HON. EDSON B. OLDS.*

HE case of the Hon. Edson B. Olds is one of deep and thrilling interest. Dr. Olds was, for more than a quarter of a century, one of the most active and influential Democrats in the State of Ohio. Previously to his imprisonment, he had addressed political meetings in almost every county in the State. He had been twice elected to the popular branch of the Ohio Legislature from Pickaway County. He had also represented Fairfield and Pickaway counties in the Senate, and, during the session of 1846-47, had held the responsible position of Speaker of that body. In 1848, and again in 1850, he had been elected a representative to the Congress of the United States from a district which had been apportioned for the express purpose of defeating his election. In 1852, Dr. Olds was again elected to Congress from the Capital District of Ohio. In Congress, he, for four years, held the important position of Chairman of the House Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads.

During the Presidential canvasses of 1856 and 1860, he was most untiring in his appeals to the people to put down both the fanaticism of the North and the ultraism of the South. He dwelt with fervid eloquence upon the appeals of Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Clay, Webster, and others, who frowned down every attempt to organize political sectional parties.

To show the sound and strong Union sentiments held by Dr. Olds, not only prior to, but during the prosecution of the war, we will make a few extracts from his celebrated BERNE TOWNSHIP speech, for the making of which, he was arrested and imprisoned. After reading copious extracts

* Died January 24, 1869.

from the old fathers against the organization of sectional parties, he says:

"These warnings, time and again, the Democracy have held up to the view of our Republican friends; but we have been met only with taunts and derision. . . . . There is not a Democrat within the sound of my voice but knows, as a matter of fact-knows, as a part of the history of the times, that, for more than ten years, Democratic papers and Democratic orators have everywhere, and upon every occasion, raised their warning voice against a sectional organization. For myself, I know that in more than a hundred speeches, almost with tears in my eyes, I have repeated the warnings and pleadings of Washington and the fathers, for the preservation of the Union. My friends, it was no uncommon thing, two years ago, to hear myself called, by way of derision, 'a UNION SAVIOR.'. . . . During the late Presidential canvass, so earnest were my pleadings for the Union, that it was a common occurrence, if I happened to be making a speech, to hear the prominent Republicans remark, as they passed, wagging their heads, 'Oh! it's only Dr. Olds, saving the Union.' I call God to witness here to-day, in the presence of the Republicans, that if I, by sacrificing myself, could restore this Union to what it was before the Abolitionists destroyed it, I would lay myself upon the altar a sacrifice, and give the very last drop of my heart's blood to repair the evils Abolitionism has brought upon my ruined country. . . I do Lot stand here to-day for the purpose of justifying the South in seceding from the Union. No man condemns secession more severely than I do. In my judgment it was follyconsummate folly-for the South to inaugurate such a measure. The election of Mr. Lincoln was no justification for them to destroy the Government. They should have sought redress in the Union, and not by attempting to destroy it. But, most unfortunately for us, and for the whole country, there were men at the South who, though hating Abolitionism, yet played into the lands of that party, and aided them in all their mad efforts to break down the Democratic party,

the only Union party of the country. . . . . These ruen broke up the Charleston Convention expressly to aid the Abolitionists of the North in electing a sectional President, that they might thereby have an excuse for seceding from the Union. For such men I have no sympathy. They have 'sown the wind,' and in the end will reap the whirlwind.""

No charges were ever preferred against Dr. Olds. Some of the Republican papers, in order to excuse the Administra tion, charged that, in his Berne Township speech, made on the 26th of July, 1862, he had discouraged enlistments and counselled resistance to the draft. In order to show the untruthfulness of all such charges, we quote verbatim all that Dr. Olds said on either subject:

