The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1872-03-29
Politital.
Stand BY The Republican ClloFS
SPE EjCH
HON. HENRY WILSON,
OF MASSACHUSETTS,
AT
Great Falls, New Hampshire.
February oath, 1872.

= Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen:
During the year on which we ha'
q entered, the people of the Unite
States will be summoned to elect
So Chief Magistrate. There are seve
million persons in the country eI
titled TO the right of suffrage. The
% are now ranged into two great polit
50 cal parties. One calls itself tt
'o Democratic party, the other takes ii
50 namo OF the Republican party. Fac
50 of these political organizations has
~ history, platform of principles, an
80 a Programme of policy. To one O
'O the other of these parties the peopl
% of the United States will commit, 10
10 four years, the precious interests O
. the Republic 1t devolves upon th
o citizens of New Hampshire 10 Civ
q the first vote OF the campaign upol
which We are entering. Whateve
N may be the result, it will bc deemed
o and taken throughout the country a.
r al indication of public sentiment, ant
the victory, to whichever party il
may come, will give TO that party il
the nation more numbers than it has
voters in the State Of New Hamp.
shire.
come here tonight in behalf oil
the Republican party OF the United
) States three and a ahalf millions strong,
to speak to the Republicans of New
Hampshire; TO ask them to call the
battle roll anew, and to redeem their
State, and plsce her where she has so
long been, and where she ought to
be again, at the head of the Republi-
can column. 1 am not here to be.
little the Democratic party. 1 know
it has power, l know it has elements
Of strength, know it will fight q
great battle this year for the control
of the Government. Ipity the weak
ness CT despise the fClly that under.
rates the power of the Democrat
lc party. It has vast elements of
strength; it has wealth, prejudice,
passion, and pride of race. l know it
has able men in Its ranks, and have
no sympathy with that disposition
which prompts us always to belittle
whatever we oppose.
1 do not come here to apologize for
the Republican party. | would as
soon apologize for the spots on the
sun tha. has haihed the world 20 day
in light and beauty. The Republican
party needs 10 apology and no de-
fense There is no body of men in
America to day who, from their past
history or present position, have
right to arrsign it before the nation,
before the nations, or before God.
There wss a struggle, beginning in
1882. and continuing until the spring
of 1S61-the period OF one generation
between these entagonistic forces;
but it was a struggle of thought, OF
voice, of the press, a struggle OF
votes. Liberty at last triumphed.
Then the slave-masters raised the
banners of rebellion, hurled their
section into a wicked and brutal, bar
barous and bloody civil war. These
are historic facts They will 60 into
the history of our country and when
we who are here to night, when the
men of this generation shall have
passed away, in other days, with
clearer lights than those Of the pres
ent, the human family will recognize
these facts, and historians will record
them tor the study and admiration or
condemnation of after generations.
We have had a serious contest, a
bloody struggle, In which some Of
the bravest and noblest have gone
down and sleep in soldiers graves.
In this struggle, where stood these
two great parties that divide the ma
tion to-day2 Where stood the Dem
ocratic party? Where stood the
Republican party? Here tonight /
assert it, and there is not man on
Gods earth can contradict il, for the
record is against him, that from the
year 1882, when William Lloyd Gar
rison and eleven other faithful and
fearless men signed their names to
the declaration that black men had
right to liberty, and that they would
do what they could, sanctioned by
law. humanity, and religion, to eman.
cipate the bondman, and to lift up
the poor and lowly in the land, from
that day to this hour, every moment
of the time, and on every distinct
issue, the Democratic party has been
on the side of privilege, the side of
caste, the side of brutal, ignorant.
degraded barbarism. Measured by
the standards of the philosophers
and statesmen of the ages, measured
By the law of the living God, there
has not been a moment when it has
not been clearly, plainly, distinctly,
unqualifiedly wrong. 1t has been
wrong, and it is wrong now, and l
fear it will continue to be wrong.
The Republican party, made up as
it has been of men who came out OF |
other organizations because they
were convinced that the party OF
freedom and humanity was the party
of the country, has at all times, in
every struggle, in peace and in war,
been on the side of the country, the
side of liberty, the side of justice, the
side of humanity, the side OF pro-
gressive Christian civilization. There
has not been q moment during these
forty years, whether Garrison Anti
Slavery men, Liberty Party men,
Free-Soilers. or Republicans, starting
from only 3 dozen men and growing
up to The three and a half millions
who will vote in November next-1
say that there has not been a moment
In all those years when the champions
of human rights have not occupied
position that the Christian men and
women who belong to it or sympa-
thize with it could not take it into
their closets, and, on their bended
knees, invoke the blessing of God
upon it. l do not know that there
are not some men so forgetful of the
position of the Democratic party that
they might ask the blessing upon it
Of that Being who bids Us remember
those in bonds. But 1 cannot imagine
how man who has spoken for, spol-
ogized for, voted for, or fought fer
slavery, privilege, and caste, the side
the Democratic party has taken-1
do not see how such a man would
dare ask the blessing of God upon
the violation of the doctrines of the
New Testament, that teach US to
love our neighbor.
/ have briefly referred 10 this his
to.y to show where the Democratic
party has stood and now stands, and
where the Republican party has stood
and now stands. The Democratic
party, unmindiul of its record of forty
years, is asking the telling men of
New Hampshire to give 1t their con-
fidence and their support. l should
quite as soon think that the Demo
cratic party would 60 to South Caro-
lima, and ask the men whom we
have made free-the
men from whose limbs we have smit-
ten the fetters, the men into whose