Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1867-11-28
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S P E &c II OF
gEgEf9B iSP EECH OF
HON. DANIEL W. VOORHEES,,
OF INDIANA,

AT THE DEMOCRATIC RATIFICATION MEETING,
HELD AT THE COOPER INSTITUTE, IN
NEW. YORK, OCTOBER 81, 1867.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN - arise in
your presence tonight with mingled feel
ings of pride and embarrassment. [ live
in distant State, towards the setting sun.
Mountains, rivers, and vast prolific valleys
separate my home from yours. Fifty years
ago, the dark line Of the Western frontier
lay along the banks of the beautiful Wa
bash. The light Of civilization and pros
perity was burning brightly here, but it's
rays were struggling feebly there in the
forests, and on the wide plains of the West.
Now all is changed, and I come to you
from the seat ofpresent and future empire
Thronging millions crowd all the tributa-
ries of the Mississippi The soil, the nigh
ty soil, that kindly, fertile mother of all
national wealth, is the source of Western
power. Agriculture, in giant dimensions,
stands as the lofty pyramid Of our glory
Around it, in natural array, but in subor-
of commerce, merchandise, and the traffic
of nations tits my pride to be identified,
however humbly, with the rapidly-swelling
central population Of the American CONT
nent, and to be follower of and support
er of that tremendous agricultural interest
at whose command cities rise like magic
on the coast and plain, railroads stretch
away, and pulsate like living arteries thro'-
out tie earth, and ships, freighted like the
argosles of old, swarm on every ocean and
fill every sea. And though this vast con-
course might we'll embarrass one of higher
and prouder pretensions than mine in the
public arena, yet, as a representative to
some extent, at least, of this controlling
interest, and Of the people who possess it,
| feel pride of country in saluting the
citizens of this great capital of commerce as
fellow-citizens of the West--in hai,ing this
queeniy emporium of trade, as she sits
here by the sea, surprising in splendor
ancient Tyre and Sidon, with more than
imperial robes about her, and tiara of
jewelled wealth on her head as the legiti-
mate child, the glorious offspring of that
welded love which since Adam first ate
bread in the sweat of his face has existed
between agricultural toll and the generous
bosom of the earth, our mother A COM
mon interest thus links together the city
and the farm, the merchant and the hus-
bandman, the shipowner and the man whe
in the plain garb holds the plough AMI
drives the reaper. With these views, and
with this spirit, I shall speak tonight of
the great overshadowing question on which
the American people have been passing
judgment, from the Atlantic to the Pacific
ocean, and on which New York is to de-
eide next Tuesday.
shall discuss what is styled Congress
sional reconstruction of the. South-nct,
however, as Southern question, but as
national question, to be decided on North
ern soil, by Northern men, and in accord
ance with the local interests of every por-
ton Of the North. l uppear not as the at
torney of distant client, but rather to
plead with the people of New York in
their own behalf And if any Southern
politician who is engaged in seeking mis-
cradle alliance with the Radical rule and
ruin his country, should raise his hands
and exclaim that am injuring his pros
poets and his cause, to him I reply, the
Democracy of the North are battling for
the supremacy on this mighty question
without reference to the future of indlvid-
uals or of parties, but because Of it's ma
tional import as question of free govern
nent, of industrial progress, of agricultu-
raj advancement, of commercial prosperity,
and of civilization itself, in ten States of
this Christian country
Fellow-cltlzens, two years and halt
ago, peace came to our bleeding and strick-
en- land. Since then the drum beat has
not called to battle nor the ensanguined
earth drank the !ife-b of the flower of
American youth. But except that tho
cannon no longer opens it's murderous
mouth, what blessing has this long period
ofpeace in the hands Of the dominant par
ty brought to our distracted country =
Peace came with illuminations and joy,
by the light Of which the very stars grew
pale overhead, because with the advance Of
peace the people were promised a long
train of attendant blessings, chief amongst
which, and conspicuous in its sublimity,
was to be restored Union-restored On
the principles of constitutional liberty. -
The destructive heresy that States had
successfully seeded and were out Of the
Union was then unknown to the Northern
mind. The Radical party had not yet
dared to unfold this perfdious scheme Of
disunion. The hideous face of the Proph-
ct of Khorassan was yet yelled to his de-
luded followers. The same men and the
same party which now hold that ten States
are out of the Union, and that they shall
not return except upon the condition Of
negro supremacy, at every stage of the
war. from day to day, from year to year
from Sumter to ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
to the American people and to the listen
! ing nations of Europe that we were engag-
ed in suppressing an insurrection, not Of
States, but of peoples; that we were en-
forcing laws and upholding institutions.
and not violating or overturning them, and
that upon the close of strife the States
i II