The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1867-08-30
Speech of Hon. ]. A. Bingham
PENDLETON'S REPUBLIC
OF REPUBLICS.

, iSRSSVA Va A4oAs " La 040{9&AeA&A
e PENDLETON'S REPUBLIC
OF REPUBLICS.
, TAXATION AND THE BONDS
THE NEGRO AS AVOTER
On Saturday afternoon last, a large
: meeting assembled at New Market,
Harrison county, Ohio, to hear Hon.
John A. Bingham present his views
Of the relations of the political par
ties Of the country to the welfare OF
the nation and the people composing
! SPEECH OF Mr.. BINGHAM.
\ Mr.. Bingham, on being presented
to the audience, said:
i LADIES AND GENTLEMEN It is
not my purpose to detain you very
long with any remerks, lest, per-
chance, the clouds which lower about
US may pour down their contents up
ON you. trust that in the few brief
words / may utter to-day, may i'm
press you with the conviction that
1t is the interest OF every man in
this community to stand with those
who stood by the Government, and
against those who stood against the
Government. through that long con-
test of four years which terminated.
30 far as the conflict of arms was con-
cerned, on the day that Lee surren-
dered to Grant. The armed rebel
lion has been put down by the bayO-
net; and disarmed rebellion must be
put down by the ballot. And if this
American people fail in the accom-
plishment of this vast work, then in
deed was the war for the Union a
failure. 1t is hardly needful to ar
que with intelligent citizens that the
safety of the republic at least depends
upon the action OF the great body of
the people in the exercise of the elec
tive franchise. 1t is in vain that ar
mics are mustered by the million in
the field. if, after the conflict of the
battle is ended, the people who sent
them forth forget the great issues
which were intended to be decided
by the war. No sooner had the bro
ken batialions of treason surrendered
to the triumphant legions of the re-
public, than the discomhtted and
routed organization OF conspirators,
North and South, East and West, at.
tempted to revive the same work of
disrupting the Union and overturn-
ing our institutions, the instrumen-
tality of partisan operations and per-
tisan deceptions. Men are now ev
erywhere seen, day after day, through. :.
out this great commonwealth, argu-
ing with the people that they should
rally under the standard of the Dem
ocratic party.
SURRENDER OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.
The Democratic party! 1t sur
rendered when Lee surrendered to
Grant. The Democratic party. and
no other party, organized that rebel
lion which covered this land with
graves, and filled this land with ap-
prehension everywhere lest this last
great experiment of the Republican
Government should perish from the
earth. It.is in vain that men under
take to disguise this fact--and that
ii is fact accounts for the anxiety
of such gentlemen as Vallandigham,
and Pendleton, and Thurman, and
Ranney. that by cones should be by
cones, and that the people should
forget the record of parties In that
great conflict through which they
have just passed.
Let it then not be forgotten, my
cOuntrymen, that the rebellion against
the Convention and the Union was a
Democratic rebellion. The men who
organized it in the capital of your
country-for there it was organized,
in the Senate of the United States,
in the House of Representatives, in
the Executive Department of the
Government, every one Of them,
without exception, was known and
acknowledged, from one end of the
Union to the other, as the chiefs and
and apostles of the Democratic party.
PENDLEroN's REPUBLIC OF REPUBLICS.
You know. my countrymen, the
dogma in which this conflict had its
origin, that the Government of the
United States was but the agent of
Independent and sovereign States,
that there was no American national
ity in this land. In the language of
Mr.. Pendleton, uttered but the other /,
day, in this conflict, then as now, the
leaders of this party insisted that
the Government of the United States ,
was but a republic of repnblics, that ,
South Carolina was a republic, that
Virginia was republic, that Georgia ,
was republic, and all the rest of the |
several States known as the United ,
States of America, were each indie
pendent sovereign States, exercising ,
certain delegated powers through the |
agency known as the government of
the United States of America. L
never belonged to that school of po-
liticians. ] learned my first political :
lesson from those grand men who {
laid the fabric of American Govern
ment, amidst prayer and sacrifices, I
and battles, and tears. / had read |
tue letter addressed to the American
people by that peerless man, who t
was ''first in war, first in peace, and
first in the hearts of his countrymen, " h
and whose name stands first append. {
to the Constitution of the United I
States, wherein he declared to the |
people of the then thirteen States
that the convention over which he ,
presided in forming Constitution +
for the Government, to be the future }
Constitution of the people of this i.
country, had kept continually in view
the consolidated Union. Why, ST., ,
to utter that word, consolidation of :
the Union, would throw some of these :
modern Democrats into fits. And
vet it was the word of Washington,
the father of his country, who was :
the father Of the Constitution. His !.
name stands foremost amongst the
names attached to that sacred and.
great instrument, through which, and !,
by which we did establish in this land
a government Of the people and \ )
government for the people. }