Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1872-08-09

so that party, in turn, is sprc to find
it's own course and charac&er deter
mined by the strongest offthe many
incoherent elements of which it is
composed.
Mr.. Dawes then called attention
to the fact that the southern element
of that party had determined it's
present course. Resistance had
come from the North and from its
strongest men here, but it had been
in vain. He then asked what was
to be expected from a party whose
controlling men are not only fresh
in professions not six weeks old,
but who come up to their support
out of a life OF hostility, not only to
the principles they now avow, but
to the very life Of the republic itself.
1t is madness to entrust the desti-
nies of the nation to such hands.
He believed in the honesty of his
old political associates, now desert
ing to these new leaders; but he
had a right to demand Of them, be-
fore deserting with them, the
grounds Of their new-placed conf
dence. What right have they to
look for truth in men who had been
false all their lives? Mr.. Greeley
had yielded to their ostentatious Of
fer to "clasp hands over the bloody
chasln'' of the past, without stop
ping to inquire who made that
chasm? What security has he Ia
ken from these men that they will
not be truer to their instincts than
t, their professions; that they will
not continue in the beaten paths Of
the past; rather than seek new ones?
Does he propose to stake all upon
the naked word of these menu
They talk of their sufferings, but
who is the author Of these suffer-
ings? Their plea is that of the bra
zen youth in court, who had mur-
dered his parents, and when
inquired of by the judge what he
had to say in extenuation of
sentence, begged that the court
would not be too hard upon him, a
poor orphan boy. These men beg
for peace. They themselves have
but to keep the peace, and no one
will molest them. Did not Mr..
Greeley notice that those who held
out their hands to him across the
"bloody chasm" were the late rebels
alone? That the poor Union men
of the south were not among them?
That the four millions of freed
slaves were not there? That the
northerncr, who had gone down to
make his home there under the con-
stitutlon, was not of the number?-
There is something calculated to
beget distrust rather than confidence
in the very exclusiveness with
which this party proffer their
bloody hands.
Mr.. Dawes said that he marvelcd
that any true northern man could
put confidence i'll these empty pro-
fessions, backed up by no act, and
in conflict with all the past record
of the men who make them.
On the other hand the organlza-
ton whose representative was Gen.
Grant appeals to its past, rich in
proofs of devotion to all that is dear
and true and noble in American In
stitutions. In making professions
for the future it turns with pride
and cs Adence to it's history for as
suran:e that they will be fulfilled
1t conducted the nation through the
perils of civil war-it met its bur-
dens, it solved its complications, it
wrought out it's triumphs. Taking
up the difficult questions inherited
from the war itself, and after the
four years of failure under Johnson,
it has proved itself competent for
their solution. The financial record
of this administration surpassed in
''';"""v that of any other admin
'"tion of the
$685., ,OOO,-
nd saved