ifpWiait ami ffrnflttatif Wmtm

WHAT THEY HAVE DONE -WHAT THEY PROPOSE TO DO.

SPEECH

B^ON. HENRY WILSOJ^^,

DELIVERED AT

BAjq-GOK, Me., AUGUST 27, 1868.

IT t POTTIS, P«INT£«», 4 SPNINO LANf, BO»TOI«. — a

Speech of Hon. Henry Wilson.

Fellow Citizens of Maine : that all-exacting power which had dishonored, and then smitten down, its great rival. Alike Once again the Constitution imposes upon in victory or defeat, the Democratic party had the citizens of the United States the election for twenty years bowed to the slave propagan- of a chief magistrate. This high duty finds dists. At their bidding it had cloven down the people ranged in two great political organ- the right of petition and the freedom of izations. Each has a name, a history, a plat- speech, arraigned the illustrious Adams and form of principles, a programme of policies, censured the fearless Giddings; annexed and a candidate. To one of these organiza- Texas, " to give," in the words of Hamilton tions the people, on -the third of November, of Carolina, " a Gibralter to the South," and •will commit the precious interests of the "to add," in the jubilant language of Henry nation. A. Wise, " more weight to her end of the I propose to speak of the Republican party beam ; " rejected the Wilmot Proviso, and and of the Democratic party—what each has given the slave masters the right to range, with done, what each proposes to do. Holy Writ their fettered bondmen, over Utah and New teaches' us that the tree is known by its fruit Mex ico 5 enacted the fugitive slave code of that man is judged by his deeds. During the inhumanities, and sanctified the unholy com- past fourteen years the Republican and Demo- promises of 1850; pledged itself to abide by cratic parties have striven for the mastery. that legislation, and to resist the renewal of Their policies have blossomed into fruits, their the slavery agitation. This low bending of principles have ripened into deeds. By their the knee to the dark spirit of Slavery, had iruits shall they be known—by their deeds seemingly won for the chiefs of the Democracy shall they be judged. By the exacting stan- permanent power and the glittering prizes of dards of patriotism and of liberty the ages ambition. measure public men and political organiza- When Congress met, in 1853, President tions. Let us summon these two parties before Pierce congratulated the nation on " the us. Let us apply to them the infallible tests sense of repose and security," and gave his of love of country and devotion to the God- pledge that this " repose is to receive no shock given rights of man, by which they must during my official term." These soothing stand or fall, before the living present and the words, however, did not appease the lust of ages yet to be. dominion and the greed of power. Those In 1852 the Whig and Democratic parties words of exultation—that pledge of unbroken contended for the last time for mastery. Then repose —had hardly made the tour of the the great party, that had sometimes opposed a Republic, ere the nation was startled by the hesitating and feeble resistance to the aggres- faith-breaking demand for the repeal of the sive demands of the Slave interest, accepted Missouri Compromise of 1820. Lusting for the humiliating conditions of the slave mas- dominion, the Slave propagandists cast their ters, fought its last battle, received a crushing hungry eyes upon the magnificent territory, defeat, staggered on, aimless and purposeless, lying in the heart of the Continent, into which for a few months, and then ingloriously per- Slavery was forever forbidden to enter—

ished ; thus fulfilling the prophetic words of domain which free labor, secure in the plighted the dying Webster, that, after that election, faith of the third of a century, held as its the VVhig party would exist only in history." rightful inheritance. Demanding that this On the 4th of March, 1853, the victorious vast domain, covering the pathway to the Democracy received, from the nerveless hand Pacific, should be opened to them, they bade of its fallen rival, the administration of the the ever-obedient Democracy remove the land- " national government. In full possession of all marks of freedom, however it might " shock its departments everywhere, sustained by pop- the " sense of repose and security." ular favor, the exultant Democracy ostenta- But this faith-violating demand, for the tiously gloried in its complete subserviency to removal of the landmarks set up by the Con- —

3

gress of 1820 to protect a region larger than during these fourteen years, conflicts of ideas, the French empire, when Napoleon gazed principles and policies which have shaken upon " the sea of flame," whose billows swept society to its foundation ? over the ancient capital of the Czars, stirred Ere this party could make a national organ- the natioit to its profoundest depths. After a ization or find a name, it was forced into action. fierce struggle of four months, the faith- To silence the protests of free labor, whose less proposition received the approval of inheritance they were despoiling, the Demo- the Democratic Congress, the Democratic cratic chiefs beguiled the people with the illu- President and the Democratic party. But sions of " squatter sovereignty." The people that crowning victory shattered the ranks of of the Territories were to be left " perfectly political organizations. The Whig party was free to vote Slavery down or vote slavery up." broken utterly. Hundreds of thousands left the But the men, who had ruthlessly violated the disordered ranks of the Democracy. Nearly plighted faith of the nation, did not hesitate to a million and a half of men ranged themselves violate their own pledges to the toiling men together to recover that lost territory— to who were striving to make homes and found oppose the further extension of Slavery and the institutions of freedom beyond the Mis- the longer domination of Slave masters Sel- souri. The Slave propagandists, so long accus- dom, if ever, in the historj" of nations, has tomed to unquestioned supremacy, were man been inspired by higher aims than then startled by the grand uprising of the hosts of fired the bosoms of American citizens thus Freedom, and the determined purpose of free brought together by the needs of their endan- labor to recover its lost inheritance. They gered country. saw that, unless they could thwart the cham- In the ranks of this rising party gathered pions of free labor, their criminal victory

the noblest spirits of the land ; the Christian, was but a barren triumph. upon whose vision flashed the imperative They sounded the alarm. They bade their injunction of Holy Writ—break every yoke- brutal tools invade Kansas, seize ballot-boxes, undo the heavy burden—let the oppressed go elect legislatures, enact slave codes, silence

free ; the Scholar, who found, in the pages of free speech and bathe its soil with blood. the mighty dead of all the ages, testimonies Faithfully did the Democratic party toil that deepened his convictions and quickened in Kansas, in Congress, in the Executive his zeal for the equal rights of struggling departments, everywhere, to execute these humanity; the Philanthropist, who saw, as he decrees. Hordes of border ruffians rushed gazed into the graves of perished nations, that into the territory, usurped the government, slavery poisoned their lives and hastened their enacted slave codes, robbed, burned and mur- decline and death. Into this new organization dered. In Congress their champions were came also the veteran Abolitionist, who, with hardly less brutal than in the wilds of that Brougham, scouted " the wild and guilty fan- distant region. Charles Sumner portrayed tasy that man can hold property in man," and their crimes, and he was smitten down on the who had proclaimed emancipation to be the floor of the Senate by a " brutal, murderous duty of the master and the right of the slave, and cowardly assault." Reeder and Walker when he " held," in the words of Whittier, and Stanton, striving to right the wrongs of " property, liberty and life itself at the mercy the Free State settlers, were removed by the of lawless mobs;" the Free Soiler, who Democratic administrations of Pierce and believed, with William Ellery Channing, that Buchanan. In obedience to imperative de- to extend slavery " we invite the scorn, indig- mands, the weak and wicked administration

nation and abhorrence of the world ; " the of James Buchanan strove to force through Whig, who believed, with Adams, that " Slavery Congress, by the corrupting appliances of taints the very sources of moral principle," Executive patronage, the Lecompton constitu- with Clay, that " it is a grievous w/ong no tion. Defeated in these efforts, the Democracy contingency can make right,"—with Webster, successfully resisted her admission under her that " it is opposed to the whole spirit of the free constitution, until its power was broken " Gospel and to the teachings of Jesus Christ ; by the treason and secession of its Southern and the Democrat, in whose ear lingered the chiefs. deathless words of Jefferson and Madison, the To the faith-breaking abrogation of the Mis- Democratic leaders of our earlier times. This souri prohibition, to the border ruffian foray, political organization, born of the holier aspi- to the slave codes, to the lawlessness that rations of the people, became the Republican bathed that beautiful land in blood, to the re- arty. Is it matter for wonder, then, that movals of Reeder and Walker and Stanton, to etvveen this all of ^ party—the product of the highest the Lecompton constitution, to each and ideas of the Christian civilization of the Wes- these, the Republican party persistently op- tern World—and that party, inheriting the posed every means sanctioned by reason, by maddening passions, cruel prejudices and dis- humanity and religion; and this untiring pur- organizing theories that nurture Slavery and pose, this persistent constancy, baffled the develop its power, there should have been, efforts of the Democracy, broke the line of the 4

