The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1872-03-30

boat would take all that would retreat
He defeated the rebel army that had been
nearly victorious. Then he went down the
Mississippi river, passed Vicksburg, made
movement into the country, attacked the
rebel armies, captured Vicksburg; and
then you find him at Chattanooga to re-
store lost battle. You have 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 place
ed his army before Richmond, and when
the hour came, moved upon the doomed
rebel at Appomattox. Nineteen battles
behind him, and all victories He did rot
march his army to make parade through
the rebel capital, but started off alone, with
his carpet bag in his hand, for Washing
ton. to stop tho raising of troops and the
manufacture Of munitions, to make prepar-
atoms to disband the army and save ex-
pense, and to save what he regarded, and
what we all regarded rs a very important
thing, general bankruptcy in the country.
We Republicans turned to this man when
Andrew johnson failed us, and asked 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 influence
that carried the fourteenth amendment
That same potent influence carried the
fifthteenth amendment, and gave the black
men the right to vote in all the States
When vail Of distress came up from the
South, when poor black men prayed for
protection from the murderous blows of the
midnight assassins of the Ku-Klux dens,
Congress hesitated, falted, 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 tho Ku-Klux Klan have been
arrested, several have been convicted, or
have confessed their guilt, and thirty Of
those chivalric assassins are in the peniten-
tiaries. Tho men who stood by the cause
of anti-slavery and the protection of the
black man have found in General Grant a
man who has stood bravely, steadily, and
consistently on the side of freedom and
the equal rights of all men.
General Grant has now been President
three years. He has committed some er-
rors made some mistakes in his appoint
ments. But his foreign and domestic pol
icy, the leading measures of his Admins
tration, have been and are in the interests
of the country. The masses of the people
who have no personal grievances, who only
want good government, see it, feel it, rea-
lie it. With all its faults, they believe We
have the most reformatory, progressive,
and best Administration the country has
seen for forty years; and they are right in
their convictions. But he is followed by
obloquy and reproach: Again he is pass
ing through the Wilderness" it is dark
ened, not with the smoke of battle, but the
storms of insinuation and accusation, de
traction and denunciation. But he will
not call retreat. The spirit that uttered,
when the flame of battle opposed his march
to the rebel capital, the inspiring words,
Il will fight it out on this line if it takes
all summer" is yet unbroken, and exult-
ant foes may yet find that another Apo
mattox lies before him. [Applause.]
In all the struggles of the last sixteen
years New Hampshire has been on tho side
of the country and of liberty. Forgettin
that "victory olings to unite" you Repub-
leans of New Hampshire allowed your
banners last year to trail in the dust You
have tasted the wholesome discipline of
defeat. Now you have the power to rise
again. Forgetting personal interests and
petty differences, and standing shoulder to
shoulder, you can redeem your State, and
thrill the hearts of your friends throughout
the land. To you, Republicans of my ma
tive State, l appeal, for unity and victory.
ask you, who maintained the right Of
petition when it was cloven down under
the lead of Charles G.. Anterior; you who
stood by John P. Hale when smitten by
Democracy for fidelity to liberty; you who
sternly opposed the wicked compromises
of 1850; you who resisted the repeal of the
Missouri compromise when sustained by
Franklin Pierce; you who were true to
Kansas when its skies were illumined by
the midnight fires Of burning cabins, and
its virgin soil redeemed with blood; you
who helped make Abraham Lincoln Presi-
dent; you who followed the old flag of the
Republic over many battle-fields; you who
sustained by voice and vote that grand ser
les of measures by which slavery was ami
Inflated and the slave power broken forever;
you who helped extirpate caste, enfranchise
the black man, and give equality to all
conditions of men; implore you, one and
all, to sustain now that sacred cause for
which you have toiled and prayed, voted
and fought. Stand by the Republican par
ty; stand by, pray you, that great politi-
cal organization until it accomplishes the
task assigned it by the needs of the coun-
try and tho providence of God. Make safe
the benefcent deeds of the past, and secure
in their full fruition the fruits of the seeds
planted in faith and nurtured by devotion
and valor.
Listen not to the seductive voices which
proclaim that the work of the Republican
party of the United States has been achiev-
ed. The reforms Of the past are not only
to be assured, but other reforms of magni
tude are pressing for accomplishment. At
any rate. it has great, if not its greatest
work yet to do. That work is to humanize,
convict, and convert the Democratic party
of the United States. [Applause.l Men
cannot be wrong all the time for forty
years and be convicted of their folly in an
hour. Until that political organization