The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1872-07-24
MIKE O'Connor In Baltimore.

Charleston, S. o., as also full page il
lustration of the interior Of Ford's Opera
House, during the stirring address of
the honorable gentleman before the Bal
timore Convention. Mr.. O'Conner ad-
vanced to the platform and said:
GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTIONS:
profoundly regret that there should be
any division of opinion, either upon the
platform OF principles or upon the can
didates, in this solemn juncture OF our
national affairs. The whole nation is at
present in crisis when all issues should
be merged In one great and overshadow-
Ing issue-tho defeat of the present ma
tlonal Administration, that the Republic
may no longer suffer any detriment.
men, the great changes which have
taken place in the last eight years, tend
ing to the gradual Capitalization of this
Government i'll all it's departments, in vite
an unsorupulous Executive to commit
acts of usurpation and tyranny that now
endanger the very existence of American
liberty. In the rapid march of those
events many of the ancient landmarks
OF all political organizations have been
swept away and entirely forgotten, while
many others of those land marks have
been comparatively modified and
changed. The constitutional amend
ments which were by this Convention
denounced as unconstitutional and revo-
1utionary, and void, have been accepted
by nearly all the State Conventions as
fixed facts, and accepted by the organs
of all shades of political opinion
throughout the country. lApplause.
The fifteenth constitutional amendment
the amendment which decreed uni
versal suffrage; that amendment which
was felt more seriously, perhaps, in our
State than in any other-I say that
amendment. which was at first threaten
ed to be obliterated, has now been &C.
guessed in as public expression of the
public will; and say to you that it
never can be successfully controverted,
and never will be. Loud cheering.
MIR. President, public opinion is higher
than all governments, and higher than
all conventional principles. and before
its rising tide old landmarks must dis
appear and new ones be established.
lCheers. I say it is just as impossible
to establish government over men as it
ls In nature to create men without pass
ing from infancy to manhood, and with
out being conscious of the growth of
public opinion as Of the changes of the
stations; and here is the great Demo
cratic party to-day, with it's glorious as
sociations clinging to her name and her
character. and the whole nation beyond
and outside OF her appealing to her to
lay upon the altar Of common country
ell past antagonisms. Loud applause.
We have not come here to organize o
movement for single State or single
section, but to organize a movement for
the salvation Of the whole country.
Though South Carolina may be crushed
almost to humiliation by the mass that
ls weighing her down, and though sister
states OF the South may be exhausted
by the expressions of Radical Govern
ment. we will hope for better things.
What is the picture of to-day? We have
PRESIDENT who does not present him
self IN the gulse OF simple civilian. but
arrays himself in the epaulettes of
general; who one day thrusts his often
sive threats in the face of England. and
the next ignominiously strikes the Ame-
rican oolors; who one day truckIes to
Granville and Gladstone, and the next
orders his General Sickles to threaten
the weak GovernmentofSpain. Kisses. ]
l say to you that these great, these tre-
<ASANoNc ACooOCS MO ouLuOlout W unIC6
the whole nation in one body, an invin-
cible alliance to defeat this unhallowed
government. fear that have tres
passed almost too much upon your
time-["Go on, go onl"i-but I beg
leave to say for South Carolina that she
hopes to be able to clasp hands with the
North over the bloody ohasm left by the
war, and she expects to do it in the
election Of Horace Greeley. Let me say
this tcr The gentleman OF Delaware: Til.
thirteenth amendment is naught, be-
cause all the States have ratified the
abolition Of slavery. The fourteenth
amendment is practical nullity in con.
sequence of the late amnesty Act, and
will become complete nullity when
Horace Greeley is elected. [Applause. I
And as to the fifteenth amendment let
me say to the gentleman from Delaware
that while our State has to endure what
he 80 much objects to-negro suffrage,
&c.-I would be the last man, and 1
depreoate the day when any party in this
republic will ever enroll upon its banner
the principle or wrest from the 4, 900, 900
Africans that boon which has been given
to them to-day. IApplause.] Let them
have it, and We will accommodate our