Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1868-07-31
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Among the speakers at the recent Grant
and Coliax ratification meeting in Brook
lyn, y. V, was Lieut.. GOV. Stewart l..
Woodford, a brave and gallant soldier.
Some Democrats present tried to hiss him
down, when he paid his respects to Hora-
ito Seymour in the following eloquent and
truthful language:
"And now / would that [ could Justly
close these words without reference to Ilo-
ratio Seymour. But fidelity alike to his
tory and to my old comrades in the army,
living and dead, compel that should speak
of one passage in his public history. /
make no attack upon Gov. Seymour rs II
man. Most courteous and gentle i'm his
manners, cultured in mind and persuasive
in eloquence, his private character is with
out spot or blemish. But his official acts
are proper subject of criticism. On the
Fourth Of July, 1868, when Governor of the
State, he stood at the Academy of Music in
New York, and in a most elaborate address
apollo. ized alike for slavery, the South and
the rebellion. He had no word of cheer
for the patient man who was bearing the
nations sorrow in the capital. He had no
word of encouragement for our gallant SOL
diers who that very hour were graphing
with Lee in life and death struggle
among the hills of Pennsylvania nothing
but icy sneers, but cold calculations and
but lily concealed sympathy with treason.
Thank God, at that same hour Meade gave
the lie to his eloquent sophistry as he hurl-
ed Lee back in terrible defeat from Gene
terry Hill and Round Top at Gettysburg;
and Grants cannon made strange echo to
his cowardly but concealed appeals for COM
promise and surrender as Vicksburg fell
and Pemberton's host cast down their flags
in defeat A few short days passed, and on
July 13 of the same year the terrible draft
riots broke out in New York City. Now
do not charge that Seymour did not seek 10
quell the riot But do charge that those
riots were the natural, logical, and almost
necessary results of his speeches, his
teachings and his public official acts. 1t
was the logic of his polished brain rooted
and growing in the passion of the mob. And
then when the storm had gathered, he ad-
dressed these maddened, brutalized rioters
as his friends, and besought their patience
by the plea that he had sent his Adjutant
General to Washington to beg that the draft
might be suspended. When the tidings of
these riots and Seymour's conduct and
speech reached me with my regiment,
was toiling along dusty road of Maryland
in pursuit of the retreating rebels. Faint
ing under the terrible heat, some falling
and even dying by the wayside, our men
were still pressing on. The loyal arms
had been victorious at Gettysburg, and we
had heard the glad news from Vicksburg.
We We're weary, but still we could see the
end and the victory drawing nigh. Like
thunder from clear sky fell the tidings of
this cowardly uprising at our own home
against the Government and the flag.
Strong men wept with shame and rage.
Firm lips closed in fiercer wrath as they
whispered the news down the ranks, and
muskets were gripped with vengeful
feeling such as we had not known before in
skirmish and battle. Could we have filed
that day into Broadway there would have
been bloody reckoning, and short work
XUnnl1 hnNa hpnn mn1p
cy's especial friends. We had left home TO
fight your battles, and we felt that you were
bound to tax yourselves, If needs be, to
your last dollar to pension our widows, to
succur our wounded, and to feed our little
ones. We were there Just as much for your
sakes as for our own, and we felt that when
our ranks grew thin we had right TO re-
Inducements that you were bound in hon
or to send us your young men and your
strong men, even If your old men and boys
had to work your factories, and your wo-
men had to till the fields We were terri
bly, in earnest. We were fighting rebels.
We meant to stand up to our work, and we
very solemnly intended that you should
stand squarely up to yours. How rever-
emily we thanked God when the good Lin
coin and the lion-hearted Stanton said the
draft should be enforced And how we
cheered the soldiers who were sent from
our midst to enforce the law and uphold the
honor of our flag against the Northern mob.
You can now understand how we soldiers
feel towards his eXcellency Horatio Sey-
mour. In the hour of our sorrow and wea-
riness he had no encouragement for us, no
faith in our courage and no faith in the H.
nal victory. Now, in our triumph, when
the flag streams out ON every breeze and all
our land is one again, we have no need for
thee, Horatio Seymour. Let Southern reb-
els shout thy praise let the burners of or
phan asyluIns, and the deserter and the
skulker from the draft twine laurels for
thy brows; we will stand by the old flag,
all bsttlo-scarred, but glorious in victory,
while we follow the great captain of our ar
mics, our own Ulysses Grant. At the bat
tie of Lookout Mountain, as following the
line of fire, our surgeons climbed up the
hilly steep, they met four soldiers coming
down and carrying in blanket a shapeless
mass. Laying their burden tenderly down,
they asked the doctor to look at their
wounded color Sergeant. His shoulder
and forearm had been torn away by shell.
The surgeon knelt, and putting the hair
back from his manly brow, asked, My brave
fellow, where were you hit?' His eye un-
closed for a moment, Rs he family answer
ed, Almost at the top. NO, no, my good
man, whereabouts are you woundedY
Again his dying eye opened, again his pale
lips moved, rs he whispered, Il was almost
at the top, sir, bearing the flag, when the
sEell struck me. One moment more and
should have been clear up lie gave one
gasp and his brave spirit was gone forever.
And so, dear friends, is it with us to-day.
We are almost at the top. In faith and love
we have carried the dear old flag for four
long years of struggle until now we are
above the clouds, lighting as Joe Hooker
fought up in the clear sunlight of absolute
Justice and right Only once more close
up the ranks. Only once moro press up
the mountain slope, and we shall plant our
dear old flag clear up the mountain top of
final victory for liberty and the rights of