The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-07-24
NEW YORK.
Grant and his DeEamers.
Speech of Senator COnkIing
Every Libel Refuted

Senator Conkling addressed a large meeting
at Cooper Institute tonight, which was presid
ed over by Jackson S. Schultz, his text bein!
sThe Presidential Battle of 1872-Grant and hi
Defamers-Deeds, not Words
He commenced by saying, for 20 years it ha:
been my privilege TO address my neighbour
upon political issues and too much ardor has per
haps been among my faults yet no canvass has
ever stirred me so deeply as this; no election
has ever appealed so strongly to my sense Of
has ever been so full of foul play, injustice and
malice; none ever more strongly tested the com
mon sense and generosity of the American peo
pie.
Eleven years service in Congress, continued
Mr.. Conkling, has made me a close observer OF
four Presidents, and of many public men, and
if among them all there is one living or dead,
who never knowingly failed in his duty, that
one is Ulysses S. Grant. If there has been a
high official ever ready to admit and correct an
error, if there has been one, who did wisely,
firmly and well the things given him in charge,
that one is the soldier in war, and the quiet pa
triot in peace. Yet this man, honest, brave,
modest, and proved by his transcendent deeds
to be endowed with genius, common sense, and
moral qualities adequate to the greatest affairs
this man who saved his country, and who
snatchsd our nationality, and our cause from
despair, and bore them on his shield through
the flames of battle, in which but for him they
would have persisted. This man under whose
administration our country has tlourished, as
no one dared predict; this man to whom ma
tion's gratitude and benedictions are due, is
made the mark for ribald jokes, and odious,
groundless ISLANDERS. why is all this Simply
becaue he stands in the way of the greed and
ambition of politicians and schemers. Many
honest men join in the cry, or hear it without
indignation. They are deceived by the cloud
of calumny which darkens the sky. The inven-
tors are men distempered with grief, or else the
sOrdid and the vile who follow politics as the
shark follows the Ship 1t is a war of mud and
missiles. The President, his family, and all
nearly associated with him have been bespatter-
ed and truth snd decency have been driven
far away. Every thief, and cormorant, and
drone who has been put out, every baffied NOUS
er for place or plumber, every man with griev-
ance or grudge, all who have something to
make by a change, seem to wager unbridled
war, or to drive foul pen.
The President cannot enter the lists of con-
troversy and defend himself. The proprieties
of his station forbids it. His chief competitor
managing behind the curtain of newspaper
from which he pretends to have retired, is free
to defend and puff himself, and feels free to
fill his paper with base and scurrilous false
hoods, in. the hopes of blackening a name
which is one of the treasures of the nation, and
which will be the pride of posterity. All the
pollution will In the end disgrace only its au-
thors.i 1t will not disgrace Grant, or the ma
ton, because the nation will spurn and resent.
it, The disgusting personalities emptied on
Gen. jackson secured his reelection. An Of
Tended people struck back and they will strike
back again.
Mr.. Conklng, after stating that the oppose
ton had Numbered in arraigning the President
for ignorance, dishonesty and vice, spoke of
the self constituted crowd at Cincinnati, as a
motley group made up Of a few respectable
men who have since repudiated it, and of the
most piebaid disreputable collection to be scrap
ed from the cutters and sewers of politics.
These politicians, these lezarone, pretending to
represent States, laid down the platform on
which Greeley thinks he is running.
Quotations were here made from the Cincin-
matt platform and John Cochranes address ar
raigning the President for personal crimes.
MIR. Conkliug then characterized the tariff
resolutions at Cincinnati, as mere tumble and
shallow evasion, the amnesty resolution as
spent because the general amnesty bill passed
weeks ago and the civil service reform as not in
issue for the President recommended and inau-
gurated it and the Philadelphia Convention
specially declared for it, The coalition pre-
sents nothing of substance on which parties or
individuals are divided in principle, but only
assails upon the President. The issue is
narrowed down to the single inquiry, which is
the safest, fittest man for the Presidency. The
platform and nomination of our opponents blot
out and remove the time-hOnOred creed of the
Democratic party. The Democracy confesses
the defect upon the great issues of the century
and cOnfesses its errors also AS if to abjure
the last yestige of Democracy and wipe out its
selected as their 1igure-head professed ultra
Republican, formerly an ultra Wing, and
they ask honest Democrats to vote for him
against man born and bred a Democrat. If
Democrat was running, or if Democratic prin-
ciples were in the field Democrats might be ex-
pected to vote the ticket, but when the choice is
between Republicans and no Democratic prin-
ciples are at stake, Democrats will be apt to
pick and choose for themselves which Republi-
can they win vote for if any at all.