advancing Slave Power, and gave to the Union While these menaces were falling thick and a new Commonwealth radiant with liberty. fast upon the ear of the nation, the Republi- Kansas, assured to freedom, was the first fruits of cans everywhere avowed their unabated at- the Republican party, whose history now glitters tachment to their country and their govern- with brilliant deeds and glorious achievements. ment. The crimes against Kansa?, the mob- When in 1856 lawless violence reddened bings, scourgin^s and lynchings in the South, the sods with the blood and illumined the did not shake their steady faith in Republican skies with the burning cabins of the Free State institutions, while they intensified their love settlers, the Democratic party met in national of country. Test the Republican party in its convention, reaffirmed its fatal policy, nomi- first great national struggle, by the standard nated James Buchanan, and went into the of patriotism. Does not that unerring test re- election completely dominated by the Slave veal the glorious fact that it was loyal in Power. Well might the impulsive Keittboast- thought, word and deed ? Tested by that ingly exclaim, "the South has the general con- standard was not the Democratic party more trol of the Democratic party." The Republican than tainted with disloyalty ? party too met in National Convention, denied In the contest between the vital forces of

the authority of Congress, or any territorial • slavery extension and slavery restriction the legislature, or any other power, to give legal Republicans accepted as their faith the creed existence to Slavery in the Territories, asserted of Human Equality. They turned for instruc- the power and the duty of Congress to prohibit tion and guidance to the great men of the it in the Territories, and proclaimed its belief, South of our earlier times. They saw, with with the fathers, in the self-evident truth that Washington, " the direful effects of slavery." all men are created equal. They believed, with Madison, that it " was a " that^ " it The issues were clearly defined and dis- dreadful calamity ; with Monroe, " tinctly presented. The Republican party, in- preyed upon the vitals of the Union ; with spired by patriotism and liberty, appealed to the George Mason that " it brought the curse of " people, by all that was noblest and holiest in Heaven upon a country ; and, with Jefferson, humanity, to rescue the endangered nation. they " trembled when they remembered that The Democratic party, guided by the disciples God is just and that his justice will not sleep of Calhoun, upon whose dazzled vision loomed forever." They saw that millions of acres, of up in the near future a confederation of slave- the finest soil of the western world, were in holding commonwealths, raised the startling the words of one of the sons of the Old Domin- war cry of disunion. Slidell, the master spirit ion, " barren, desolate and seared, as if by the of the Buchanan canvass, proclaimed, " if Fre- avenging hand of Heaven." They saw too mont should be elected the Union would be that Slavery had not only scarred the fields of dissolved." Mason was for " the separation of the South, but that it had more deeply scarred the States." Butler declared, if Fremont should the face of humanity, that its ruinous power be chosen, " 1 should advise my legislature to was visibly written on the foreheads of the go at the tap of the drum." Toombs an- bondmen, and on the foreheads too of millions nounced that, if Fremont was elected, "the of our own proud race. They saw that it Union would be dissolved and ought to be dis- dishonored labor, created, in the words of 01m- solved " Keitt emphatically asserted that, "if stead, " a devilish, undisguised and recognized Fremont is elected adherence to the Union is contempt for all humbler classes." Accepting treason to liberty," that " the Southern man, these teachings, and realizing the measureless who will submit to his election, is a traitor and evils and sumless agonies of slavery, they a coward." Brooks, who would not " post a strove, with unflagginoj resolution, to consecrate sentinel who would not swear that slavery was the territorial possessions of the Republic, all right," was, if Fremont should be elected, "for it then possessed and all that it might thereafter the people rising in their majesty, above the acquire, .to freedom and free institutions. laws and the leaders, taking the power into In this great contest of 185(5 the Democratic their own hands, going by concert, or not by party disowned the creed of the fathers, and concert, and laying the strong arm of South- accepted the theories of the school of Calhoun. ern freemen upon the treasury and the ar- The Declaration of Independence was pro- chives of the government." Henry A. W^ise, nounced false and fallacious, and free society who would " introduce slavery into the heart a " failure," " a conglomeration of greasy me- of the North," was ready to seize the Harper's chanics, filthy operatives, small-fisted farmers," Ferry Arsenal, the Norfolk Navy Yard, to not "fit associates for Southern gentlemen's march on Washington with twenty thousand body servants." These sentiments, so con- men, and to put the military forces of Virginia temptuous of the toiling millions, passed unre- upon a war footing, so that her chivalry might buked by Northern Democrats, who followed fettered " hew their bright way through all opposing their leaders, with craven soul and legions." The air was burdened with the sedi- lip. Tested by the standard of Liberty, was tious, revolutionary and treasonable utterances not the Republican party bravely, nobly, of Democratic orators and presses. righteously right V Was not the Democratic 5

party cowardly, and ignobly, wickedly wrong ? from the Union." Brown^ not to be outdone In the lights of to-day what friend of human by his rival, " would make a refusal to acquire rights, th« wide world over, would blur or stain territory, because it was to be slave territory, that bright record of Republican fidelity to the a cause of disunion." Clay declared that sacred cause of human nature ? Who would Alabama, " if she is not recreant to all that not efface, if he could, for the honor of his State pride, integrity and duty demand, will race, that dark and ever darkening record of never submit to your authority." Toombs Democratic apostacy to freedom V called upon Georgia to " listen to no vain Although the Democracy came out of the babblings, no treacherous jargon about overt

contest of 1856 victoriou>j, its chiefs could not acts ; the enemy is at your door, wait not for fail to see that it escaped defeat, by the him at the hearthstone, meet him at the timidity of that conservatism which shrank door-sill." Iverson would not even submit to appalled before revolutionary menaces. In the election of John Sherman for speaker. that grand uprisirtg, in that doubtful strug- " In that event," he exclaimed, " I would walk gle on the prairies of Kansas, the slave out of this Capitol, I would counsel my con- masters saw their waning power. Comino; to stituents instantly to dissolve all political ties the realization that every enduring principle with a party and a people who thus trample of national policy, every permanent interest on our rights." Clingman would wait for no

of the people must continue to be hostile to overt act, for " no other ' overt act ' can so im- their ascendency, conscious that they could peratively demand resistance on our part as not much longer retain power, they addressed the simple election of their candidate." themselves, with earnest purpose, to the con- The Hall of the House echoed with these solidation of the South, appealing to Southern seditious mutterings of the disloyal Demo- interest, and firing Southern ambition with cracy. Democratic office-holders, thronging the idea of a splendid empire, commanding, the galleries, applauded the guilty menace to with its tropical productions and it^ millions of " shiver the Union from turret to foundation slaves, the commerce of the world. They fired stone." Slavery, disloyal in every fibre of its the Southern heart, brain and soul, with ma- being, seemed to have infused its malignant pas- lignant hate and bitter scorn of Yankee insti- sion, its deadliest poison, into the brain, the tutions, with lofty contempt of free society, soul, the heart of the Democracy. Their and haughty defiance of the national govern- record, for that winter, is a record of shame- ment. Kesolved, in the words of Calhoun, less apostacy to the country, to the liberties of whose disciples they were, "to force the slavery the people, to the civilization of the age. In issue upon the North," they wrung from the that time of Democratic apostacy, the Repub- Supreme Court the Dred Scott dicta. They licans maintained, with unflinching firmness, bade New Mexico enact a slave code, and also the unity of the Republic, the authority of the a code for the servitude of white laboring men. government and the rights of mankind. They sent Walker to Central America to win Whoever reads the records of that day will territory, "for," in the words of Brown of realize that Republicanism was inj^pired by the Mississippi, " the planting and spreading of generous, elevating, ennobling spirit of Liberty, slavery," and they sighed for Cuba, which they and that the Democracy was dominated by the could not clutch. narrow, vulgar, brutal barbarism of Slavery. ^Vhen the nation was looking forward to the In the Presidential election of 1860, the approaching presidential election of 1860, Democracy, that had borne the banners of these Southenf Democratic leaders, frenzied Slavery, won its victories and shared its crimes,

