ANY PURPOSE!"
This sentiment was loudly applauded, and received with cries of "THAT IS
IT!" "THAT'S IT!" by the Democratic side of the House, apparently in
utter contempt for the express and emphatic declaration of Jefferson
that: "A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the
highest duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws
of Necessity, of Self-preservation, of SAVING OUR COUNTRY WHEN IN
DANGER, are of higher obligation. To LOSE OUR COUNTRY by a scrupulous
adherence to written law WOULD BE TO LOSE THE LAW ITSELF, with Life,
Liberty, Property, and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus
absolutely SACRIFICING THE END TO THE MEANS."
[In a letter to J. B. Colvin, Sept. 20, 1810, quoted at the time
for their information, and which may be found at page 542 of vol.
v., of Jefferson's Works.]
Indeed these extreme sticklers for the letter of the Constitution, who
would have sacrificed Country, kindred, friends, honesty, truth, and all
ambitions on Earth and hopes for Heaven, rather than violate it--for
that is what Mr. Cox's announcement and the Democratic endorsement of it
meant, if they meant anything--were of the same stripe as those
querulous Ancients, for the benefit of whom the Apostle wrote: "For THE
LETTER KILLETH, but the Spirit giveth life."
And now, inspired apparently by the reckless utterances
of Long, if not by the more cautious diatribe of Cox, Harris of
Maryland, determining if possible to outdo them all, not only declared
that he was willing to go with his friend Long wherever the House chose
to send him, but added: "I am a peace man, a radical peace man; and I am
for Peace by the recognition of the South, for the recognition of the
Southern Confederacy; and I am for acquiescence in the doctrine of
Secession." And, said he, in the midst of the laughter which followed
the sensation his treasonable words occasioned, "Laugh as you may, you
have got to come to it!" And then, with that singular obfuscation of
ideas engendered, in the heads of their followers, by the astute
Rebel-sympathizing leaders, he went on:
"I am for Peace, and I am for Union too. I am as good a Union man as
any of you. [Laughter.] I am a better Union man than any of you!
[Great Laughter.] * * * I look upon War as Disunion."
After declaring that, if the principle of the expulsion Resolution was
to be carried out, his "friend," Mr. Long, "would be a martyr in a
glorious cause"--he proceeded to announce his own candidacy for
expulsion, in the following terms:
"Mr. Speaker, in the early part of this Secession movement, there was a
Resolution offered, pledging men and money to carry on the War. My
principles were then, and are now, against the War. I stood, solitary
and alone, in voting against that Resolution, and whenever a similar
proposition is brought here it will meet with my opposition. Not one
dollar, nor one man, I swear, by the Eternal, will I vote for this
infernal, this stupendous folly, more stupendous than ever disgraced any
civilized People on the face of God's Earth. If that be Treason, make
the most of it!
"The South asked you to let them go in peace. But no, you said you
would bring them into subjugation. That is not done yet, and God
Almighty grant that it never may be. I hope that you will never
subjugate the South. If she is to be ever again in the Union, I hope it
will be with her own consent; and I hope that that consent will be
obtained by some other mode than by the sword. 'If this be Treason,
make the most of it!'"
An extraordinary scene at once occurred--Mr. Tracy desiring "to know
whether, in these Halls, the gentleman from Maryland invoked Almighty
God that the American Arms should not prevail?" "Whether such language
is not Treason?" and "whether it is in order to talk Treason in this
Hall?"--his patriotic queries being almost drowned in the incessant
cries of "Order!" "Order!" and great disorder, and confusion, on the
Democratic side of the House.
Finally the treasonable language was taken down by the Clerk, and, while
a Resolution for the expulsion of Mr. Harris was being written out, Mr.
Fernando Wood--coming, as he said, from a bed of "severe sickness,"
quoted the language used by Mr. Long, to wit:
"I now believe there are but two alternatives, and they are either the
acknowledgment of the Independence of the South as an independent
Nation, or their complete subjugation and extermination as a People; and
of these alternatives I prefer the former"--and declared that "if he is
to be expelled for the utterance of that sentiment, you may include me
in it, because I concur fully in that sentiment."
[He afterwards (April 11,) said he did not agree with Mr. Long's
opinions.]
Every effort was unavailingly made by the Democrats, under the lead of
Messrs. Cox--[In 1886 American Minister at Constantinople.]--and
Pendleton,--[In 1886 American Minister at Berlin.]--to prevent action
upon the new Resolution of expulsion, which was in these words:
"Whereas, Hon. Benjamin G. Harris, a member of the House of
Representatives of the United States from the State of Maryland, has on
this day used the following language, to wit: 'The South asked you to
let them go in peace. But no; you said you would bring them into
subjection. That is not done yet, and God Almighty grant that it never
may be. I hope that you will never subjugate the South.' And whereas,
such language is treasonable, and is a gross disrespect of this House:
Therefore, 'Be it Resolved, That the said Benjamin G. Harris be expelled
from this House.'"
Upon reaching a vote, however, the Resolution was lost, there being only
81 yeas, to 58 (Democratic) nays--two-thirds not having voted
affirmatively. Subsequently, despite Democratic efforts to obstruct, a
Resolution, declaring Harris to be "an unworthy Member" of the House,
and "severely" censuring him, was adopted.
The debate upon the Long-expulsion Resolution now proceeded, and its
mover, in view of the hopelessness of securing a two-thirds affirmative
vote, having accepted an amendment comprising other two Resolutions and
a Preamble, the question upon adopting these was submitted on the 14th
of April. They were in the words following:
"Whereas, ALEXANDER LONG, a Representative from the second district of
Ohio, by his open declarations in the National Capitol, and publications
in the City of New York, has shown himself to be in favor of a
recognition of the so-called Confederacy now trying to establish itself
upon the ruins of our Country, thereby giving aid and comfort to the
Enemy in that destructive purpose--aid to avowed Traitors, in creating
an illegal Government within our borders, comfort to them by assurances
of their success and affirmations of the justice of their Cause; and
whereas, such conduct is at the same time evidence of disloyalty, and
inconsistent with his oath of office, and his duty as a Member of this
Body: Therefore,
"Resolved, That the said Alexander Long, a Representative from the
second district of Ohio, be, and he is hereby declared to be an unworthy
Member of the House of Representatives.
"Resolved, That the Speaker shall read these Resolutions to the said
Alexander Long during the session of the House."
The first of these Resolutions was adopted, by 80 yeas to 69 nays; the
second was tabled, by 71 yeas to 69 nays; and the Preamble was agreed
to, by 78 yeas to 63 nays.
And, among the 63 Democrats, who were not only unwilling to declare
Alexander Long "an unworthy Member," or to have the Speaker read such a
declaration to him in a session of the House, but also refused by their
votes even to intimate that his conduct evidenced disloyalty, or gave
aid and comfort to the Enemy, were the names of such democrats as Cox,
Eldridge, Holman, Kernan, Morrisson, Pendleton, Samuel J. Randall,
Voorhees, and Fernando Wood.
Hence Mr. Long not only escaped expulsion for his treasonable
utterances, but did not even receive the "severe censure" which, in
addition to being declared (like himself) "an unworthy Member," had been
voted to Mr. Harris for recklessly rushing into the breach to help him!
[The Northern Democracy comprised two well-recognized classes: The
Anti-War (or Peace) Democrats, commonly called "Copperheads," who
sympathized with the Rebellion, and opposed the War for the Union;
and the War (or Union) Democrats, who favored a vigorous
prosecution of the War for the preservation of the Union.]