ends, I shall not deal with obscure newspapers or
obscure men. What a private citizen like Allen G. Thurman may have
said in 1861 is a matter of indifference."

Ah, no, Judge Thurman, the Union party does not propose to allow
your record to go without investigation because you are a private
citizen. I know you held no official position under the government
at the time I speak of; but, sir, you had for years been a leading,
able, and influential man in the great party which had often
carried your State. You were acting under grave responsibilities.
More than that, during that year 1863, you were more than a private
citizen. You were one of the delegates to the State convention of
that year; you were one of the committee that forms your party
platform in that convention; you were one of the central committee
that carries on the canvass in the absence of your
standard-bearers; and you were one of the orators of the party. No,
sir, you were not a private citizen in 1863. You were one of the
leading and one of the ablest men in your party in that year,
speaking through the months of July, August, September, and
October, in behalf of the candidate of the peace party. You can not
escape as a private citizen.

Well, sir, in the beginning of that eventful year, there rises in
Congress the ablest member of the peace party, to advise Congress
and to advise the people, and what does he say?

"You have not conquered the South. You never will. It is not in the
nature of things possible, especially under your auspices. Money
you have expended without limit; blood you have poured out like
water."

Now, mark the taunt--the words of discouragement that were sent to
the people and to the army of the Union:

"Defeat, debt, taxation, sepulchers--these are your trophies. Can
you get men to enlist now at any price?"

Listen again to the words that were sent to the army and to the
loyal people:

"Ah, sir, it is easier to die at home."

We knew that, Judge Thurman, better than Mr. Vallandigham knew it.
We had seen our comrades falling and dying alone on the mountain
side and in the swamps--dying in the prison-pens of the Confederacy
and in the crowded hospitals, North and South. Yet he had the face
to stand up in Congress, and say to the people and