with the fanaticism of Slavery, came into the was severed into two factions ; but these factions 36th Congress haughtily threatening the dis- struggled right on with equal subserviency to memberment of the Union, if the people should their old masters. One faction proclaimed, in choose a chief magistrate opposed to slavery the language of President Buchanan, that " by extension,' protection and domination. The virtue of the Constitution the master has the balls of Congress again rang with the revolu- right to take his slave into the Territories as tionary menaces of incipient treason. Jeffer- property and have it protected there under the son Davis, foremost among that unhallowed Federal Constitution," that " neither Congress combination, had spent the summer of 1859 nor the Territorial legislature, nor any human in the North. Returning to Mississippi in the power has any authority to annul or impair autumn of that year with assurances, that, if this vested right." This section of the Demo- the slavery contest came to blows, " the North- cracy, thus resolved to force the nation to ern Democrats would throttle the Republicans accept the creeds, acknowledge the sway and in their tracks," he advised the people of the bear the crimes of slave propagandism, nomi- South to turn their old muskets into Minie nated John C. Breckenridge. This slave code

rifles, prepare powder, shot and shell ; for if section went into the canvass breathing out the Republicans should elect the next Presi- threats of civil war. They would permit the dent, he was "for asserting the independence Republicans to win power only " over the of Mississippi, for the immediate withdrawal prostrate bodies of the slain sons of the South." 6

The squatter sovereignty section, timidly shrink- I tions, and he who would he no slave must con- " inji from the logic of its "great principle," sub- I sent to have no slave," that those who den.C mitted to the Supreme Court, which had freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, already made the Dred Scott decision, the and, under a just God, cannot long retain it," transcendent question, whether a million and appealed to the people to rally to the standard a half of the square miles of the Republic of imperilled liberty. Nearly two millions of should be gladdened by the footsteps and men, regardless of the treasonable menaces beautified by the hand of free labor, or seared and revolutionary teachings of the Democratic and blasted by the feudal curse, whose whips leaders, and the ignoble and spiritless submis- ^ and yokes insult humanity, went into the sion of the Democratic masses, thronged to the canvass under the leadership of Douglas, who ballot-box, dethroned the slave power, and '* did not care whether slavery was voted up made Abraham Lincoln President of the or voted down " and of Hershel V. Johnson, United States. who believed that "capital should own labor." South Carolina, trained for thirty years in the The Kepublican party, rejecting with horror school of treason, leaped headlong: into rebel- the wicked dogma that the Constitution of lion ; other States quickly followed her exam- Christian America carried slavery wherever ple. Then the vaunted Southern Confederacy, it went, and that the nation's flag protected it the dream of slave perpetualists for a genera- wherever it waved, disavowing the abhorrent tion, rose on the basis, that involuntary servi- idea that capital should own labor, caring tude was the normal condition of the black whether slavery should be voted down or race in America. Coming into Congress, with voted up, bravely accepted the duties imposed official oaths on their perjured lips, these upon it by the needs of the country and the architects of ruin plotted conspiracies in Con- providence of Almighty God. Assembling in gress, in the Cabinet, in the Army, in the national convention, it proclaimed that the Navy, everywhere, for the dismemberment of maintenance of the principle, that all men are the Union and the death of the nation. The created equal, is essential to the preservation Republic of Washington seemed doomed to a of our Republican institutions; that it held in swift and ignominious dissolution, — to be abhorrence all schf^mes for disunion, that the stricken from the roll of nations. While these dogma that the Constitution carried slavery conspirators were organizing treason, seduc- into the Territories was a dangerous political ing the weak aud corrupting the venal, while heresy, revolutionary in its tendency, and that they were seizing forts, arsenals, arms, and the normal condition of the Territories was that millions of public property, raising batteries for of freedom. Proclaiming, as its faith and assault or defence, firing upon the old flag, which creed, this platform, which breathed the vital covered bread for starving soldiers, they were spirit of freedom, patriotism, justice and receiving, not the withering, blasting rebukes humanity, it presented to the nation, Abraham of insulted patriotism, but aid and comfort Lincoln, whose name will linger in the hearts from their Northern Democratic associates. and in the memories of men so long as The Democratic President, poor, weak old Patriotism and Liberty shall have shrines man, made haste to assure the insurrectionary on earth. chiefs, that he had arrived at the conclusion These two sections of the Democracy, though " that no power had been delegated to Con- " distincrt like the billows" were yet "one like gress, to coerce into submission a State which the sea," in fidelity to the interests of slavery. is attempting to Avithdraw or which has Though rent and torn, it went into the canvass, entirely withdrawn from the confederacy." appealing to the brutal passions, selfish instincts Attorney-General Black pronounced against and unmanly fears of the country. The lead- the po^ver of the government to coerce a ers of these factions vied with each other in seceding State, and maintained that the scoffing at the self-evident truths of the Decla- attempt to do so " would be an expulsion of ration of Independence. Breckenridge, the such State from the Union," and would leader of one faction, pronounced these truths absolve all the States " from their Federal " abstractions," which would " lead our country obligations," and the people from contributing rapidly to dissolution." Douglas, the chief of " their money or their blood to carry on a con- the other faction, defined those sublime truths test like that." Did not these disorganizing to mean, that " British subjects, on this conti- opinions of the President and of the Attorney- nent, were equal to British subjects born and General, showing the utter impotency of the residing in Great Britain." Abraham Lincoln imperilled nation, "give aid and comfort" to pronounced the great truth of that immortal the conspirators ? Did not these sworn guar- declaration to be " applicable to all men and all dians of the nation leave the government times," that " to-day and in all coming days it weapordess, at the mercy of the armed hands shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the of the assassins of the Union ? harbingers of re-appearing tyranny and oppres- Jefferson Davis, when he assumed the Presi- sion." The Republican party, believing, with dency of the Confederate government, and its leader, that " this is a world of compensa- proclaimed that " we have entered upon a :

7

career of independence, and it must be I at Tweddle Hall, Horatio Seymour sent forth inflexibly pursued, through many years of these words, to burden the patriotic men who controversy, with our late asssociates of the were maintaining the just power of the gov- Isorthern States," held the written assurance ernment, and to cheer on its deadliest foes of ex-President Pierce, who believed that the " Let us see if successful coercion by the North disruption of the Union would not occur with- is less revolutionary than successful secession* out " blood," that " the fighting will not be by the South." Did not these disorganizing along Mason's and Dixon's line merely, it will words of Horatio Seymour sadden the coun- be within our own borders, in our own streets." try's friends and inspirit the country's enemies ? Did not this assurance of Franklin Pierce, Were not these opinions, pledges, assurances that the fighting would be in our streets, of Buchanan, Black, Pierce, Pendleton, Val- between our own citizens, " give aid and com- landigham and Seymour, inspirations to the fort" to the rebel President ? Southern leaders of secession and disunion ? Pendleton, who now felicitates himself upon Did they not invite and incite civil war ? the fact that he imposed his policy, although Does not the blood of our* slain sons rest heav- he could not impose himself, upon the Demo- ily on the souls of our Democratic politicians ? cratic convention, declared, in the House of Did not these utterances of such exponents of Representatives, in the presence of his Demo- Northern Democracy linger in the memory of cratic associates, gleefully chuckling over the Governor Orr, when he said to the men of severed Union, that " armies, money, blood South Carolina: " Many of you will remember cannot maintain this Union," " the whole that, when the war first commenced, great

