Beyond all question he answered to
the old description of a "Northern man with Southern principles,"
and his violence of temper made it all a matter of personal hatred
with him in his opposition to the leaders of the party in power at
the North. His denunciations were the most extreme, and his
expressions of contempt and ill-will were wholly unbridled. He
claimed, of course, that he kept within the limits of a
"constitutional opposition," because he did not, in terms, advise
his hearers to combine in armed opposition to the government.
About the first of May he addressed a public meeting at Mount Vernon
in central Ohio, where, in addition to his diatribes against the
Lincoln administration, he denounced Order No. 38, and Burnside as
its author. His words were noted down in short-hand by a captain of
volunteers who was there on leave of absence from the army, and the
report was corroborated by other reputable witnesses. He charged the
administration with designing to erect a despotism, with refusing to
restore the Union when it might be done, with carrying on the war
for the liberation of the blacks and the enslavement of the whites.
He declared that the provost-marshals for the congressional
districts were intended to restrict the liberties of the people;
that courts-martial had already usurped power to try citizens
contrary to law; that he himself would never submit to the orders of
a military dictator, and such were Burnside and his subordinates;
that if those in authority were allowed to accomplish their
purposes, the people would be deprived of their liberties and a
monarchy established.
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