The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1872-03-23
SPEECH
HON. HENRY WILSON.
OF NASSAClIU SETTS,
AT GREAT FALLS, New Hampshire,
FFRPU4PJ oItb 1871

Mr.. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlcmen::
During the year on which we have enter
ed the people Of the United States will be
summoned to elect Chief Magistrate.-
There are seven million persons in the
country Untitled to the right of suffrage.
They are now ranged into two great polti-
cal parties. One calls itself the Democratic
party, the other takes the name of the
Republican party. Each of those political
organizations has history, a platform of
principles, and a programme of policy. To
one or the other of these parties the people
of the United States will commit, for four
years, the precious interests of the Repub-
lie. 1t devolves upon the citizens of New
Hampshire to give the first vote of the
campaign upon which we are entering.-
Whatever may be the result, it will be
deemed and taken throughout the country
rs an indication Of public sentiment, and
the victory, to whichever party it may
come, will give to that party in the nation
more numbers than it has voters in the
State of New Hampshire.
| come here tonight in behalf of the
Republican party of the United States three
and half million strong, to speak to the
Republicans of New Hampshire; to ask
them to call the battle-roll anew, and to
redeem their State, and place her where
she has so long been, and where she ought
to be again, at the head of the Republican
column | am not here to belittle the
Democratic party. l know it has power, |
know it will fight great battle this year,
for the control of the Government, | pity
the weakness or despise the folly that I'M
derrates the power of the Democratic par
ty. 1t has vast elements Of strength; it
has wealth, prejudice, passion, and pride OF
race | know it has able men in its ranks,
and l have no sympathy with that DISPOSE
ton which prompts MS always to belittle
whatever we Oppose.
] do not come here to apologize Tor the
Republican party. | would as soon apollo
gize for the spots on the sun that has bath
ed the world to- day in light and beauty
The Republican party needs no apology
and no defense. There is no body of men
in America to-day who from their past his
tory or present position have right to
arragn it before the nation, before the ma
tions, or before God.
Theres.was struggle, beginning in 1882
and continuing until the spring Of 1S6l-
the period of one generation-betwee
these antagonistic forces; but it was a
struggle of thought, of voice, of the press.
a struggle of votes. Liberty at last tri-
umphed. Then the slave-masters raised
the banners of rebellion, hurled their sec
ton into wicked and brutal, barbarous
and bloody civil war. These are historic
facts. They will go into the history Of our
country; and when we who are here to-
night, when the men of this generation
shall al have passed away, in other days,
with clearer lights than those of the pres
ent, the human family will recognize these
facts, and historians will record them for
the study and admiration or condemnation
of after generations.
We have had serious contest, bloody
struggle. in which some of the bravest and
noblest have gone down and sleep in sol
diers' graves. In this struggle, where
stood these two great parties that divide
the nation to-day? Where stood the Dem
efao1 Ia Ranph1i
can party9 Here tonight l assert it, and
there is not man on Gods earth can con-
tradict it, for the record is against him,
that from the year 1882, when William
LLOYD Garrison and eleven other faithful
and fearless men signed their names to the
declaration that black men had right to
liberty, and that they would do what they
could, sanctioned by law, humanity, and
religion, to emancipate the bondman, and
to lift up the poor and lowly in the land,
from that day to this hour, every moment
of the time, and on every distinct issue, the
Democratic party has been on the side of
privilege. the side of caste, the side of
brutal, ignorant, degraded barbarism.-
Measured by the standards of the philoso-
pliers and statements of the ages, measured
by the law of the living God, there has not
been n moment when it was not clearly,
plainly, distinctly, unqualifiedly wrong.
1t has been wrong, and it is wrong now,
and fear it will continue to be wrong.
The Republican party, made up as it has
been of men who came out of other organi-
cations because they were convinced that
the party of freedom and humanity was
the party of the country has at all times,
in every struggle, in peace and in war, been
on the side of the country, the side of lib
erty, the side of justice, the side of human
ity, the side Of a progressive Christian civ
ilization. There has not been a moment
during these forty years, whether Garrison
Anti Slavery men, Liberty-Party men,
II, .-a-Soiers, or Republicans, starting from
only = dozen men and growing up to the
,hrao and y half millions who will vote in
next-I say that there has not
been moment in all those years when the
champions of human rights have not oecu-
pied a position that the Christian men and
women who belong to it Or sympathize
with it could not take it into their closets,
and. on their Bonded knees, invoke the
blessing of God upon it. / do not know
that there are not some men SO forgetful Of
+bc position of the Democratic party that
they might ask the blessing upon it OF that
Beine who bids us remember those in
bonds. But | cannot imagine how man
who has spoken for, apologized for, voted,
for. or fought for slavery, privilege, and
caste. the side the Democratic party has
taten-I do not see how such man would
dare ask the blessing of God upon the vic
la,ion of the doctrines Of the New Tesla
ment, that teach us tc iove our neighber.
! have briefly referred to this i,is.GrJ to
show where the Democratic party has
stood and now stands, and where the Re
publican party has stood and now stands.
The Democratic party, unmindlul of its
record of forty years, is asking the toiling
men of New Hampshire to give it their
confidence and their support. ! should
quite as soon think that the Democratic