scheme of coercion is impracticable," " it is hopes and expectations were held out by our contrary to the genius and the spirit of the friends in the North and West that there Constitution." He, who had never a word of would be no war, and that, if it commenced, cheer for the loyal, assured the retiring conspi- it would be north of Mason and Dixon's line, " " rators that if they must leave the family and that it would not be in the South ? Did . mansion, I would bid them farewell so tenderly, not Horatio Seymour hold out " great hopes that they would be forever touched by the and expectations " to rebels, weaponed with recollection." Vallandigham, who has just the bullet in 1861? Does he not now hold forced the reluctant Seymour to accept the out " great hopes and expectations " to Wade proffered honors of the New York convention, Hampton, Forrest, and Robert Toombs, who had, in that city, on the eve of the Presiden- defiantly declares, " as we have no possibility tial election, when meditated treason lowered of fighting with the sword, let us fight with over the country, proclaimed, that " if any one the ballot box"? of the States should secede, I never would, as When Southern senators were announcing a Representative in Congress, vote one dollar that the slave States were intending to go whereby one drop of American blood should out of the Union, that a " Southern confede- be shed in civil war." Referring to that early racy will be formed, and it will be the pledge of faithlessness to his country, after most successful government in the world," armed treason had opened its batteries upon timid conservatism demanded a compromise, the steamer bearing food to the famishing by which the nation, by irrepealable constitu- defenders of beleagured Sumter, he defiantly tional amendments, was to recognize, establish

said, " 1 deliberately repeat and re-affirm it, and protect slavery in the Territories then resolved, though I stand alone, though all held, or which might thereafter be acquired

others yield and fall away, to make it good to South of 36° 30' ; to deny power to Congress the last moment of my official life." Did not to abolish slavery in the nation's capital; to that pledge fire the hot blood of the secession- allow slave masters and flesh jobber* to take tsts of South Corolina ? Did not the re-affirm- slaves in and through the free States ; to take ing of that unpatriotic declaration excite the from men of African descent citizenship and hopes and nerve the arms of traitors aiming suffrage, and to send out of the country, at blows at the nation's life ? Did not that the expense of the Treasury of the United pledge, and the re-affirming of that pledge, States, such free negroes as the States might cause American blood to flow in civil war? desire to have removed. This most degrading, In that time of peril, when the government dishonoring and humiliating proposition — by rocked beneath the blows rained upon it by far the wickedest proposition ever made in the

Democratic traitors ; in those days of anxiety interests of slavery in America— was, in bitter and gloom, when the hearts of the loyal mockery, christened a " Compromise." This

throbbed heavily over the sorrows of their compromise the nation was asked to accept, not » betrayed country, there came from Democratic to bring South Carolina and the Gulf States orators, Democratic presses, and Democratic back, but to keep border States from going convocations, all over the North, bitter re- out; not to bring pronounced rebels in, but to proaches to loyalty, and words of cheer to keep quaking conservatives from going out. disloyalty. From the capital of the Empire Reason and conscience, love of country and of State, from that great Democratic convention the race, forbade the Republicans in Congress I to consummate tbat crime against the country While Horatio Seymour was saddening the and its free institutions. They could not, they hearts of the loyal by his unpatriotic declara- dared not do so, even under the menaces of a tion, " Let us see if successful coercion by the bloody civil war. They feared, if they should North is less revolutionary than successful change their country from a free to a slave- secession by the South," those same hearts holding nation, they would live amid the bitter were thrilled by the immortal order of John reproaches of a betrayed people, and then sink A. Dix, " If any man hauls down the flag, into dishonored graves with the curses of earth shoot him." and of Heaven resting upon them forever. At last, that long, gloomy and terrible win- Day by day, during that terrible winter, the ter ended, and the fourth of March gladdened Republicans in Congress, powerless to save, the longing eyes and burdened hearts of the saw with the profoundest sorrow their riven patriotic men who clung to their country with and shattered country sinking into the fath- deathless tenacity when clouds and darkness omless abyss of disunion. A Democratic Pres- were settling upon it. To that day, and to ident, a Democratic Attorney- General, had Lincoln, they had looked as anxiously as Wel- surrendered the life-preserving powers of the lington, in the crisis of Waterloo, looked " for government. A Democratic Secretary of the night or for Blucher." The riven and shat- Treasury was deranging the finances and sink- tered government passed from the nerveless ing the national credit. A Democratic Secre- hand of that weakness which betrayed like tary of War was scattering the army, and send- treason, into the honest, brave and strong grasp ing muskets, cannon, and the munitions of of Abraham Lincoln. Then that huge, horrid war to be clutched by rising traitors. A Dem- and barbarizing despotism of the slave propa- ocratic Secretary of the Interior was permitting ganda sunk to rise no more. Against that the robbery of trust funds, held by the govern- despotism the Republicans had struggled ment. A Democratic Secretary of the Navy through seven weary years, amid obloquy, was rendering that " right arm " of the national reproach and insult. History would record service powerless. A Democratic Mayor of the that, throughout that contest, they had acted commercial capital of the country was propos- in harmony with the Constitution of their * ing to make that capital a free city, indepen- country, with the teachings of its illustrious dent of the national government. Democratic framers, the utterances of poets, sages and leaders were ostentatiously giving pledges philosophers, and the great and good of all the "never to vote a man or a dollar" for coer- ages, and with the commands of God's Holy cion. Democrats were giving their assurances Word. That stainless record gave assurance that regiments, marching to the coercion of to all the world that, in accepting the guar- the South, " must pass over their dead bodies." dianship of their imperilled country, they would Officers of the Senate were members of a cherish it vi^ith all their hearts, and defend it secret organization, nightly plotting treason in with all their hands. the capital of the nation. This uprising of Soon the men, to whom the government had traitors, these pledges of Northern Democratic been entrusted, were summoned to its defence. leaders, this submission of the Democratic Mr. Lincoln, in assuming the administration, masses to the plottings of the insurrectionists had proclaimed to his dissatisfied countrymen rendered more vulgarly insolent the champions of the South, that " the momentous issues of of the rebellion at the capital. Sam Houston civil war were in their hands." But the rebel had not called together the Legislature to has- chiefs, fearing that the already aroused pas- ten Texas out of the Union. Iverson said, sions of the South might not completely sever sentiment of the efTect that if he did not yield to the the bonds of affection ; fearing, too, the people, " some Texan Brutus may arise to rid of the closing words of his inaugural, where, his coun'^ry of this old, hoary-headed traitor." with such pathos, he said : " The mystic chords Mr. Seward invited a calm discut-sion of the of memory, stretching from every battle field pending issues. Clingman replied that " many and patriot gjave, to every living heart and of the free debaters were hanging on the trees hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet of Texas." The unarmed " Star of the West," swell the chorus of the Union, when again bearing food to defenders of Sumter, was touched, as they surely will be, by the better turned back by the frowning batteries of angels of our nature," the rebel Secretary of treason. Wigfall tauntingly told us that she War ordered the batteries menacing Sumter to had swaggered into Charleston Harbor, had open their fires upon that devoted fortress. received a stunning blow on the forehead, That order was swiftly obeyed The flag of and staggered out helpless, and we dare not united America came down, and tlie confed- resent it. But in that " dark and troubled erate flag waved over its smoking ruins. Thus night" of Democratic apostacy, Republican was inaugurated, by Southern Democrats, that hearts were gladdened by the noble fidelity of great civil war in which 350,000 loyal lives three Democratic statesmen. In being dem- were sacrificed, 400,000 were wounded, $4,000, ocrats, Edwin M. Stanton, Joseph Holt, and 000,000 were expended, and the productive John A. Dix did not forget to be patriots. industries of the country burdened with a —

41 9 national debt of $2,500,000,000. To the full had followed the lead of Buchanan, Pierce, compreiieiision of every intelligent man in Seymour, Pendleton and their compeers, nobly America, whose mind has not been poisoned atoned for the past by consecrating themselves, by our fjreat national crime, nor maddened by all they were and all they hoped to be, to their partisanship. Slavery was the inspiration of country. During these seven years of trial, in this terrible conflict, and the Democratic party the field and in the councils of the nation, they its instrument, which must be held responsible, have associated their names forever with the before the present and coming ages., for every defenders of the country and the champions of drop of blood, and every tear of sorrow, agony liberty ; but most of the leaders of the Democ- or affection ; for every dollar already ex- racy bowed rather than yielded to the patri- pended, and for every dollar of taxation otic current that swept over the land. Poisoned which nmst, in so many forms, and for so by slavery, dominated so long by the Slave many years, rest heavily on the capital and Power and the chiefs of the rebellion, they labor of the country. When any one gazes trusted that the disappointments, losses and on the grave of some brave soldier who sacrifices of the war would bring a reaction, fell in our defence, upon one wounded in the and that their hour of triumph would soon same stern conflict, or upon the vacant chairs come. General John Cochrane, who well knew around the hearth-stones of the land; when- these Democratic leaders, said in a letter writ- ever he is called to contribute to the relief of ten from the swamps of the Chickahominy, in " the wives and children of our slain country- the early summer of 1862 : They will emerge men ; whenever he reads the tax list, or pays, from their gloom as the shadows fall upon their in some of its various forms, his portion of our country." The shadows soon fell upon the vast taxation, let him not forget that all this is country. Disasters came to our armies. The due to the apostacy of the Democratic party disappointments and sacrifices of the war, and to the open treason of its Davises, Toombs Mr. Lincoln's Proclamation of Emancipation, ' and Masons at the South, and the ill-concealed hastened the hoped for reaction. State after sympathy of the Pierces, the Seymours, the State pronounced against the Administration. Pendleions, and their many other partisans In their triumphs the Democratic leaders

