New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-05-26

SECRETARIES:
Colonel Daniel A. Wilson, Thomas BOland.
The president of the meeting made
modest speech on taking the chair
ALL ROADS FROM GREELEY LEAD TO GRANT.
1t was not the purpose to make a speech.
Seeing old line Democrats, and modern
Democrats as well, in the audience, he vel
coined the people as assembling together to
forget old prejudices and unite in the in
dorsement of the Cincinnati platform and
the choice for President-hOnest old Horace.
[Applause The proposition he made was
that dying in the last ditch may be com
Portable to some people, but, having tried it
for the past twelve years, he did not ind it
to be the part Of good sense. A general may
conduct his campaign according to old prin-
ciples which had died Out-he might do so,
but it is not war. Likewise in the conduct
of political campaign, the same principles
should apply. He closed his speech in the
saying which, from its great popularity, has
now grown into prOverb, that all roads
from Greeley lead to Grant Applause.
REASONING OF THOMAS J. sEAlBIEs.
felt under some embarrassment in ap-
pearing before you this evening, because of
the state of unpTeparedness in which have
come to address you, for l was notified only
three hours since that I was expected to
make speech. [ allude to this merely to
no labored or continuous effort.
This, as l understand it, is an association
of citizens, irrespective of party and past
political associations, 20 take into eonsid-
GRAFTON the present condition of our national
affairs, and express our opinion in reference
to them so as 20 advise those who may as
semble in conventions what are our views,
and thus to influence their action.
1t is apparent that at the present moment
arn in bn tpvT4 4vyD0 ntc Of no
htical opinion, one giving turn centripetal,
and the other centrifugal. One tends to
concentration of power, to consolidation, to
unifcatiOn; the other tends to counteract
consolidation by maintaining the necessity
of the preservation of domestic institutions
and local State government.
When l speak of unifcatiOn | do not mean
union, for union implies plurality and diver
sity, while unity excludes both. UnificatiOn
or consolidation is the absolute supremacy
of the will of the majority, regardless of
State organization, and the removal of all
organic or constitutional restrictions on the
irresponsible will of the majority for the
time being. Consolidation, therefore, as the
mere will of the majority, is either no gov
ernment at all, universal anarchy, or is the
most unmitigated despOtism, destructive
of all freedom and manly independence-in-
deed it is worse than any aristOcracy the
world has ever seen. p
Now these are the two currents of politi- |
cal thoughts each at this moment con-
trolling the action Of political parties. In |
this condition of things the good and intel |
lectual men of the Republican party, un-
willing longer to be the instruments Of con- |
solidation and military despOtism, seeded |
from the party and assembled at Cincinnati. |
The Liberal Republican party is repre- |
sented by the intelligence of the Repub- |
Iican party, and now it is time to bury the |
past Let us shake hands across the bloody |
chasm. Let us keep the constitutional |
created by the result of en- |
Let us stand by the party |
ruled by intelligent, honest men, rather
than that ruled BY military power and ne
pOtism. This is a serious question. How |
are we going to do it?
We have all read the platform adopted by |
the Cincinnati convention, and what can be /
more broad and democratic than it3 1t has /
embodied all the principles of the Democ-
racy, and left it nothing. We are not to be /
dictated to by August Belmont or any |
other Democratic leader. We must now /
work to save our country. We must bury 1
past prejudiees, and shake hands across