Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-08-14
Gke aag spp d0uest aolonesoap alung Angus Il, 1872


preteXt a sham," and ''its real object to hand
over the state TO the sham democracy" In the
convention at Cincinnati, Mr.. Brown has but
| repeated himself.
| Contrast with this record the life and services
Of Henry Wilson. We all know him through
and through. What life OF laborl What a
life of service! What life of honorl From a
humble day laborer at the shoemaker's bench,
he has become one of the lealers of the senate.
Passionatey fond of knowledge, he has become,
seli-taught, perhaps the best informed mau in
the country in her political history. passion
ate lover of liberty, he ranged himself early on
the unpopular side, and, by his labor and organ
izing power, has done more than any one man
in the country to build up the great party that
abolished slavery. Never resting, never think
ing anything done while aught remained TO do
in the service of freedom, he has crowded into
one life the labors of ten. Hardly populous
locality in the north, that is not familiar with
his voice. His congressional lab0rS have been
equally great. Gen. Scott declared that in the
one short session of 1861, as chairman of the
committee on military affairs, he did more than
had been accomplished by all previous chairmen
for twenty years.
returned to Massachusetts,, and by his
personal labors raised two thousand three
hundred men, Among the numerous bills
introduced by Henry Wilson was one to raise
five hundred thousand men for three years to
enforce the laws, one to increase the pay of pri-
vate soldiers one to facilitate the discharge of
disabled soldiers, one to improve the organiZa-
ton of the cavalry forces, one, second BILL to
increase the pay of soldiers. This bill caused an
| increase of five dollars per month. One to in
corporate a national military and naval asylum
for disabled officers and soldiers; one to accept,
organize and arm colOred men for military
| purposes, and to make free the mothers wives
and children of all colored soldiers, one provid-
ing that all colored persons should, on being
| mustered into the United States service, become
| free, one to incorporate a national freed
| mans bank. He introduced the bill which
| abolished slavery in the district of Columbia,
and which became a law April 16, 1862, thereby
| making 5000 slaves free forever and slavery for
ever impossible in the national capital. The
| bill to make colored persons a part of the mill
| tia, and 10 authorize the president to receive
them into the military and naval service, and
| TO make free the mothers, wives and children of
| all such persons, was introduced by Henry Will
son, and passed July II, 1862. He advocated
the emancipation of the slaves of the south as
| far back as 1885. He introduced provision,
which became law on the 21st of March, 1892
providing that persons of color in the district of
| Columbia should be subject to the same laws
| to which white persons were subject; that they
| should be tried for offences against the laws in
| the same manner in which white persons are
| tried, and if convicted to be liable to the same
| penalty, and no other TO which white persons
| would be liable for the same offence. This act
nuli6ed the brutazing, degrading and inhu-
| man black code of the district. He introduced
| nnumerabe bills securing to the soldiers
| their bounties, pensions, back pay and all other
| rights which they so dearly earned. In addi-
| ton to his vast labors in congress he Travelled
| through the states and delivered more than one
| hundred speeches in support of the war and in
vindication of the anti-Slavery policy of the gov
| eminent.
For thirty-two years he has toiled in public
| life for the right he culture and elevation of
| all men, without distinction OF race or color,
| When the amendment to the enrolment act was
pending in the house, it was so amended as to
| make colored men, whether free or slave, a part
of the national forces, and their masters were to
/ receive bounty when they should give freedom
to slaves who might be drafted into the service
| In the committee of conference Mr. Wilson
| moved that the slaves drafted INTO the service
| should be made free by the authority of the
| government the moment they entered it.
His motion was agreed to, it became the law OF
| the land, and Gen. Palmer reported that in Ken
| lucky alone more than twenty thousand slaves
| were made free by it.
