The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-08-20


no bunglers, but shrewd at a bargain, and
sure to get good security for promise. Inc
corner stone of their policy is to repudiate our
debt, or assume their own. We shall surely
hear that advocated. We shall probably see
Jefferson Davis in the Senale, and certainly
have his agents in the Cabinet. This is to
put in peril all the war has gained. / am not
ready for such an experiment. An old friend,
now residing in Georgia, who stood, rifle in
hand, in Kansas all through that fight, told
me, lust after the Cincinnati convention:
''Sir before Grant arrested those twenty
kuklux i'm North Carolina never slept with
out loaded musket at my bed head, and
never ventured into the village unless fully
armed. Since that stern interference in
North Carolina /, euen afdr off in Georgia,
sleep and walk about as safe, careless and free
as you do here"
IF Greeley is elected, l suppose" said /,
"you'll load those reyolvers again."
'Never-I know, by southern boast, what
that election means. I'll never risk living in
Georgia under Greeley-Pll sell out and come
north.''
Such is the testimony of loyal man in the
South! That is how it looks in Georgia!
Gentlemen, have another interest in
Grants election. The anti-slavery cause was
only portion OF the great struggle between
capital and labor. Capital undertook to own
the labor. We have broken that up. If
Grant is elected, that dispute, and all ques-
tions connected with it, sink out of sight.
All the issues of the war are put beyond de-
bate, and clear field is left for the discussion
of the labor movement. l do not count much
on the recognition of that movement by the
Republican convention, though / gratefully
appreciate it. But see in the bare success
itself of Gen. Grant the retiring of old issues
and the securing of place for new ones.
If Greeley is elected, 1--WE shall spend the
next four years in fighting over the war quar-
rels, constitutional amendments, negroes
rights, State rights, reputation and Southern
debts. And we shall have beside contempt
uous ignoring of the labor question. Its
friends were at Cincinnati. The convention
scorned their appeals, and Mr.. Schurz himself
affirmed that labor was not ga live issue"
President Grant means peace, and opportuni-
ty to agitate the great industrial questions
of the day. President Greeley means the
scandal and wrangle of Andy Johnsons
years over again, with secession encamped in
Washington.
The saddest line to me of Mr.. Summers
letter was where he warns you colored men
not ito band together in a hostile camp, and
keep alive the separation of racesr' The ne
gro. robbed, tortured, murdered, trodden un-
der foot, defenceess in unressting submits
sion-who has the heart to charge him with
an lots of the guilt of excepting alive the
separation of p, Surely this lamb has
never shown any hate or any undue preju-
dice against the wolf. The Senator used to
think all the fault was ON the other side.
We put aside with the scorn it deserves the
insult implied in preaching to us forgiveness
and Cancellation. Andersonville and Libby
Prison are still living horrors. Beside the
thousands who starved there, hundreds drag
out weary lives in our streets, poisoned all
through by that dread cruelty. The graves
of seven white native Georgian loyal men,
ruthlessly shot down in the streets, are hard
ly yet covered. The first-born of hundred
thousand households are still freshly mourn
ed. Till within year, throughout half the
South, the negro was robbed, tortured and
murdered with impunity, the southern press
glorying in the atrocities. Meanwhile, thanks
to the unparalleled mercy, the unutterable
generosity of the nation-ninety-nine out of
every hundred Confederate soldiers enjoy to-
day all the rights they had before the war.
Jefferson Davis and his assassins-the real
jdtLOrs of Andersonville and Libby
eShame on those cruel eyes
That bore to look torture
And dared not look on war"
still liye-unharmed in peaceful possession of
every right the law can give, except that of
lifting their hands against the government
which has spared them. 1 dare not afix the
epithet l think fitting to that mood of mind
which deems it necessary and becoming to
preach to such a community the duty of for
giveness!
We do forgive. We have forgiven. But
duty to the dead and to the negro forbds us
to trust power to any hand without undoubt-
ed, indubitable certainty that such hands are
trustworthy. If we fail in this caution we
shall only have decoyed the negro into dan
ger and left him doubly defencelesS 1 wish
my voice could be heard by every colored
man down to the the gulf; not because they
need my advice. No; they understand and
see their danger. But l should like to rally
them to help us, a second time, to save the
nation. 1 should say to them: "Vote, every
one OF you, for Grant, as you value property,
life, wife or child. If Greeley is elected, arm,
concentrate, conceal your property-but or
ganize for defence. You will need it coon
and sadly"
Workingmen, rally now to save your great
question from being crowded out and post
poned another four years.
Soldiers, at the roll-call in November, let
no loyal man fail to answer to his name. We
decorate our loyal graves with worse than
empty ceremonies, if over them we clasp
hands with still revengeful enemies. When
parties and politicians betray us, do you rally,
as you did before, and under the same 0redt
captain to save the state.
If Grant is defeated, am not sure we shall
see traitors in the capitol parting the nations
raiment and casting lots for its flag But we
are sure to see Congress full of traitors, and
in the White house their tool Let every
man who would avert the danger vote for
Grant. WENnETT PtIITrrr,c