with no prospect of peace, no sound of concord, no proposition or prospect of settlement in the future, they might possibly attempt to invade the Northern or Western States; but it never entered my mind, I never conceived for a moment, of such a thing as to give utterance to the sentiment that "they ought to be induced" to invade the North.

THE TRUE POSITION AND DUTY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.
Letter to ALFRED Sanderson, Esq., Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

DAYTON, OHIO, April 24, 1863.

My engagements in New York precluded me from accepting your invitation, and addressing you previous to my return West. I expect to go East about the 12th of May or 16th of June; and, if I do, will, if possible, visit Lancaster going or coming, and address your Democracy. Indeed, it will give me great pleasure to comply with your invitation. Should I be able to come, I will advise you in time.

R

Meanwhile, let me say that every thing depends on keeping the Democratic party up to the full measure of principle and sound policy, true to the Constitution, faithful to the Union, steadfast to the Government which they constitute, and devoted to liberty at the hazard of life itself. Truth and reason, applied to these high and sacred objects, are the only powers or agencies left to the Democracy, and by a bold and manly use alone of them can we succeed in the elections. Every thing else is in the hands of the Abolition party-the Administration. Through the press, but especially by public meetings and open and courageous organization, this use is to be made. Good men individually upon our ticket will not be enough. The people are not now voting for men, but for ideas, principles, policies. No public man is worth a rush now, unless he represents something besides candidacy for an office. Enthusiasm is power-a greater power, especially among the masses, among workingmen and a rural population, than any agency which this Administration can bring to bear, whether it be corruption or force; but there can be no popular enthusiasm for any one, above all just in these times of powerful commotion, unless he is the embodiment, or at least a representative, of some great principle or cause. And to be effective it must be antagonistic to some other and opposite principle or cause; and the stronger and more direct the antagonism, the better. This is essential now.

Last summer and fall the Administration was unsettled, ostensibly at least, in its policy, and its party therefore more or less divided. Not so now. It has a policy, and means steadfastly to adhere to it. Whoever supports the Administration now, supports its policy. All apology for temporizing by the Democratic party is utterly gone. The Administration Abolition party is thoroughly consolidated, and unquestionably it is now contending solely for UNITY AND A STRONG CENTRALIZED GOVERNMENT THROUGH WAR, AND, failing in this, then DISUNION. And it will rally to its support all men who from any cause, sentiment, or interest, are in favor of either the object or the means. Now the direct antagonism of all this is, UNION AND CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERTY THROUGH AN HONORABLE PEACE. And what nobler principle or idea, what holier cause for the Democratic party to struggle for? Arguments and appeals without number, the strongest ever urged, can be arrayed in its support-from religion, from philosophy, from human nature, politics, history, from the principles of our form of government, and from the utter

and inevitable failure of all other means of securing that great end. With all these agencies at our command, an enthusiasm can be evoked from the hearts of the people,' before which all opposition will be swept away as by a consuming fire.

THE MILITARY COMMISSION. THE CHARGE AND SPECIFICATION;"

MAY, 1863.

The following is a full and exact copy of the "Charge and Specification," embodying the sole offence or "crime" for which Mr. VALLANDIGHAM was "tried" before Burnside's Military Commission, at Cincinnati, May 6 and 7, 1863.

CHARGE.—Publicly expressing, in violation of General Orders No. 38, from Head-quarters Department of the Ohio, sympathy for those in arms against the Government of the United States, and declaring disloyal sentiments and opinious, with the object and purpose of weakening the power of the Government in its efforts to suppress an unlawful rebellion.

SPECIFICATION.-In this, that the said Clement L. Vallandigham, a citizen of the State of Ohio, on or about the first day of May, 1863, at Mount Vernon, Knox County, Ohio, did publicly address a large meeting of citizens, and did utter sentiments in words, or in effect, as follows, declaring the present war a wicked, cruel, and unnecessary war;" a war not being waged for the preservation of the Union;""a war for the purpose of crushing out liberty and erecting a despotism;" "a war for the freedom of the blacks and the enslavement of the whites;" stating "that if the Administration had so wished, the war could have been honorably terminated months ago;" that "peace might have been honorably obtained by listening to the proposed intermediation of France;" that "propositions by which the Northern States could be won back, and the South guaranteed their rights under the Constitution, had been rejected the day before the late battle of Fredericksburg, by Lincoln and his minions," meaning thereby the President of the United States, and those under him in authority; charging "that the Government of the United States was about to appoint military marshals in every district, to restrain the people of their liberties, to deprive them of their rights and privileges;" characterizing General Orders No. 38, from Head-quarters Department of the Ohio, as "a base usurpation of arbitrary authority," inviting his hearers to resist the same, by saying, "the sooner the people inform the minions of usurped power that they will not submit to such restrictions upon their liberties, the better;" declaring "that he was at all times, and upon all occasions, resolved to do what he could to defeat the attempts now being made to build up a monarchy upon the ruins of our free government;" asserting "that he firmly believed, as he said six months ago, that the men in power are attempting to establish a despotism in this country, more cruel and more oppressive than ever existed before."

