The Opelousas courier. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1852-1910, 1872-05-25
THE NOMINEES OF THE CINCINNA-
TT CONVENTION BEFORE CON-
GRESS.-SPEECH OF DAN VOOR-
HEES.-THE REAL CHARACTER
OF GREELEY EXPOSED.

UhLCO.-OT EECH OF LIAM fOOR
, HEES.-THE REAL CHARACTE]
: OF GREELEY EXPOSED.
Washington, May I3th.-HoUsE. Mr.
voorhees, rising to personal explana
ton, sent to the Clerks desk and had rea,
= newspaper paragraph from the Wash
ington Republican to the effect that b.
was halting and hesitating as to the DO
sition he should take on the question o
supporting Mr.. Greeley, and that as hi
Democratic colleagues were all said tt
be in favor of Greeley he was likely to
lose the favor of the district where his
voice had so long been potential. He
declared that he did not halt or hesitate
that be had not halted or hesitated when
he had not more than fourteen Democrtic
colleagues in the House, nor did he now
If he could ever be tempted to abandon
the principles of his political life, it might
have been then as to the nominee of the
Cincinnati Convention. Whoever be-
lieve in the high protective tariff prin-
ciples of its chief man might support him
but he (Voorhees) would not. Was he ex-
pected to support Mr.. Greeley because he
had been the lifelong champion of doc
trines of which he (Voorhees) opposed
Was he excepted, as Weston man repre-
sentiDg Western laboring constituency
that was ground down by high protect
i've tariff monopoly, to support the great
champion of protection?
Was he expected to support man who
had been the most clamorous advocate in
all the land for that Ku- Klux legislation
which had desolated the homes of the
Southern people If Mr.. Greeley's nomi
nation promised relief to that blasted and
downtrodden section, there was not much
which he (Voorhees) would not forego to
subserve so holy and so benign purpose
But Mr.. Greeley has been the earnest ad-
vocate of the legislation which had paral-
yzed and Frustrated the South, and was
that the reason why he should get his
support.
He was told that the present Admin
lstratlon had been cruel and unkind to
the South, but the Administration had
simply executed a law which the Cincin-
matt nominee had dictated to Congress,
that was all the difference between them
--one was the Executive officer acting
under his oath of Office to execute the law,
and the other was man who had no oath
ON his conscience in regard to the matter
but who had urged the passage of this
legislation. Was he expected to support
Mr.. Greeley because within recent date
he desired still further extention of the
Presidents power to suspend the writ of
habeas corpus all over the South.
Was he expected to support him be-
cause he was the earnest and urgent Ad-
vocate of the present force bayonet cleo
'tion law that subjected every voting pre-
cinct of 10000 people to the supervision,
and in certain contingencies, to the con-
troll Of the military? Was he expected to
support him because two months ago the
Tribune had clamored and urged it (his
great organ) in favor of q law to place
the local election in the State ofNew York
under Federal control, and also in GER
tain contingencies under military con-
troll?
Was such q man fit to receive his vote
for the Presidency? Was such man fit
to fill that high place? Was that the
voice of statemanship which was called
for at this hour? Was that the reform
that had been promised! Was he to go
before the united sentiment of the coun-
try, and appeal to it in favor of man
who stood on the record for the "inaliena-
ble right" of State or of "a community to
dissolve the Union
Was he, as friend of the Southern peo-
pie, called upon to vote for man who,
during the entire fall and winter of 1860,
wrote with all his acknowledged power in
favor Of the inalienable rights of any dis
satisfied portion of the country to break
up the Union and form another Govern
ment for themselves ? Mr.. Greeley had
not recanted those opinions, but on the
contrary, in his book on "The American
Conflict" in 1864, he had analysed them
and defined them to this effect, that if on
consultation convention and the like, the
South still desired with any considerable
approach to unanimity to separate, it
should be allowed to do so
Mr.. Speer, of Pennsylvania, objected
that the remarks were not in nature of
a personal explanation, but the Speaker
overruled the objection, and Mr. voorhees,
proceeded with his speech amid great ex-
citement and confusion, which rendered
much Of what he said inaudible at the re-
porter's desk. Herepeated that Mr.. Cree
ley, after three years of war, had still
held and published the same sentiments.
Was man fitto be President who stood
committed to the doctrine that whoever
desired to dissolve their connection with
the Government had the right to do DO !?
That might commend him to some people;
but it would not when his subsequent
course was called to mind. Some of the
highest men of the South had told him
(Voorhees) with tears in their eyes that
more than any one thing satisfied them
that they could have separate system
and form of government to suit them
selves, was the voice of the then victo-
rious Republican party, speaking through
its acknowledged organ.
And yet when the Southern people did
what this man had told them they had the
inalienable right to do, no wild beast,
hungry for his blood, ever screamed athis
prey as he (Greeleyl had shouted on to
Richmond kill every one of them for
doing what he told them they had the in
alienable right todo. That was solemn
page of history which could only be re-
Vised. The waters of the ocean could not |
wash it out. Mortal man could not gain
say it
A Red Sea of blood had not been enough I
to satisfy them, but he had also insisted /
upon the confscation of the homes and
property of the women and children in
the South. Others might do as they /
pleased, but for him fV0nrhansl anil his |