The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1864-11-04
CHEAT. SPEECH.
OF HON. ROBERT G. WINTHROP
OF MASSACHUSETTS,.
At New London, Conn.,, October
Ii, 1864. ...
The Most Brilliant and Effective
Speech Of the Campaign.

luc MOSC DTllll0UC anu UllCClIVC
Speech Of the Campaign.
MIR. wINTHRoP's SPEECH.
FELLOW CITIZENS: am deeply sensible to-
the kindness and the compliment of this re-
ception. I thank you for this inspiring well
come to your city. l have come at your re-
quest to address you on the great subject which
is uppermost in all our minds and in all our
hearts. l am here for no purpose of declama-
prejudices or passions. No arts of rhetoric
can meet the edgencies of this hour If I
were ever capable Of then, abandon and dis
card them all to night. am here only from o
deep sense of the duty which rests upon each
one of us to contribute what we can, by word
or by deed, for suffering, bleeding country.
Compelled, by engagements or by my health,
to refuse hundred other invitatfons, could
not resist the appeal that was made to me
word of mine may be thought worthy Of being
listened to or regarded, in Connecticut or else
where, there is no place from which it may
more fifty 60 forth than from this old and hon.
ored home of my fathers. Applause 1t is
a time, am aware, my friends, when the best
and wisest, and most patriotic men may differ,
and do differ, widely from each other. Iwould
C1oG III ACpAVuCuCo uPOu kuy OppOuCuGS. L UO
not forget the repr0aches which have been cast
upon myself in some quarters; but have no
heart for bandying personalities at o period
like this. I pass by all such matters as unwor.
thy of moments consideration. Or rather,
let me say, they pass by me like the idle wind.
The air, indeed, is full of them. Arbitrary
and arrogant assumptions of superior patriot
ism and loyalty-coarse and malicious repre-
sensations and imputatiOns OpprObrious and
insulting names and epithets, often applied by
men who might well be conscious that nobody
deserves them so much as themselyes-the air
is full of them. They come swarming up
from stump and rostrun, and press and plat
form. We meet them ct every turn. Let MS
not retort them. Let us not resent them. Let
no one by any means be tempted or provoked
by them into acts of vengeance or violence.
Let us simply Overwhelm them with contempt
and pass on, unawed and unintimidated, to the
declarations of our own honest opinions, and
to the assertion and exercise of our rights as
freemen. Applause. Let US initiate the ex-
ample of our own noble candidate. whose quiet
endurance of injustice and calumny has been
one of the most beautiful illustrations of his
character, and has won for him respect which
will outlive the ephemeral notorfety of his re-
vilers. Our country calls at this moment for
the best thoughts, the bravest counsels, the
freest utterances, the most Undertaking devo-
ton of every one of her sons. Let US compare
our opinions with each other honestly, indie
pendently fearlessly; and let no man shrink
from following his own conscientious convic-
tons, wherever they may lead him.
A CHANGE OF CIVIL POLICY DEMANDED.
But let us look at the issue before us little
more closely, and more deliberately You will
not expect me, my friends, to go back to the
origin of the great struggle in which we are
involved: can tell you nothing about the his
tory of the past which is not abundantly fami-
liar to you. You all know that wantOn and
unjustifable rebellion against our national gov
eminent was inaugurated in South Carolina
nearly four years ago; that it soon expanded
to the proportions of the most gigantic civil
war the world has ever witnessed, and that it
is raging madly and wildly still. You all know
the story of its rise and progress. You all.
know how much treasure and how much blood
it has already cost: And you all know what
our brave soldiers and sailors in all their tolls
and perils, in all their reverses and in all their
triumphs, on the land and on the sea, from
that first most impressive scene at Fort Sumter,
when the stars and stripes were lifted by the
gallant Anderson on the breath of solemn
prayer, down to the last achievements of Sher.
man, and Farragut, and Sheridan, at Atlanta,
Shenandoah. Cheers. You have watched,
too, the course of our civil rulers at Washing
ton. Their shifting and drifting policy-as it
has been strangely developed in resolutions,
and proclamations, and manifestoes, ITO whom
it may concern us familiar to you ALL You
know what they have promised and you know
what they have performed in the past and
you know what they propose for the future.
And now it is for you, and for each one of you
to say, whether you are satisfied to commit the
final destinies of this republic to the same
hands; whether you are satisfied that the men
now in power are in the way of bringing this
fearful struggle to q safe and successful termi-
nation; whether, in word, you are ready to
take your share of the responsibility of contin-
uing their domination through that Presiden-
tial term of all others, which is to decide
whether there shall ever again be President
over the whole United States of America? IAp-
plause. For myself, as have said elsewhere +
have reflected deliberately and deeply on this
question, and have in vain attempted to resist
the conclusion, that the best interests of our
country, and the best hopes of restoring the
Union of our country, demand change of our
national rulers. l have not been able to re-
sist the conclusion, that almost any other par
ty, and almost any other President would be
more likely than Abraham Lincoln, to accom-
plish that great cOnSummatiOn which every
Christian patriot ought to have, and must
have, at heart-the earliest practical restOra-
ton of Union, and peace, and constitutional
liberty to our afflicted land. 1 have not been
able to resist the conviction that there would
he better chance under any other administra-
ton than the present for speedily effecting a
termination of the rebellion, upon the basis of
" the Union as it was, and the Constitution as
it is" which is the only legitimate aim ofloy-
al men (Cheers.)
WHAT A PATRIOT IN MIR. IINCOLN'S PLACE
WOULD HAVE SAID SIX MONTHS AGO.
Fellow citizens, am not here to indulge in
any personal imputations upon President Lin
coin. Though have never been one of his
partizan supporters, have never been one of
his revilers. And let me say, in passing, that
he has received harder blows from some of his
own household Senator Wade and Rep.
resentative Winter Davis and General Fremont
and from others who have been less brave and
less open, but not less violent in their denun-
citation of him, than he has from any of his
opponents. But cannot help remarking,
that in my humble judgment, he would have
adopted course worthy of all commentator
If, instead of talking about swapping horses in
crossing stream, he could have been induced
to say, six months ago. to the people of the
United States, something of this sort:
"Fellow- Citizens you elected me fairly your
President, and the President of the whole
Union, four years ago. | have done my best
% yindicate my title to the trust you have con- 4
erred upon me, and l shall continue to do so
% the end of my term. You of the loyal
yto +or hovn uOhly cuDnortad ma Won box-o