Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-07-17
Speech of Col. Llewellen Baber.
At the Ratification Meeting AT the
West Front of the State House,
Monday Evening, July Is, 1S8S.
IFrom tbe C;ncinn,ti Enouirer1

GFrom the Cincinnati Enquirerl
FELLOW CITIZENS: 1t was very gratify-
ing to your representatives in New York
City, to learn by special in The World, the
morning after the nomination by the Ma
| tional Democratic Convention, that the De-
mocracy of the Capital of Ohio had res
ponded so nobly by large and enthusias-
tic ratification meeting. 1t demonstrated
conclusively to our opponents that the De-
mocracy of Ohio are governed by a love
| of principle and not men. Attached as you
| were to your own favorite candidate,
George III. Pendleton, in making every hon.
Orable effort to secure his nomination, you
were ready to support any candidate stand
ing on platform of sound principles, who
| could unite and consolidate into one grand
storming column all the elements of oppo-
sition to Radical misrule and usurpation.
In marked contrast stood the course of
the Radical party at the Chicago Conven-
ton, where the chief object seemed to be to
| conceal from the people the true issues of
| the campaign by the nomination of Gen.
| eral Grant in the hope that the reckless
leaders of the party in power might con-
| tinue themselves in Office by hanging to
| his coat tail. The Democracy have laid
down in their National Convention sound
| platform on the questions of Congressional
Military Reconstruction, Negro Suffrage
and Finance, while the Radicals have man
guaranteeing Negro Suffrage at the South;
and leaving each State at the North to set
| tie the matter for itself, thus establishing a
permanent inequality between the States of
| the Union, and in open defiance of the
Constitution of the United States, which
| expressly declares that each State shall be
admitted on footing of equality with the
| original States, pledging the power of the
Government to overthrow the very key
stone of the Federal Arch. No wonder
our friend Sam. Galloway could not awake
sufficiently from a state of self "animated
suspension" to collect forty persons in
third-story room in Columbus to ratify
Grants nomination on such an abortion.
Horatio Seymour, the candidate of the
Democracy for the Presidency, is states
| man of the first class-a man of pure char
acter, against whom the poisonous slander
of his opponents will fall harmless, as the
miserable assaults of the Weakling Ohio
State Journal, did last year in the case of
Judge Thurman. AS Governor of New
York, during the late civil war, while hold
ing the mode Of prosecuting it calculated
| to prolong the division of the States, he did
every thing in his power to sustain the SOL
diers in the field, reserving his right to hold
the Radical party fully responsible to the
people for their political action when peace
should return. General Francis P. Blair,
| of Missouri, the nominee for Vice President,
| is fearless soldier, a representative of that
| large class of men who acted with the
| Union party until it abandoned every prin-
ciple upon which the war had been sus-
tained, and commenced its revolutionary
course of destroying the States by forcing
negro suffrage on the people by unconsti-
tutional legislation.
On the other hand General Grant accepts
the platform of the Radical party, with the
declaration that he has no policy, while
Colfax, the candidate for Vice President,
who stumped Ohio last year for negro suf-
trage and impeachment, is surface man
"a fippant talker, and In the apt language
of distinguished Radical in this city, in
speaking of his pretentions for a seat in
President Lincoln's Cabinet, "a mere pop
Inlay" The Radical party has showed
itself utterly devoid of statesmanship i'm
meeting the living issues of the day it has
wasted six months of the present session
of Congress in miserable quarrel with a
President of its own election, and with its
two-thirds majority proved itself utterly
incompetent to manage the questions of
finance, tariff and taxation according to
the declaration of the Commercial and other
leading papers of the party, yet it now
valnly hopes to escape the coming judg-
ment of an indignant people, by fighting
over the battles of the war and clamoring
about loyalty, which under its control has
failed to restore either the Union, Oh pro-
vide the means to pay your taxes.
The great question underlying the COM
ing contest which must be met is, whether
the Government is in future to be conduct
ed according to the terms of written Con-
stitution, or whether, under the plea of
necessity, Congressional majority are to-
enact binding laws ''outside of the Constitti-
tion," according to their own arbitrary
will and pleasure. The war for the Union
will prove failure unless it secures the
blessings of constitutional liberty and a
union of hearts as well as laws. The Rad
ical party at the close of the war, contrary
to the policy of Lincoln and Seward, re-
fused TO recognize these facts, and inaugu-
rated system of measures to perpetuate
party ascendency, which in their very ma
ture require the employment and continu-
ance OF military force to sustain them.
The practical issue to be settled is, will you
in future have government of law, sus-
tanned by the voice of tn e people, or estab-
lish military despotism North as well as
South to enforce the political ideas of the
party that happens to be in power.
The General of your armies has been
nominated by the revolutionary party as
an instrument to sustain by the sword the
power they may fail to hold by fraud, and
by unconstitutional legislation the power
is placed in his hands to control seventy
Seven hundred thousand negro votes have
been manufactured by a naked usurpation,
not only to vote down rebels, as is claimed,
but to govern you, me, and thousands of
men who fought to put down the rebellion,
and at the dictation of Congressional ma
jority change the Constitution of the
United States under the mock forms of law,
backed by military force, and subvert the
Government of your fathers. The issue
cannot be lodged. Are you prepared to
meet it like men or to become slaves, not
only of your former equals and neighbors,
but of the negro helot, who is invested
with the ballot to vote you down at the die
tation of money lords and bondholding
aristocracy.
Look at what is now going on in Con-
gress, who having, by eXpelling minority
at pleasure, secured a twO-thirds majority,
are admitting by scores carpet-bag Repre-
sentatives and Senators for bogus constit-
uencies which they have created. Who are
they? Arkansas is represented in the SEN
ate by cotton speculator Mcdonald, of Il
linois, and Rice, of Minnesota; Louisiana
by adventurer Kellogg, of Illinois, and Har-
ris. of Wisconsin; Florida by Welch, of
Michigan, and Professor Osborn, &c. 1t
was said that one DIR. Mcmillan was to be
a carpet-bag Senator from Louisiana, man
whom the Republicans of his own ward
would not have elected Councilman, not
withstanding the Endorsement of the Ohio
State Journal, aud yet it is expected that
our people will calmly accept as an accom-
plished fact this farce as the establishment
of Republican form of Government. "To
send parcel of Northern men here as
representatives, elected as would be un-
derstood (and perhaps really SOY at the
point of the bayonet, would be disgraceful
and outrageous and were 1 a member of
Congress here, I would vote against ad-
mitting any such man to seat" said A.
Lincoln in his letter of November 81, 1862,
to General Shepley at New Orleans. Yet
such outrages now scarcely excite COM
ment. Republicans who voted against ne
gro suffrage in Ohio, have you read the
bogus Constitutions of Arkansas, Alabama,