The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1872-07-18
A VOICE FROM THE DEAD.
Summers Slanders Refuted.
Eloquent Tribute to General
Grant, by Secretary Stanton.

, Eloquent Tribute to Genera
Grant, by Secretary Stanton.
1t will be remembered that Sena
tor Sumner, in his so-called "grea
speech" against the President, deliv.
cred in the Senate just before the
Philadelphia Convention, made the
charge that Senator Stanton told
him (Sumner) shortly before his
death, that he "knew Gen. Grant
could not govern this country" Mr.,
Sumner also said, that he then asked
the dying Secretary, why he had
made speeches in favor of Gen.
Grants election in the campaign of
1868, and that Mr.. Stanton replied,
he had never mentioned Gen. Grant
in any of his speeches.
Senators Carpenter, Logan, Con-
king and others replied to Mr.. Sum-
ner a day or two afterwards in the
Senate, and declared that in all their
intimate personal intercourse with
Secretary Stanton, they had never
heard him speak of Gen. Grant in
any but the highest terms of respect
and admiration, and Senator Con-
king read to the Senate the follow
ing extracts from a great speech of
Mr.. Stanton, delivered at Steuben-
vile, Ohio, Sept. %, 1868. 1t will
be very difficult, after reading this
speech, to reconcile it with Mr.. Sum-
ner's assertion, that Mr.. Stanton told
him he never mentioned Gen. Grant
in his speeches.
Let every Republican read the ell
oquent words of the patriotic and in
corruptible Stanton, whose voice has
long been hushed in the silence of
the grave, but who, "though dead,
yet speaketh," to vindicate the name
and fame of our honored President:
"The history of Grant is known to
you and to the whole world. Edu-
Gated at West Point, he served with
distinction through the Mexican
war, and when it was ended, unwill-
ing to be drone, he resigned his
commission, and engaged in the pur-
suits of civil life. Leaving his peace
ful pursuits at the commencement of
the rebellion, he joined the army, and
soon advanced to the rank of Major
General commanding an army. Af-
ter various and important services,
he moved upon the enemy's works,
at Donelson, and compelled their
commander, Buckner, to surrender,
with $4,000 prisoners of war. Soon
after, he grappled with Beauregard
on the field of Shiloh, and drove
him and his routed army from the
field. Resolved to open the naviga-
ton of the Mississippi River, he ran
its batteries, fought and defeated
Gen. Johnston, chased the rebel
General Pemberton into Vicksburg,
and forced him to surrender, with
10000 prisoners of war. Applause
Advanced to the command of all the
armies of the West, he fought and
defeated Bragg at Chattanooga, shat
tered his army and delivered that
vast territory from the hands of the
rebels. Advanced still higher, as
Lieutenant General, he changed his
headquarters to the Potomac. Forty
days marching and fighting through
the Wilderness drove Lee and his
army into Richmond. Compelled
to evacuate that city, Lee was chased
to AppOmattox Court House, and
forced to surrender himself and his
army and men as prisoners of war,
which practically brought the rebell~
ion to an end. Applause And now
1 ask, what reason has any man got
to vote against General Grant? His
capacity and integrity for civil ad-
ministratiOn were equally manifest
in the vast territories in which he op-
Grated. Ia man among you would
hide from the boy the musket and
knapsack that his father carried at
DonelsOu, at Vicksburg, upon Look
out Mountain, throughout the Will
derness, before Richmond, at Five
Forks, at Appommattox Court
House, and, shouldering proudly,
marched with two hundred thousand
of his fellow soldiers through the
streets of Washington and around
the Capitol and Executive Mansion
that he defended with his life for
years in the long march, the weari-
some siege, and the storm of battle
let such a man vote against General
Grant. Applause If there is any
man among you that would blot from
the page of our history the story of
these great achievements, let him
draw black lines around them, and
write across their face: 81 have no
share in those great deeds, for [ vo-
ted against Grant" Applause Is
there any man among you who
would compel the armies of the Po-
tomac, of the banks of the Ohio, of
the Tennessee, and of the Gulf, to be
again gathered at the tap of the
drum, and surrendered as prisoners
of war to Lee andJohnston, Beaure-
gard and Forrest, and Johnston Let
him vote against Grant. Applause. ]
If there is any man among you who
has forgotten that bright summer
Sabbath day when the little Monitor,
as she steamed out against the new
sea monster, the Merrimac, and be-
fore noon drew her shattered and
crinnlad to mort If thnrn IL anu man