"Mr. Chairman, young men are permitted to dream dreams, and old men to see visions. And as I am an old man, my Republican friends will permit me to have a vision, and not call it treason. In my vision I see the ballot-boxes of this country baptized in blood. Passed events, I acknowledge, have much to do in producing this vision. At the election in our sister State of Maryland, less than a year since, the hustings were surrounded by an armed soldiery, and Democratic voters were driven from the polls at the point of the bayonet. In Missouri, Democratic candidates, by force of arms, have been taken off the stump to be incarcerated in Military Bastiles. In Kentucky, a few days since, a Democrat, for having the temerity to run, as an independent candidate, against a so-called Union man, had his tickets seized and destroyed by the Provost Marshal. These things are indications of what we may expect in Ohio. What mean these military committees in every county in your State? Are they not designed expressly to overawe the Democracy? Are they not to be used as military appliances to control the ballot-box? "But, Mr. Chairman, my vision stops not here. I see other dark clouds hanging over us. I see a Government recruiting-officer before me. We find them in every nook and corner of our country. I say to him, that if this war ceases to be a war for the suppression of the rebellion; if it

is no longer to be prosecuted for the maintenance of 'the Constitution as it is,' and the restoration of the Union as it was,' and is to become an Abolition war; if your battle-cry, henceforth, is to be, 'Throw down your arms, you damned rebels, and free your negroes,' Democrats will refuse to volunteer; and, in order to raise these six hundred thousand soldiers, the Administration will be driven to the draft. Your Governor has, by proclamation, told us that he will use his influence to screen from draft all such persons as shall subscribe liberally in money toward the bounty to be paid to volunteers. What, let me inquire, does this language of your Governor mean? Has he the power to draft whomsoever he pleases? If so, God help us, poor Democrats. This draft, we know, will be in the hands of the Republicans. This declaration of the Governor foreshadows unfairness. The supposition is a natural one, that the Governor would like to send the Democrats to the war, so as to keep them away from the polls, and retain Republicans at home, in order to save their votes for the party. With this declaration of the Governor sounding in our ears, may we not expect to be wofully cheated in case the draft takes place?

"In my vision, I see what must be the inevitable consequences of a fraudulent draft. Every man who feels himself cheated, who feels that he has been unfairly dealt by in this draft, will refuse to be mustered into service, and such refusal will cause the shedding of blood; a file of soldiers will be sent for him, and he will resist even at the point of the bayonet. If the President wishes to avoid such fearful results; if he wishes to avoid bringing civil war and bloodshed into our peaceful cities and villages, let him make some proclamation, by which we may know that this war is not prosecuted for the abolition of slavery, and this draft will become un necessary.

"Let him proclaim that this war, in the future, will be prosecuted for the sole object of putting down the rebellion, for the maintenance of the Constitution and the Union, and

he will find strong arms and willing hearts ready to rally round the old Star-spangled Banner.

"Let him do this, and this same old Democratic party, that the Republicans are denouncing as disunionists and secessionists this same old Democratic party, that rallied around his standard, so long as they believed him devoted to the Union and the Constitution--will again fill the ranks of his army to overflowing; they will, as heretofore, more than count life for life, bone for bone, and blood for blood, with the Republicans, upon all your battle-fields."

On the 12th of August, 1862, after ten o'clock at night, Dr. Olds' house was forcibly entered by three Government ruffians, who, with violence, seized his person, and, holding a revolver at his head, demanded his surrender. During the tire they were making their repeated and violent efforts to burst open his door, they gave no intimation that they were Government officers, or that they had any authority for his arrest. They came like assassins and robbers, they behaved as such, and had he not been informed, by the boastings of certain Republicans, that affidavits, designed to cause his arrest, had been forwarded to the War Department, he should, most undoubtedly, have considered them such. When, after his capture, he demanded to know by what authority they had thus rudely broken into his room and seized his person, they harshly informed him that they were acting under authority of the War Department. He then demanded to be shown their warrant. They informed him that he had no right to make such a demand; that the order which they held was for their protection, and not for his gratification. They, however, permitted him to examine it. The document was signed by C. P. Wolcott, Assistant Secretary of War, and was dated, "Washington City, August 2, 1862." It was directed to W. H. Scott, and commissioned him to take with him one assistant, and proceed to Lancaster, Ohio, and arrest Edson B. Olds, convey him to New York, and deliver him to the commanding officer at Fort Lafayette; and that, if he were resisted in the execution of the order, he