New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-04-16
THE MASS MEETING.
Speakers Interrupted-One Stand Har.
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The clamor of brass bands announced
that the unusual event of mass meeting
in Lafayette square was about to take place.
Two stands were erected, one on the north,
the other en- the south side, and on each the
ordinary arrangement Of smoky and filmy
lamps was this time eclipsed by fair show
of lanterns, through whose glass doors the
light shone brightly. As the hour approached
for the meeting to commence. the Impotence
was gratltied in the music which discOursed
from each stand meihfnous airs. Pro-
grammes of the approaching ceremonies
were distributed before the beginning of
the affair, from which it was learned that
Mr.. Fred Douglass, in whom great deal OF
interest centered, would speak from the
south side stand. Consequently it was dis
covered that the biggest half Of the throng
was gathered around the south stand.
THE SOUTH SIDE STAND.
The meeting at the south side stand was
organized by the reading of the list of vice
presidents by Mr.. Sweet. 1t then turned
out Mr.. b. +. JOubert was nominated presl-
dent. Mr.. E. C. Billings was introduced to
the audience as the first speaker, and in the
outset of his remarks he alluded to the
origin Of ths Republican party, which, he
said, had given to the American people all
practical embodiment Of these rights rested
in Abraham Lincoln. In his opinion the
operation Of making the rights Of the Re-
publican party effective was the present
contest, and this was to be done in the sup
port of President Grant, who, he said, had
carried the country through four years of
unexampled prosperity, which prosperity
he went on to define as consisting in the re-
ductiOn of the national debt, and the main
tenance of the public credit. Under the
leadership of Lincoln, the pure man, who
had love toward all, malice toward none.
the party led on to victory, and it is des-
tined to be likewise borne to vic
tory a second time by Grant. In
his allusion to 1.-The detection of
Charles Sumner" he denied it, and de-
fed any one to point out single express
sion of Charles Sumner which would go to
show that this detection existed. But this
great man, who was identified with the
cause of human liberty throughout the
world, would not leave nor defect from the
party OF progress. Sumner, he predicted,
would yet be found ION our side and
battling for human progress.
Entering into the broad ground of gen.
eralities, the speaker laid down the doc
trine that the principles of all parties had
their foundation in the good sentiments OF
some great man and the principles he ad-
vocated. Those of the Republican party
would result in complete triumph. In
approaching the debatable ground OF public
rights, he argued the question, endeavoring
to show that these rights were the common
property OF all, yet he would not
De understood as intoxicating any ele-
ments of hostility between the races:
All, without reference to birth, should
be placed on an equality. The very instant
a single race in the commonwealth under
took to advocate claims as belonging to
itself alone, that very moment 1t ceased to
Republican. The. speaker again verged
upon the ground of generalities as means
of showing the Importance of common
school education, and the practical expen-
houses. Going on to lay down the princi-
pies of which he was the advocate, he said
the party was determined to see legislation
should be purified, and that in reference to
taxation the real estate owner, instead OF
irving to get rid of it, would be glad to hold
it. He went in for retrenchment and its
sister, economy, so that the debt of the city
and State "shall in some way be funded
Mr. Billings closed his speech in a summing
up of the utterances sketched in the fore
going spaces, and ended in a grand rhetOr-
ical burst in favor of the triumph.
Loud cries came from the crowd for
Douglass, in the midst of which Mr.. Car
dozo of South Carolina, appeared on the
introduction of the president. and he began
his remarks in the congratulation that all
the crowd were sin sympathy with us on
this occasion" Then he went into history
CT the Republican as cOntrasted with the
'hoary- headed Democratic party besides
going into the period of the revolutionary
war, when the fight was for the right of
representation. He tr0d over the same old
ground of party history, narrated the Ere
mont candidacy in 1856, and. coming down
to 1860, the ever watchful tyrant of slavery
was found to be doomed, and the party got
control of the whole country. The Ordi-
nances of secessiOn-fatal mistakes-were
the very best thing that could have been
done for the cause of liberty and freedom
throughout the land. Touching upon the
war time, when all who had their freedom
at stake watched the varying contest with
interest, when the hope of liberty rose and
fell with the fluctuations Of the fierce battle.
Coming down to the collapse of the con-
federacy," the subsequent JOhnsonian con-
struction of the States, he reached the era
of reconstruction, and then entered upon
the grounds of the present contest, when
he said Gu. Of the contest of 1872 the party
would issue with everduring principles,
with its platform rendered permanent.
[Some enthusiastic gentleman here shrieked
out, Three cheers for Grantees my man, "
which met with no response In speaking
of the Cincinnati convention, he said
if the Liberals really loved the party
within whose ranks all reform had pre-
viously been accomplished, they would
have remained within the fold. But as
they are not of us-they are against u.s.
They always were Notwithstanding
blocks in the way of party progress, ''let
them co. AS the Democrats are laying
back to wait and see what the Cincinnati
convention would do it seemed to him the
Cincinnati people were opponents Of the
real party. The liberal Republicans were
falsely named. There was no liberality in
their actions-no liberality in first joining a
party and then going against it. When he
found them in sympathy with Democrats
and opponents OF Republcanism, he could
only characterize them as illiberal and
treacherous partisans. The regulars would
meet in Philadelphia, and he firmly believed
they would select as their nominee Ulysses
S. Grant, a man in whose favor the country
had already pronounced, and he was con-
WINGED he would be the standard-bearer In
1872. He, was not of those who believed
the Republicans were without fault as a
party. He announced the principles OF the
party to consist in true protection OF all
men throughout the country, white and
black, of which doctrine Grant was the
embodiment An administration which
had been characterized by honesty and
economy" He went on in this stream for
some time, and closed in an allusiOn to ''the
ship of State" Barnacles must be stripped