Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-10-06
Geu. Hair In Columbus-His Re-
ception-An ImPrOnPtu Meeting
nnd SDeech

had been the constant theme of
praise, and who has been more abused and
by. Radical editors and ora
tors than any other man in the Republic.
During the morning of yesterday he was
visited at the Neil House by citizens of all
politics and conditions. At 10 o'clock the
gun squad of the White Boys in Blue gave
him a salute with their cannon, and Hem
mersbach's Band, accompanied by an es-
cort of the White Boys in Blue, gave him
a serenade.
Accompanied by large body of citizens,
Gen. BLAIR repaired to the West Front of
the State House, where he was introduced
to the crowd by E. T. BINGHAM, Esq, as
the next Vice President of the United
States.
Gen. BLAIR, returned thanks for the kiEd
and unexpected and cordial reception he
had met from the citiz ms of the capital
city of Ohio-a compliment he could not
take as personal to himself, but to the great
party of the nation of which he was proud
to be a member, and of whose great prin-
ciples of civil liberty he was representa-
tive man, being placed on the ticket as one
of the standard bearers in the great con-
test. Because OF their devotion to these
principles, which alone could save the Re-
public, and which brought this vast mass
of citizens together, Gen. BLAIR thanked
them more than II the people had been
drawn together to do him personal honor.
During the past few weeks, he said, he
had been in different States, had visited and
mingled with the voters of Pennsylvania
and Indiana, and these States, he sale.
would vote to swell the Democratic major
ity. And Ohio would go with them-Ohio
would vote the Democratic Ticket, and aid
in the election of the Democratic nomi-
nees.
Everywhere he had travelled, he found
the same spirit prevailing. The people
were aroused and were enthusiastic. A
Democratic meeting, largely attended.
could be gathered almost in the time con-
sumed in dropping ha;, while, even in
their strong holds, it required time and
money to get up a moderate sized Radical
assemblage.
He had no inclination, even if he had the
time, to address his fellow citizens on the
important topics of the day. He was ex-
hausted with speaking. and the toll of trav-
el and consequent loss of needful rest. Yet
he would beg the indulgence Of the crowd
if he defended himself from a charge that
had been rung from one extent of the
Union to the other. That charge was that
he (Gen. BLAIR) was Revolutionist-that
he wished again to light the embers of war
to incite another rebellion. The late re-
billion, causeless one, as he conceived, had
met his decided opposition. To aid in put
ting it down, he had fought during the
whole war, and after perilling his life and
injuring his health in the service Of his
country-battling against lifelong friends,
the charge that FRANK BLAIR is Revolu-
ZIONIST, and would again open up the rebel
lion, coming as it did from stay-at-home
patriots was one that he felt was as unjust
as it was uncalled for. That charge
was predicated upon letter he had
written before he was nominated to
the second place on the Democratic Tick
ct. In that letter he characterized
the, so called, Reconstruction measures of
the Radical Congress, as without warrant
of Constitutional law, and hence null and
void, and OF no binding effect. The Su-
preme Court had decided portion of these
measures unconstitutional. and that Court
under the Constitution, was the judge of
infraction by Congress, as well as the other
Dapartmonts of Government of tho Com
stitution, and the decision of this high
judicial tribunal settled the question be-
yond appeal. This made it the duty of
the President, who was sworn to defend
the Constitution, to disobey these uncon-
stitutional acts, and he, Gen. BLAIR, had SO
expressed himself in this letter.
For doing this, the Radicals who sat at
their ease in their cushioned chairs in Con-
gress, while he General BLAIR), in compa-
ny with his brave associates, the White
Boys in Blue, were periling their lives to
put down rebellion against the Constitu-
tion, now charge him with seeking to again
light the fires of civil war. 1t is the old
fable of the wolf and the lamb, which
you have all read. The wolf was drinking,
and it accused the lamb, which was also
drinking lower down the stream, OF mud
dying the water that the wolf had to drink,
and on this charge, which in the very ma
ture of the case could not be true, the wolf
tore the lamb to pieces. The Radicals make
war upon the Constitution and trample its
several provisions in the dust, and because
the Democracy wish to lift it from the dust
in which it has been trampled, to bear it
aloft, and to save it from further dishonor,
and the Union of the States from Radical
disruption, they are charged with being
revolutionary, and he General BLAIR>
with exciting rebellion. No charge could
be further from the truth, none more false.
The Radicals are the only rebels now left,
because they are the only men who are in
rebellion against the Constitution.
What are these Reconstruction acts
They supplanted civil Government in ten
States Of the Union, and substituted mill
tary despotism in those States in the face
and in defiance of the declaration of the
Constitution, that the military was always
to be subordinate to the civil power. Is
that policy of the Reconstruction acts con-
stitutional? Am /, said General BLAIR,
revolutionist because say the military was
always to be subordinate to the civil power,
or are those men the revolutiOnists who
have overthrown that portion of our Con-
stitution and made the military supreme
in one-third of the States in this Union
The Constitution declares that every man
charged with an offense shall have the
right to trial by jury-a jury of his peers.
That right has been taken away by the Re-
construction act so-called, from every hu-
nan being in ten States of this Union.-
Was hea revolutionist because he contend
d for the restoration of that right which