' at the Ncjrth. indulged in words and acts showing unmistak- The Republican administration promptly ably to all the world that they regarded the accepted " the momentous issues of civil war," government of the United States and Abraham thus forced upon it. The President immedi- Lincoln, not the government of the confederacy ately issued a call for 75,000 men to protect and Jefferson Davis, their foes. So unpatriotic the capital; which was followed, in a few were the legislatures of Indiana and Illinois days, by another for 300,000, for the suppres- that Governor Morton and Governor Yates sion of the Rebellion. On the fourth of July were forced to prorogue them and send the Congress assembled, gave the President 500,- conspirators to their homes. Democratic ora- 000 men and $500,000,000, and adopted the tors, presses and societies, all over the North, requisite legislation for the organization and assailed the Administration, struggling to sup- government of the military forces of the United press the rebellion, in language so violent, States. The uprising of the people, startled seditious and revolutionary, that it gave confi- by the echoes of the cannon which treason dence to the rebel councils and hope to the trained on Sumter, had silenced the rebel- rebel armies. Horatio Seymour, elected in sympatiiizing Democracy. Little was now the diastrous autumn of 1862 governor of New heard airainst "coercion;" but Breckenridge, York, over the patriotic and self-sacrificing who yet lingered in the Senate, and Powell, Wadsworth, professing to speak for a dissatis- Pendleton, Cox, Vallandigham, and their Dem- fied people, burdened, by word and act, the ocratic as.^ociates protested against " the sub- great heart of Abraham Lincoln. To this jugation of the South." The Administration, carping and fault-finding governor, Mr. Lin- sustained by Congress, the united Republican coln sent the very significant message, that " if party, and many patriotic men of the Demo- he wants to be President of the United States, cratic and other political organizations in the he had better unite with me in preserving the nation, raised and sent into the field more United States, to be president of." than 2,UOi>,000 men, created the most power- Exhaustive marches and decimating battles ful Navy that ever rode the ocean, fought six thinned the armies that carried upon their hundreti actions upon land and sea, " coerced" glittering bayonets the fate of the Republic. rebel States, " subjugated " the South, de- Their wasting ranks must be refilled with the stroyed or c»ptured the rebel armies, and fresh blood of heroic manhood The exhaust- utterly annihilated the power of the confed- ing demands, early made on the country, the

erate government ; so that a rebel bayonet no pressing wants and high rewards of labor, longer gleamed in the Southern sun, nor a checked enlistments. To fill the ranks of the rebel b inner waved on the Southern breeze. country's defenders, to equalize the burdens the* In grand uprising of the people, after 1 of war between the States and sections of the the tiriiig upon Sumter, many Democrats who same States, the thirty-seventh Congress, in I ;

10

its closing hours, passed an " Act for enrolling of that policy is the marvel of men the world I calling and out the national forces." In pass- ; over. Its wonderful success falsified the pre-

ing that great measure, the Republicans in ; dictions of financial men in the old world and

Congress believed it would revive the droop- i in the new. Democrats have carped at it,

ing heart of the people, fiil the wasting ranks criticized it. misapprehended it and mlsrepre-

of our battalions, carry dismay into the coun- it. of predicted that the ; sented Many them cils of treason, and give assurance to the bonds of the government would never be nations of the earth that the American people redeemed, refused to purchase them them- had that spirit of personal sacrifice and heroic selves or advise their friends to do so. and are endeavor which would insure the unity of the presenting now a fitting sequel to their early Republic and the perpetuity of the nation. and persistent opposition, by their seeming But, unmindful of the pressing needs of the anxiety and efibrts to prove their ill-omened

I

bleeding country, the Democrats fiercely • predictions true. Horatio Seymour has it opposed its enactment. Vallandigham. pledged authoritatively announced that he does not to vote neither men nor money, denounced it own and never has owned one of the bonds of as a measure to abrogate the Constitution, the government. He is known to be a man and erect upon the ruins of civil and political of large wealth, and to have inherited a for- liberty a stupendous structure of despotism." tune. During years of the war the country Pendleton and Voorhees joined in its denun- owed hundreds of millions to the army it could ciation. Cox would prevent the enrolling of not pay. The heroes of Gettysburg and black men to fight the battles of the endan- Vicksburg had gone months without payment

gered country. Democratic orators and presses, ' often the government was in debt five and six open and secret societies, united in assailing a months and sometimes more to our soldiers.

measure that enabled the government to com- ' Brave men received and read to their com- mand the entire resources of the nation for its rades. around their camp-fires, letters from their defence. Fernando Wood and his Mozart wives, besrgin^r for money to keep themselves tribe, the crafty but irresolute Seymour, in- and their children from want. Men, who stilled into the too credulous ear of ignorance faced shot and shell in the field, were unmanned • poisonous words, inflaming its heart and mad- and wept like children in their tents over let- dening its brain, till Murder clutching its ters received from their homes, because of this weapon and Arson seizing its brand, reddened poverty of the national treasury. Was it not of with blood to the govern- the pavements New York and , then as patriotic to loan money illumined her streets with the flames of burn- ment to feed and clothe the country's defen-

ing asylums. . When we consider these reck- ders and keep their wives and children from i less utterances of men. who denied our right want, as it was to confront that country's ene-

to coerce States or subjugate the South," the ! mies on the field of battle ? Patriotic men, organizations the " of life, treasonable of Knights ; and women, too, in all the conditions of the Golden Circle " and Sons of Liberty," to the government, often to i loaned money in the West, the speeches of Democratic politi- their own inconvenience and disadvantage, to I cians who. throughout the war, never uttered ' support and pay those who were bleeding and a word that could be tortured into meaning dying in its defence. And yet the Democratic that the rebel government, rebel armies and party has become so demoralized by blind, rebel people were their enemies or the enemies unreasoning partizanship. that Horatio Sey- of their country, we do not wonder that rebel mour, its candidate for the presidency, to chiefs and rebel presses, even after Lee's army strengthen himself with the men of his party, ,

had been hurled back from the glorious field ' who would impair the credit and repudiate the to for its of Gettysburg, Vicksburg had surrendered ! obligations of the government incurred

