The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1872-09-19
] e SPEECH OF sa, .s,a,
SENATOR THURMAN,
At Tifin. O., Sept. g, 1872.

4
Mr.. PRESIDENT AND FELLOW CITI-
zExs Liberal Republican speakers
have addressed Republicans, and Civ
en- satisfactory reasons why they
should vote for Greeley and Brown.
| l, q lifelong Democrat, propose to
speak to-day to Democrats, and give
reasons, satisfactory to me, why they
should vote for the same candidates.
Without stopping to inquire into
the merits or demerits of the candi-
dates for fhe Vice Presidency, ] have
first to observe that our choice for
President is limited to two men
Grant and Greeaey.osNo other man
has the least chance of obtaining a
single electoral vote. We must there
fore vote for one of these two, or
throw our votes away. ,GAnd here
beg leave to remark, that this posture
of affairs was not of my seeking. Il
preferred q straight Democratic tick
ct and a square fight, But i was over
ruled -oyerrpleds not by. politicians,
| for most of them thought as 1 die. but
by the people; 1t is simple folly to
deny the fact that the nomination OF
Greeley at Baltimore was the will ei
a large majority of, the Democratic
party. Upon no other hypothesis can
that unanimous nominate be &C,
counted for. The party believed,
whether enormously or net, that a
Democrat could NOT be elected. And
they further believed that the election
of Gfeeley would be preferable to the
re-eleefioii of Grant.D In this latter
opinion Il fally concur, ana it is to
give the reasons of my zeoncaffeffce
that bspeak TO youto day.sA 10 Telf.
The first qpestfoif thato presents it.
self for consideration is: Can we,
without AN abandonment Of pfinei pie,
vote for Greeley? ?1 IL WEI cannot we
ought Hotlt vote for lhimg Bet wiiefe-
in isl there any such abandonment Of
principle 4 Tie only answer to fhis
question thatoI have heard, is, that
Greeley has always opposed tho Dena9
ocratie party, land has said many hard
and unjust things against ii. The fact
isendeniable, and II our votes for him
wnuid be an ind dofseiEenta0 of his past
opinions W hiche we lave opposed, or
an acknowledgment of the truth of
his .censnres, we would be liable to re-
proach and contempt should we. give
him our support. But our voting for.
him viii imply no such endorsement,
no such ackh8wfed dgment. AS practi-
eal,. sensible and patriotic men it Is
our duty to look at the present and
the future and base our action. not
upon the dead issues or utter
ances of the past, but upon the
living issues OF tire day. what is past
is beyend zrseall1 Whether he was
right or we were right on the issues
that have been finally settled, is nos
the question now. What we are now.
to determine is, how can we best serve
our country-by eiecting Greeley or
by throwing our votes away and dsuf-
fering Grant to be re-elected? Could
we elect whom we please, we would
take neither of them. But we cannot
do that, and being compelled to choose
between the two, there is no abanden-
ment Of principle in voting for him
whose election, we believe, would be
more advantageous to the Republic
than the reelection of the other
When our Radical friends tauntingly.
say: Chow can you support Greeley
o ffe-long opponent and bitter reyil-
ser of the Democracy" how easy 1t
would be to retort and ask: sHow.
could you. friend Radical, support
Grant, lifelong Democrat, in 1868,
and advocate his re-eiection now !?
How can you appfaud Boutwell,, his
Secretary of the Treasury, and Will
Jams his Attorney General, both orig
inaf Democrats |? How is it that more
than one fourth of the Senate of the
United States Is scomposed of original
aDemocrats elected by Democratic
votes. How is it that you Radicals
made Tod, and Breugh Governors of
Ohio AMEN who had been Democrats
all their lives, and who had said quite
as hard things OF y6uFas GFeeley3esA
er said ofus? You haye shown that
you could without d ifficulty forget OF
forgive the past why then reproach
But let us look little into the rec
ord of the past and see whether it con-
tains any insup cradle bar to our sup
port OF Greeley. He was anAboli-
ZIONIST and, we were not. But slavery
has been forever abolished, and so
there is an end to that question. no He
was and is a proteetionist and we are
not. But we haye his assurance that
he will not seek to thwaft the will of
the people on, this subject, and ne one
doubts the sincerity Of his promise.
He advocated the adoption, OF, the
D1Etccutu ATbICl0 Vi kAIueUQfLGUk 70
the Constitution, aboiisising 7slavery.
We made no opposition to its adop-,
ton. y Indeed, Without II, slavery
would have been abolished by the
States themselves. He ad dvocated the
.ments, and we opposed them, not be-
they contained, but because there were
provisions in them ethat. fOC say the
least, were questionable; and we
would not sanction the mode by
which their adoption was sought to
be accomplished. But they have been
adopted, and are recognized as parts
of the Constitution by every depart
ment of the Government. Every law
yer knows that no Court will enter
tain a questionAas to- their vslidity.
ognized as valid by the Supreme
is no longer any question as to them,
except what Interpretation shall be
given to them. And, as to that, dc.
viciousiy than they have been inter-
preted by Grant and his Radical sup
| porters in Congress. Finally, there is
oAOAeSSOhoeA uOs4Oh 4uCotlOu-SV OoiA-
ed-in reference to which we stood
on one side and Greeley on the lother.i
But the econstructionI laws have been
fully executed1 . Every State that
j Joined the ConfedeYscy has been re-
constructed under them and nobody
thinks of overturning the State Gov
ernments thus constituted. So that
question is finally settled. Tr r. q
Youthhs see, my friends, how COM
pletely dead are the chief past issues
upon which we and Greeley have dif-
fered, and what folly il would be 10
let them dictate our course now j., ~
kiBut how is it with the present, liv-
Ping Issues ?1alssa iah gafaiaasHfsaR ,sssif
First, and, for reasons that Z will
briefly state before am done speak
ing, most imp ortants ofall, lis the ques-
ton, How shall perfect reconcilia-
tion be brough about between the
North and the South, and good gov