The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1866-10-09

authority, although he did not then dis
close it, he traversed the Union and assai-
ed the Union Republican candidates in
every State where he was allowed hear
ing. 1t was my good fortune to be in
Washington at the time, and | took occa-
sion to admonish the President that the
only effect of Mr. Blair's appeals would be
to bring disgrace and disaster upon him
self and his administration. You will re-
member that at that time the Republican
party constructed all its platforms In the
interest of Andrew Johnson The conven-
tions which met respectively in Pennsyl-
vania, New Jersey, Ohio and New York
nominated their candidates. Here, you
know, we selected General Hartranft, IN
New Jersey they selected Ward, in New
York General Barlowe, and in Ohio Gen
eral Cox. Those conventions laid down
the platforms exclusively IN the interest Of
Andrew johnson, and almost in the Ian
guage of his public declarations So firmly
fixed was he then in our confidence that
we refused to believe that he intended his
subsequent treachery. We did not believe
that the allegations Of this man Blair that
he was about to transfer this generous Or
ganization, to which he owed his honors,
to perpetual defeat, if possible, and that he
himself had become the willing tool of the
traitors of the South and the Copperheads
of the North. Accordingly this man,with
his authority in his pocket, went before the
American people, but wherever he went
his appeal was answered by overwhelming
Republican maiorities. Pennsylvania re-
pudiated him by the election of Hartranft,
in such way as should have taught the
wretched imbecile of the Presidential chair
a lesson and have admonished him against
walking in the path which had been delib
erately marked out for his destruction,an
if possible for the destruction Of the coun-
| try. Wherever this mans lips were opened,
there defeat arose for the President he
championed. Untaught by the DEGREES of
/ the ballot box, in 1865, and unaNashed in
his efforts to ruin the Pres idont, he contin-
Iued to advise and misIead him. Now we
have him before us in Pennsylvania, after
having encountered such a retribution in
the State of Maine as has never before been
administered to desperate and designing
man. Let Mr.. Blair's friends in this vicin-
| ity-the Democratic party-study these
admonitory figures, and read in the decree
of the people of Maine their sure overthrow
by the people of Pennsylvania on the 9th
/ of October. Prolonged applause.
We ought to be thnnkful, however, for
the Presidential apologist. Laughter.
In fact all that Andrew Johnson has done
or is doing seems to have been done uncon-
sciousIy in the interest Of the Republican
party. His own speeches could not have
beer better framed for his own destruction
and our advantage. And, as if not to
be outdone, Blair, and William Fl. Seward,
and George Francis Train laughter and
the whole ring, are animated by the same
unconscious desire to assist the party they
seem to think was most etfectually dertroy-
ed. An ordinary man, of ordinary breed
ING and good ta- te, would refuse to come
into Pennsylvania, after having been so re-
buked and trampled under foot by the pee
pie of Maine. That of all the other States,
was the one in which Andrew Johnson
thought to do most by means of bis pat
ronage It's long coast ann frontier, IN or
der to prevent smuggling, is punctuated, as
it were, with custom-houses; and officers
of the Treasury Department are almost as
plenty IS blackberrie8. There is an I'M
portant navy yard. No wonder that Mr.
Poolittle and Mr.. Montgomery Blair, and
Mr.. Edgar Cowan, assured the President
that they would take his policy to the peo-
pie of Maine, aud begin with a victory
there. Mr.. Blair was sent there as the
generalisimo of the Administration forces,
What was the result? What harvest did
this eloquent instructor of the benighted
people of Pennsylvania reap there?
The vote is not any larger than that east
in 1864 for Mr.. Lincoln, and yet we have
nevertheless gained fully ten thousand
votes. Loud applause So that all the
offices and patronage Of the Admlnlstra-
ton. and all the promises of money in mil
lions, only suficed to accomplish more ef-
fectuallyI the defeat of these men and, in
fact. oained for us ten thousand converts!
ITCheersl Now l think that after such
| lessor; Montgomery Blair should have Sc,
lected almost any other district for his field
of operators than the one in which am
now speaking. Here is a people peculiarly
Independent; here the long arm OF the Ma
tional Government cannot reach. What
few Offices it has to bestow have teen prof
fered to almost every decent Republican in
the district but have been rejected with
instant scorn and contempt. Cheers. BE.
sides this is country of school houses and
churches, country reading and thinking
men and women, country which more
than any other portion Of Pennsylvania
has passed through the changing processes