Grant and Port Hudson to Banks, and the ' salvation, has it authoritatively annout^ced waters of the Mississippi to the sea reflected that he has not now, and never had, a single the stars of the national flag, boastfully pro- bond, though given for a purpose so sacred claimed that the gore of Lincoln's hated and to avert a peril so extreme. When hun- minions wets the streets," that the government dreds of thousands of our brave soldiers were is " cowering," and that " the days as well unpaid for months, leaving, of course, their as the soldiers of the federal army are num- wives and children to great inconvenience, if bered." not to absolute and extreme sufi^ering. otlen to The Republican Administration had not be relieved by the hand of charity, because only to create armies and navies, but to per- the government could not borrow money to form the far more difficult task of providing meet these most imperious claims, he, though j

the vast resources to su>tain a conflict so gigan- : abounding in wealth of his own and the tic. It established internal revenue systems, almoner of that of others, had not a dollar for

revised the revenue laws, and established a I those heroic men fighting his battles nor for

national banking system. The Republicans ! their starving families, suffering for the same

may have committed some mistakes in the i great cause This announcement of Horatio details of their financial policy, but the success Seymour, that he did not lend his money to 11

the (TOvernment in the hour of its extreme Milton's words, " Peace hath her victories no need is a cowardly and unpatriotic avowal, less renowned than war," and gratefully accord which should bring to him, not the sufTrafres to the Republican party the glory of this and honors of the people, but their blasting grand achievement rebukes and withering scorn. The Knights For many years the toiling millio'ns demanded of the Golden Circle," the " Sons of Liberty," that the public domain should be withheld the holders of the bonds of the confederate from the hard grasp of the speculator, and goverment, the men, North and South, who, granted, in limited quantities, to actual settlers. in the language of a son of Maryland, " would This demand, of land for the landless, of small not pay the bondholders because the money farms tilled by men standing on their own was loaned for the wicked purpose of fighting acres, was made in the interests of freedom, our Southern brethren," may applaud this culture, development and Christian civiliza- boastful announcement ; but the patriotic men, tion. It was the idea of the Farm against the and the men whose wives and children were Plantation —of free labor against slave labor the victims of his unpatriotic action, will —of the perennial verdure of Liberty against applaud him never. the blight and mildew of slavery. The slave When the Legal Tender Act was pending masters of the great plantations, the accepted in the House of Representatives, Pendleton, leaders of the Democracy, were as sternly now nicknamed "Young Greenbacks," declared opposed to the policy of small farms and " land that these legal tender notes would go out to for the landless " as they were to " free soil" the country " with the mark of Cain upon for free labor. The Republican party, coming " " them ; that they would be wanderers and into power, the representative of this policy of

; vagabonds in the land " and wherever they free soil for free labor—of the farm against wandered they would carry bankruptcy and the plantation —of land for the landless—con- repudiation. Evils are indeed inseparal'le secrated all the public domain to Freedom, from paper money. But the benefits to the and, by legislative enactments, set apart more country of that Legal Tender Act during the than a thousand million of acres as home- war can never be overestimated. Pendleton, steads for actual settlers. To the Republican who led in opposition to its adoption, as a tem- party are the landless tollers of our country porary measure, in times of dire necessity—he indebted for this beneficent system— this who deemed " greenbacks " " wanderers and splendid inheritance for themselves and their vagabonds," with the " mark of Cain " upon posterity. them—assumes the championship now of a Judge the Republican party, during its system so modified, that his prediction, that seven years of power, by its deeds ; test it by they would lead to bankruptcy and repu- its defence and protection of the nation diation, may be realized. against the most gigantic conspiracy of ancient For many years the business interests of the or modern times, by its development of the people, the necessities of the government and nation's power and the advancement of its the future development and power of the material interests, and it stands on a higher nation required the union of the Atlantic and plane than that of any political organization Pacific oceans by a national railway across the on the globe. continent. The slave masters, ever greedy of But grander far than the raising of armies power and ever jealous of the growing and and the creation of navies, than marches or commanding, commercial and manufacturing sieges or battles on land or wave, was the far- ascendency of the free States, arrested every reaching, comprehensive and crowning deed practicable measure for the construction of of Emancipation. That huge, hideous and that great highway. But, in the midst of the horrid system of human bondage in Christian bloodiest war in history, the Republican party, America, upheld by the aggregated interest of pledged to freedom, culture and development, 83,000,000,000 in the flesh and blood, brain and beaan the construction of that great work. soul of man, hedged about by the accumulated Within a few months will be completed this passions and prejudices, prides and ambitions grandest national achievement of modern of seven generations, intrenched within the times. The traveller, from our own or other social, political and ecclesiastical organizations lands, who wends his way across the conti- and affiliations of life, was shivered to atoms nent, with its vast stretches of plain and desert, by the blows, sturdy and persistent, of the i\s meagre water-courses and wild and broken Republican party. By a series of executive mountain ranges, threads its narrow ravines, and legislative acts it broke the chains and leaps its gorges, scales or pierces its giddy lifted from the depths of chattelhood up to the heights, with frowning precipices on the one summits of manhood four and a half millions hand and yawning chasms on the other, until, of beings made in the image of God It was accomplishing the marvellous journey, he said of Wilberforce that he went to God with descends the verdant slopes of the Pacific and the shackles of eight hundred thousand West reaches the Golden Gate of San Francisco, India slaves in his hands. The Republican will realize, as never before, the truth of party enters the forum of the nations with four I —

12 and a half millions of riven fetters in one by rebels for military purposes at the opening

] hand, and four and a half million of title- of the war, and the act forbidding officers ot j deeds of American citizenship in the other, the army to return fugitives seeking the pro-

j These broken fetters these title-deeds it tection of the national flag the abolition — — ! — of holds up to the gaze of the living present and ! slavery in the nation's capital and the prohibi- the advancing future. In the progress of the tion of slavery in the national Territories

j it ages has been given to few generations, in i the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Act and the any form or by any modes, to achieve a work freedom of slaves captured or coming within

| so vast, so grand, so sure to be recorded by the i the lines of our armies—the recognition of the historic pen or flung upon the canvas in endur- i nationality of Hayti and Liberia and Mr. Lin- colors. Defeat and disaster ing may come I coln's Proclamation of Emancipation—the upon the Republican party— it may perish enrolment of black soldiers to fight the battles j utterly from the land it saved and made free of the country and the freedom of black sol- | — but its name will be forever associated with diers, their wives and theirchildren the admis- ; — the emancipation of millions of a poor, friend- sion of the colored people of the District ot less and hated race, their elevation to the Columbia to the right to testify in the courts and heights of citizenship, their exaltation to equal- to the right to ride in the public conveyances ity of civil rights and privileges, and, crown- the constitutional amendment forever abolish- ing act of all, the prerogative " to vote and to ing slavery in the United States and the Freed- be voted for." Ihese beneficent deeds will men's Bureau for the aid, protection and edu- live in the hearts of coming generations, and cation of emancipated bondsmen—suffrage to " brighter glow and gleam immortal, uncon- colored men in the District of Columbia and sumed by moth or rust." in the Territories of the United States— the In this grand work, applauded by earth and Civil Rights measure, securing to black men blest of Heaven, the Democratic party had no the full and equal benefit of all laws for the part whatever. For more than a quarter of a security of person and property, and the century, before Slavery raised the banners of amendment to the Constitution, providing that civil war, it had been its pliant tool, ever swift no person shall be denied equal protection of to come to its support before it was called, and the laws equalizing representation, so that run on its errands before it was sent. Ever three of Wade Hampton's troopers shall no prompt to obey its decrees, the Democracy longer count the same as seven of the loyal sol-

clung to the relentless and unappeasable foe of ! diers of the Korth and forbidding the payment the country after that foe had in^pir^d a bloody of the rebel debt or payment for slaves eman- revolution to blot the North American Eepub- cipated—the Reconstruction measure, giving lic from the map of nations. After civil war to colored men in rebel States the right to had reddened the bright waters and green vote, and the acts for restoring the seven fields with the blood of our slain sons—after reconstructed States to their practical rela- it had sent wounds, sickness and sorrows into tions to the government. During all the strug- the homes of the people—the Democratic gles for these and kindred measures, by which party persistently continued to resist every slavery has been abolished and the freedmen measure for the nation's defeace, if that meas- elevated to the full rights and privileges of ure tended, in the slightest degree, to weaken American citizenship in the States lately in the admitted cause of all our woe. Through- rebellion, the Democratic party has appealed out the war, of which slavery was the inspira- and now appeals to the basest passions and tion, the heart and soul, and long after it prejudices still to oppress this people and became clear to the comprehension of intelli- hinder the realization of their new-born hopes gent patriotism that its death would be the inspired by emancipation. To keep them in annihilation of the rebellion, the unity of the bondage and still to prevent their develop-

