Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-04-25

eral members OF the state Legislature were
also near him. There were present, at the
time some six thousand colored people,
men, women'and children, and some two
or three hundred white people.
J Governor Pierpont in few words intro
duced the Massachusetts, Senator. The
colOred people cheered him, but not very
enthusiastically. Some white men Joined
in the cheers, but the great majority were
silent and looked sullen. ag,in'ifI aleii zs77o
SENATOR WILSON'S SPEECH.
Senator Wilson stated tnat ne appeared
before his fellow-citiZens of Virginia in
response to a very kind invitation signed by
several members of the, Legislatures and
that he would express his views on public
affairs with entire frankness, as he had been
always accustomed to do in Congress and
everywhere else. This pleased the colored
people, and they gave expression to their
feelings in their own peculiar way.l Sena-
tor Wilson went on TO say that he was for
blotting from the memory of mankind, as
far and as fast as possible, all prejudices
engendered blythe war, and all the hates
and bitter memories associated with it. He
was for making the country the most pow
rful,nation which the sun ia its course
looked down upon. He aoosto making eUery
man no matter TO aotCIt race he belonged, or of
a0ItGt hue his skin might be, citizen of the Uni
ted States a0ith alt the rights, and all the priU
tLeges, and all the iDtsaglitieS that belong to O.
citizen or the " 4ltted States. AT this express
sion of sentiment the blacks cheered, and
i some of them waved their hats, and few
whites did the same. The rest of the whites
preserved their. silence and their downcast
shllen attitude. Mr.Wilson then reviewed
the past history of the slavery agitation,
the events OF the war and the political con-
ditiOns that followed the-peace. In this he
covered generally the same ground as in
his speech at Orange Court House, tele-
graphed last night to the Herald. address
ing himself to the 7cotored people he told them
that no man, no community and no State could
take from them a single right that they
EROto possessed that their rights were
Eas sacred, as clearly accepted, and
as completely imbedded in the soil OF
the North y American continent, 70 as
bwere the great truths which lay at the
foundation of Democratic institutions. To
his white hearers he spoke of the chimeras
of the great slave empire which the leaders
of secession had dreamed of, but which had
been lissipated in the smoke of battle : of
the fears entertained at the close of the war
that imprisonment, hanging and confisea-
ton would be among the penalties of their
rebellion; of the removal of those appre-
tensions, and of the general bad results of
the policy which President johnson had
adopted. Speaking of the President, he
said :: We took him up because he hap
pened to be born South. and happened to be
courage loyalty to the country and he has
betrayed US. Laughter from the colored
citizens Referring to his opposition to
the twenty thousand dollar exemption in
the amnesty proclamation, he said that he
dduored the assignment Of a Jeoo acres ofground
on eoeTy large plantation to The colored families
emp1oyed Upon 1t: That idea was high ly ac-
ceptable, and was much applauded by
those who7Were the intended beneficiaries.1 I
Referring to the constitutional amendment
basing representation upon the voting
population,The declared his belief that ifl
Virginia had adopted that amendment, suf-
frage would have been extended to the col
oredpeopie withinSa year. because Virgin
ians liked office just well as Yankees liked
money! laug ghter]-but they had chosen to |
listen to Andrew johnson rather than to
men who made Andrew johnson. APP |
plause. + Andrew johnson had stumped |
the Northern States, and had come back |
the worse whipped man that ever trod |
American soil. Laughter. He had a |
masterly genius for defeating himself. Mr.. |
Seward, at the same time, had told the men |
of New Y York that that State would give |
forty thousand majority for the President |
because the Republicans had lost their lead |
ers. But the Republican party could sur
vive the detection of Mr.. Seward and of its
other leaders, because it was composed of
the cultivated, intelligent middle classes of
the people, who followed no men, but fol-
lowed the commands of Almighty God, the
teachings of the great and good of all ages
and the instincts of their own hearts,orIfl
the same classes in Virginia would do the
same, and not ask what this man or the
other man thought, they could carry the
State this year by twenty-five thousand |
majority. fCheers.] Speaking Of the Sher
man-Shellabarger bill he related its history,
and said that it had so many fathers that if |
named after them it should be called the
-Stevens-Bingh ngham-Blaine- john
son-Sherman- Wilson -Shellabarger BILL
Lau ghter.l In conclusion, he appealed to
the cOLOTed UOterS to stand by the principles
Of the party that had giUen them their free
dom, their rights and their. privileges. He |
knew very well. that the Democrats |
would be chasing down the freedmen
to get their votes, but the freedmen |
could not forget Bryant and Whittier, and
Lowell and Longfellow, and the eloquent |
men who had been for thirty years dinning |
into the ears of the American people the |
doctrine that law, humanity and religion |
demanded the emancipation of the bond |
men, and that emancipation was the duty |
of the master and the right of the slave. |
They could not forget Abraham Lincoln |
responses of @NeVerol-or the men who |
were around him and about him. They |
could not forget thetwe and half millions |
of soldiersswho fought their battles. 1Cries |
of s.No.n] They could not forget the three |
hundred and fifty thousand aolaite men aobO 1cefot
dO11n to blOOdyydUes iTlthe morning of life that
the 6oqadnee1a nli1tt be free. TVoices-"We will |
get all this and vote for men who had raised |
the banner of treason against their conntry |
in order to plant government whose cor |
ner stone was to be raised on bruised and |
crushed hearts. Emphatic responses OF
'NeVer.Tl He believed they would not. |
The ballot had been put in their hands, and |
they would use it for the cause OF the cOun- |
try, of patriotism, of liberty, of equal, uni |
versal~ and impartial liberty ~ Cheers.
They would use it for the cause OF educa- |
tion, and they would stand by and sustain |
their friends. Voices-"We'll do it.''I
They would develop the resources which |
should build great city at the mouth of the |
James river, and would make the State not
great in the sense of passing the resolutions |
Of179S, or any other resolutions, but great in |
intelligence, in development and in TOLL
The black men were all right in that re-
spect. They had two hundred and forty |
wears of experience. They knew how to |
hunger and thirst tor the knowledge which |
had been denied them. He wanted them,
also, to help out in procuring negro suf-
frage in New jersey, Pennsylvania and
New York. And they said they would 1 |
He wanted them to send their prayers, their
influence and their votes away on every
Southern breeze, and to shame Northern |
Democracy, which was the last thing on |
earth that could be sbamed. I daughter.
He had been on to Washington city, thirty |
years ago. and had seen colored men penn
ed up to be shipped to the cotton and rice |
plantations of the South, and he had then
made up his mind that every vote and word |
and influence of his should be against
slavery and the influence of slave power
and he had kept that pledge. [Cheers. II
He had always said that he intended to
stump the Southern States for freedom5 andI
now he was doing it, except, indeed, thatl
fraednm Nas already achieved. He was fnrl