The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1872-09-12

pc blown up again into a new conhagrat1on-
L ask you if you can trust the party. All
these things are the history of twelve years.
All these things have been accomplished
within the lifetime of every boy that hears
me. The leaders of the party to-day are the
same men who did all these things. l have
shown you what the party has done; do you
believe wholly repentant? Are these
men to whom the guardianship of equal
nights and the government of the new Union
can be entrusted? Is the man who yesterday
held that the black man was of an inferior
race, and his place that of slave, the one to
entrust with the care of the black mans
liberty? Is the man who yesterday declared
that the national faith should be violated,
the man to make to-day the guardian of the
nations honor? Is the man who declared
yesterday that all the war debt had done was
unconstitutional, the man to intrust to-day
WITH the enforcement of the Constitution?
would you have trusted Tory of the Revo-
luton with the government which followeds
But when l ask you these questions some
OF you may reply by saying, Yes, but we
think Horace Greeley viii make an excellent
President" Well, now, if, when the first Adj
ministration of the Union had been put into
operation, General Washington had been
waited upon by the Tories of the Revolution,
still fully organized, and just on the eve of
the first election, they had said to washing
ton: 1--WE have decided we were in the
wrong. We have decided we are just as
good as the Wings, and wish you to be our
candidate"-I have read history in vain if
0CHCIdl w WOulu uOI udNc Sdlu 10
those men: Gentlemen, if these are your
opinions, why are you thus armed? If you
are repentant, why are you still organized?
II you agree that the Wings are right, why
DO you not join the Wings ~ This, I be-
Heve, would have been General Washington's
response. But if l am wrong; if instead he
had accepted the nomination of those men,
George Washington though he was, the sons
of liberty would have defeated him, as the
descendants Of the sons of liberty will de-
feat Horace Greeley in November.
You will ask me another question a: Are
parties eternal? Are we to always go on
lighting? How are we to make any politi-
cal progress if we refuse to take the hand of
those we have sometimes opposed? Saint
Paul repented; and why not the Democratic
party? If the whole Jewish people had sud
denly declared that they also had received a
great light, and had all avowed their CONVEX
sion, and set up to be the original primitive
Christians, think, had we lived in that day.
we would have waited for some signs of
conversion before giving them the hand of
fellowship.
Will any man tell me what are the signs of
conversion in the Democratic party? The
last opportunity that was offered was in
Washington, at the last session of Congress.
The Supplementary Civil Rights Bill was in
troduced, and in the debate upon that sub
Ject the party spoke as one man. They took
the same old Democratic ground, the same
old spirit of hatred to the colored man. All
the same old slavery virus came frothing out
in the speeches of the best men in that party,
seventeen times. Monday after Monday they
STAYED off and voted against the bill, which
was simply the completion of equal rights
They voted against it two or three times af-
ter the Cincinnati Convention, and with their
lips still red with saying NO" hurried off
to Baltimore and cried ''equal rights to all
men," Mr.. Curtis here quoted from the
speeches of a number of Democrats and from
several Southern newspapers to show the
spirit of the Democratic party was the same
that it ever had been. He then continued
L can conceive of no reason why man
having the true interests of his country at
heart should vote for that party, except
this-that, bad as the Democratic party may
be, the Republican party is worse. Is that
true? Is the Republican party, which has
done more to maintain free government than
any other party in the world, so bad as that?
You will agree with me that those who at
tack the Administration have always the adj
vantage of position. 1t is easy to sketch
model Administration without blunder or
a weakness. Tried by such a standard, any
merely human Administration will fail. But
every honest man will try to be just. In the
details of our Government, administered by
70, 600 or so 900 officers, scattered over terri
tory from the Lakes to the Gulf, there will be
constantly facts occurring which are inter
preted to the disadvantage of the Govern
ment; and not fault or error can be COM
mitted by postmaster or collector, but we
shall instantly be told that the entire Admin
istration is a huge fraud. On the other
hand, they will tell us what they will do.
II ad they been in power, this or that would
not have taken place, and instead we should
have purity, honesty and reform. They will
be as lavish of their promises as the maple is
of red leaves in October. What the
probabilities that they will be kept? They
wish to pass the sponge over what they have
done, and only wish US to listen to what they
say.
What is the record of this Administration?
Taking the first great point which any gov
eminent is bound to observe, has the Repub-
ican party guarded the equal rights of the
citizens? 1t is the very glory of the Admin
istration that it has done SO. 1t found
A, 000, OO0 slaves. 1t has made them men and
women; it has united them in holy marriage;
and they sit with us in our legislative halls.
Doolittle and others talk of negro suprema-
cy upheld by the bayonct. The negro has
his vote; that is all his supremacy. How is
it upheld by the bayonet? When it was
found there was an organized terrorism at
the South to trample the black man under
foot, the Government simply kept it's word.
Frederick Douglass, who has known what
slavery was and what it has been to his race,
heard those words of Doolittle, and cried
with trumpet tongue to his fellows: "TO the
negro the Republican party is the deck; all,
all else is the sea- Stand loyal to Grant"
Amen, amen, cried North Carolina, in the
first furious onset of the campaign. standing
steadfastly Republican.
After referring to the financial record, Mr..
Curtis, in reply to the remark often made
that General Grant did not pay the debt,
said that in the same sense he did not put
down the rebellion. 1t was the Union army
that put down the rebellion, but General
Grant was at it's head. The prosperity of the
country is owing to the confidence and trust
of the people in the solidity of the Govern
ment.
One word further. We are told that this
is a campaign of reconciliation; that we
want peace, and therefore we want q change
in party. "Let US clasp hands over the
bloody chasm,' says Mr.. Greeley. Very
well, answer me. Who in this country has
refused to clasp hands q? Is it these men in
the Southern States who oppose the new or
der of things? Is it those in the Northern
States who morally supported them, or men
who have said equality for all shall be main
tanned at all hazards Let US clasp hands
Yes, Mr.. Greeley, we have sought to clasp
hands from the moment of Lees surrender.
81 am against the policy of hate" says
Senator Sumner. Fellow citizens, the name
of your great Senator, the name of Charles
Sumner, shall never be mentioned by me ex-
cept with affection, gratitude and respect.
l do not forget-though for the first time |
have come to that moment which believed
never would come to me in this life-when j,
a Republican, should stand before you, Re-
publicans, and above all, Massachusetts Re-
publicans, and have to speak to you of what
Senator Sumner has said, in infinite sorrow.
Fellow citizens, never was great victor
in a great war marching in robes so abso
lutely spotless of injustice as the robes of
the American people, organized into the Re-
publican party. When the war ended the
state of things at the South was very sad.
Greeley has described the Southern mortif
cr,I hon frl,t ha -a1 rnro