Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1868-07-21
The N. Y. Tribune on Seymour The
Record Read.


says, ''If the Democratic Convention
had been intent on selecting tina
candidate for President least likely
to win Republican votes, and mos
certain to arouse Republican opposi
ton, it could not have hit the MARI
more exactly. Horatio Seymour has
been the deadliest and most placablt
enemy throughout of ideas which
triumphed in the abolition of slavery
and the discontinue of the rebellion
lie was an open advocate and cham
| pion OF that Nebraska bill whereby
slavery shamelessly repudiated sol,
emn compact, whereof she had reap
ed the full advantage, and strove &c
wrest from free labor vast region
which she had quit claim deed for;
a valuable consideration in hand
For the victims in Kansas of border
ruffianism, outrage and murder he
had never q word of cheer or sympa
thy. He was for Buchanan against
Fremont, when this State gave the
'Path~Finder' II plurality Of 1000.
He was for anybody against Lincoln,
in 1860, when New York gave the
latter clear majority of 10000
Mr. Lincoln being elected, be Insisted
that the Republicans should give up
their cardinal principle OF no extern
sion of slave territory, or be held
accountable for the rebellion that
Shareholders would, otherwise, init
ate. He attended the Tweddle Ball
Convention in Albany January l,
1861, and there abused the Republic
cans in Congress who kept quiet and
did not ask pardon of the slavehold>
cr fer having elected President. -
The Tribune quotes his speech abus-
ing the Republicans for the acts of
the South, and continues "Gov-
ernor Seymour proceeded TO demon
strate, after his fashion, that the
south was 50 strong, SO earnest, SO
united, that she could never be put
down, and that we had no question
to decide but this: Shall we COM
promise after the war, or compro-
mise without war? which, you see,
was not the real question at all.
"a few weeks later Mr.. Seymour
meeting Judge Chas. III. Ruggles,
asked him: Judge, have you read
the Confederate Montgomery Consti>
tuition | have, and it is better than
ours, the Federal Then why not,
he continued, obyiate all difficulties,
by simply adopting that Confederate
Constitution; that is to say. by giv~
ing up the Union, joining the Sonth-
ern Confedercy, and thus making
every State slave State, and all our
Territory slave Territory ever more.
.'Such is the man, and such the
IDEAS, which have directed his politi>
cal course. Naturally be kept on
railing more and more ferceIy, as
President Lincoln was constrained
to speak directly at slavery, the core
and main spring of the rebellion,
each blow at the hideous institution
evoking his decided vigorous protest.
"When, at length, Grants long
pause before Vicksburg, and Hook
er's failure at Charlottesville, had
been followed by Lees determined
advance in Pennsylvania, the hopes
of the Copperheads seemed on the
very brink Of realization, Horatio
Seymour, then Governor of the State,
came hither, to deliver to his cronies
a Fourth of July GRAFTON, wherein he
exulted over their Frightening pros
poets thus openly-[Quotation from
his speech After some vertations
on this theme, be continued his APP
peal to the Republicans in these
words: We only ask that which
we claim for yourselves, and that
which the freeman, and evory man
who respects himself, will have
freedom of speech, the right to ex>
ercise all the franchises conferred by
the constitution upon American citi-
zens. [Great applause.] Can you
safely deny US these? Will you not
trample upon your own rights ifyou
refuse to listen :? Do you not create
a revolution when you say that your
persons may be rightly seized, your
property confscated, your homes en-
tered? Are you not exposing your
selves, your own interests, to as great
a peril as that with which you threat.
en- US? Remember this, that the
bloody, responsible and revolution
airy doctrine of public necessity cah
be proclaimed by a mob as well as
by a government. Applause.
"Such was the fire in rear which,
though opened too late to avail Lee
in Pennsylvania, served to stir up
the great rebellion in this city, where
by SO many houses were burnt, me-
groes hunted through cur streets
like wolves, hanged and bun ned when
caught, and a colored orphan asy>
lum pillaged and burned to the
ground. 1t was body Of these reb-
ell rioters, fresh from the sack of the
Tribune Office, which they fired and
would have burned but for the
prompt interposition of the police,
that he addressed as "friends I" and
begged them to desist from their
work, while be should send to Wash.
ington and get the draft, which was
then in prospect, postponed or avoid
ed. Not one indignant remonstrance
or earnest threat, not one word
evincing displeasure, did he address
TO the miscreants whose dens were
then glutted with plumber, and their
hands were red with murder.
The next autumn Seymour pro,
cured a denomination for Governor
by his characteristic dodge Of affect
ing the decline, and stumped the
State as an advocate of his own elec,
ton and that of Mcclellan and PendIe,
ton. We appeal to the thousands
who heard him when he insisted
that no progress had been made
towards putting down the rebellion.
though Grant held Richmond by the
throat, and Sherman had taken At
lanta-while the Mississippi ran free
from the Ohio to the Gulf the credit
of the rebel Governments in Euronf