The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-03-24

friends, (" but we, too, havea man who
ldQring the war, acted. with you annioI
4 people-once or twice he voted to abol
ish slavery in the District of Co
stitutional Amendment" Very good
Mr.. English, we are much Obliged t.
you for that. But why, if you sympa
thize with the Union party, did you no
Join that party and cooperate will
them? Why did you adhere to tha
rebel organization, every member o
which voted against you on those i'm
between man who has only voted
right once or twice, and a man who has
voted and acted right all the way
through the war, think you ishrewd
Yankees cannot hesitate long which tc
choose. But at all events, whatever
may be the personal merits or dement's
| of the Democratic candidate in Con-
necticut, the individual opinions OF any
man are of very little account in this
contest. The tendencies and principles
of parties are what are to control, and
they should control your action as vo-
tiers. Now what claim has the great
Union party upon the people? Let us
it ever made to the American people
that has not been fulfilled? None
what ever. It undertook to put down
| the rebellion, and it has carried your
country safely through the greatest war
| of ancient or modern times. You old
men and young men may read all his
tory and all fiction, from the records OF
this day, and you will find neither in
history, in story, nor in song, more
glorious page than that which describes
the great American conflict. Think OF
it'll By our own unaided inspirations
of nationality, by our own unaided pa
I,E tNf
under our flag between. one and two
millions of soldiers, among whom.w
| men who will take their places with the
brightest spirits that have appeared in
any age or generation; while the mass
of the soldiers themselves have shown
such courage, endurance, patience ana
heroiSm as even France in the brightest
days of her military glory never excell-
ed. The great body of our. people too,
have shown a grand practical patriot
ism which is without. any example In
history. The people of the United
States have contributed to sustain the
Government, over three thousand mil
| lions of dollars, collected not from the
rich alone, but from all classes; made
up of the Widows mite as well as the
rich mans contributions; the child, the
mechanic, the professional man and the
business man allEpoured their money
into the National Treasury, to carry on
the great war in defence of free Gov
ernment. Irepeat, there is no snch eX-
ample in history. Why, sir, it was spo-
ken of as the wonder of modern finance
when the Emperor Napoleon I, appeal
ed for a loan of five hundred millions OF
| francs, thdt the people of France, IN
stead OF the bankers, loaned the money;
but what was it compared with the
spectacle of a free people contributing
by their own voluntary agency $3,0OO,-
O00, 900 to sustain their system of1GoV-
ernment. And we must remember that
much of the admiration which these
things excite belongs to the Union party.
| Why, sir, 1 say that in this WARTIME Union
party has displayed wisdom, n moder-
| ton and an ability to grasp pand deal with
great political questions thatis unrival-
ed in all political history. IL has organ
lied, among other things, a-system or
finance which will be worth more to the
country hereafter than the whole cost
of the war in money. 1t has organized
whole systems of departmental Gov
ernment based upon sound common
sense, that will survive onr generation
and will be handed down as blessings
to those who are to come after us. II
is true that with these incidents we
will also hand down to those same
generations great debt-thnt is, II we
don't pay it in our own generation, pc
cause / believe we could doit, as think
L could show YOU if / chose to go into
the demonstration now. And it is in
opposition to this great party, with such
n glorious history to point to, that the
Copperhead party comes before the
people and demands that they shall IN
trust them with the political power oil
the country. fever there was more rii'lI'
impudent proposition r1ade out OF hell, I,
1 would like to know where. Laugh
ter and applause.) L think, my friends,
that these considerations alone ought
10 end the contest. When we calmly
compare these two political organiza-
tions, and come to choose between them
the idea that any patriotic and sensible
man can choose to vote with the dead
Copperhead party almost passes belief
and L cannot believe that many such
can be found among SO shrewd peo-
pie as those of Connecticut. But ills
not only by their past that you are TO
fudge these parties. You must look
also at their tendencies for the future.
You remember thatone year ago every
free State. from Maine to California,
even New Jersey, raised the Union
flag, and many of the resnrrected
southern States have shown the same
feeling. So 1t is in Maryland and Mis-
souri,: and IF fsDelaware and Kentucky
had gone out and had been whipped in,
it would be the case with them also
Tennessee will soon be as loyal State
as Ohio. So the States stand. Well,
they want us TO break this grand Union
ohalanx for the benefit of the Demo-
cratic Party. Laughter-l Now 4 don't
(Renewed laughter.) But suppose we
did, what would be the result; what
would be the tendency OF the Copper
head party in its hour of victory? 1t
would be to form at, ouce an alliance
offensive and defensive with the rebels
of the south, to enlarge and extend the
a ai,.f1 Nf E1IV hal
States, and to place unrepentant rebels
in high positions at Washington. The
only hope of the Democratic party now
is in forming such an alliance. Well,
suppose it were formed, what would
they do then2 tell you, my friends,
they would undo all that we have ac-
complished during the war. For exam
ple. do YOU suppose they would pay
the National debt2 Not atiall. They
would look upon the National debt as
one ofthe instruments by which they
had been beaten, and they would Ger.
tainly reppdiate 1t. Do you suppose
they would pay the pensions 70 the
iiers The little pension now
now given to the lame and the halt,
and the small pittance now dolec out
to the widow, of the soldier-do you
think they would be paidY Why the
Copperhead party would insist that II
Won paid pensions to one side, you should
pay them on theother. Waug ghter.) They
would say that people on the other side
had lost legs and arms as we'll as on
yours: that wives on the other side had
lost husbands as well as on yours, and
thew would insist that in the matter of
t1ensions the sufferers should be put up
on a perfect equality. LDerisive laugh
ter. They would say that if you had
yonr National war debtth had theirs,
and that all monies collected to meet
the National debt should go in part TO