New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-07-08
JEFF THOMPSON IN THE MARKET
PLACE.
He Speaks to the p0pulace-An Immense
Crowd out to Hear Him-''Huge shoals
of PeOpleo-COrdial Reception.

Crowd out to Hear Him-'Huge shoals
of People''-Cordial Reception.
From the st. Joseph Herald
The brief notice published yesterday
morning to the effect that General M. JEFF
Thompson would address the people on the
Genital Market Square last night, drew out
an immense crowd, all eager to see and hear
"Old jeff" According. JEFF. was on the
ground in due time (as he always is) ready
for a speech
At about eight o'clock, the crowd began to
yell for him, when he mounted market
stand, at the east side of the market house,
and commenced. 1t had been long time,
he said, since he had the pleasure of meeting
the people of st. Joseph but he assured them
it afforded him great deal of pleasure to
do so on that occasion he felt peculiarly
happy in the knowledge of addressing them
a few words. For nine long years he had
remembered them with feelings of friend
ship and kindness, and prayed for their
prosperity.
The nine years of his absence we had all
witnessed strange scenes. There had been
bloody graves to be wept over. He had
been where
sThere was rapine, and fire. and slaughter,
Prom the mountain down to the shore;
There was blood on the tr;,Inpled harvest,
And blood on the homestead floor.
I've seen from our smoking village,
Our mothers and daughters fy;
rve where the little children
Sunk down in the furrOws to die
He had seen variety of this sort of
| thing. He had whipped and been whipped ;
had been the chaser and the chased, and
had witnessed some of the most bloody
buiness of the terrible struggle: Of course,
in such a war bitter feelings had been en-
gendered; he had INDUCED them himself !;
he had felt at times. during the contest, all
the bitterness that could animate the human
| breast, but all this had left no trace in his
nature. 1t was now over, and he could forget
| it, 10 remember it as something that were
better forgotten. He had the same kind
| feeling for his friends that he felt before,
| though they had been arrayed against him.
| They had the same right to fight he had
Both armies were composed mainly of good
and true men. For himself. he had done
nothing to make his friends ashamed of him,
| and he was not afraid to come back and tell
them so.
| He would like to talk a little politics if he
| knew how; but he was never a politician
! and never would be- He always stuck to
| the old Wing doctrine. A man now would
| find it difficult to strike line between the
| existing parties. When he returned to New
| Orleans the Federals asked him what he
| had been fighting tor. He told them for
| $4,000. 900. 900 worth of niggers. He didn't,
| like some who had never fought, go to ours
| ing his captors He had suffered in prison
| during the war-had been in half the
| famous prisons of the NOrth-GratiOt street.
| Johnson's Island. Fort Lafayette, etc, and
| was one of those placed under fire at Charles
| ton harbor; but he would say that throughout
| all he had not been badly treated, nor ever
! been msulted by soldier. He had some
times been hungry, had suffered from cold,
! but he was soldier, and what was a
| soldier fit for if he couldn't suffer! 1t was
| his business. His treatment had inspired
| in him pride in the American character
| While at Johnson's Island, one day a band
was heard playing that beautiful Scotch
! air, "Comin' thrO the Rye" and the follow
| ing parody on it was the result:
| If soldier meets soldier, mid the battles din,
And the soldier kills the soldier, surely tbs sin,
But if soldier meet soldier when the fight is DER,
He gives his hand and shares his can-like gallant
men OF yore.
| There some soldiers, Christian soldiers.
Who seem to love the strife
And these soldiers OF other soldiers,
Gladly take their life;
But We good soldiers, patriot soldiers,
Pray the strife to cease.
Each humbly asks Great God OF Thee,
Our Liberty and Peace.
But, as Grant says "Let us have beace."
The soldiers could advise the old fellows who
stayed at home and didn't fight it out. He
had it all whipped out of him, and was now
on a peace basis. There were some of those
old fellows down South: and he had known
how they were up here He was posted on
st. Joseph. He took the Herald and Gazette,
and read every word in them. He had
met one of Jennison's Eeutenant's named
Lee. in New Orleans, and found him an ele-
CANT gentleman, who, when he heard jeff s
sentiments, took him by the hand and vel
coined him. Lee was known here-he had
started bank once, loaned out all his money
and never got any of it back. : Indeed, he
found lots of friends among the Federals i'll
New Orleans.