The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1871-09-07

cratic State Convention, on his acceptance
Of the nomination for Governor:
GENTLEMEN: am deeply moved by
| the confidence rep0sed in me by the Con
vention, and no less by the manner IN
| which it has been done. Saying that does
| not tell the half | feel az this moment I
am profoundly grateful, and yet | could
nave wished your caOice had fallen upon
another. 1t was not sought; it was not
expected, dear friends. | assent with re-
| luctance, and my own inchnaiions do not
yield without a struggle. But there are
| times when a mans personal wishes and
| interest must yield to public judgment.
| know full well how much of time and
| labor it will cost, but if the use of my
! name can do anything to save constitu-
| tlOnal liberty and republican institutions
| in substance SIS well as in name from the
| dangers which threaten them, be 1t so.
| yield myself 10 the judgment of the Con
ven'ion. and accept the nomination.
Gentlemen, 1t may be proper for me in
! brief words to review he true situation
| In doing 50, | must speak from my own
standpoint. | can speak from no other
| The last few years have witnessed great
events in the history Of our country
| This generation has been summoned to
] great issues and responsibilities. Before
| the war, during the war, and since its
| close some Of these issues have been dis
| cussed in the forum and decided at the
| polls; others on the field Of battle Many
of them are now closed and can never be
| reopentd. They have passed into history
| For a few moments let me recall some of
| them now buried in the past, i'll order to
state more clearly the issues aud duties of
! he present
First among the issues of the past
mention the repeal of the Missouri Com
promise, which divided 10 some extent the
! Democratic and ORIGINATED the Republican
! party. Next came Kansas, with its blood
| shed, slave code, ana LOcOmptOn COns1itu
| ton Then came the conventions and
| formal resolutions in favor of secession
| and independence In the Southern ates
| These great issues upon which men divid-
/ ed who act together now, each of itself
sufficient 10 divide and create political
| parties, were followed by the still greater
issue Of War-was declared and waged for
I secession and independence by the South :;
var declared and waged for the integrity
of the union under the Constitution BY the
North During its progress, however, not
| only the armies but the ideas of the North
| came IN conflict. Freedom and slavery
met faI, to face in battle. TO establish an
independent cOnfederacy upon slavery as
| It's corner stone was the idea and purpose
/ OF those who led the South into secession
and war, and history now records among
/ its most memorable events the procana-
/ ton of emancipation and the Thirteenth
Amendment ao)hshiug slavery forever.
/ At length, after four long years of blooa
and sacrifice, by the blessing of heaven,
and by the strength and abundance Of our
armies, came the final surrender Of the
/ South, and the complete triumph of the
/ Union army. The war was ended. Oh,
/ how hearts went up to Almighty God
when peace, blessed peace had come !;
| when blood had ceased to flow and no
more sons were to go down to battle and
| to death
Hardly however, had this first ex-
ultati0n come and gone, when the new
ISSUE of reconstruction came to the con-
querOT-a more trying one than war itself
/ | repeat II, more trying; for 1t was to de-
] termine whether party all-pOweTful with
/ the sword Of victory in its hands, when
4 dealing with the vanqujshed, could rule
/ Il spirit; could itself obey the very cOnsti
/ Triton il had sacrificed 100000 lives and
/ $5000,00O000 to maintain; whether in the
/ days of It's strength it could keep the
! plt dyes il made in its humiliation and
/ often repeated from the first battle of
/ Bull Run to the end of the war You
/ remember what President Lincoln pro
/ posed rs the basis Tor the restoration Of
/ the States and people of the South to their
1 rights under the Constitution. He was
/ Oppose4 To reconstruction based upon dis
| REIMBURSEMENT II the whites and subject
I ing them TO the universal suffrage OF the
/ blacks. To those who sugg sted it, his
! reply was like that of Gustavus Adolph ).
! "a IL nf Oft
religious liberty il Germany, when his
! officers urged him to retalate upon his
! enemies, replied: Il came to break the
/ chains OF slavery for one people, and not
/ TO forge new ones for another" with
| malice toward none, and charity for all y
! pursuant 10 the Constitution and the pro-
/ visions of an act of Congress, he pro
! claimed the conditions of amnesty and
! peace. That proclamation was approved
1 b. the whole country, including d very
/ large majority OF his own party. Had he
/ lived, | have no doubt it would have been
! been realized, and We should have had re
| construction under the Constitution and
| not military reconstruction outside of it.
! Officially as President he had proclaimed
I II; unOfticially in a speech-the last Of his
/ ite-he pleaded for it. His whole soul
| waS in it. He was never stronger in his
own party; but just then he was stricken
down by an assassin. The responsibility
fell upon Mr.. Johnson, who had less power
to control that party. From that moment
the spirits Of evil were unlOosed; the pas
sions of the North were intlamed; its Rad
| zeal leaders infuTIated, strengthened, and
| emblttered. Reckless of OathS, pledges,
| and Constitutional obligations themselves,
/ they denounced, in both Houses of Con
Eress, Democrats and AL Others who stood
for the Constitution, as little better than
rebels. With fatal blindness or deliberate
purpose, under the lead Of Thaddeus Ste
vens, they forced upon the country plan
! of reconstruction outside OF the Constitu-
| sion, involving a reconstruction of the
| Constitution itself by the sword, and to
| accomplish that they abolished all civil
law, and civil gOvernmI Mt, even, in eleven
States, ana subjected 10000,0Oo people to
martial law, and their lives, liberty and
! property to trial by courts. martial. 1t was
| a Clear violation of the Constitution:
gross usurpation Of power. Mr. Stevens,
their great leader. knew it and avowed it.
| When the McArd!e case from Mississippi,
! which involved that question, was pend
| ing in the Supreme Court, anu after it had
! been argued a law was rushed through
| Congress IN hot haste to take away their
| jurisdiction, because they believed the
court would decide the act of reconstruc-
! ton unconstitutional and with unspeak-
/ able sorrow We saw that court suspend Its
decision for Congress to pass that act--a
/ fatal surrender.
Mr.. Stevens waged an implacable war
upon President johnson, who strove in
vain To save the policy of his predecessor
/ The struggle was long, earnest, ana in
tense, but that policy was oyerborne, and
/ reconstruction under the Constitution gave
way 10 military reconstruction outside of
II, snd even to a reconstruction of the
/ Constitu ION Itself, eliminating in the
| Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.
Gen. Grant, who at the beginning was
| opposed to ii, yielded himself 70 the Radi
cat policy, and was elected President in
1868. \ partial reconstruction Of the
Supreme Court followed, and then every
! department of the government was
! brought in unison with it. That recon
Struction has been carried into effect 1t
has been a part of the history of the coul-
/ try. However much We may have oppos-