Rapides gazette. (Alexandria, La.) 1869-187?, 1872-06-08
After the Adjournment.
PNCHBACK. BLACKBURN AND Con
WAY.

WAY.
Lieutenant Governor Pinchback, be-
ing loudly called upon for speech,
spoke as follows:
Conference.-The signs of the times
would seem to Indicate that the Re-
publican party is to be reunited. As
have been mentioned in prominent
position before this convention, gave
my adhesion to it. 1t embraced. my
ideas. Il was i'm keeping with the
speeches / have made during the past
few days, and think the course of
this convention must be approve by
every. true member OF the Republican
party, and harmony can not be OBJ
tanned otherwise. Because I have
been brought forward by the conven-
ton as Lieutenant Governor, and be-
cause it wOuld have seemed that /
wished to precipitate my election, and
because do not wish to foist myself
upon the people, 1 have acted as 1
have done.
j have accepted theresOlutions offer
ed by the committee. These resolu-
tons leave it to any gentleman to
choose for himself. While / have
stood by the State administration, and
will continue to do SO as long as it is
Repr bIican, l do not approve it's ac-
ton in regard to national politics. i
have been accused of being on the
fence. guess | have been somewhat
in that position, because l had not
made up my miGd OH nation politics.
1t has been said that the delegates
of the convention will indOrse Greeley
and Brown. l do not believe they
will. l do not know whether Republi-
cans can afford to 60 outside of their
own party lines. In speech made at
the time the negro convention was
meeting in this very hall, 1 said l
wOuld stand by the nominees of the
Philadelphia convention, but that
should the Cincinnati convention
nominate Charles Sumner, l would
support him. 1t is needless for me to
tell you that they did not choose him.
So l am compelled by MT speech
and other assertions ! have made to
tand by the Philadelphia convention
and accept their nominees. These two
expressions had fixed my status as far
as national politics were concerned,
and l here publicly announce that
| will advocate and support the Phila-
delphia convention, because it is i'm
keeping with the true principles of
my parry, and because 1 believe that
it will nOminale man who will be
fairer to my race that the Cincinnati
nominee. | do not wish to speak
harshly of Horace Greeley. | know
| that for forty years he has labOred for
the emancipation of my race, and that
there is no man IN the country who
has done more to secure for us the
rights We to-day enjoy. Having a
deep sense of gratitude, therefore
shall always endeavor to speak kindly
of him, ard believe that it he is cleo
ted TO the high position for which he
has been nominated, he will give us a
fair and honest government but
would not vote for him because be-
lieve it would be a precedent for the
breaking mp of party lines i'm this
State, which would be highly iniuri-
Gus.
/ believe that the conrse of your
committee on resolutions has been a
proper one, but l do not believe that
the colored people will ever sufficient
ly forget some of the acts of Horace
Greeley towards them to vote for him.
have the speech of Mr.. Voorhees, be
fore me where he says that I'M
der no contingency will he support
Greeley, and that he will try his best
to prevent the Baltimore convention
from indorsfng his nomination, and L
believe that Mr.. voorhees, represents
the views of the greater norton of the
Democrats. There are a number of
honest and good men who may 90 SO
far as vote for Greeley. They are CD.
posed TO Grant on account o. the mill
tary tendency of his rule, and would
rather vote for any one than him. The
number of these, however, is insignif-
cant compared with these who take
the other view of the question
The policy OF the Democrats since
the passage by Congress of the recon
struction acts has been mistaken
one. Had they taken the cOlored peo-
pie by the hand at that time there
would have been no need of any tur-
MOL in the State. But they adhered
to their old policy, and made war
upon us, and the result was that we
looked for such white men as would
assist us in the exercise of our pOiiti-
cal rights, and, therefore, many aliens
have been put into the high Offices of
the State. If we take the utterances
of the paper whose accusations was
unwillingly forced to answer this at
ternOOn, l fear they have learned no
lesson from their past experience. But
if they have, and are willing to benefit
by it, l have no doubt that We can
have fair and honest election, and
can return such men to Office as no