All of which opinions and sentiments he well knew did aid, comfort, and encourage those in arms against the Government, and could but induce in his hearers a distrust of their own Government, sympathy for those in arms against it, and a disposition to resist the laws of the land.

RECEPTION AT WINDSOR, C. W.

Soon after arriving at Windsor, on the 24th of August, 1863, Mr. VALLANDIGHAM was welcomed by a deputation of citizens from Detroit, to whom he replied briefly. A summary of his response was published in the Detroit Free Press of August 26th, as follows:

come.

MR. VALLANDIGHAM replied, thanking his fellow-citizens for their kindly welHe said it was gratifying, personally, but much more as a testimony for the great cause of constitutional liberty. Very strange was the spectacle of an American citizen in exile, receiving a visit from his countrymen upon foreign soil and under the protection of a foreign flag, but in sight of his own country. "It is indeed," said Mr. V., "my country, and as dear to me as when I last trod its soil." It was not fitting that here he should discuss the political questions of that country. The great issue at home was, indeed, common to England and America. It was the question of personal and political liberty, secured in the one by Magna Charta, the Petition of Right, the Statute of Habeas Corpus, and the Bill of Rights; and in the other by the guarantees of our State and Federal constitutions. In better times he would discuss them at home with the ancient freedom of American citizens. Of himself, though so cordially met and kindly referred to, he had nothing to say. He was nothing; the cause every thing. A great struggle was going on in the United States to regain lost liberties-freedom of speech, of the press, and of public assemblages, and to maintain free elections. He had great faith in the ultimate triumph of the people-faith in Providence and faith in the race which, în England and America, had successfully supported their rights and liberties for six hundred years. The race would still vindicate itself in the United States. The right of free election, and all that preceded and was essential to it, must be maintained-peaceably if possible, but it must be maintained at all hazards. He counselled obedience to the Constitution and to all laws, and the enforcing of that obedience by all men, those in authority and those not in authority. The ballot was the true and proper remedy in the United States, for all political wrongs; and it was allsufficient. BUT WHEN THE BALLOT IS DENIED, THEN THE RIGHT OF REVOLUTION BEGINS—NOT THE RIGHT ONLY, BUT THE SACRED DUTY. Give us a free ballot and we want no more. Through this we will regain liberty, maintain the Constitution, uphold the laws, and restore the Union; and thus we will support the government which our fathers made. Claiming the fullest right at home to criticise and condemn the men and acts of the administration, and meaning there, and at the proper time, to again exercise it to the utmost, he, yet on foreign soil, had no word of bitterness to speak. He would only remember now that they represented his country, and forbear.

MISCELLANEOUS.

THE UNION-1849.

Valedictory as Editor of the Dayton Empire, June 27, 1849.

WE would stand or fall by them now as then, and throughout life. Of the vital importance to the welfare of the whole country in general, and the Democratic party in particular, of two, in an especial manner, to these principles, every hour has added to our deep conviction. And we would write them as in the rock, upon the hearts of our friends forever:

First, that which is really and most valuable in our American liberties, depends upon the preservation and vigor of THE UNION OF THESE STATES; and therefore,

all and every agitation in one section, necessarily generating, counter-agitation in the other, ought, from what quarter soever it may come, by every patriot and wellwisher of his country, to be "indignantly frowned upon," and arrested ere it be "too late."

Card to the Cincinnati Enquirer, August 20, 1861.

I NEVER, either in my place in the House of Representatives, or anywhere else, said any thing of the kind.

It is a part of that mass of falsehood created and set afloat so persistently for the last few years, in regard to all that concerns me; and is of the same coinage as that other falsehood, that I once said that "Federal troops must pass over my dead body on their way South"-a speech of intense stupidity, which I never, at any time, in any place, in any shape or form, uttered in my life.

