ty. The Constitution itself makes the distinction, and I
can no more be persuaded that the government can constitutionally take
no strong measures in time of rebellion, because it can be shown that
the same could not be lawfully taken in times of peace, than I can be
persuaded that a particular drug is not good medicine for a sick man
because it can be shown to not be good food for a well one. Nor am I able
to appreciate the danger apprehended by the meeting, that the American
people will by means of military arrests during the rebellion lose the
right of public discussion, the liberty of speech and the press, the law
of evidence, trial by jury, and habeas corpus throughout the indefinite
peaceful future which I trust lies before them, any more than I am able to
believe that a man could contract so strong an appetite for emetics during
temporary illness as to persist in feeding upon them during the remainder
of his healthful life.

In giving the resolutions that earnest consideration which you request of
me, I cannot overlook the fact that the meeting speak as "Democrats."
Nor can I, with full respect for their known intelligence, and the fairly
presumed deliberation with which they prepared their resolutions, be
permitted to suppose that this occurred by accident, or in any way other
than that they preferred to designate themselves "Democrats" rather than
"American citizens." In this time of national peril I would have preferred
to meet you upon a level one step higher than any party platform, because
I am sure that from such more elevated position we could do better battle
for the country we all love than we possibly can from those lower ones
where, from the force of habit, the prejudices of the past, and selfish
hopes of the future, we are sure to expend much of our ingenuity and
strength in finding fault with and aiming blows at each other. But since
you have denied me this I will yet be thankful for the country's sake that
not all Democrats have done so. He on whose discretionary judgment Mr.
Vallandigham was arrested and tried is a Democrat, having no old party
affinity with me, and the judge who rejected the constitutional view
expressed in these resolutions, by refusing to discharge Mr. Vallandigham
on habeas corpus is a Democrat of better days than these, having received
his judicial mantle at the hands of President Jackson. And still more: of
all those Democrats who are nobly exposing their lives and shedding th