The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1868-07-29
WASHINGTON, d. c., July 20, 1865.
General BlaIr's Speech at Omaha Ne
braska.

On Thursday last Major General Frank
p. Blair was received, on his way further
West, by the citizens of Omaha, in immense
numbers. After q felicitous welcome by
the Mayor, General Blair spoke as follows:
81 am here to acknowledge the compli-
ment you have paid me. 1 assure you that
1 value the compliment. am well aware
that it is not paid me as an individual, but
rather as one of the representatives of that
cause to which you have shown yourselves
so devoted. (Applause.) 1t is a cause, my
fellow citizens, worthy of your greatest de-
votion, and of your highest enthusiasm. 1t
is the cause of free Government and Consti-
tutional Government in this country, and 1
am satisfied, my friends and fellow citizens,
from the enthusiasm and feeling manifested
here tonight, and elsewhere where I have
been, that this cause is destined to great
and glorious victory at the next election in
November. (Great applause.) feel, my
fellow citizens, that we are destined TO
achieve 4 great victory in behalf of our free
Government and free Constitution. / feel
to-day, not alone from this manifestation,
but from all we have seen during the past
year in the elections where the policy of the
Radical party has been condemned by over
whelming majorities of the people of the
United States-( (cheers) and notwithstand-
ing these condemnations by the people-these
reckless people who achieved power npon
q totally different issue from that which is
now before the people, in defiance of the
votes of the people of whom they were sim
ply the repre- sentatives have urged for
ward these measures to a completion in hope
that they could bind the hands of the people
of this country and wrest from them the
power forever. (Applause) Yes my fell
low citizens, they have by these measures
put under foot all the people of our race in
ten of the Southern States; they have bound
million of people to the earth with their
bayonets, and they have put on top of them
this hideous black barbarism-'tApplause)-
and, my fellow citizens, feeling that they
have lost the confidence of the white race,
both North and South, they propose to over
come the charges cast against them at the
North in the free States during the last year
have made supreme over the white race there,
and the question comes up for your decision
for the decision of the whole of the people
of this country-will you permit a minority
in both sections composed of the white race?
(Cheers.) That race, my fellow citizens,
that glorious race of people whose history is
the record of intellectual progress among
mankind, the only race who have shown
themselves capable of establishing and main
tanning free Government A voice. ''the
Blair family, I suppose."l The Blair fami-
" will be found on the side of the white
race. CCheers.) The Blair family can new
er be deferred from taking that stand by any
man who wishes to asssil the fair white race
of this country by mixture with the blacks.
(Applause.) My fellow citizens, it is not my
intention to detain you by any heightened
remarks. (Cries of ''Go on" knew very
we'll that what l had to say would not please
a certain set of people, and will say fur
ther, that did not intend to please them
A-buNA SAOSASsJ Al OiAC - lAihl
we, the Democrats, intend to restore the
Government and the Constitution, they may
make their DEGREES now, for tell you, that
after November you will not be able to hear
one Of them speak. (Applause.) But am
for giving them the largest liberty of speech.
do not intend nor desire that they should
be gagged, as they are now endeavoring to
gag eight millions of our people in the South
do not think it will be the policy of the
Democratic party when it comes into power
to prescribe free speech anywhere in the
country. II has always been their policy to
give the largest liberty to all men to use the
most perfect freedom of speech, for with
out it we cannot maintain our free institu-
| tions. But these things are exceedingly
| distasteful to our Radical brethren. Through
out the South they put the gag IN the mouth
Of those people whom they have trodden un-
der the military heel Men are arrested,
thrown into prison, and tried by military
commissions, in defiance Of those Constitu-
tional guaragtees of the rig hts of Tree speech,