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[495]

2. That no one of you will do any thing which, in his own judgment, will tend to hinder the increase or favor the decrease or lessen the efficiency of the army and navy, while engaged in the effort to suppress that rebellion; and

3. That each of you will, in his sphere, do all lie can to have the officers, soldiers, and seamen of the army and navy, while engaged in the effort to suppress the Rebellion, paid, fed, clad, and otherwise well provided for and supported.

And with the further understanding that, upon receiving the letter and names thus indorsed, I will cause them to be published ; which publication shall be, within itself, a revocation of the order in relation to Mr. Vallandigham.

It will not escape observation that I consent to the release of Mr. Vallandigham upon terms not embracing any pledge from him, or from others, as to what he will or will not do. I do this because he is not present to speak for himself, or to authorize others to speak for him; and hence I shall expect that on returning he would not put himself practically in antagonism with his friends. But I do it chiefly because I thereby prevail on other influential gentlemen of Ohio to so define their position as to be of immense value to the army — thus more than compensating for the consequences of any mistake in allowing Mr. Vallandigham to return ; so that, on the whole, the public safety will not have suffered by it. Still, in regard to Mr. Vallandigham and all others, I, must hereafter, as heretofore, do so much as the public service may seem to require.

I have the honor to be, respectfully, yours, &c.,


The Committee rejoined,1 controverting the President's positions; repelling his imputation that they or their party would encourage desertions, or resistance to the draft; suggesting that

The measures of the Administration, and its changes of policy in the prosecution of the war, have been the fruitful sources of discouraging enlistments and inducing desertions, and furnish a reason for the undeniable fact that the first call for volunteers was answered by very many more than were demanded, and that the next call for soldiers will probably be responded to by drafted men alone.

They express surprise at the President's proffer to revoke the banishment of Mr. V. on the conditions above specified, and decline to “enter into any bargains, terms, contracts, or conditions, with the President of the United States, to procure the release of Mr. Vallandigham. They regard the proffer as involving an imputation on their own sincerity and fidelity as citizens of the United States ;” and declare that

they have asked the revocation of the order of banishment not as a favor, but as a right due to the people of Ohio, and with a view to avoid the possibility of conflict or disturbance of the public tranquillity.

At this point, the argument of this grave question, concerning the right, in time of war, of those who question the justice or the policy of such war, to denounce its prosecution as mistaken and ruinous, was rested by the President and his assailants — or rather, it was transferred2 by the

1 July 1.

2 The arbitrary suppression, within a certain military department, by the General commanding therein, of the circulation of two or three journals deemed by him disloyal, having provoked much discussion and excited some alarm, a meeting of the journalists of New York was held at the Astor House, June 8th, and the following declaration of sentiments unanimously adopted:

Whereas, Recent events indicate the existence of grave misapprehensions and lamentable confusion of ideas with regard to this vital question; therefore,

Resolved, That our conceptions of the rights and duties of the Press, in a season of convulsion and public peril, like the present, are briefly summed up in the following propositions:

1. We recognize and affirm the duty of fidelity to the Constitution, Government, and laws of our country, as a high moral as well as political obligation resting on every citizen; anil neither claim for ourselves nor concede to others any exemption from its requirements or privilege to evade their sacred and binding force.

2. That Treason and Rebellion arc crimes, by the fundamental law of this as of every other country; and nowhere else so culpable, so abhorrent, as in a republic, where each has an equal voice and vote in the peaceful and legal direction of public affairs.

3. While we thus emphatically disclaim and deny any right, as inhering in journalists or others, to incite, advocate, abet, uphold, or justify treason or rebellion, we respectfully but firmly assert and maintain the right of the Press to criticise freely and fearlessly the acts of those charged with the administration of the government, also those of all their civil and military subordinates, whether with intent directly to secure greater energy, efficiency, and fidelity in the public service, or in order to achieve the same ends more remotely, through the substitution of other persons for those now in power.

4. That any limitations of this right created by the necessities of war should be confined to localities wherein hostilities actually exist, or are imminently threatened; and we deny the right of any military officer to suppress the issues or forbid the general circulation of journals printed hundreds of miles from the seat of war.

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