But now, allow me, also, to say that I am for peace-speedy and honorable peace-because I am for the Union, and know, or think I know, that every hour of warfare by so much diminishes the hopes and chances of its restoration. I repeat with Douglas: "War is disunion. War is disunion. War is final, eternal separation;" and with Chatham: "My Lords, you cannot conquer America."

THE UNION-1862.

Remarks against the Bill abolishing Slavery in the District of Columbia, April 11, 1862. HAD I no other reason, I am opposed to it, because I regard all this class of legislation as tending to prevent a restoration of the Union of these States as it was, and that is the grand object to which I look. I know well, that in a very little while the question will be between the old Union of these States-the Union as our fathers made it-or some new one, or some new unity of government, or eternal separation-disunion. To both these latter I am unalterably end unconditionally opposed. It is to the restoration of the Union as it was, in 1789, and continued for over seventy years, that I am bound to the last hour of my political and personal existence, if it be within the limits of possibility, to restore and maintain that Union.

SOLDIERS.-PAY.PENSIONS.

Note to Dr. McElwee October 6. 1862.

In reply to yours of yesterday, I have to say that I supported all the measures in the last Congress looking to the giving of invalid pensions to all soldiers "wounded or incurring disability in the military service." Upon a question like that, no just or humane man could hesitate for a moment. Every soldier who has performed service is entitled to the pay and bounty promised him by law, and all disabled in any way during service are entitled to pensions; and I have never, either directly by vote or indirectly by refusing to vote, withheld either, where the service had been rendered or the disability incurred; nor would I do so.

LAWS. RIGHTS.-DUTIES.

Remarks at Reception at Dayton, Ohio, March 13, 1863.

It is the determination of the Democratic party to maintain free speech, a free press, and a free ballot, at all hazards. I am for obedience to all laws, and for requiring the men in power to obey them. I would try all questions of Constitution and law before the Courts, and then enforce the decrees of the Courts. I am for trying all political questions by the ballot. I would resist no law by force, but would endure almost every other wrong as long as free discussion, free assemblages of the people, and a free ballot remain, but the moment they are attacked, I would resist. We have a right to change Administrations, policies, and parties, not by forcible revolution, but by the ballot-box; and this right must be maintained at all hazards.

THE SANITARY COMMISSION.

WINDSOR, C. W., December 16, 1863.

GEO. MCLAUGHLIN, Esq., Cincinnati, Ohio: SIR-Yours of the 11th, requesting from me an autograph letter, for the benefit of the Sanitary Commission, has been received, and I cheerfully comply.

The object of the Commission is one of mercy. It is a charity truly Christian, to visit the sick, to heal the wounded, to minister to the maimed, to comfort the afflicted, to relieve the prisoner, to clothe the naked, to feed the hungry, to give drink to them who are athirst, to cheer the widow and the fatherless, to save human life, to alleviate human suffering, and thus to restore some part of that which war always so largely subtracts from the sum of human happiness. That all this is to be wrought out on behalf of those or the families of those who brave wounds and death with heroic courage, upon the many battle-fields of this most sorrowful of wars, gives but still more of value to the merciful purpose. The Commission, if justly, fairly, with integrity and without partiality, it shall perform its pious duties, will prove itself worthy of the noble praise bestowed by Burke upon the benevolent Howard.

SELF-DEFENCE.-PROTECTION.-REPRISALS.

MESSRS. HUBBARD & BROTHER, Dayton, Ohio:

WINDSOR, C. W., March 7, 1864.

GENTLEMEN:-I read, several days ago, the telegraphic announcement of the "riddling" of the Empire office by "furloughed soldiers." I offer you no sympathy, for that will avail nothing now or hereafter. I do express to you my profound regret that you were not prepared to inflict on the spot, and in the midst of the assault, the complete puuishment which the assailants deserved; but am gratified to learn that some of them did soon after receive their deserts. But these cowardly acts cannot always be guarded against. And they do not primarily come from the "soldiers." There is, therefore, but one remedy for past and preventa

*This letter, differing from Mr. VALLANDIGHAM's uniform and repeated previous teachings, may be regarded as a recognition by him, of .the melancholy fact that we have at last reached that point in the "Great American Revolution of 1861," where the protection of Constitution and law being no longer enforced by executive or judicial authority, we are obliged to fall back upon our natural rights, not in revenge, but for security.