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by Hinton Rowan Helper (Author)
The compiler of this volume deems it proper to protest here, at the very outset of his undertaking, against the unjust and ill-boding practice of indiscriminately stigmatizing as a traitor almost every man, whether in the North or in the South, in the East or in the West, who, in the exercise of his constitutional rights and honest convictions, raises his voice in opposition to the revolutionary and destructive measures of the party now dominant in oiu* National Legislature. With deep solemnity and truth, he declares that he was always earnest and emphatic, and even enthusiastic, -and not less so now than heretofore, -in deploring and condemning the act of secession, and, at the same time, in justifying and defending the principles upon which the Government of the United States, when opposed by force of arms, maintained itself, and re-established its authority from the Potomac to the Rio Grande. Why, then, why does a man who never, by word nor by deed, gave the least aid or comfort to the rebellion, but, on the contrary, did all he could to weaken and suppress it, - why does a man of these antecedents, a plain, unpretentious citizen, who, until he became a Republican, was always a Whig of the school of Clay and Webster; who, from first to last, heartily endorsed and supported the administration of Abraham Lincoln, and who has no ambition beyond the exact knowledge and performance of his duty;-why does a man of this sort find it impossible to yield his suffrage or commendation to the party now in power....
