The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-08-11
Address Of the Republican Congressional
COMMITTEES.


State governments have been committed to
your keeping. Such power carries with it
grave responsibilities. The people, as is their
right, will hold you to a strict accountability
for the exercise of this great trust. Elections
are soon to be held for the national House of
Representatives. These elections will deter
mine the political complexion of the popular
branch of Congress. They will, too, deter
mine the political character Of several State
governments. And these results will be ac-
cepted as the verdict of the people upon the
ideas, principles and policies of the Repub-
can party, and upon the measures and charac-
ter Of the national administration. To these
responsibilities, and to the gravity of these
issues, your thoughtful consideration is in
voked.
In the present iuncture it behooves the Re-
publican party not to forget its origin, nor its
history. Amid the difficulties that beset it,
and the responsibilities and labor, which the
needs of the country in the new and untried
condition Of affairs imposes, it should remem-
ber that it was born of the nations necessi-'
ties, and thus far it has grandly met the exi-
gencies for which it was formed. Having
passed triumphantly through three great eras
of its history, it is now summoned to enter
upon its fourth. Gathering, therefore, inspi-
ration from past successes, it should grapple
hopefully and with unshrinking confidence
with the duties of the present and near fu-
tgre.
Recurring to their origin, Republicans will
remember when the land was the theatre of
stern and irrepressible conflict between the
demons of slavery and caste and the spirit of
liberty and equality, when the slave power
held great interests and powerful organizations
in its grasp, and ruled the nation with impe-
rial sway; that the founders of the party, in
structed by passing events, with convictions
deepened and zeal quickened by the teachings
90 a,,I 90 ha1,y op1 i,co oipad Nv
the deathless words of the patriots, statesmen
and heroes Of our earlier time, rose to the
exigencies of the hour, opposed the naughty
ambitions, the maddening passions, the cruel
prejudices and the dsorganiZing theories of
the dominating majority, and although long
overbome by numbers, still struggled on amid
ieers, insults, mobs, blows and assassinations,
till under the lead of Abraham Lincoln they
achieved success, and grasped the sceptre Of
political power.
Entering upon it's second era, appalling re-
sponsibilities at once arose. The slavemasters,
in the pride and arrogance of power, instantly
plunged the nation into the fire and blood of
civil war. But the Republican party rose with
the crisis. 1t raised money in unstinted mea-
sure, organized vast armies, created powerful
navies, fought bloody battles, crushed the most
gigantic rebellion of all recorded history, and
saved nations life. 1t was then, amid the
clash of arms, that the Republican party saw
that slavery was the relentless and unappeas-
able foe of the country, was the inspiration,
the heart and soul of that civil war, and that
its death would be the annihilation of the
rebellion, the unity of the republic, and the
development of free institutions. Against
cowardly fears, selfish instincts, and unreason-
ing passions and prejudices, it pronounced the
doom Of that hideous and horrid system of
human bondage, though it was upheld by the
aggregated interests Of So ,000, 900, hedged
about by the accumulated passions and preju-
dices, prides and ambitions of seven genera
tions, and intrenched within the social, politi-
cal and ecclesiastical organizations and afili-
ations of life. By series of executive and
legislative acts it broke the chain, and lifted
from the depths of chattelhood up to the sum-
mitS of manhood 4,5U0,000 hapless bondmen,
and stood before the nations with their riven
fetters in one hand and their title deeds to
freedom in the other.
The war ended, the rebellion subdued, the
bondmen emancipated, the Republican party
entered upon the third era of its eventful his
tory. Though conquered by arms, the rebels
did not accept the just, humane and generous
ideas of the victors, nor did they return to
their proper allegiance and loyalty to the gov
ernment; but still, bemoaning the 'slost cause,''
they remained unsubdued in will and unre-
pentant in spirit and purpose. Though made
free, the bondmen were homeless, without pro-
perty, without employment, subject to the
cruel laws against free people of color which
had always disgraced southern legislation, and
in the midst of people exasperated by defeat
and maddened by their loss of power still
longer to hold and oppress. Property was
swept away, industry Gisorganized, society dis
integrated, and States were without lawful
governments.
Upon the Republican party devolved the
task of reconstruction. To its intrinsic diff
culties were added the intense hostility of the
ex-rebels the lingering prejudices long engen-
dered by the slave system, the timid counsels
of conservatism, and the apostacy of the Ex-
ecutive. Great interests and powerful combi-
nations sought to so reconstruct the south as to
place the power in the hands of the late slave
holding class, and leave the helpless freedmen
in the abiect condition Of practical serfdom
Seldom in history has there been imposed upon
any body of men work of greater magnitude
or difficulty. The Republicans might have
shrunk from and avoided it. They were sorely
tempted to do so. But they resisted the temp
tation Of official power and patronage, the
threats of Executive dictation, and all Other
adverse Influences, and, with sublime fidelity
and courage, addressed themselves to the her
culean task
To aid in recognizing disordered industries
caring for, protecting and instructing the
emancpated bondmen in the new duties Of
their changed condition, the Republicans es
tablished the Freedmen's Bureau, which, by
the wise expenditure of a few millions of dol
lars, did an incalculabe work for order, peace
and the rehabilitation of southern society. TC
reconstruct rebellious States on the solid basis
of equal rights they gave suffrage to the freed
men in the reconstruction measures. To Sc
cure citizenship and civil rights to a wrongeG
and hafad raoa fhaU pronOgad and adOOtad thf