The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1868-10-08
SPEECH OE GEN GEIGER.
Deliaered at Sanduslky q ~
Septenlf1Ar 4 12RS y = = = ~ 2

9 SPEECH OF GEN GEIGFE
. DeliRered at Sanduslxy C8ty
'I September 8, 1868.
MY FELLOW CITIZENS: 1 do not fee
I quite as much at home among Dem
) oeratic audience as my friend. Jadg
e Thurman. He has always been witt
l. the party wintered and summeret
y with it. When get into a large Dem
q ocratic audience I feel a good dea
like man in Western Pennsylvania
: who inquired of a boy whether h,
knew where Jake Kleinfelter lived
The boy said he did. Says he, @Car
you tell me ?" g Yes sir" says the bow
: do you see our barn down there !,
Yes, says he. Go to that. About
three hundred yards beyond the barn
1 you will find lane. Take that lane
and follow along for about mile and
half. Then you will come to a branch.
4 TO up the branch about quarter of a
mile and then you will come to a; slip
perry elm log. You! be mighty .keer.
4 fui, stranger, abought going on that
log; you may get into the branch and
then you go up until you get to the
brow of the hill, and there. the roads
preYYYaraeate, and you take the left
hand road and keep that until you get
into big plumb thicket ;and when you
get there, why, Observation-Disclosures
What then.H "Then, stranger, I'll
be damned if you amt lost" loud
laughter. 'tt5i' s'''i'T ''.'i
Sol scarcely know how to navigate
when get into a Democratic audi
ence, because was raised an old line
w hlg, and l have .stucklto the lpiarty
faithfully, believe, ever since, and l.
don't profess, even in talking to you
tonight, to be- Democrat. / have
never asked anything from the, party,
and never expect to solicit anything
from the party. stand by the Dem
ocratic party this time, simply because
believe it is right, [cheers,l and
whenever believe it is wrong, will
turn from it just as. rapidly as. the
lrlshman wheeled, and he, wheeled so
last, Judge Thurman, that he left the
seat of his breeches in front. Laugh
ter. 1 am not ashamed to be called
"turn-coat." " l will turn my coat
every day, if I believe it is right. All
[ want to do at every election, is to
feel like man, to speak like a man. to
think like man, to vote like man.
TO be man in the presence of my fell
lows and my God, and let my heart
tell me I have done my duty, and 7 do
not ask your Democratic party nor
your Republican cabals to speak for
me. [App1ause.] - -. '..f. ''F @aa
:" 1 want no body of men to draw the
blind-bridle over my eyes and put the |
breeching over my back, hitch the ira tn
ees to whatever load they choose to
put on the wagon, and halloo, sgget
up and make me pull. But I know
and fell that the Democratic party, at |
the present time, is drawing the right |
kind of load, and, therefore, I am |
willing to go in the lead, or to act as as |
a wheel-horse, or perform any other
duty for the success of the cause. |
Loud cheers. 14c,.., -5...~.g
j.. Now | know that man is claimed |
to be disloyal. because, he belongs to
this party. But I am not afraid of
terms. They can just call me what
they please. What want to do is to
do my duty, if it is .disloyal to stand
by the Constitution of the Union
when it is now. to be oyerthrown by
this Radical party, call me disloyal.
[Cheers.] I have been taught to res
peet the old instrument, ] have read
that Washington and Madison and
j Jefferson and Franklin and the old
men that came up from the battle-
fields of. the Revolution and welded
the country together in a companion
ship of suffering, met +, together as
friends, and made the old instrument.
L am fool enough to believe that Geo.
Washington was as good a man as
Ben. Wade. (Cheers.1 i am silly |
to think that. James Madison {
was as pure patriot as Ben. Butler.
Renewed cheering.] And i believe /, ,
that Ben. Franklin was as honest and =
as patrioticias Jim Ashley. [Laugh- ,
ter and prolonged applause.l ~
cling to the old instrument. 1 NAV t
have old fogy notions. They NAV t
not suit che progressive spirit of the t
lines, but they are mine. My father 1t
lived and died under the old irlstru- /
nent. have lived thus far under it, 1t
md trust that there may be but few | h
changes made in it while live. do f
1ot want any more Congresses that t
ire Radical, and have to suggest sixty v
line different amendments to the Con- v
'titution to the United States in one il
iession. Laughter She may have v
Ter faults and defects, but, in Gods c;
lame, let us stand by her, for she is the ft
Constitution, and that is everything to a
is now. Beneath our country's Con- n
titution, in the eye of God and man, t,
s the temple of the patriots love and D
lonor. +''3't" % =i 5. 5'''fi. u
And yet the leaders Of the Radical
'arty, Thaddeus Stevens, the man e
'ver whose memory convention after a
has been. called, for the
purpose of making it holy, declared
hat the legislation of Congress was
outside of the Constitution of the II
ountry. And every man who has fl
tudied it knows it and feels it, that il
hey have gone beyond any precedent 7
by the actions of the faith Il
rs. Now I'VE call upon the men of the c.
ountry to stand by the Constitution p