Is this loyalty to the Constitution and the Union? Is this the
allegiance which a citizen owes to his country? Away with the
mischievous sophistry, that the Government is not the country, and does
not represent the people! Can any sane man doubt that an Administration
legally chosen, and rightfully in power, and receiving the emphatic
indorsement of decisive majorities in Congress, does, during its
constitutional term of office, and while so supported, speak the mind
and embody the will of the nation? Is there any show of reason for
saying that such an Administration is an irresponsible despotism,
governing the country without the moral countenance of its citizens, and
in defiance of their declared sentiments?
But the views of Peace Democrats are not to be ascertained alone by
consulting the newspapers which are their acknowledged organs. Listen to
the speeches of their prominent leaders. I will not stop to call your
attention to their bold treason after a Union reverse, or their
non-committal platitudes after a Union victory. Let me rather ask you to
consider the prevailing tone of their public addresses. Remember,
meanwhile, that our Government is grappling with an active and resolute
enemy, whose avowed and persistent purpose is to divide the Union, and
by means unconstitutional and treasonable to erect on the ruins of our
once happy Republic an independent and necessarily hostile power.
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