Excerpt from Speech of Gerrit Smith, in Congress, on the Reference of the President's Message For saying what I have here said, I may appear very inconsistent in the eyes of many, who know my Opposition to all war; for they may regard Capt. Ingraham as having been ready to wage war upon Austria - as having, indeed, actually threatened her with war. But, notwithstanding my Opposition to all war, I defend Capt. Ingraham's pur pose to use force, should force become necessary. I believe, that such purpose is in harmony with the true office of Civil Government. I hold, that an armed national police is proper, and that here was a fit occasion for using it, had moral influences failed. But to believe. In this is not to believe in war. It is due to truth to add, that Capt. Ingra ham should not be charged with designing war upon Aus tria. W by should he be thus charged. He had, properly nothing whatever to do with Austria, nor with the Austrian Consul. There was no occasion for his doing with either of them, nor for his even thinking of either of them. For him to have supposed that Austria, or any of her authoiities, could be guilty of kidnapping, would have been to insult her and them. He had to do only with the kidnappers, who were restraining Koszta of his liberty and all he had to do with these kidnappers was to compel them to an unconditional and immediate surrender of their prey. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.