Republic, the life of the nation, the harmonious ment, it has studiously misrepresented the sen- development of free institutions, the repose, timents, opinions and acts of their friends. Xo culture and renown of l^e people, the Demo- character, however pure, no services, however cratic party mourned, and would not be com- exalted, could preserve any man, or set of forted, over every blow struck at the retreating men, from their obloquy, foul abuse and fiend. viperous malignity. As during the seven years from 1854 to In 1864, when Grant was holding Lee in his 1861, when in possession of power, so during grasp in the rebel capital, and Sherman was the seven years from 1861 to ISGS, when out fighting his bloody way to Atlanta, when of power, the Democratic party has been the patriot hearts were cheered by the hope of deadliest foe of the African race and of its soon subjugating the rebellion, the Demo- friends. It has scoffed at, and jeered at, every cratic party assembled at Chicago. Horatio generous, humane and ennobling idea, and Seymour presided. The convention, inspired steadfastly striven to defeat every measure to by slavery and in sympathy with their rebel make it free, recognize its rights or elevate its Democratic friends in rebellion, resolved that " is " the condition. It resisted making free slaves used i the war a failure," and demanded 1 3 cessation of hostilities." The Republican government. These were the men, m whose party n\et in convention, declared for the com- bosoms still burned the aggressive and domi- plete abolition of slavery, the subjujiation of nating spirit of oppression and caste. These the rebellion, and the re-election of Abraham were the men who, with no change of feeling, Lincoln. These iwo parties, numbering more sentiment or purpose, came to retrieve in the than four millions of voters, went to the ballot- arena of politics what they had lost on the field box. The Republicans invoked the patriot- of battle. There was Wade Hampton, of South ism, the love of liberty and the self-sacrificinfj Carolina, who, on his way to the convention, spirit of the country. The Democrats appealed said to the students of General Lee's college, to cowardly fears, selfish instincts, and unreas- "the cause, for which Stonewall Jackson fell, oning passions and prejudices. The Demo- cannot be in vain, but in some form will yet cracy, boastful as is its wont, received 21 out triumph." There was Gov. Vance, of North of "234: electoral votes, and was beaten by a Carolina, who told rebel troops, during the war, popular majority of more than 400,000 votes. to " pile hell so full of Yankees that their feet The spirit of the rebellion was thus broken. will stick out of the windows." There was The hopes of the rebel chiefs, excited by Buckner, of Kentucky, who came to Washing- Democratic assurances, were crushed, and, in ton, at the opening of the war, to procure arms a few months, the rebel armies surrendered to for his State and a commission for himself ; but our advancing legions. who went back to Kentucky, betrayed his State In November there is to be another struggle and country, joined the rebel ranks and was between these two parties for the control of afterwards forced to surrender " uncondition- the national administration. The Republican ally" to Gen Grant. There was Preston, also party met at Chicago, re-aflirmed its policy of of Kentucky, who abandoned his State, became reconstruction, pronounced against all forms a rebel general—a commissioner and conspir- of repudiation, for the reduction and equaliza- ator in Europe—against his country. There tion of taxation, for the equal protection of was Basil Duke, one of John Morgan's lieuten- American citizens, for the recognized obliga- ants, in his thieving, robbing and murderous tions to our soldiers and to the widows and raids through Ohio and Indiana. There was orphans of the gallant dead, and for the Robert Ould, of Virginia, rebel general and removal of restrictions imposed upon rebels commissioner, and familiar with the horrors of as rapidly as the safety of the loyal people will Belle Isle and Libby Prison. There was For- admit. The convention then presented the rest, of Fort Pillow infamy, concerning whose name of General Grant, the great captain, fiendish conduct a Congressional committee who has so often marshalled our armies to thus reports : " of the men, from 300 to 400 victory ; and Schuyler Colfax, a statesman of are known to have been killed at Fort Pillow, pure life, stainless honor and commanding of whom at least Three Hundred were influence. murdered in cold blood after the post was in The Democratic party assembled in national possession of the rebels, and our men had convention in New York. Horatio Seymour thrown down their arms and ceased to offer again presided. That selection of its presid- resistance." Of 182 members of the conven- ing officer was a monition to the country that tion, from the rebel States, there was not one this convention would be no more patriotic or Union man of well-known and approved loy- wise than was the Democratic convention of alty. There were more rebel soldiers than 1864. There assembled the self-same leaders, soldiers of the Union army—more members of or their compeers, that pronounced, in 1864, Jeff. Davis's Congress than of the Con- the war, to preserve the nation's life, " a fail- gress of the United States. Is- there any ure," and demanded " a cessation of hostilities," wonder, then, that one, who had heard the which would have made inevitable a dismem- rebel battle yell in the land of the rebellion, berment of the Republic and the death of the should have instinctively exclaimed, " the nation. To that convention came also a few rebel yell," as he heard the shout that arose disappointed, sour and fallen spirits, who once at the words of Wade Hampton's resolution, were enlisted with the legions of Liberty, but declaring the Reconstruction Acts " revolu- who were never imbued with the generous and tionary, unconstitutional and void"? ennobling impulses of Human Equality. There The financial portion of the Democratic came, too, the exponents and representatives platform was dictated by Pendleton. That of the " lost cause." These representatives were great financial genius seems to be hugely not the men whose eyes had been opened in the pleased with his work. It is, however, a storm of civil war to see the error of secession, cheat, a delusion and a snare. The govern- and who had repented of their treason against ment owes a bonded debt paying interest, and the best government in the world—treason a non-paying interest debt. If this platform made in the interest of the wickedest rebellion means that the government shall redeem the in history—a rebellion recognizing slavery as bonds with the greenback debt, now issued, the normal condition of society in Christian then it is a simple swindle, for the government America and the corner-stone of their new has none of its greenback debt to use for that — —"

purpose. If it is meant that the government, Southern Democrats, who could not endorse in violation of its pledge, shall issue more of the Democratic platform of 1864, or support its non-interest paying debt to redeem the its ticket, because three-quarters of a million interest-bearing debt, then it means a further of boys in blue" stood between them and depreciated currency, the derangement of their Northern friends, could leap over the legitimate business, the robbery of honest graves of three hundred and fifty thousand labor, ruinous losses, bankruptcy and ultimate dead heroes and fraternally embrace their , j repudiation. sympathizing friends, who have ever main- Wade Hampton claims the honor of having tained that the government could not coerce constructed so much of the platform, touching a State " or " subjugate the South," and j reconstruction, &c., as declares it to be " rev- endorse platform and ticket. Henry A. Wise j olutionary, unconstitutional and void " In a proclaims that " secession is more alive than

' speech to the men of South Carolina, he says : ever," and he supports Seymour and Blair

" I said I vrould take the resolutions if they '. because they will assume military power to add but three words, which for •would allow me , the overthrow of the reconstructed govern-

you will find embodied in the platform. I : ments of the South. Vance boasted to the * ' this : declare that the recon- people of Richmond, his from added And we \ on way home struction acts are revolutionary, unconstitu- the New York convention, that " the South I tional void.' I proposed that, would gain the election of Seymour and When ; by and every single member of the committee—and Blair all it fought for in the rebellion." Admi- j the warmest men in it were the men of the ral Semmes, who commanded the Alabama Korth came forward and said they would when the Kearsage, in the face of Europe, — j carry it out to the end." The committee on sent her to the bottom of the seas, and who i the platform and the convention accept from revenged himself by destroying unarmed

I Wade Hampton this declaration, and they Yankee whalers after the rebellion had been j to carry it out to the end. at pledge themselves ; subdued, said, in a ratification speech

'• " is : What that end" is to be, embodied in this ; Mobile I have been a Democrat all my life, declaration of their candidate for the vice- before the war, during the war and since the

' presidency. In his letter which secured his . war, and fought the war on the principles of

