The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1871-10-05
GEN. GEORGEW MORGAN
At Logan, Aug. 80, 1871.

Mr.. CHAIRMAN AND FELLOw-CITI
zENs: 1t is my good fortune, fellow
citizens, to be the bearer to you o
glad tidings from the Democracy o
the State During the present can
Fass l have spoken thirty times, ant
have consequently been in more thai
one-third of all the counties in Ohio
l know that you will be glad to learI
4 that wherever i have been the De
mocracy are up and doing, determined
ito triumph if they will, on the 1Ott
day of October next Our friend:
are Just beginning to understand thai
during the two or three past years we
have been defeated not by the Repub.
licans, but by ourselves. Had the
Democratic party of Ohio in 1865
polIed the same number of votes that
we cast in 1868, George III. Pendleton
would have been elected Governor by
La majority of 14.600 votes. We fail
ed to do our duty We stayed at
home. We allowed our cause TO go
down In defeat when victory was
within our grasp. Last year worse
disaster came upon us, and from the
same cause. Our own apathy, our
own neglect of duty-that high duty
which devolYes upon every freeman
in land like ours. Had the Demo-
cratic party last year polled its full
vote-polled the same vote we cast at
the Congressional elections in 1865
we would have carried seventeen
Congressional Districts in Ohio, and
at the present moment, in the Forty
second Congress, we would have had
seventeen Democratic members from
Ohio instead of only five.
: Our friends throughout the State
have at length awakened from this
state of death-like inertness, and in
every quarter they are organizing as
we have not been organized for sew
eral years. That we can carry the
State, if we choose to do so, there is
no doubt-no mo- e doubt than that
now address vou-no more doubt
than that you now hear me speak
The question is, do you desire TO car
ry Ohio If you Go, go to work, and
work determined to succeed, and vic
tory will be your reward. 9Hb
Our Government, my felloW-citi-
zens, is based upon public virtue and
public intelligence, and can not exist
without them. Public virtue may ex-
list, but the information necessary for
the people TO act upon in their capac-
ity as electors may not be attainable
to all of them. Hence it is that pub
lie meetings are necessary, and it be-
comes our duty to assemble together
in public council, as we have met to-
day, for the purpose of ascertaining
what is the true condition of the coun-
try, and to determine what is best to
be done. f1 ~
But. my friends, meetings are a
source of evil instead of good unless
public speakers are governed by that
verv public virtue of which l have |
spoken. The speaker must be truth
full, otherwise the people will act up
on false information and false premi-
ses, and consequently err. / am one
of those who believe that a public |
speaker who will deliberately mis-
state facts does a great public wrong /; |
instead of being the friend, he is an |
enemy of the people, as he is the enc
my of free institutions. the betrayer of |
the party which has confided in him. !
In the early part of the present can
vass, / addressed the good people Of !
Belmont County, and, in the course of /
my remarks, charged that the history
Of the party in power since 1864 is
put narrative of political blunders !
,he truth of the charge I referred to
he fact that after hostilities had COM
after Fort Sumter had been
after our flag had been low
,red, and our soldiers had been made
prisoners of war, Mr.. Lincoln accept
ID the designations of 1Sl officers of
he regular army, whom resigned for
he aVoWed purpose of espousing the
,anco of tho (I0p fnHo tho HoId
IN his Toledo speech Senator Sher-
nan says:
General Morgan tells us that Mr..
lincoln made fatal mistake in ac-
epting, the designations of Southern
'ficers before the war commenced.-l
lie says they should have been arrest |
d and held as prisoners of war. How
you'd the arrest of those men before +,
single blow had been struck have
'een received by the Democratic par
y yYtilH8oa4 sH odw v.ia .a
repeat, their designations were
not before the war, but in
he midst of war, and accepted, and !,
heir arrest would have received the
pprobation of the Democratic party
s of the entire people. Senator Sher-
IAN knows, as we all know, that Pres
lent Lincoln committed grave po-
tical blunder when he accepted the
of one hundred and eigh-
Zone accomplished officers, men ca /, =
able or organizing and leading ar !
lies to battle, knowing, as he did
now, that they were about to join the e
luse of the enemy. 1t needs no ar Il
ument on my part, my friends, to Z
Itisfy you that the greatest possible Y
,rvice that President Lincoln could i
ave conferred on Jefferson Davis
as TO furnish him with able and 1
zilful officers to command and or L
lnize his armies. This was DONE t;
his charge lies at the door of the Re- d
lblican party and its Administration v
I'd it is one of those blunders for j,
hichEit has to account to history in Is
e future, and to the American peo- 81
e now. h
Senator Sherman proceeds to say: b
General Morgan has declared there e.
as no occasion for creating a Ma ID
onal debt; that, in fact, it was mat Il
r of art and not of necessity" He O
en- goes on and says: - el
" When the war commenced we had o
, adequate tax laws for war or IL
ace, no National currency, no sys- / +.
m of internal taxes. We improvis- a,
these as soon as possible, and all O. .,
telligent men gave Governor Chase :,
ID Congress great credit for the ra- f.
dity and success with which we q
We'd taxes, and thus paid off the ex- y,
nses of the war during the war" n,
Here Senator Sherman deliberately f
lis the people that, by their system q,
administration, the expenses of II
e war were paid off during the f.
IT." How comes it, then, citizens, tv
at we have to-day a public debt of m
arly ,400,O0O,OO0, and we had a Fl n
bt of $4,000, 100000 when the war n r.
'sed? Will Mr.. Sherman explain III
My charge was this, my friends al
at (" the war could have been con- fir
cted without the creation of pub til
debt" What l then said l now e1
peat. A wise system of taxation OF
ould have been of once adopted and to
en- raised sufficient to have paid the