The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1867-02-11
SPEECH OF HORACE GREELEY,
Delivered at the .Great Southern
Relief Meeting held at Coop
er Institute on the Ev-
ening Of 18th Uit.


| To the following speech we invite the at
tention Of the reader. 1t is quite faithful
picture of the condition of the south, and
very pcrtinently and very OPPORTUNITY shows
that the prosperity of the north will be in
| creased by restoring the south to prosperity
| Remember that the author of the speech is
one of the leading republicans of this coun-
| try:
| Horace Greeley was next introduced. He
| said : Ladies and gentlemen, there are so
| many things that it Is wise not to say on an
occasion like this, that l appear before you
extremely embarrassed daughter, indeed,
| fear that what we may say here in perfect
| truth, and in perfect charity, may seem 10
wear Pharasaic and selfrighteous aspects
| unless We are exceedingly careful i wonEd
| not desire, then, to reopen at all any social
| or political differences, which have divided
| and alIenated in times past, the north and
the south. would look solely at this one
| question of human suffering, for | know that
| New York. whatever its shortcomings, never
was deficient in the quality of mercy, never
/ failed to turn generous ear to every appeal
| on behalf of hungering and suffering and
| thirsting humanity. | would endeaver then.
so iarias possible, to keep this single aspect
| before you, lest even in giving charity, we
| might give it with words which would seem
to have something of bitterness where we
meant only to be kind. There are to-day,
| think. quarter of million of widows with
| children in the south-widows whom the
great war has made. These women and
| children were not accustomed 10 work.
They are now willing and anxious TO work
for living, but the means and facilities for
| so doing do not readily present themselves.
| Again, there are a quarter OF a million more
in the south OF MANNED and crippled men,
most OF them heads Of tamiles-iamilies
| whom once they were able to support, but 10
| whom now, because of their Affections, they
| are no longer help, but rather a burden
| The soldiers of the Union, the manned and
| crippled, very properly and Justly have pea
sions, which do something toward mitigating
the sufferings Of their families, which would
| otherwise be as severe, probably, as the SUI:
| fering Of the south. We had great eharita-
| bic funds throughout the war, TnitTgating-its
| severity not only to the soldiers in the front,
| but to their families at home. These, ow-
.s.en .nea,, stsnt1fy M inc south and the Grin
| pled, and bereaved, and desolate have no =
ing answering to our pensions. Then c
seat OF war was substantially in the
| south. very little of it in the north. Almost
| entirely the war passed over southern fields
aud southern homes. Now, unless you have
carefully scanned this subject, you cannot re-
alize how mighty is the difference that il,
makes, whether the war is by your fresides-
whether it tramples down your fields, or
! those of somebody a thousand miles away
! An army marches and the country is stripped
of all sustenance, destroyed, eaten out,
! trampled down. and left with scarcely
| ANYTHING To support life. An army resting
for the night burns up even the fences for
miles around.
The soldiers cannot lie and shiver through
| the cold and rainy nights they must have
| fires and they must take that dry wood which
comes hardest to them. They have no time
for digging coal or chopping down waving
forests. and they pull down the fences. lam
not contemplating acts of unjustifable re-
venge, | am asking you to consider the fact
! that where army marches there Is neces-
| sary desolation but in this case there was
unusual desolation. because wherever there
was a factory or an iron foundry those faeto
ries and foundries were necessarily contri b.
uting to the support of the rebellion, and they
were burned or otherwise destroyed by our
officers as means of putting down the re
especially of women and children. were turn
ed out Of these establishments wherein they
were earning coarse and humble bread, but
earning a living, and the means whereby
, they lived have not been replaced. Then
cotton, the principal wealth Of the country,
was burned by one army and by the other,
and where it was not burned it was generally
stolen. Laughter. Our government &C.
| very little OF 1t, and the people got very lit
| tie OF it. And thus, the south stood out, UNI
reasonably, think, long after any hope of
existence was gone. When that occurred
nearly every part of the country had been
traversed by armies, trampGng down, devas-
tating, devourlng, destroying, until there was
scarcely anything left but the naked country
with people, nearly all of whom, the whites
. especially, had been dragged into the armies
and a very large portion of them either killed
or wounded, SO that the physical possibility
of largely producing food had departed when
the rebellion was over. Nearly half the abili-
tv OF the whites TO work had been DESTROYED
by the war; the factories had been burned
, the fences were gone, and even in the one
bare, last necessity of man-seed to plant
there were millions on millions of dollars lost
last year, because the seed which they put
: into the ground, being several years old. was
so miserable that nothing could be produced
from it. If there had been simply good seed
where it was wanted all over the south. it
would not now have been in the condition in
which it is. Their animals, too, had disap-
peared, their gin-houses burned, their imple-
ments-everything whereby crops could be
produced or houses built-taken away. If
the south had had all her men in their
: strength and valor as before the war. it would
f not have been possible, simply for want of
implements and draft animals, to pro-
= duee more than half crop. You are told
very correctly that there were terrible floods
: in the spring over large portions of the south
There was also enormous and almost l n
. preeedented drought that swept very proba DIV
half the entire south; and the want of means
to pillow the earth to a proper depth, and to
J properly cultivate the crops, rendered the
-, effect of this drought four times as disast.
rous as it would have been under ordinary
circumstances. The persons suffering com
prise all classes, of different views, of the
late contest, of all races-they are all alike