Mr. Conkling proceeded to demonstrate that
Grant is not as some Greeley orators say, illit-
and father when at West Point, and then spoke
of his bravery, modesty and well-acted part in
the Mexican war. His career in the rebellion
is a thrice-told tale. While Senators who now
hawk at him were lolling on cushions eviscer-
ating encyclopedias books of quotations and
swept the rebellion from the valley of the Miss
issippi and the father of waters" went unvex-
ed to the sea. He was called to the department
of the Potomac, that Golgotha, where army af-
ter army had melted away, where he measured
no backward step until he set his foot upon the
shattered fragments of the greatest military
power an invading army ever overthrow. He
solved the problem which had baffied Others
and reserved nationality after the world
though it had gone down.
The Democrats sought his consent to nomin
ate him for the Presidency without platform Oh
pledge but he declined. He did not become un
fit for President till three years experience hae
ripenened and enlarged his knowledge. He
did not become unfit while the patronage held
out and while unclean fingers were allowed t.
tumble it. .... ..-
The Charge Of Gift Taking,
Mr.. Conkling next alluded to gift taking, say
ing it was not wrong for Grant as a general tt
accept munificent offerings from: the affiuent
whose fortunes he had saved, in giving which
they had but followed the customs of ancien
and modern times. Wellington, Cromwell
Fairfax, Golden, Bright Mcclellan, Sherman
Sheridan, and Farragut were similar recipients
The charge that it was wrong il an insult to tn
nation who witnessed and applauded the pro
ceeding. The charge that Grant accepted an,
gift after he became President or after he wa
nominated, is wholly false. He has accepted
nothing of value after his first nomination, no
even a carriage and horses Only three or a
most four contributors to the funds raised TO
Grant have ever been offered appointment
and it would seem for fetched to explain the Sc
lection of three for a reason applying to NOR
than three hundred who were never selected a
all. No man who knows President Grant un
less he be knave or fool for moment be
leves that the President ever dreamed of pros
tituting his Office to pay debt of his own or t.
bride or repay the givers of money to him.
The Cry Of Wealth.
The liberal idea of desency and manly wa
forces me to speak of another thing which vii
CRATE upon your ears The political scavenger
pretend that the President has grown rich a
President by illicit gain, and they parade hi
property by millions. We have fallen on sorr
times when the Chief Magistrate of the coun
try, with fame 50 great and pure, must Civ
an account of his private property In answer t
eectoneering falsehoods The President woul
disdan to do it, and have no authority to d
it and do not assume to do 1t on his behalf
but on behalf Of the party and the cause h
represents. 1 venture to state the facts. A
Galena, where he tanned hides, he owned
house, and during the war he invested the saw
ings of his pay In Goms lots in Chicago and i
some shares of street railway stock. Mr.:
Grant inherited her share in her fathers farr
in Missouri and they bought ont the other heir
with portion of the 100000 presented by til
citizens of New York This hundred thousan
dollars also paid for a house in Washington
which was subsequently sold to Gen. Sherman
and cottage and grounds were bought at Lon
Branch after the Washington house was solo
The people of Philadelphia presented him
house which rents for about $4,000 year. Til
completes the property of the President wit
one exception.
Some years ago he purchased $40, 900 worth i
| nominal value of stock of the Seneca Ston
| Co. To this day it has paid nothing, partly be
cause the President has interfered to proven
the Seneca stone from being adopted as built
ing material One of the plans submitted 70
the new State Department required the use G
Seneca stone, and because he was a stockhod
er the President refused to allow the plan to h
| even considered. The other stockholders con
| planned OF this, saying that they were punishe
because the President owned stock The Pres
ident replied expressing his regret, and sayin
that he would sell his stock or give it away, br
for the imputations cast upon him by polite;
| opponents because of his ownership; but
| deemed 1T unsuitable even to seem to defer