Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-04-12
TIE GREAT QUESTION.

In response to the serensde given him The
other evening, Senator Morton referred to the
great importance of the next Presidential elec-
ton, and-complimented the administration OF
President Grant. After the conclusion of his
remarks Vice President Colfax was intro
duced. 4, ~
He said that he was present not to speak,
but to listen to the Senator from his own
State who has SO energetically vindcated our
chief magistrate from an unjust attack. A
chief magistrate, ! may say, from my init
mate acquaintance with him, whose yer, heart
throbs for the honor and best interest of the
nation, and who, / believe. will be honored
with the public approval in the year 1872 as
he was in 1868. GApplause. What is the
great question that looms up beyon all others
before us to-day, which causes the republican
Congress to linger here in this city when they
would gladly be at their homes? 1t is the
protection Of life, liberty and the political
rights and safety Of our citizens against the
wickedest conspiracy that ever disgraced
nation professedly at peace. 1t is to cover
with the national shield the weak and D DOR,
the humble and defenceless. TApplause, /
rejoice that on Thursday last we saw the
whole republican phalanx in the House voting
together as one man, shoulder to shoulder
and heart to heart, for an efficient law so
sorely needed, and hope that next week we
shall see the same conspicuous unity mani
Tested in the Senate. If we do, know. as
you do, that the President will use the power
put in his hands by law making authority, not
to wrong or injure any one, but to protect to
the full extent all who are now so cruelty and
shamefully outraged. Applause But when
the yindication Of the wronged and defence.
less is attempted, how is it metz Our oppo-
nents use as their weapons the terms of CARPET.
haggers and Southern scallawags, covering
them With obloquy and denunciation. They
thus seek to palliate the enormities they dare
not directly defend. Who is carpet-bagger
lie is a citizen of the United States, born or
our soil and naturalized in our courts, who
has the right to settle wherever he please,
under our fag--in North Carolina as well a.
in Indiana, in South Carolina as well as in
Vermont, with the right to proclaim his senti
ments wherever he lives, and whatever hi,
creed, condition, color or profession may be
on the housetops or by his ballot, with mons
to modest him or make him afraid. 1t was
for this that our soldiers bore the starry flag
representing the power of the republic, al
over the South, to make the soil an entire re
public, free for all its citizens. Who is tn,
.'scallawag"? He is a native of the South
who, when the storm of civil war burst upor
his region, dared-despite the danger of death
imprisonment, confiscatOn or exile--to de.
clare thash stood by the Union, true amongs,
the false, loyal amid treason, faithful among
the faithiess found. 1t is to cover them ali
with the shield of national protection aga;ns,
masked and midnight conspiracy and mnrJar
and scourging that the republican Cona,as,
interposes between them and their enan,;os
1t 10 to protect those who are poor and bnn''
BILE, and who, unlike the rich and powerfni
have no other protector than the law of Con
gress that itremans here for their yindicat;on
II is to end these shameless outrapes that hay,
already so dishonored the nation and that ba v,
gone entirely unpublished SO long. On ON
banner we have that noble motto, equal an,
exact justice for all men. Thirty years ago
was the honorable motto of the democracy n
that day. But for what are we denounced h.
the democracy of these times? 1t is becaus
we have taken that principle which they ono
proclaimed, but proclaim no longer, and hay
tnsbrined il ferever and irrevocably in GU
national Constitution, and because we intent
that il shall be respected and obeyed through
out our entire domain. Faithful to it, faitl
full especially to the wronged and to those VIII
ere ready to perish, faithful to the great prin
cisies of liberty, justice and protection, i
this sign you cannot fail to conquer and wi
inIs5x victory for the right as brilliant a
any in eur past eventful history.
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