ht of revolution? It is the right to resist a
government under which you live, if that government is guilty of
intolerable oppression or injustice, but not otherwise. And that is
the doctrine of Abraham Lincoln. Now, in order to make that a
precedent for the rebellion, Judge Thurman is bound to take the
position that, in the case of the rebel States, there had been acts
of intolerable oppression and injustice done to that part of the
country which went into rebellion. I know that the rebels, for the
most part, did not put the rebellion upon that ground; but Judge
Thurman now does it for them. He makes it out--or must make it out
to sustain himself--that it was a case of revolution, growing out
of the exercise of that right which our fathers exercised in 1776.
Now, if Judge Thurman can show that there was justification for the
rebellion, he has made out his case. If that rebellion was not
justified by such circumstances--if there was no such intolerable
injustice and oppression--he has failed in his precedent. He goes
further, and says that Mr. Wade, Chief Justice Chase, Secretary
Stanton, and General Butler all held sentiments before the war the
same as the sentiments which he held then, and holds now, on the
subject of the rights of the States. Suppose they did--suppose they
belonged to the same party before the war--is that any defense of
his conduct during the war? They saw fit, after the war had broken
out, to rally to the side of their country, notwithstanding any
notions or theories they might have held with regard to the rights
of the States.

I do not stop now to discuss the correctness of Judge Thurman's
opinions as to the course of these men prior to the war. It is
enough for me to say that the question I make--the question which
the people of Ohio make--is, What was your conduct after it was
found that there was a conspiracy to break up the Union, after war
was upon us, and armies were raised--what was your conduct then?
That is the question before the people. And I ask of an intelligent
audience, what was the duty of a good citizen after that war for
the destruction of the government and the Union had begun? Need I
ask any old Jackson Democrat what is his duty when the Union is at
stake? In 1806, Aaron Burr proposed this matter to Andrew