The Waynesburg Republican. [volume] (Waynesburg, Pa.) 1867-18??, 1867-08-07


ratification ola Constitutional amend
ment =? So did the President. Has
Congress established a testoath =? Sodid
the President. Our crime is, 1 sup
pose, that we provide that those whom
the nation had made free should have
the freeman's ballot for their protec-
ton, while the President did not. But
the results his policy strikingly con-
trast with the results of ours. Tho
nation looked on to see what fruits
would result from his action, and what
they were. In nearly every State tho
rebel power resumed its authority and
became dominant in their executive
legislative, and judicial departments,
the vagrant and labor laws virtually
rc-enslaving the emancipated, followed
by murders, outrages, riots and massa-
crcs, crowned the whole. Loyal men
were under foot, and the revivified
spirit of rebellion was triumphant.
With our duty to our country and on
our oaths we could not affirm and
legalize this policy, and hence the leg
islative action wo have since taken.
Approved in the past we have been.
| cannot doubt even more triumph
ant Endorsement hereafter. [Applausc. ]
The President appeals to the ballot
box so do we, and by its its decision
we are willing to stand or fall. In
1862, in the darkest hour of the war,
amid disaster and reverse, the ballot
box sustained us, and returned n Re-
publican majority in Congress. In
1864 we were compelled to accept all
the odium of conscription, the heavy
burdens of taxation necessary for our
national credit, and to keep our flag
flying in the field, the charges of our
enemies that men were being drafted
from their homes to free negroes, and
the dcnuncations against the war as u
failure; but with the simple motto of
"Our Country" under the lead of our
noble Prcsidcnt-would to God he
were living to-day-wc won a magni-
iiccnt triumph. Applausc.] In 1866
when President johnson turned his
back on the party which elected him,
traverscd the country, making speech
es to be read by millions, dcnouncing
us; with his whole Cabinet against us,
with but one honorcd exception, Zap
plause and cries Of Stanton, with tho
whole power and patronage of the
Government thrown in the scale of our
enemies, we appealed again to the
ballot box, winning the most magnifi-
cent victory ever known to our politi-
cal history. Applausc.
But this will be cclipscd by the
coming victory of 1868, when we shall
place in the offices of the Government
men who will be faithful to liberty,
justice and loyalty. We ask no more,
and will accept no lesss and this vic
tory will be swellcd by the votes of
the reconstructed South. When they
return, as they will, in accordance
with the terms prescribed in our legis-
lation, they will return with magnif-
cent majorities for the right. Ap-
plause. They will come back, led as
they must be, by those who have been
faithful to the Union in its darkest
hours. They will join with us of the
| North, under the inspiring influence
Of free labor and free men, in the
march Of prosperity and power, and
will join with them in so legislating,
that hereafter in this noble land there
shall be no man so poor, so humble, so
obscure, that he cannot look up to the
American flag as his unfailing protec-
ton, and to the ballot, which shall
vindicate his rights in his own right
hand, and all the loyal people shall
say, "Amen." Loud applausc.]