Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1868-04-03
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BELLOWS FALLS, MAR. 27, 1868,
Judge Culver's Speech.

ltal speech OF Judge SuLVER OF new
York, at the Union State Convention at
Rutland
Mr.. Culver said he had just returned
from New Hampshire where they had
grappled with the enemy in one of the
hardest and most intelligently fought
campaigns on record. The republicans
of the Granite State had shown that their
political principles were like the founda-
tions Of their hills. God and the people
were ON their side and they conquered.
Their victory was to the grand campaign,
what that of Bennington was to Bur
goyne. The Scotch Highlanders had a
motto that the side which first draws
blood in fight will finally win it. New
Hampshire had drawn the first blood
they saw Frank Pierce the morning after
election hobbling to his Office, as if ne
had been shot-and it presaged glori-
GUS victory for the party.
The democrats tried to avoid the true
issues. They talked about the taxes, as
if all did not know. who made taxation
necessary. The financial question will
all come right when we have settled the
national question on principles of ever
lasting equity.
The speaker recalled previous cam
paigns in Vermont, going back to the
memorable one of 1910, and to the grand
Mass Tppecanoe meeting in Burlington
and describing how Mr. Foot's stentorian
voice rolled over the immense throng, as
he said: "The people of Vermont will
come to ORDER" Twelve years ago, he
addressed Freemen Of Vermont. The
issue then was that of the freedom or
enslavement of Kansas. Four years
later he spoke in Vermont again; the
issue had widened and was then the ques-
ton of freedom or slavery for all the ter
ritories. Four years later it was the issue
of life or death for the Government.
And now again We are in momentous
struggle and the question how the section
that strove to destroy the republic shall
be reconstructed, swallows up all others.
The issues change, but the sides are the
same. Show me man who apologized
for the border ruffians, who was in favor
of carrying slavery to the Pacific, who
wanted the war for the Union to prove a
failure, whether he was in the rebel army
or lurking like snake in the grass at
the north, and will show you man
chin deep in support of Andrew johnson
and his policy. Our enemies call us vim
dictive, proscriptive and partial in our
legislation, and Mr.. johnson tells us ii
is unconstitutional because ten states are
unrepresented in Congress. How is, this
Who drove the states out? Was it the
great generous north? No, we tell them
You went of your own free will, your
coat tails standing out at right angles
with your spines, in your indecent haste
You staid out for years, years full Of
instruction. You found out that one
southerner could not always whip five
northern men. You found out that the
north was not going to ask you back
You found it was easier to go than to gel
back. We do not undervalue your spirit
and courage. You killed 250, 900 of oul
brave boys. You draped many hamlet
in mourning. You made necessary The
outlay of billions. You ruined YOU
states, YOU caused untold woe and suffer
ing to establish a slaveholding empire
You kept it up till Grant got your army
by the throat, while Sherman had it by
the heels. You went because you would
You shall now come back because, ant
when and how we will.
Mr.. Johnson's policy is as if we SHOULD
commence to rebuild our stone wall
from the top down. Under it he was t.
everything and Congress nothing bu
open the doors and let in unrepen.an
rebels to make the laws of the who'll
country He tells us now that the rebe
states have lost none of their politica
rights, but he has not always said so. Ii
one of his earlier letters to one of hi
southern governors he said, "you ar
deprived of all your political rights"
say those states committed suicide.
don't think state can lawfully go out Q
the Union, nor do l think a man ca
lawfully commit suicide; but men do il
and are as dead after it as if they ha
killed themselves by legal statute. S
with these states. They must now b
reconstructed and we must rebuild fror
the bottom. There are some things Go
will not let us do with impunity. Tn
north was once in completely with tn
| south in the guilt of slavery, and Go
poured out his judgment on north an
, south alike. Now the proposition of th
President is to bring back the negro III
der rebel rule. God will not let us do j
| am not afraid of negro supremacy, {
: amalgamation as consequence of equ: