The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1871-11-02
Great Speech of
GENERAL FRANK BLAIR,
DELIVERED AT
Montgomery, ALa., ON Thursday Night,
October 10, 1871.
CITIZENS AND GENTLEMEN

telegraph brought TO US the news OF the dli
aster, startling and appalling, which ha
fallen epon the peerless city of the North
west. Nothing com pares with the rapidir
/ OF its progress, its grandeur and BEAUTY
| except the suddenness of the destructfo
| which fell upon it. 1 do not propose, "a
night, to give description of that melau
choly and appalling disaster. No languag
OF mine could do justice to the description
/ One 1.-THE of the suffering and ruin NOR
| than fills the heart to overlooking, and
shall not attempt, by my words, to tax
! away, to diminish the magnitude of tn
! losses and suffering incurred by its people
/ In the midst of the calamity so unparallele
/ as to startle and shock the civilized world
| there were men vile enough to be plumber
/ ing the ruined and homeless population
These wretches, these fiends in human form
were dealt with by the eXasperated peopl
j as such fiends ought to be dealt with; ant
| throughout the North the fate which fel
upon them in the midst of their crime wa
applauded, and from one end of the UnioI
to the other.
have selected a paragraph from tn
newspaper descriptive of the vile eXcesse
committed by these criminals:
"GangS of armed ruffians were every
where patrolling about, hunting the ruin
Tor plumber, and breaking into safes, with
out the slightest interference from any ont
IN authority. \ remonstrance was me-
with blow of a bludgeon, and few had tbs
temerity to interfere, and the brutes toe
seemed to have it all their own way. Heat
ed with whiskey and excitement, they cauS-
ed a complete reign of terror, and where
they came every one fled. The Mayor had
issued another proclamation directing the
closing of the saloons, but no attention was
paid to it; the police made no endeavor 10
enforce 1t and in nine cases out of ten were
themselves intoxicated. Even had they
been closed, there was plenty of whisky
left; barrels of it were to be found in all
quarters, and they certainly were freely
preached. l never saw SO many under the
influence of drink, and where the roughs
came from | cannot imagine. Full as Chi
cago was with them L had never believed
she contained so many as l saw on the street
on Thursday. Many had come in from other
cities; every train was bringing its contin-
gent"
Such was the deplorable decentralization
of men who could, amid these scenes of
desolation, ruin and suffering, descend to
the vileness of plumber and the crime of as
sassination to accomplish that plumber. |
have also a paragraph, taken from n sermon
of the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, in which
speaking of these fiends, he says:
Some say there can't be devil. j have
only to say if there isn't devil there is a
very good material to make one of. APP
plause. And if God is too good to have a
devil in chief, He isn't too good to have
one in deteil. Nothing can exceed the
wickedness and inhumanity of those men
their fellow men,"
There is another circumstance connected
with this deplorable occurrence to which
desire to allude. 1t is the bOundless charity
and generosity of the citizens of the North
and East, and West, last but not least, of the
impoverished South, [applause,l in coming
to the aid of the stricken inhabitants OF
Chicago. This is the one redeeming aspect
of this most melancholy occurrence.
Now, my fellow-citizens, desire briefly
to allude to another picture of suffering and
disaster which L know l need not describe
TO you, because it is burned into your hearts
with a brand of iron. No description which
| could give of the suffering, and endu-
rance, and want which fell upon the entire
South during and since the war, could do
any thing like justice to the subject, or ought
to be attempted in the midst of these peo-
pie, who were the victims of that suffering.
The people South, during the war, suffered
the ruin and loss of all their material wealth
far exceeding in magnitude even If conf
pared with the population. that which has
fallen upon the people of Chicago. They
lost everything except the land upon which
they stood but with a courage which they
had taught their bravest antagonists to re-
cognize and respect during the war. lap
plause, which had excited the admiration of
the world, renewed applause,l they raised
themselves up, resolved to renew their pros
perity and rescue those who leaned upon
them from suffering and starvation.
Years OF disaster followed the wharf.-the
loss of crops, hostile legislation, taxing the
products OF their soil. When the govern
ment of Great Britain was guaranteeing
the amount of our National debt to build
to the interior of India, in order
to bring India cotton to the market, our
government. excited by vindictive feeling
of animosity, instead of holding out the
hand to sustain, attempted to destroy by
taxation that upon which the prosperity of
the South rested. In addition to all of this,
that to which | have alluded as occurring in
Chicago in the midst of her ruin, occurred
here IN the midst of your greater ruin
There were men vile enough. base enough,
70 come in your midst and plumber all that
was left. Loud and prolonged applause,
[ think that might read to you the descrip-
ton of this influx OF plunderers into ruined
Chicago which / have taken from the New
York Herald and it would apply, word for
word, to that which has TRANSFERRED in the
South within the past few years. Renewed
applause The paragraph in the Herald
states that they were amazed at the mum Der
the city; that it seemed, and was believed
that delegations from that profession had
come from all the cities to aid the ruin and
complete the destruction. | need not say
that delegations of thieves and robbers have
come from all sections to infest like the
army worm and eat up the prosperity of the
South. Loud applause.l
There is one point, my fellow-citizens, in
which the parallel fails to hold out. The
of Chicago is almost redeemed by
the exhibition of the boundless charity of
the people of this whole country and of the
distant Europe. They have been allowed to
want for nothing that the worlds wealth
could give them. 1t could not restore their
dead, but it has generally fed the living
And when these vile malefactOrs from all
parts of the world, forgetful of manity,
crowded thither TO plumber the wretched
-, fho yhnIs ri h0=
said that. when stricken down by the hand
of violence, without trial, it was well done.
There was no exhibition of this sympathy
for the suffering South. lSensation J This
picture of suffer ing, of endurance, OF dis
aster in brave people struggling to hold
together the bonds of society and almost
in the effort; assailed on every
side by the heartlesS and the guilty, is not re-
deemed by that grand trait of humanity, OF
and of magnanimity which has
the deplorable distress and re-
deems the picture of our suffering brethren
of Chicago. Prolonged applause.l
All who are familiar with the condition
of the South. all who know what she has
wh-n after the surrender all
was denied to her, and she was
then given into the hands of the ignorant
and most vicious of your population, zap
plausel all who know this, who have lived
in your midst and realized the tremendous
you have maintained to prevent
the utter disorganization of society, must
feel. as YOU do feel, that you have had no
SYM pathy, no help, no encouragement; and
that which was approved on the part of the
people of Chicago in the defence of society
in the midst of her trouble, is made an ac-
cusation and held up against you by the
vindictiVe passions and the animoslty OF
your political opponents
| rejoice that all the suffering you have
undergone, all the perils through which you
have passed, have not deprived you of the
disposition to sympatise with the sufferings
of others. GLoud applause.l The small Of
fering which the impoverished South has
been able to send to Chicago will weigh
Iikelthe widows mite: it will have the bles-
sing of God. [Applause.l 1t will teach
your oppressors that, whilst suffering and
under wrong such as no people
have borne before, this has not extinguish-
81 in ronr hearts the common bond of hui