Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1867-02-07

| and we are not ashamed of it. Do
you not know every man who has
been a radical. The Wilberforces
and the Washingtons, the Lafayettes,
and the Patrick Henrys, and the jeff
ersons, were all radicals? I? Are you
| ignorant that the Great Teacher, the
brightness of the Invisible, who spake
as never man spake, whose stern,
great truth flashed across the worlds
dark mind, as fash the lightnlng's
upon the bosom of midnight, was the
very personifcation of radicalism
Don't you know that radicalism
fought at the battle of Gettysburg,
while poor, miserable, conservatism
went mouthing about searching the
shortest path to Canada :? Radical
ism 1t has been the head that did
the thinking, the hand thai did the
execution, it was the heart that felt
and the will that resolved. 1t was
the moving power of the Govern
ment, the steam and driving wheel
of the engine. / am a radical. |
want to be radical-radically true,
radically in earnest, radically right.
If any one is ashamed of that char
acter, let him 60 and clothe himself
in that shame and wear the glory Of
it, and when he dies the world will
not remember him as long as his body
will keep warm after vitality has left
it, Democracy sets itself up as the
paragon of excellence, while we are
denounced as deserters we are the
disunion party. 1t has been affirmed
and will be reiterated again and
again. will state here do not in
tend to say an unkind word ] would
not willingly hurt a hair of dog
l have as much of the milk of human
kindness as could have and be po-
litically healthy. We meet together,
l love to greet them, and they love to
greet me. But | am speaking of the
broad principles of historical facts
and partisan practice and if an in
fdividual assume the responsibility Of
partisan practice, why then-my
words apply to him.
The Democratic party is yet true
to it's original instincts The spots
of the animal are yet visible, and its
running sores unmollifed.
The history of that party is an ex-
ceedingly interesting one, though
more painful than interesting. In
1861 one half of the party swung off
into open rebellion, and large por-
tion of the other half was in open
sympathy with them l well remem-
Der whenlthe question came up touch
ing the right of secession, that that
party said, if any State does secede
there is no power in the government
to prevent it. You are all familiar
with the fact. And you understand
very we'll in 1868 that same party
held a convention in these very halls
They went through all the paraphre-
MALTA of a political convention they
passed resolutions and made haran-
CUES. At that very time invading
hosts of traitors were approaching
our confines and laundering at the
gates of the capital. While the very
hills trembled with the echoes of ar
tillery, these patriots par excellence,
having passed biting and bitter res
olutions against Mr. Lincoln and the
administration at Washington, never
made one allusion to the invading
armed rebels. But having breathed
out their spleen, waived themselves
to their homes. In 1864, when they
assembled in Chicago--when the
country's interests were imperiled-
when every mother gave up her first
born son to die in the country's de-
fense, and every true mans soul was
offering up prayer to God to save
US from degradation-they said the
war is failure, we must have peace,
we must submit-just what JEFF. Da-
Wis desired them to say.
They nominated Presidential can
iidate, and their nomination was ap-
plauded from the battlements of the
whole South. When we issued our
greenbacks, they prophesied the ruin
of our financial credit they said
Greenbacks will be very good for
bandbox and trunk makers and
when we issued our five-twenty and
seven-thirty bonds, instead of breath
ing life into the public credit, thy
said they would be nice to paper
country cottages.
When Andrew johnson, assuming
to be patriot, went through the
States, pleading with them to stand
by the Government against traitors
when he uttered that noble senti
ment, that treason must be made odi-
Gus, and traitors must be punished,
and their property confiscated, and
the leaders hung, to use his own
rhetorical phrase, "every devil of
them"-then these conservative gen
tlemen denounced him, and made
caricatures of him, slammed State
House doors in his face, and declared
he was an abolitionist. hireling and
renegade.
But true to their original instincts,
as a dog returns to his vomit, so
soon as Andrew johnson went back
on himself and falsifed every noble
principle he ever uttered, and would
hand the country over to those who
sought it's life, then this same Demo
cratic party gathered about him as
buzzards gather around the carcass
of dead ass, seemingly eager to
gorge their foul stomachs upon his
rotten entrails True to these ante
cedents and their unpatriotic impul-
ses they oppose these amendments,
and to a man will vote az ainst them.
Mr.. Speaker, this subject is so ex,
pansive, so prolific in thought and H.
| lustration that to exhaust it is impOs.