The Portland daily press., 1866-10-12

NOBLE SPEECH BY GENERAL GEARY.-
When the returns announcing Gen. Geary's
election Were received at Harrisburg. at an
early hour on wednesday morning, number
of citizens proceeded to his hotel and serenad-
ed him. The General made a speech to them
of which the following is the substance:
Fellow Citizens:-- AS the candidate and rem
resentative of the triumphant Union Repubii-
can party OF Pennsylvania, reciprocate your
congratulations and return you my sincere
thanks for this greeting. 1t is indeed noble
victory we have achieved. We cannot too fer
vently and too repeatedly offer thanks to AL
mighty God for this new evidence of His
presence in the midst of our national difficult
ties. The same hand that guided us through
the sufferings and death Of causeless rebell-
ion has led us safely through q new and even
more tremendous peril The intelligence OF
the terrible overthrow of treason in Pennsyl-
vania-the sublime civic sequel to the crown
ing victory of Gettysburg-the second and fl
nal surrender of the rebel sympathizers, will
forever and justly settle many disputed ques-
tions. @t- Hl sI.47.
1t permanently establishes the fact that the
government OF the United States is vested in
the American people, and in their representa-
tives in Congress assembled, and not in a cor
rupt Executive and upon this strong and gran
ite foundation against the inrOads of time and
the attacks of treason, the following truths
and covenants: "That the government of the
people by the people and for the people shall
not perish from the EARTH" that cruel and ro-
vengeful traitors defeated in battle shall not
be restored to ruin the country they attempted
| to destroy; that when our forefathers declared
| man capable of self-government they rejected
| the heresy of human slavery and pledged equal
| political rights to all their successors; that
| hereafter the citizen represented in the Stat
| aud national legislatures must be clothed with
| the rights of citizenship; that all the agencies
of the government, civil and military, must b.
| perseveringly and sternly exercised to protect,
vindicate, and, if need be, avenge our op-
pressed brothers in the South against the saw
age prosecutions of rebels, who are still so i'm
penitent and defiant that even Andrew John
son fears to pardon them; that this obligation
is as sacred as that which made the Roman
citizen strong and respected all over the world,
and which stimulates the British Government
to-day to defend British subjects against op-
preston and persecution, however remote and
however remOrseleSs; that as we must choose
between those who will not yield to the con
querors terms in the recent insurgent State
and those who have fought steadily for the
good and pray for its protection, we gladly pre-
fer the men who offered their lives for the nag,
| to those who continue to scorn and trample up
omit.
The defeat of the sympathizers with treason.
and the overthrow of an abandoned and un-
grateful executive in Pennsylvania, opens tho
whole Southern country to the progressive peo-
pie Of the North with their ten thousand in
tellectual and elevating agencies, and better
tnan TINS IL secures TO the residing l0yaiiSta,
| white and black, those natural and civil rights
| pledged in the Declaration of Independence
and secured by the laws Of the land. What
| Pennsylvania who contributed to the re-
| splendent majority we contemplate with such
| gratitude and joy tonight, will not feel proud
that to his vote and to his energy mankind is
indebted for these priceless blessings? Having
| fortified these great truths against all future
designs, it is for us of Pennsylvania to main
tain the forward position we have SO proudly
| won.
The result proves that an intelligent people
cannot be driven away from principle by APP
| peals to prejudice. But it fixes the fact, more
than all, that profligacy and prescription IN
| high places serve to arouse popular indigna-
ton and to strengthen popular convictions.
| No tyrant in any age, not even that Of Nero,
| whose infamy is written in the immortal page
| of Suetonius, ever descended so low in his
in the stolen power of betrayed people, h
stretched forth his arm, paralyzing where he
| could not purchase, and scourging where H.
could not subdue. Our State was converted
into a market place where the Offices of the
people were proffered to themselves as
the price of their own degradation, and where
honest opinion was ostracised and craven syc-
ophancy disgustingly rewarded But this at
tempt to restore the traitors of the South and
to revive the Copperheads of the North has
| proved to De galvanism 80 brief that his fail
ure has consigned both to deeper depth and
20 a darker grave than that they occupied be
lore. Ihs Commonwealth that has resisted
and deied such bribes and such brutaiites
may well claim the proud title OF Deing the
fortress of American freedom.
But as l speak to you feel that we are not
alone entitled to these laurels of transcendent
triumph. Indiana and Ohio complete the tri-
umvirate as they compete for the palm Let
ms share IL with them as those who won the
Immortal hattie against the rebellion, shared
equally the dangers and the honors Of the con,
fifct. Now that we have we done our duty it will
| for MARYLAND to hold the position so bravely
and so bloodily won during the war, and nov
sought to be torn from her by returned rebels
and pensioned mercenaries; easy for Tennes
see to retain and rivet the splendid post she
has captured from double treason; easy for
Delaware TO cut loose from the preiudices un-
| der which she has groaned so long; easy for
Missouri to add another page to her crimsoned
yet immortal record and above all, easy for the
patriots of the South to compel obedience to
the last generous proffer of the American peo,
pie in the new amendment oil tne National
Constitution.