Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1872-09-05
Extract from a Speech of Hon.
VIM. johnson, of Cincinnati, at
Columbia, Friday evening, the
23d of August.

II
23d of August.
Mr.. PRESIDENT: I congratulate you
and the country at large on the late
Presidential nominations. For my
self / could not have been better suit
ed If 1 had been authorized to make
a President and Vice President out
| right, 1 should, under all the circum
stances, hame made the same choice
I am growing old, and want to see
peace in my day, and to die in the
hope chat our country may live in
peace till the last sad mark of the late
civil war shall disappear, and the last
disabled soldier in a good old age,
shall be gathered to his fathers.
The magnificent dream of Zoroas-
ter, that the spirit of evil should one
day be destroyed, all the mountains
leYeled down and the earth become
one beautiful extended plain, all ma
tions speak one language, and all peo-
pie living together in peace, harmony
aud love, has not yet been realized;
and yet see no reason why we may
not live in peace for century to come,
We are in no danger from the inva-
sion of any foreign power, and that
which we have to guard against is the
recurrence of civil war. Washington
lays it down as a rule that the best
way to preserve the peace is to be al
ways prepared for war. We may safe
ly lay it down as another rule, that
the best preparation for war is to
place at the head of the army and ma
Wy man who never turned his back
on an enemy, and never was defeated.
| With such a man as U. 5. Grant
With such man at the head of affairs
no hot bio oded seditionist at the South
bent on rule or ruin, no cold blooded
demagogue at the North willing to di
vide the Union, to be President of one
half it., shall ever involve the country
in civil war. Nor shall any band of
disorganizing ruffians 60 unpublished.
With peace and repose all the
wounds of the recent war may be
healed and universal harmony prevail
through the length and breadth of our
beloved country
But l want uniOa as well as peace.
! Destroy the Union and we are no Ion
ger a nation. Once broken, it will
fall into fragments and ruin. Preserve
the Union, and we are the greatest ma
ton on earth. If the finger of God
has written anything on the face of
nature more legibly than another, it is
this; that all the regions from the
Northern lakes to the Gulf Of Mexi-
CO, and from the Atlantic to the Pa.
clfic Ocean, should be one vast en-
pire, where freedom might grow and
expand, and spread its blessings to
the utmost parts of the earth, Such
natural sources of wealth and pros
perity and happiness belong to no
other country. More coal, more iron,
more copper, more lead, more silver,
more gold, .more variety OF climate
soil, fruits, esculents, and grains than
any other country; so connected by
facilities for transportation and travel
that the inhabitants need fear neither
sword, pestilence, nor famine. nor any
other evil but disunion. This union,
of such infinite value to us and to our
posterity, and to the cause of free
dom throughout the world, is to be
/ preserved only by faithful devotion
to the Constitution and the laws. And
who more likely to preserve the
| Union than the nan who has hazarded
his life in so many battles to save it
from destruction?
But it wants prosperity as well as
| peace and unity. In such country
as this no othing is needed to secure
prosperity but law and order-secure-
ty to life; liberty and property, the
natural results from faithful admins
tration of the Constitution and laws
l have been asked what kind of a CON
stitutional lawyer President Grant is.
l have read the Constitution a good
many times, and | think l know what
it means and [ have grown so tired
of solemn -humbugs reading out of if
Leverything but what is in it is a great
relief to me to see it in the hands of a
plain, blunt man, who takes the in
strument light, ally, as if it were a
work of Divine inspiration, and exc
cutes it literally as if he were divinely
stitutional lawyer is U. S. Grant He
has scholarship enough to read and
understand the instrument, and moral
courage enough to execute it faithfully
in every section of the country.
Already, by the blessing of Divine
Providence, under Grants Admins
tration, this country, through all the
East, North, and West, enjoys greater
prosperity than ever was known be
| fore.
l wish more heartily this pros peritN
was as great in the South as it is will
us, for, after all, we are one people
and vitally interested in each other;
prosperity. But the South canno
: enjoy this otherwise universal pros
: perity so long as lawless bands of bad
= men are organized to resist the laws
' to make life and property insecure
) to drive out men of industry, enter
E prise and capital These lawles:
/ bands are enemies to mankind at larg'
+ but far greater enemies to the peopl
F.? of the South than to us; and if there
: were no other reason for electing thi
e man of iron a second term, the assul
ance we have, from what we know o
e him in the past, that he will hold thes
h miscreants in check four years longer
would be sufficient.
c In addition to peace and Uaite
prosperity, l want the public deb
e paid, dollar for dollar and cent fo
d cent, without equivocation. If this
l. not done, the United States will stin
V in the nostrils of the civilized work.
9 Millions of the Government bond
1t held by widows and orphans, meehar
e les and slaborers in limited cireuu
ir stances, as source of little incom
e for the present, and something to ia
n back on in old age. But aside frol