American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-08-10
An Eloquent Appeal.

An Eloquent Appeal.
A LARGE and enthusiastic mass-meet-
ing was held at Columbus, Ohio, a few
evenings ago, to choose Presidential
Electors and ratify the nomination of Gree
ley and Brown. The meeting was adj
dressed by Governor B. Gratz Brown and
Colonel Grosvenor of Missouri. From the
latter's speech we extract the following:
THE APOSTLES OF HATE.
The desperate schemers who surround
Grant have but one hope-to make the peo-
pie crazy with fear and passion. Listen to
the hoarse cries of Senator Morton, ac-
knowledged champion of the Administra-
tiOn-"The battle must be once more be-
tween the blue and the grayF' Only eyes
drunk with passion, Mr.. Speaker, can see
uniforms either blue or gray. Only hearts
filled with selfish and fendish purpose can
country the hatreds of a civil war. See the
malignant Conkling, the brutal Chandler,
and Cameron, the prince of plunderers,
waving frantically the red flag Of battle, that
men may fall to fighting again! Read the
papers hired by patronage to sacrifice peo-
pies welfare to the success of faction. How
they labor to convince men that the war is
not yet ended? Work with your might, in
flames of civil strife. Blow the dying en-
bers of hatred as long as you have breath in
your bodies. For whenever love proves
stronger than hate, and reconciliation brings
end forever. You cannot make the whole
people drunk again. Scripture does not
say, BLESSED are the war makers"
grant there have been some disorders at
the South. Did you expect that the pas
sions of civil war, intensified by defeat,
would vanish utterly within seven years?
Show me one instance in all the history
of human strife where that has hap
peaten soom have dome lone much
to restore order and hasten pacification as
these of the South! When our war closed,
Europe looked back over her own bloody
cutions and a generation of guerilla war
fare" Europe stands amazed, not that we
have some disorders, but that we have so
few. Desperate men are found; wicked
of beaten and disbanded armies. Did any
expect prejudice of color, nourished for
ages, to be eradicated by one act of Con
gress? Then let us purge the land of all sin by
enacting, BE ye pure - In spite OF these
dice, in spite of fiery climate and habits of
mastery which always gave to society at the
South peculiar turbulence, better order than
ever before is maintained by the people in
nearly all that region. Is it just, is it gen
erous, because some violent men still give
vent to bad passions in bad deeds, to brand
whole people with infamy and load them
with chains ? Look at your laws as Grant
uses them! Disgraceful to free people,
dangerous to our liberties, fit only for the
order-book of a conqueror, what are they
but brands of shame and chains of servitude
for whole people If they punished the
guilty only, no matter how severely, they
would be just But you strip whole people
of self-government and of the defences of
personal freedom. You put the lives and
fortunes of the best at the mercy of any ig-
norant, suspicious or revengeful witness.
And then you get very angry because these
people do not unanimously and devotedly
love you How can you wonder If the tax
payers unite against creatures who use the
Republican name for organized pillage! Yet
every vote against them, the apostles of the
gospel of eternal hate represent as vote
for a new Rebellion. They compel opposi-
ton by misrule, and then make that opposi-
ton the excuse for further oppression. Is it
not base, in defence of such oppressors and
plunderers, to appeal to Northern sympathy
for Union men of the South Is it not cruel
to quote every turbulent act of isolated
violence, every hot protest against corrup-
ton, proofs of the disloyalty of a whole
people ? Yet, by these false and heartless
appeals to Northern patriotism and Northern
fear of reaction, the ruling faction hopes to
sustain its despotism for four year more.
And our only hope is in the return of calm
justice, and the revival of fratcrnal feeling.
Who can tell what four years more of cen
tralization, emboldened by popular verdict,
would bring to people still more de
bauched by corruption and demoraliZed by
acquiescense Our liberties, bound up with
those of the Southern people, can be defend
| ed only by that reconciliation which will
| bring genuine peace only by such restor-
alton of local self government as will de-
| stroy at once this centralized power which
rules both party and country.
Us HAVE PEACE
Yes, President Grant, we demand and
mean, at the ballot-box, to conquer that
peace which you promised, but have not
given. In 1868, we needed statesman, but
we chose a soldier; to solve the most deli
cate problem ever presented in our civil his
| tory, we took man of whose fitness for
| civil administration we knew nothing. To
| complete the triumph of Republican ideas we
| took man who had never cast a Republican
| vote Tell me, you who voted for Grant, as
did was il in reward for splendid services The
| Presidency is not "A reward, but a trust Con
sidering what we have lost in value of South
| ern farms alone, it would have been far
cheaper had we given him life pension OF
ten millions a year. No, it was because the
people expected from him n genuine peace
based on the power to defend and the mag
nanimity to pacify. Did he not promise
both: ''Let us have peace" Sir, tell the
people where is that peace. What mean
these drum beats rising from military garri
sons all over the South? Is your peace only
such as bayOnets can give? Why do Fedora
officials drag away prisoners to Northern
| prisons in punishment for State oiIenscs
| Have local governments vanished as in time:
Of war? Why are your soldiers arrestinl
| men by the hundred just before State cleo
tiObl Louis Napoleon invented that kind o
peace; have you imported it, now
that France tolerates it longer
What these armed men abou
the polls? Have even the solemn sacr;,
nents of civil government grown warlike il
the name of peace Since the Barons wrcst
ed the hobeas co,7Dns from King John in th'
gray morning of English history, only il
cases of instruction has yondcr monarchy
dared to set aside that great writ. Yet, il
these United States, after three years of sucl