Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-09-15
General Ewing in Maine.

Is the character of all his speeches, and he
is, too, one of the first orators in the Uni
ted States. AS our people will have the
pleasure of hearing him on the Goth, we
imply to-day give that portion of his
Portland speech which deals with Senator
FEssENDEN, General WILSON and Horace
GREELEY, and we ask for this extract at
tentive perusal. 1t ought to shame into
silence the liars who defame the Democrat
ic party:
General Ewing, amidst renewed and pro-
longed cheering, proceeded to address the
meeting. He said: Mr.. President, as am
a citizen of Kansas living fifteen hundred
miles west of your beautiful city of Port
land, trust you will not deem it egotisti-
cal In me to say a few words as to my politi-
cal antecedents, for audiences often better
understand the views of speaker when
they know the point of observation he has
occupied. Hear, hear was educated a
Whig. lCneers. / cast my first vote for
the Republican party. SO much was in
terested in preventing the extension of
slavery into the Territories that L took an
active part In making Kansas free State.
The war found me on the Supreme Bench
of the State; but at the call of duty this
position left. / raised regiment and to
the best of my ability served my country
throughout that war. [Cheers have
the proud honor to belong to a family of
seven brothers and brothers-in-law, six of
| whom followed the f1ag from the beginning
| to the end of the rebellion-all except one
stood by the flag to the last, and that one
fell disabled fer life at the terrible assault
on Fort Wagner. [Cheers.] In 1866
left the Republican party. [Con-
tinued cheering IT know my
heart took this course from no motive
of ambition, from no personal pique or
prejudice, from no hope of higher promo
tion in the Democratic ranks; for every
consideration merely selfish would have led
me to cling to the party with which my
early associations were connected. .eft
it because in that year it willfully violated
tie great, the solemn pledge to restore the
Union with all the rights of the several
States unimpaired; that pledge on the
strength of which iG obtained every dollar
of money and every drop of blood ex
pended in the war. fCheers.l And every
day since felt, and still feel, proud in the
consciousness that [ had the courage to
leave it, because have seen it prostituting
the vast powers confided to it by patriotic
people for the restoration of the Union to
the destruction of the ten States which the
war was waged to restore. [Cheers. In
reading the speeches of the Republican or
ators during the canvass in the State of
Maine, have been specially impressed
with the fact that not one OF them attempts
to meet the vital issues now to be decided by
the American people. They devote their
arguments to the discussion of the position
of the Democratic prrty in 1854, in sup
porting the repeal of the Missouri Compro-
mise, and in 1861 and afterwards through
the war, spending their energies in denun-
ciatlon of the Democratic party, in issues
all of which are dead, and falling to meet
by manly argument the question of on
struction with equality of States-the
rights of States and of their citizens-and
the great financial questions that now pre-
sent themselves for the decision of the
American people. LCheers, and cries of
That's so."J 1 read a few days ago in the
Ne,o York Tribune a report of speech.
seven columns long, attributed to the Hon.
Henry Wilson-I beg pardon-Generdl Will
son; he wears the title of General-he got
it very -[langhterl-an in these
seven long columns was surprised to find
that the people got nothing but an ILL
digested digest of old political scrap
books. 1t reminded me of the keen and
epigrammatic criticism of Victor Hugo
on an ambitious friend who had sent
him a philosophical work for review. The
French author said To his friend: There
are great many new things in your book
and a great many true things, but the diff
Guilty is that the new things are not true
and the true things not new. am not
disposed to cavil with General Wilson's
assertion that the Democratic party did a
great wrong in repeating the Missouri
Compromise, or that the Democratic party
in 1861 did not do its duty in preventing
the rebellion. I always thought that; but
when he comes to the new thing in his
speech that gives point to all the accusa-
tions against the Democratic party-that
there is danger of the Southern people
rising up and fighting the war over
again-that is q new thing that GER
tainiy is not true. Cheers.l Why,
fellow-citizens, have travelled a good deal
in the South since the war-in the six or
eight States along the Mississippi-in the
States on both sides-and a more prostrate,
poverty stricken, helpless and subdued
people never were crushed by the strong
arm of military power. And yet these
are the sort of appeals made to the
Northern people by Republican orators
quoting to them a statement of Wade
Hampton, (Which Wade Hampton has since
denied)-that he would unfurl the Confed-
crate flag again: or that other saying of
Forrest-(which he has also denied) d)-that
he was prepared to "toot his horn againi"
These arguments, addressed to the coward
ice of the Northern people-trying to alarm
the victorious twenty-iv or thirty mil
lions with the idea that the poverty-strick-
ell and subdued people who lie at their
arguments beneath contempt! [Cheers
They might do very well to address to some
nervous middle-aged lady, but l think the
men of the North have no fear of the For
rest idea or the Wade Hampton alleged
threats. [Cheers.l Now, fellow citizens,
said that that argument was not true; and
I repeat that no man can present substan-
tial evidence of the disposition on the part
of any considerable number-I may say
any number-of Southern men to rise again
in rebellion against the authority of the
laws and Constitution of the United States.
The statement is a falsehood, insulting to
the Intelligence and information of
the enlightened audience to whom
it was addressed. [Cheers.l In addi-
cowardice of the Northern people,
Mr.. Wilson also addressed an argument to
their gratitude, omitting altogether to dis
cuss the question of public expenditure,
leaving out of view the great question of
finance, ignoring the present position of
the Southern States or their future pros
poets, he appeals to the sense of gratitude
of the Northern people to come and give a
renewal of power to the Republican party,
which he says triumphantly carried on the
war! ["Oh."] Well, now fellow-citizens,
it is true the Republican party conducted
the administration during the war; they
filled all the civil offices of the Govern
menb. AlmosG all Ino SeHGlelncn WIN SAT
on cushioned chairs in the Capitol at the
rate of forty-tive dollars per day, while the
rank and file were being shot down, all these
were Republicans. Hear, hear.] But the
gratitude due by the American people is
not to the men who conducted the war by
holding civil offices in the rear, not to the
men of the Wilson school, of whom there
are many in both Houses of Con-
gress, who filed up the positions
OF quartermasters', and Icommissaries',
and contractors departments with their
friends, who never saw rebel fire except at
Bull Run, and then stampeded at the first
flash. [Cheers and laughter.l do not
think tnat the patriotic services of the
party have been so great, SO self-sacrific-
ing. so self-abnegating, that they have a
right to call upon the American people, in