Circle" in seeking "to corrupt the Army and destroy its efficiency;" the
"riots and murders which," said he, "their agents are committing
throughout the Loyal North, under the lead and guidance of the Party
whose Representatives sit yonder across the aisle;" he continued: "and
now, just as the time is coming on when we are to select a President for
the next four years, one rises among them and fires the Beacon, throws
up the blue-light--which will be seen, and rejoiced over, at the Rebel
Capital in Richmond--as the signal that the Traitors in our camp are
organized and ready for their hellish work! I believe the utterance of
to-day is the uplifted banner of revolt. I ask you to mark the signal
that blazes here, and see if there will not soon appear the answering
signals of Traitors all over the Land. * * * If these men do mean to
light the torch of War in all our homes; if they have resolved to begin
the fearful work which will redden our streets, and this Capitol, with
blood, the American People should know it at once, and prepare to meet
it."

At the close of Mr. Garfield's patriotic and eloquent remarks, Mr. Long
again got the floor, declared that what he had said, he believed to be
right, and he would "stand by it," though he had to "stand solitary and
alone," and "even if it were necessary to brave bayonets, and prisons,
and all the tyranny which may be imposed by the whole power and force of
the Administration."

Said he: "I have deliberately uttered my sentiments in that speech, and
I will not retract one syllable of it." And, to "rub it in" a little
stronger, he exclaimed, as he took his seat, just before adjournment:
"Give me Liberty, even if confined to an Island of Greece, or a Canton
of Switzerland, rather than an Empire and a Despotism as we have here
to-day!"