THE deliberate and successfully executed plot of the conspirators to defeat Mr. Douglas for President in 1860 gave ample proof of their consolidated power, and indicated unmistakably their ultimate purpose. Their last and crowning political move was the one in which they had convened in Washington, what they called a "Peace Congress."

When I tell you that ex-President John Tyler, the mere creature of the Texas annexation conspirators of 1845, was selected for its president, you can without much effort get at the intellectual and political status of nine out of ten of the men who fussed and fumed and amazed the

*The above address, the first half of which was given in the October issue, was delivered by Hon. J. M. Ashley, at Memorial Hall, Toledo, Ohio, on June 2, 1890. Gov. Ashley is an intelligent observer of events, and his story of what he personally saw, in the great drama of the rebellion, will be read with deep interest.

II.

REBELLION.

country by the stupidity and folly of their so-called "peace propositions."

When the future historian comes to summarize the facts of which I have spoken, he will write: "Politically, from 1843 to 1861, this was the rottenest so-called civilized government on earth; morally, it was a lazarhouse full of dead men's bones; financially, it was bankrupt in 1861, and the conspirators borrowing money at 12 per cent." And he will add, to the glory of our volunteer army of which you formed a part, that "the madness of secession and the baseness of slave conspiracies at home and slave piracy under our flag on the high seas was then stamped out and made impossible forever."

In the midst of this moral and political abasement and national degradation of which I have spoken, Abraham Lincoln was called by his countrymen to the office of President.

Congress convened in extra session