The Shasta courier., 1872-09-21
Extract from the Speech Of
hon. JOHN A. LOGAN
Delivered in the Senate of the
United States, June 3, 1872.
IN REPLY TO
Senator Summers Attack
ON
President Grants Administration.
IN REPLY II

In 1000, on the SSQ DAY OF may, Wnen Lne
armies were marshaled here in the streets OF
Washington, as we passed by the Senate
Chamber and marched down Pennsylvania
avenue with the officers at the head of their
columns, remember to have read on the
outer walls this motto: "There is one debt
this country can newer repay, and that is the
debt of gratitude it owes to the soldiers who
have preserved the Union" Little did ]
think then, sir, that within seven years after.
wards l should hear an assault like this upon
the leader of that army within these very
wallis Mr.. President, is that debt of. graft
tude so soon forgotten? Shall the fair fame
and reputation of the man who led those
armies be trampled in the dust by one man,
who claims so egotistically here that he or
ganized the party which made the wal
against the oligarchy OF slavery? But, sir,
that attempt has been witnessed here to our
great sorrow. The eloquence, the power, the
education, all that belong to the Senator from
Massachusetts, has been brought to bear, not
in censonance with that motto, not in keep.
ing alive in the bosoms of the people of the
United States that feeling of gratitude to the
men who saved the country, but of ingrati-
tude; and worse of want of decent respect
which should be shown either for the memory
of the dead or for the character of the living.
The next division of the speech of the
Senator from Massachusetts, is in reference to
"presidential pretension;' and in discussing
presidential preten sions, he draws himself to
his full height and exclaims, Upon what
meat does our Caesar feed that he assumes so
much ?' That is the language of the Sena-
tor from Massachusetts. l might reply to
the Senator and ask:
"Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed,
That he is grown SO great :"
Where did he acquire the charter or the
right to stand in this Senate Chamber and
perpetrate slander upon SANDER, vile and
malignant against the best men of our land !?
1 ask the Senator from Massachusetts,, where
does he acquire that title; where does he
obtain that right belonging to himself alone !?
A right, however, that no one will covet.
The Senator says the President of the
United States violates the Constitution, vio-
lates law, violates every principle that ought
to govern the Chief Magistrate of great ma
tion. 1 should like to ask question of the
Senator if he were here, and l am sorry that
he is not. "The wicked flee when no man
pursueth." 1t certainly is not that he is in
terror of anything that may be said; but why
is it? Is he afraid that the ghost of his own
ISLANDERS will come back to haunt him even
Will it haunt him as the ghost of San Do
mingo haunts him every day? And this
seems to follow him like the ghost of Banquo,
making its appearance when he least ex-
poets it.. Now, sir, in what has the Presi-
dent of the United States violated the Con-
stitution? If the President has violated the
Constitution, it is the duty of the House of
Representatives to prefer charges against
him, and of the Senate to try him for that
offense. In what has the President violated
the law? l ask the Senator from Massachu-
sets to tell this country in what has he vio-
lated the Constitution-in what particular
1t may be that all of us have not construed
the law alike. 1t is possible to construe the
Constitution differently in certain respects.
The President may have differed from us at
times in reference to a construction of the
law or of the Constitution, but if he has have
no knowledge of it. But even if that were
the case it would be no violation of the
Constitution or of the law in the sense in
which the word "violation :" is used by the
Senator.
But the Senator says the presidency is
made ga plaything and a perquisite." I
read from his printed speech
"To appreciate his peculirr character as a civilian
it is important to know his triumphs soldier for
the is the natural compliment of the other. The
sue ssfu soldier is rarely changed to the successful
civ lian. There seems an incompatibility between
the two, modified by the extent to which one has
been allowed to exclude the other One always a
soldier cannot, late in life, become statesman one
always civilian cannot late in life become soldier.
Education and experience are needed for each"
This 1 read from page 6 of the pamphlet
which was published prior to the publication
of the speech in the Globe. The Senator says
that the camp is not the training school for a
statesman that different training must be
given man for the purpose of making him a
statesman from that which is required to
make him soldier. shall not appeal to the
Senator from Massachusetts, on that point
but do appeal to the people of this country.
/ appeal to the million and half of soldiers
who are living, and if I could reach the ears
of the dead l would appeal to the three hun
dred thousand that lie beneath the sod who
fell fighting, that their country might live,
to know why soldier cannot be statesman
and why a statesman cannot be a soldier
l am in favor of education; but am in
favor of that education which is compatible
with common sense, which gives Judgment
to deal with men and things. Now, want
TO compare the statesman of Massachusetts,
with the poor little dwarfed soldier of Illinois
who is now President of the United States.
According to the Senator from Massachusetts,
he is ignorant; according to the Senator from
Massachusetts, he is mere soldier. Before
the war he followed the occupation of tan
ner, and received but small pittan, ,e for his
labor, and during the war he served his
country in the camp and in the field, and did
not have the opportunity to fit himself for
President of the United States. That was the
language of the Senator. In other words, no
man who has ever worked at the tanner
trade should be President; no man who was
ever shoemaker should be a Senator; no
man who was carpenter should be legis-
lator no man who was ever farmer should
aspire to position of honors from the people
In other words, the laboring classes are, ac-
cording to his theory, the mudsills of society;
but those like the Senator himself are per-
mitted to occupy positions in this land, OF
can be President or Vice-President how will
it be with the poor tanners, the poor carpen-
ters, the poor farmers, the poor printers, the
poor everybodies? None of these are fit to
be President or Vice-President, or Senators.
or members of Congress, or Governors; but
they are, according to the theory of the Sena-
tor from Massachusetts,, only fit to make food
for gunpowder as mere soldiers.
Now let us see what has been accomplished
by this educated, crammed Senator from
Massachusetts,, who has been in the Senate
Chamber, believe, for nearly twenty-fou,
years. l believe l state fact when saw
that the records of Congress will not show 3
measure that was ever originated by himself
which passed without amendment. believe
state fact when say that the records and
the history of this country show fewer acts