The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1872-03-29
WHOLE NUMBER 674

J, talk you would suppose General Gran
D was vastly superior to such great
!. magnificent statesmen as Poll, Pierce
, and Buchanan. Who is Genera
/ Grant-this man so denounced
, When the war opened he was earning
; a few hundred dollars year tanning
, leather in Galena. He offered his ser
vices to the nation, and they were &C
cepted. He went down to Spring
field and served there three weeks
, helping to enroll and organize the
, regiments they were raising in Illinois
Finally they gave him a regiment.
He had not money enough to buy
sword with which to fight the
battles of his country, nor horse to
ride. You did not know anything
about him; the nation knew nothing
about him; few had heard of him.
He had served in the Mexican war
when a young man, fresh from West
Point, and won two breyets for gallant
conduct, but nobody knew anything
of this humble man. He took his
regiment and marched away. He
never asked anything of the Govern
ment; he never disobeyed an order |;
he never made any complaint He
went straight forward and did his
duty, a quiet, silent, modest man.
About the first thing we heard of
him was that he took about twenty
five thousand men up the Tennessee
river, moved on the enemy's works,
attacked an army of twenty thousand
rebels, and captured fifteen thousand
of them. You next heard of him COM
ing on the field of Shiloh, when it was
nearly lost, and when asked if he had
prepared for q retreat he said that
one boat would take all that would
retreat He defeated the rebel army
that had been nearly victorious. Then
he went down the Mississippi: river,
passed Vicksburg, made movement
into the country, attacked the rebel
armies, captured Vicksburg; and then
you find him at Chattanooga to re-
store lost battle. You have heard
of the magnificent victory he won on
Mission Ridge and Lookout Noun
tain.
He was then brought to Washing
ton, and took command OF the armies
of the country, led the army of the
Potomac through the Wilderness,
fighting every day in the month of
May, 1864. He placed his army
before Richmond, and when the hour
came, moved upon the doomed city,
and received the surrender of the
rebel army at Appomattox. Nine
teen battles behind him, and all VIC
toriesl He did not march his army
to make parade through the rebel
capital, but started off alone, with
his carpet-bag in his hand, for WASH
ington, to stop the raising of troops
and the manufacture of munitions, to
make preparations to disband the
army and save expense, and to save
what he regarded, and what we all
regarded as very important thing,
a general bankruptcy in the country.
We Republicans turned to this man
when Andrew Johnson failed US, and
asked him to be President. He did
not seek the Presidency, he felt and
said that his place at the head of the
Army was the post for him. We
made him President, and it was his
strength and commanding influence
that carried the fourteenth amend
ment. That same potent influence
carried the fifteenth amendment, and
gave the black men the right to vote
in all the States. When q wall of
distress came up from the South,
when poor black men prayed for pro-
lection from the murderous blows Of
the midnight assassins of the Ku-
Klux dens, Congress hesitated, fal-
terd, divided. Then it was that he
came forth with the brief message
that rallied our scattered ranks like
3 battle order. Clothed with author
ity he has striven to protect the weak
against the cruelties of the strong.
Many hundred members of the Ku-
Klux-Klan have been arrested, sever
al have been convicted, or have con-
fessed their guilt, and thirty of those
chiyalric assassins are in the peniten-
.iaries. The men who stood by the
cause of anti-slavery and the pro-
ection of the black man have found
n General Grant a man who has
Itood bravely, steadily, and consis-
entity on the side of freedom and the
EQUAL rights of sll men.
General Grant has now been Pres
dent three years. He has committed
Iome errors, made some mistakes in
lis appointments. But his foreign
md domestic policy, the leading
measures of his Administration, have
,een and are In the interests OF the
country. The masses of the people,
Eho have no personal grievances,
Vho only want good government, see
t, feelit, realizsit. With all its faults,
hey believe we have the most reform
tory, progressive, and best Admin
stration the country has seen for
orty years; and they are right in
heir convictions. But be is followed
y obloquy and reproached. Again
e is passing through the Wilderness
! is darkened, not with the smoke OF
atsles, but the storms of insinuation
nd accusation, detraction and denun-
iation. But he will not call retreat.
he spirit that uttered, when the
anne Of battle opposed his march to
he rebel capital, the inspiring words,
/ will fight it out on this line fit
axes all summer" is yet unbroken,
nd exultant foes may yet find that
mother Appomattox lies before him.
In all the struggles Of last sixteen
ears New Hampshire has been on
he side OF the country and Of liberty.
that "victory clings to
nifty" you Republicans of New
allowed your banners last
ear to trail in the dust. You have
asted the wholesome discipline of
efeat. Now you have the power to
ise again. Forgstting personal in
erests and petty differences, and
nd standing shoulder to shoulder,
on can redeem your State, and thrill
le hearts of your friends through
ut the.lan To you, Republicans
+ my native State, | Iappeal for unity
nd victory. 1 ask you, who main
.;ned the right of petition when it
as cloven down under the lead of
harles G. Atherton you who stood
= John P Hale when smitten by
emocracy for fidelity to liberty;
ou who sternly opposed the wicked
Of 1850; you who re-
sted the repeal of the Missouri COM
-omise when sustained by Franklin
ierce; you who were true to Kan
8 when its skies were illumined by
lie midnight fires of burning cabins,
I'd its virgin soil Redeemed with
ood; you who helped make Abra-
I'm Lincoln President; you who
'llowei the old flag of the Republic
yer many battle-felds; you who
lstained by voice and vote that
rand series OF measures by which
avery was annihilated and the slave
over broken forever; you who help
extirpste caste enfranehise the
lack man, and give equality TO all
IF man. imnlore v0u Ona