The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1872-07-24
SPEECH OF SENATOR CoNK.
LING.
A. New yo.r Las. evening.
"oRANT AND ms DRyAMEna." !"

"Grant and his defamers-deeds against
words" The hall was handsomely dec.
GRATED with flags. jackson 8. Schultz
was President, assisted by George II.
Vannot, Postmaster Jones, q. N. sher-
wood, Sex,Senator Morgan, with about
100 other Vice Presidents and 100 Secre.
tarfes.
The following Is the opening part Of the
Senator's remarks: "For twenty years
1t has been my privilege to address my
neighbors upon political issues. Too
much ardor has perhaps been among my
faults, yet no canvass has ever stirred me
so deeply as this; no election has ever
appealed so strongly to my sense Of fair
play; no canvass within my memory has
ever been so full Of foul play and injustice;
none has ever more strongly tested the
common sense generosity Of the kmeri.
can people. Eleven years in Congress
has made me close observer Of four
Presidents and many public men. II
among them oil there Ia one living or
dead who never knowingly failed in his
duty, that one Is U. s. Grant. There was
cast in giving him thename Of Sidney, ri
for his greatest, gentlest quality Is his
magnanimity; II there has been ahigh Of.
fetal ever ready to admit and correct
errors; II there has been one who did
wisely, firmly and well in all things, Civ.
ing in charge, that one is soldier in war,
quiet and patriotic in peace, who has
been named again by every township in
forty.six States and territories for the
the great trust he now holds. Yet this
maD:is honest, brave, modest and proud,
by his transcendent deeds been endowed
with generous, common sense, moral
qualities adequate to the greatest affairs
This man who saved his country, who
snatched Our nationality, our cause from
despair, bore them on his shield through
the flame Of battle in which but for him
they would have persisted; this man under
whose administration our country has
-hourished as no one dared predict; this
man to whom the nations gratitude and
benediction are due, Is made the mark for
ribald jibe and odions, groundless slam
ders. Why Is all thiss Simply because
he stands in the way Of greedy, ambi-
tious politicians and schemers. A war Of
words and missiles has been waged for
some months against the President,
his family and all nearly asso-
ciated with him, have been bespattered;
truth and decency has been driven far
away; every comormRnt drone who
has been put out, every bafiled mouser
Tor place or pfunder, every man with
grievance or grudge-all who have some
thing to make by change seem to wag
an unbridled tongue or drive q foul pen.
The President cannot enter the lists oil
controversy and defend himself; the pro-
prieties of his station forbid 1t. His
chief competitor, managing editor Of q Ger:
tain newspaper, from which he pretends
to have retired, is free to defend and puff
himself, feels free to fill his paper with
base and scurrilous falsehood in hope Of
blackening his name, which is one OF the
treasures Of the nation, and which will be
the pride Of posterity. All this pollution
will end in disgrace only,to its authors.
1t will not disgrace Grant or the nation,
because the nation will spurn and resent
it. The disgusting personalities emptied
upon General jackson secured his elec.
tion. An offended people struck back,
and they, will strike back again. Had the
cool veierns of Democracy formed or se-
lected the issues to be presented they
would have been wise enough to so frame
them that people could decideini their ia.
vor without fixing the stigma on General
Grant without blasting his name or doing
him wrong, but the Democratic leaders
lin o hundred fights have been mere
lockers on. The leadership has been as.
sumed by Republican renegades and
outs, men so eaten up with envy and so
maddened with loss or refusal Of place
and patronage that nothing would satisfy
them short of rancorous, revengeiul
personal raid. When man turns Turk he
spikes on the cross, and when wide-throat-
cd ultra Republicans clandestinely trade
with the enemy and then, turn open trail
tors to their party they become the mean
est and fiercest OF opponents, Just as the
Yankee STAKEHOLDER from New England
was alwaysInore brutal than those born in
tho South. When men whose vanity
was hurt, and others gnawed by ambition
and cupidity, went out to ruin the party
which they could not rule, madness drove
them on. They had no polar star except
hatred of Grant and his supporters. These
lusty patriots, who modestly assumed the
name of Relormers would not have
an ordinary Presidential canvass for a
fair discussion of the political situation.
Such proceedings would have been too
tame and insipid for them; their stomachs
craved stronger, more game-aayored meat
Hard names must be called, vengeance be
satisfied. The President must be politi.
callycourt martialed and dragged before
q national assize, to be tried as q malefac.
tor. In the Senate the Democrats proper
kept silent OF, talked about business.
give them credit for wasting but little
time, but half Of the last session, eight
months IN length, was worn out, wasted
by slanderous, electioneering harangues,
land aimed at the administration and its
friends, by men badly In need OF reform
themselves. These seli.righteous, noisy
oracles, pitched into key in which the
anti,Grant chorus, was, 70. be j, sung,
hence comes the absence Of political
questions and the presence 4 OF personal
and scandal alous issues. The public Jour
| mails and lnewspape per corresp ndence from
Washington, controlled by these Liberals
liberal In nothing 50 much as ind claiming
honest men and ptalsing and helping
themselves, took tho hue from heart
burning distempers and ambitions which
set them on. "Any thing to beat Gram"
was meet to It Il gratifed their heart
spite to assail the President personally
and heap malignant charges upon him.
| Thua hia character hia intapritv hia
standing al asa man SsSs Si5 been he point int
lin issue. The people are compelled
Ito pass upon his guilt or limo.
cence. The case, has been so put that
the questionis not merely whether Grant
shall be President, but whether Grant
shall be pronounced by the nation q fool,
knsye, imposter and enemy of his country.
Masonic Visit &c. Cleveland.