Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1872-03-28
Sp eech of Senator Wilson.

Just preceding the recent election in
New Hampshire Senator HENRY WILSON
of Massachusetts, made speech at Great
Falls, from which we take the following
extract;
At the breaking out of the rebellion
Ulysses s. Grant went down to Spring
field and served there for some weeks,
helpidg to enroll and organize the regi-
ments they We're raising in Illinois. FL
nally, they gave him a regiment de had
not money enough to buy him a sword
with which to fight the battles of his
country, nor a horse to ride You did
not know anything about him; few had
heard Of him He had served in the Mex
lean war when a young man, fresh from
West Point, and won two brevets for gal
liant conduct, but nobody knew anything
Of this humble man. He took his regi-
ment and marched away. He never ask
ed anything of the Government; he never
disobeyed an order; he never made anv
complaint. He went straight forward and
did his duty, quiet silent, modest man
About the first thing we heard of him
was that he took about twenty-five thou
sand men up the Tennessee river, moved
on the enemys works, attacked an army
Of twenty thousand rebels, and captured
fifteen of them You next heard of him
coming on the field of Shiloh when it was
nearly lost, and when asked if he had pre-
pared for retreat. He defeated the rebel
army that had been nearly victorious
Then he went down the Mississippi river,
passed Vicksburg, made a movement in
the country, attacked the rebel armies,
captured Vicksburg; then you find him
at Chattanooga to restore a lost battle
You heard of the magnificent victory he
won on Mission Ridge and Lookout
Mountain.
He was then brought to Washington,
and took command of the armies of the
country. led the army of the Potomac
through the wilderness, fighting every
day in the month of May, 1864 He plac-
ed his army before Richmond, and when
the hour came, moved upon the doomed
city, and received the surrender of the
rebel army at Appomattox. Nineteen
battles behind him, and all victorious !
He did not march his army to make pa
rade through the rebel capital, but started
off alone, with his carpet-bag in his hand,
for Washington, to stop the rising of
the troops and the manufacture of NUM-
titions, to make preparations to disband
the army and save expense, and to save
what he regarded, and what we all regard
ed as a very important thing, a general
bankruptcy in the country.
We Republicans turned to this man
when Andrew johnson failed US, and ask
ed him to be President. He did not seek
the Presidency; he felt and said that his
place at the head of the army was the post
for him. We made him President, and it
was his strength and commanding inf1u-
ence that carried the Fourteenth Amend
ment. The same pointed influence car
ried the Fifteenth Amendment, and gave
the black man the right to vote in all the
States. When wall of distress came up
from the South, when poor black men
prayed for protection from the murderous
blows of the midnight assassins of the
KuKlux dens, Congress hesitated, falter-
ed, divided. Then it was that he came
forth with the brief message that rallied
our scattered ranks like battle order.
Clothed with authority he has striven to
protect the weak against the cruelties OF
the strong. Many hundred members of
the KuKlux Klan have been arrested, sew
eral have been convicted, or have confess
their guilt, and thirty of those chivalric
assassins are in the penitentiaries. The
men who have stoodfby the cause of anti
slavery and the protection of the black
man have found in General Grant man
who has stood bravely, steadfastly, and