'* : is nomination, Mr. Blair says There but : th*i Democracy * * the grand old Demo- one way to restore the government and the cratic party has arisen from its long slumber constitution, and that is to declare the recon- and the election of Seymour and Blair will struction acts null and void, compel the army reduce the negro to a subordinate position as

to undo its usurpations at the South, disperse I an inferior race." Percy Walker told the State governments, and allow Mobile assemblage that this is the first the carpet-bag j same white people to reorganize their own gov- time, since Lee tendered to the enemy that the ; " ernments and elect senators and representa- \ sword which flashed victoriously over so have a president who will battle-fields, that I seen a light tives. We must I many have on " execute the will of the people by trampling the clouds hanging over the South ; for "the into dust the usurpations of Congress known great Democratic party has taken up our , acts I wish to stand cause." Robert went into the as the reconstruction \ Toombs, who before the convention upon this issue, as it is rebellion for the ricrht to call the roll of his I

one which menaces everything else that is of : slaves on Bunker Hill, and came out of the value in its large and comprehensive results." rebellion without the right to call that roll on his The platform having been constructed, the ; own plantation, vauntingly proclaimed to persuasive Vallandlngham overcame the scru- the Democracy of Georgia, gathered in mass ples of the coyish Seymour, who consented to convention at Atlanta, that, " as the late war be " caught by the whirling tide." Under the was produced by the defeated Democratic lead of Preston, Hampton and Forrest, the party in 'O'O, we shall never have peace till it convention associated the dashing Blair with is restored in '68." He divines the mission of the timorous Seymour. This disunion plat- the party, for he tells the delighted Georgians form, declaring the reconstruction of seven that " the grinning skeletons which have been States and their representation in Congress set up in our midst as legislators shall be ousted " revolutionary, unconstitutional and void " by Frank Blair, whom the Demo ratic party this ticket, pledged to " declare the recon- has expressly appointed for that purpose. struction acts null and void, compel the army All these things shall be swept from the bosom to undo its usurpations, disperse the carpet-bag of the country." Howell Cobb, denouncing State governments, and allow the white people Gov. Brown, the loyal white men of Georgia, to reorganize their own governments and elect and repentant rebels and loyal men, who are " senators and representatives — is endorsed by honestly striving to secure peace, order and the Northern Democracy with the same cor- law, as traitors to the country, thus charac- " diality with which they endorsed the platform terizes and counsels concerning them : You of 186i, declaring " the war a failure." and ' owe it to the living, you owe it to your own demanding "the cessation of hostilities." children and to their children. Write down 15

in their memories this day and all days and for I need dwell but briefly on what the Repub- all time to come the feeling and spirit of abhor- lican party proposes to do. Its history, its rence with lohich you regard and estimate these platform and its candidates speak to the full

men. O, Heaven ! for some blistering words comprehension of the American people. To that I may write infamy upon the forehead of that history, to that platform and to those can-

these men ; that they may travel through earth didates it points with confidence and pride. despised of all men and rejected of heaven, It appeals, as ever, to the higher and better scorned by the devil himself. They may seek sentiments and impulses of the nation. It their final congenial resting-place under the appeals to that comprehensive patriotism, mudsills of that ancient institution." This which embraces the whole country and the reconstructed Democrat is the same Howell people of the whole country, to that love of Cobb, of whom Andrew Johnson said: " Cobb liberty which accords equal rights to all men, remained in the Cabinet until the treasury to that sense of justice that gives equal protec- was bankrupt and the national credit dis- tion to the poor man's cabin and the rich man's graced at home and abroad, and then he mansion, and to that humanity that lifts up the conscientiously seceded." lowly and the weak. If success crowns its These are but specimen utterances which efforts, if the administration shall be intrusted unrepentant and Southern Democratic politi- to General Grant, with a House of Represen- cians are pouring into the too willing ear of tation to sustain that administration, the policy the people of the South, lately in rebellion of reconstruction will be perfected, the States against their country. The declaration of will all be speedily restored to their practical General Blair, in favor of trampling in the relations to the General Government, equal dust the Reconstruction Acts, instantly aroused rights will be assured and disabilities removed, the rebel element of the South and sent the the nation's faith will be untarnished, its cur- Ku Kluz Klans on their errands of insult, rency and credit improved, and " Peace," in outrage and death. No wonder that the rebel the language of Mr. Lincoln, " will come to Gen. Preston hastened to nominate the author stay." Then the blood, poured out like of that rebel inspiring letter as the candidate autumnal rains, will not have been shed in

for the vice-presidency ; no wonder that Wade vain ; for then united and free America, with Hampton leaped to the floor to second the liberty for all and justice to all, will enter

nomination ; no wonder that Fort Pillow For- upon a career of development, culture and rest, who now declares that, in a certain event progress, that shall insure a "future grand he will " toot his horn " for the rising of his and great." "old troopers," and who, as at Fort Pillow, No less significant and no less pronounced will "give no quarter," announced with so are the history, the platform and the candi- much unction the vote of Tennessee. Blair's dates of the Democratic party. Its history disorganizing, seditious and revolutionary let- recalls no inspiring ideas, no beneficent poli- ter struck a responsive chord in the bosoms of cies, no ennobling deeds for patriotism, for the Southern Democratic leaders. These liberty, for justice and for humanity. But it delegates assured their Northern political does recall images of slavery—its shackles, its associates that they could carry the recon- whips, its unrequited toils and its all-pervading structed States for the greenback and grey- impurities—the Slave Power, its arrogant back ticket. The bolder of the rebel leaders dominations and aggressive demands, ever hardly ^disguise their purpose to seize the associated with humiliating concessions, com-

polls and have only the white vote cast and promises and apostacies to freedom ; dark counted. Wade Hampton called on his Demo- conspiracies, lawless rebellion, fields of blood, cratic associates in New York to " register an taxation, delDts and the graves of the nation's oath " that they would place Seymour and Blair dead. Its platform speaks of the Recon- in the White House, if they received the majority struction Acts as " revolutionary, unconsti- of white votes, " in spite of all the bayonets tutional and void,"—beneficent acts by which that can be brought against them." This rebel seven disorganized commonwealths were trooper and Democratic leader tells the people re-organized, on the basis of loyalty and lib- of the South " not to employ any one, white or erty, and restored to representation in Con- black, who gives his aid to the Republican gress and to the blessings and benefits of party." And this proposition is generally the Union. Its candidates are pledged to approved and applauded by Southern politi- " trample in the dust " those re-prganized and cians and presses,' though so cruel and oppres- restored commonwealths, their constitutions sive to the poor laboring men, houseless and and laws, by which equal rights and privileges homeless, who will thus be compelled to exer- are accorded and secured to all. Those can- cise the right of suffrage under duress, and didates are also pledged for that unconstitu- with the menace constantly before them of tional, un-American and wicked monstrosity, being driven from their humble cabins and dis- so alien in spirit and tone to the Declaration possessed even of the fields they are cultivating of Independence and the utterances of th©' on shares. fathers, " a White Man's Government/* in place I 16

of the constitutional and American idea—a gov- " Young men, it is for you to bring back to ernment " of all, by all, for all." This record the country its golden days. The iSouth is our of fourteen years, this platform and these can- land. The North is a foreign and hostile didates, the wild, revolutionary and disorgan- realm. Stand at the altar of your country. izing utterances of Blair, Toombs, Cobb and Swear eternal hatred to its oppressors Swear other Southern Democratic leaders, speak, in that the day shall come when the Susquehan- language not to be misunderstood by the nah and Ohio shall be like rivers ol fire, as country, the purposes of the Democratic party, they are now rivers of blood, between your and WHAT IT PROPOSES TO DO. The currency native land and that of .the Northern Huns, is to be farther depreciated ; the public faith which no man shall attempt to cross and live." broken, and the national honor tainted ; State constitutions are to be abrogated ; the civil With one or the other of these two great

rights of millions impaired ; the right to vote, parties, fellow-citizens, you are constrained to now a possession, taken from three-fourths of act in the coming election of a President of the a million of working-men ; the education of the United States. Consider well, I pray you, the people, so longed for by the poor of both races, histories, the platforms and candidates of these is to hatreds, insults out- parties asking your suffrages. Remember be postponed ; and now rages to the loyal are to be intensified ; the that by its fruits the tree is known, and by his soldier, who fought for the restoration of the deeds man is judged. Apply to these political seceding States, and who now hopes, by his organizations those words of Holy Writ Test skilled industry, to make the war-wasted fields them by the high standards of love of country of the South bloom once naore, is to be forced and love of man, and vote as they prom[)t and to leave his new home, and the malignant approve. So voting, you sjiall do something spirit of Slavery and Caste is to rule again. to heal the wounds of war, rebuke and repress Then this murderous advice of Albert Pike, the lawlessness and violence, develop the material friend and champion of Blair and Seymour, and moral forces of the land, secure equality addressed to the young men of Mississippi, of rights and privileges, and thus lift our coun- may be accepted and followed to " the bitter try to its predestmed rank among the nations. end"