The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-07-12

i
if you had chained him, a crimina
would nave chained a patriot" TAp
plause.1 Soon after Mr.. Lincoln un
tOrtudate assassination, when passions
were irfiamed .as | never saw then
among any people, il was then that thi.
man Horace Greeley defied hiss party
alone and went to Richmond aad dared
become the surety of this man, and die
do it. Great Applause. Because O
the manhood, because of the moral
courage it exhibits, that is why
admire it. why" says the gentle
man, " re deserves no more credit than
General Grant, who threatened, if Gen.
eral Lee was molested he would resign
his commission" Why, my friends
don't you See the vast difference be-
tween the two?
GRANT DID THAT AS A SOLDIER.
That was the condition on which
Lee surrendered-tba he was not to
be disturbed. Grant was under a sol
emn pledge to protect General Lee. He
would have been false to his honor as
a soldier if he had not done it. But
Mr.. Greeley had given no pledge to
JEFF Davis. His act was a voluntary
act. His act was not done for the pur-
pose of redeeming pledge, but to il
lustrate principle. [Applause.l
L am not saying these things TO pro-
nOunce an eulogy on Mr.. Greeley, but
| like independence and moral courage.
In some matters like man that il
yielding, that defers to the opinion OF
| Others, but when it comes to the acts
manhood, then ii is / like to see man
act as becomes a man. That Horace
Greeley has done in his whole history.
There is no political principle i'm this, /
admit; but am just giving this reason
| why Southern man is not incousist-
ent to vote for Mr.. Greeley.
am willing to cooperate with this
Cincinnati movement for another rea-
son, which is for the good that believe
it will accomplish, as evidenced by the
good it has already accomplished. Now
fellow citizens. want TO call your at
tention TO the fact this very move has
already accomplished three important
things. In the first place it has ac-
cOmpiished q large amnesty. The Re-
publican party has refused to pass the
bill removing the disabilities from
Southern people at all. 1t had come
up over and over again. They had
managed to vote it OOwn. Greeley had
always advocated it. When this Gin
cinnati Convention met and passed re-
solutions demanding il, and Grants par
ty saw that the issue would be joined
upon that subject. they promptly pass
ed the bill, and thus disabilities were
removed from all but a few of our
Southern people.
Ny distinguished friend said last
night that he was an outlaw. and that
it was an outrage. Horace Greely says
it is an outrage. Horace Greeley has
always said so. [Applause.] The NOM
inatiOn has stricken the fetters from my
limbs. The election of Horace Greeley
will strike the fetters from yours point
ing to General Toombs. Applause.
ANOTHER GOOD THING.
that this move has accomplished is
this. The most dangerous bill, in my
opinion, ever attempted, for the pur-
pose of centralizing the American Gov
eminent, is known as what is called
the Force bilP'-the Bayoned bill,"
by which the Federal Government
through its own officers, take charge
of the election precincts of the country
throughout the nation. / saw the in
fanny of this measure. | made visit
to New York expressly to beg the
people, the authorities of New York,
when the experiment was first at
tempted upon that State, to resist it,
and it was the passage of that measure,
as one Of the ourages that preceded
and gave rise to this new departure.
hot
then only applied to a few large towns.
General Grant tried the experiment of
enforcing that measure upon New
York. My own opinion was, and the
opinion OF the leading Democrats was,
that if New York submitted to that in
reference With State elections, that
the Republican party would enlarge its
powers, and by 1872 would have a bill
passed which would authorize General
Grant To take control of all the pre-
cincts and declare the election as he
pleased. Sure enough, in 1870 and 1871
an amendatory bill was introduced
and passed enlarging the powers of the
President upon that subject; and du-
ring the last session of Congress bill
was introduced to give the President
authority to take possession of every
election precinct in the United States.
How was that move defeated? 1t was
not altogether defeated; hard struggle
ensued /. was modified, and the most
of its odiOus features were stricken out;
and now, the President, instead of the
right to arrest and imprisOD voters,
without the privilege of hdbeas corpus
riIl the election is over, has no right but
simply to allow men to go and look on
and make report. How was that ac-
complished? BY a coalition-a eombi-
nation Of the Democracy and the Liber-
al Republicans. That victory was won
and that iniquity was defeated APP
% ausel, and / consider one of the great
est victories won. FellOw-citizens, /
congratulate you. His chief machinery
the great engine which was to be put
In the hands of General Grant during
the pending election, by which ho
would be enabled to control it, has
been defeated by the management, by
the combination, by the coalition, if
you please, of the Greeley men and
Democrats. Oh, in the face of such
patent, such glorious truth, how
could look with utter contempt upon
the poor creature that, hyena-like,
could go back into the fair records of
this patriot and dig up some lite things
to object to. feel that this move has
accomplished much for you and me.
Now / don't believe the Democratic
party could have done that, because
Grant was willing to resist TO the last
that party alone, but General Grant
and his party could not resist Greeley
and the Cincinnati Convention united
in this work.
THE THIRD THING.
to which L allude as accomplished by
this move is this: You remember that
at the last session of congress bill was
passed authorizing the suspension of hd-
beas corpus, and the bill was to be in
force till the adjournment of the present
session. Prior to the adjournment, that
party, the Republican party, brought
forward a move for the purpose of con-
tinuing that act i'll force, and it was q
most dangerous blow at the liberties of
the people. Even the bayonet bill
would be shorn of some of its power by
the defeat of the suspension of habeas
corpus; but when the President had the
right to arrest a voter, right at the polls
and imprison him until after the cleo
tion, you see what the consequences
would be. Well, my friends, when the
Republicans brought forward the bill to
prolong this power, again the Democrats