| Mr.. Wilson introduced bill which became a
| law, making the wives and children of colored
| soldiers free, and Gen. Palmer, then command
| ing the United States forces in Kentucky, in an
official report, made six months after the pas
| sage of that act, estimated that $4,000 women
| and children were made free by it. Tens of
| thousands of the wives and children OF such
| soldiers in the states Of Delaware, Maryland,
| West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and
| Missouri were thus made free under Mr.. Wilson's
measures. Mr.. Wilson introduced into the apt
| preparation bill of 1864 section providing tha-
| who had been or who might be mustered into
the military service should receive the same uni
| form, clothing, arms, equipments, rationS, med
| zeal attendance and pay as white soldiers He
reported from the committee of conference, TO
| which had been referred the bill in relation to
| the freedman's bureau, an entirely new bill, to
| establish in the war department bureau
| for the relief of freedmen and refugees,
| which bppamp q law uu1pr which that
| benfcent instrumentality, the freedman's
| bureau, was organized. On Mr.. Wilson's
| motion, the provision was adopted that
| the land sold for taxes in South Carolina
should be divided into lots of forty acres each
| and sold at low rates, under which act many
| freedmen obtained homesteads. Mr. Wilson in
| trOduced the bill abolishing peonage in New
| Mexico, the provision striking the word white
| from the militia law, and Giso tue measure that
| in the reconstructed states. MIR. Wilson intro
| duced in 1868 a bill, which became a law, lncor-
poratiug an institution for the education of col
| ored youth in the District of Columbia, the act
| incorporating the Howard university, and also
| the act TO incorporate the Fteedmen'S savings
| bank. Mr.. Wilson also introduced many other
| measures in relation TO slavery, and the rights
| of persons OF COLOR either as independent meas.
| ures, or as amendments to measures introduced
| DO others. This list of his laborS has been TAX
| en- from the records by another hand.
Add to all this that, though poor, amid vast
| opportunities, his hands have been free from the
| suspicion of a STAIN Social and GENIAL, travel
| ing day and night, living for sixteen years in
| the temptations of Washington, his simple and
| temperate life is one which you may we'll hold
| up for your children's imitation.
Such are the quettionr and such the candi-
| dates. But it is not the merits of the candidates
| alone that is to determine your choice. You
| cannot, if you would, separate the candidate
| from his supporters. From the ranks of those
who support hiU will the president select his
| cabinet and his subordinates. Nearly one-third
| of the senate is to be elected within six months
His triumph will bring into the senate, from
| every state where he is successful, men selected
| from the same ranks. The same ranks will
| close together in the choice of the entire house
| of representatives. So clearly is this understood
| by your opponents, that Mr.. Summers letter,
| nominally addressed to a few coored men in
| Washington, where they have no vote for pres
| ident, was in fact so timed as to secure, if
possible, the election of Zeb Vance TO the SEN
| at9,-an uncompromisng and uurepentant
rebel, who desired to ell hell so full of Yankees
| that their feet would stick out of the windows"
| and OF eight democratic representatives, one OF
| them the brother of Vance, over the candidates
! of the colored men and the loyal republicans
| Mr.. Greeley, reconsidering his purpose, wrote a
| letter of acceptance in which he complained Of
| Gov Vances exclusion from the Senate, when
| previously elated.
| Now, who are the men who make up the party
| of Mr.. Greeley, and whom his election would
bring into power? cannot better describe
them than in the language of Mr.. Sumner de-
| scribing the party OF Andrew johnson: "Org-
nal partisans of slavery, north and south,
| habitual compromises of great principles; ma
| lgners of the Declaration of Independence;
| politicians without heart; and promscUous
| company who at every stage of the battle have
set their faces against equal rightsr-these are
his allies II is the troop Of slavery Nth a te'o
| recruits"
| ! do not forget that in all this | am compelled
| to differ with one with whom for my whole po-
litical life hitherto it has been my pleasure to
agree on all questions of national policy.
would not speak of him otherwise than with
| honor. The habits Of lifetime are too strong.
| | cannot name in public life the name of Charles
| Sumner and words Of eulogy not spring, unbid-
den, to the lips. He has been a brave, persist
| ent, honest advocate of liberty. He has stood
| on lofty height. He never has appealed to u
mean motive in the people, and has never, am
sure, been consciously guided by one him
| self. But we cannot give up our Judgment even
| to his IL there is any one lesson to be learned
| from his life it is the lesson of Independence.
| Woe to that people who in grave public emer-
gencius trusts 10 any judgment butts own. The
| people of Worcester have delighted to act with
Mr.. Sumner since he made his first speech in
| 1S4S But they have followed their own con-
vctons, not yielded even TO his authority. Some
| of you have been engaged in the warfare for