The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1866-01-20
INDEPENDENT COURSE LECTURES.
Geo. VIM. Curtis ON "The Good Fight"

cred last evening by George W. Curtis, ESQ,
before crowded and appreciatiye audience,
who listened with the closest attention,
only interrupting the speaker with frequent
and enthusiastic demonstrations of applause.
The address was characterized by the brilliant
and feryid eloquence, the keen and polished
sarcasm, the delicate pathos, and unanswera-
BILE force of statement with which all who
know this orator are familiar.
In commencing his lecture, Mr.. Curtis SAD
that our people did well to rejoice years ago,
at the victory of Saratoga That battle. did not
end the war, but it was step gained. Sheer
ing tories babe them wait, and they did wait
till the surrender of CORVALLIS. Yankee
pluck waited until it won, as in later years it
as now, the tories eat their words, and most
unwholesome feast they found it.
The speaker defined the Good Fight as the
conflict for the right, the battle evermore wag-
ed by man for the liberty to which he feels
himself born. All wars are battles in this
fight. 1t is waged by different weapons, the
combatants rally under different banners, but
wherever human nature, Inspired with gener-
Gus and noble ends. with the love of God or
of humanity, is arrayed against mean passions
and base purposes, the struggle is going on
The part assigned to America in this great
fight is the overthrow of the spirit of caste.-
This spirit Tue have hitherto found entrenched
in the system of personal slavery. But in all
its forms it is but the same old spirit of the
denial of human rights. There is no "gentle-
man" in America, but he who feels that every
man is his equal in national rights In Janu-
airy, 1885, Louis Wigfall said in the Senate in
Richmond, " Sir, / wish to live in no country
where the man that blacks my boots and cur
ries my horse is my equal" Three months af-
ter, when the rebel was si1ulking across the
continent into Mexico, Abraham Lincoln,
President of the United States, walked through
those same streets of Richmond, and respect
fully lifted his hat to the men who had BACKED
Louis Wigfall's boots, and curried his horse
What did it mean? 1t meant our manifest
destiny. 1t meant that the truest American
Pressass.t the fit companion of Washington,
was ready to recognize the poorest man, how
ever outraged, however ignorant, however,
despised, however degraded, however black, as
man his equal. President Lincoln believed
that worth makes the man, without which he
is no gentleman. The good fight has gained
everything by this war. ~ bls
We have shown that popular government
under which the lowest are equal yotArs with
the highest, is the most flexible and powerful in
history. 1t has shown itself strongest when
it was thought S re to prove itself weakest
81 tell you, Young America" said old Europe,
off you put million of men under arms in
the battle field; they will run over you, and
you viii inevitably end in despotism. l do
not pronounce upon your quarrel; but you
will fnd the absorption Of an army the most
perilous problem to which you can be exposed"
Six months after the surrender Of Lee, an
English gentleman stood in large warehouse
in Chicago, surrounded by scores of clerks
busily engaged. " You do not mean to tell me
that you went on in this way during the war;
said he. 90, no, sir; that young man was a
corporal, that major, that a lieutenant-colo-
mel; in the Office above you will find briga-
dier-general; there were twenty-seyen of us
clerks in the army" Indeed" said Sir Nor
ton Peto. "mdeed," says all Europe, looking
across the sea at the spectacle magnifed by
hundreds of thousands of citizens quietly re-
engaged in the various pursuits fpeace. Yes,
Sir Morton Peto, said the lecturer, our great
army was only attending to its business. 1t
was only the Yankee constable going about
bis rounds, to see if al was safe and well. &.
Again, the vindication of our system was
moral as well as physical. Europe said, "You
fight well, but we will first see how you cote in
the presence of bayonets. In the election of
1854, party spirit will sweep you into an
archy." The summer rolled by with passion
ate excitement Autumn glowed with the
most fiery canvass we have every known. We
looked toward election day with doubts and
tears. Was it to be the death day of the ma
ton? No; the great election passed in per-
feet peace. The sun on the 9th of November
rose on nation standing calm, strong and
erect upon its two feet of Union and liberty,
while somewhere between them was seen the
tip end of the tail of copperhead snake
creeping away to its hole.
Mr.. Curtis looked upon the war as an agent
for the publication and ennobling of the Amer
lean people, saying that four years more of
such peace as we had enjoyed before the war,
would have ruined the nation. We have
learned that calamity follows injustice as sure
ly as the plague follows filth. The crusade
now is against caste, and the hatred against
the negro is as unmanly as that entertained in
Europe formerly against the Jews. * y,e.,<l
The nation has gained a vital consciousness
of its inevitable unity; it has proved its pow
er, and it has used that power on the side of
the right. These are the gains of the good
fight by this war. The spirit of caste is disa-
bled; it must be destroyed. When. we freed
the slaves we did not say 'caste shall not grind
you with the right hand, but it shall with the
Left" but we did say caste shall not grind
you at ali; you shall have the same guarantee
of freedom that we have" and we must see
our promise kept. .'i1 VvA . osL 4e45G
The speaker gave a spirited sketch of the
late military operations OF the war, and his
eulogy of Grant, who, amid difficulties, only
lit his cigar, and said, preposs 10 fight it
out on this line if It takes all summer" was
received with storm of applause. go. 4o4
In conclusion he said: With GIANTS ten
acity, his patience, hif promptness, and his
tronquil faith let us assault the new front of
the old e.emy. A people that have shown the
quality of its genius as this people have in the
last four pears will finish its work. 1t will go
forward, not backward. america will be the
Sinai OF the nations, from which shall go out
the divine law of liberty, which will subdue
and harmonic the world" or a r
The lecture occupied an hour and half in
delivery. 1t was eloquent and forcibIe
throughout, and was warmly applauded.
The music furnished by Shaw's Quartette,
was excellent, and admirably adapted to the