Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1872-08-08
Speech by Senator Wilson.

In recent speech at Wilmington, N.
c., Senator Wilson, Republican candi-
date for Vice-President, said:
Five years ago last May, just after the re-
construction measures had passed, visited
your city and addressed several thousands
of your fellow citizens. | return here after
five years of listening to the stories of the
ruin of North Carolina and the despotism of
the Federal Government; but I find that
your city has increased in prosperity and
your condition improved. I cannot see, nor
do you feel, this despotism of the United
States Government. l come here to utter
the sincere convictions of my heart. / do
not come to tell you that every Republican
is good man and every Democrat a bad
man. There are good and pure men in each
party, and there are also bad and ignoble
men in both parties. But the country is ar
rayed to-day in two grand organizations;
each have their policies and principles; they
are arrayed against each other.
l do not propose to say anything against
Mr.. Greeley or Mr.. Brown; they are both old
political and personal friends. Grant and
Greeley are before you; but the contest is
not between men, but between the ideas and
principles of these two grand organizations.
Some men will tell you, "You can vote the
Baltimore and Cincinnati ticket and claim to
be Republicans" but you could as well have
been in Lees army and say that you had
fought for the banner of the Union. A vote
for Greeley is vote to defeat the Republican
party, and it means not only the defeat of
that party, but its determination. They say
we have just begun to live, and we
will live thousand years. We have
three and a half million votes, and
this three and a half million we
Z intend to give for Grant. But what has this
Organization done that it should die? Has
/. it committed crime against God or human
ity? Has it not done more for the country,
for liberty, to lift up down-trodden humanity
and to make the United States grand and
glorious, than any other organization that
ever existed on Gods green earth? Go to
England, and you will find no champion of
popular rights there but admires the Repub-
lican party of this country Go to GERMANY,
France, and every European State, and you
will find that the men of progressive ideas
there are in sympathy with the Republican
party of the Western World. It appeals to
the higher and nobler sentiments of man.
The Republican party fough through four
years of War to strike the fetters from every
man in the country. With this spectacle be-
fore US, there are men in the country who
come in and say that that party has done its
work, and must give way to those who have
opposed every measure that it has accom-
plished; but we have a greater work before
us than ever emancipation was-to change
the hearts of three millions of American
Democrats. The Republican party has been
in the right in every issue it has maintained
since it's existence; but if we are to die, let
us before we perish do something toward
convertingst Democrats. Something has
been done towards that already, for just he
other day they went into convention at Balti-
more and nominated two Republicans.
In the course of my political career, l
have visited twenty-seven States, and ad-
dressed 300 assemblages, and never, in my
life, have written a line or uttered a SEN
tence tending to degrade any man, black or
white. God made us all, and I care not
whether man be black or white, recog-
nize in him brother. have voted with
the Republican party because it advocates
this idea. l was born Democratic boy my
father was Democrat; but when became
of age, went heart and soul with the mob,
the denounced anti-slavery men.
have acted with the Democratic party
and against it, with the Whig party and
against it; but have made the cause of lib
erty the supreme doctrine Of my life. After
many years of struggling, the great Repub-
lican party was brought into existence to
uphold this great priHciple, and has pursued
its work steadily. We have now arrived at
the summit, but have yet to put the crown
: ingswork upon it. wish Democrats would
right-we wrong we confess our errors,
and hope you will accept our faith, but they
must prove this by the campaign. They are
preparing for it, and in the next four years
may have shown themselves worthy to be
with us. Holy Writ says: "a tree shall be
judged by its fruits" but they have got no
fruits that we can touch yet. They have, it
is true, given us words in the past few days
but words are not fruits.
- We propose to elect Grant for four years
longer, and Congress to support his Ad-
ministration. Let the Greeley men work
and talk. we are going to beat you, but we
can't trust you You may be right now,
but you were wrong yesterday; and prove
gress and vote for Summers civil rights bill,
and help to build up the country, and make
this what it is fast becoming-the grandest
Government on the face of the earth. Dem
ocrats, stop talking about the despotism OF
the Federal Government, when you know
=. there is no despotism. You cannot open
: any book of history and show where any
government on the face of the earth has
been so merciful. No man can stand uI
here to-day and assert to the contrary
From the time of Adam and Eve there has
been disposition on the part of one set Of
men to eat bread, not in the sweat of thei