The weekly Panola star. [volume] (Panola, Miss.) 1857-1881, 1872-07-20
SPEECH OF sen ATOR DOOLITTLE
President of the Baltimore C0nyen-
tion, Made Upon Assuming
the duties Of the Pre-
Siding Officer.

Gentlemen Of The Convention
Two years ago, nearly five years
after the bloody period of civil war
had closed, the Liberal Republicans
of Missouri, feeling keenly all the
evils Of proscriptive list oaths, the
hates and the strifes which the pas
sions of the war had left upon them
long after the war itself had ceased,
and feeling keenly sensitive to Fed
oral dictation in local elections, they
had determined to organize move
ment to restore equal rights to all
citizens, white as well as black to
restore local self-government, and to
arrest further Capitalization of Fed
eral power. They then said this
thing had gone far enough, If not
too far. The time had como when
all honest aud patriotic Republicans
must say halt, and ro-assort the vital
doctrine OF the Republican govern
ment that under the constitutional
powers of the Federal government
are defined and limited, and that the
the States have right to govern
themselves in their own domestic
affairs upon basis Of equality Of all
the States before the higher law, be-
fore the constitution, and equality
to all men before the law; Of uni
vcrsal loyalty, amnesty suffrage and
peace, taking no step backward,
no right nor 20 franchise which had
bocn secured to the blacks, plcdging
themselves to support them in all
their tull vigor; they at the same
time demanded, in the name Of
peace, in the name of liberty, and in
the name of the Republican govern
ment itself, that freedom and equal
rights should be restored to the
white people. They organized, near
ly four thousand strong, and called
upon Gratz Brown to head the
movement, and they placed him in
nomination for Governor, and then
what followed? Eighty-fve thous-
and Democrats and Republicans,
looking upon the success of that
movement as above any party tri-
umph, resolved to sustain it with
their whole strength. Love of their
country, love Of Republican liberty,
love of equal rights TO all men in.
spired that union and taught men
to act together who had been polit-
ically opposed to each other all their
lives upon other questions and in
other times, and without violating
either honor, logic, conscience or
consistency on either side, this pat,
riotic union was based upon higher
grounds than ordinary political
action. Even those who had fought
against each other in battle clasped
hands over the bloody chasm, and
side by side, like brothers, with
hearts beating in unison, beating
with strong, with high purpose,
they helped to bear its flag, its glor-
ious liberty. That, gentlemen, ID
Liberal Republicanism, and that is
Democratic Republicanism. The
victory which came from that union
was the end Of prescription, test
oaths, Of pain and strife, and Of all
disloyalty; in a word, the real end
Of the civil war had come with that
victory, and did not come till then,
in Missouri. 1t redeemed that State
it gave the right to free men, tc
seventy thousand men, who had
been bound and fettered. Missouri
ia now free State In this Union
with her rights and dignity, anc
equality under the constitution, and
not one word of disloyalty is any.
where heard BY that union. Fedora
dictation in Missouri ii their loca
election was overthrown, and b,
that union strife and bate had giveI
place to peace and to good will; b,
that union liberty, with equal right
for all, has given to the State un
bounded prosperity, and her peopI
a joy almost ul,spcakable. So grea
: was their JOY and so complete thei
success the Liberal Republicans d