Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1874-10-16
Nh. HOAH',S SPEECH.

In the convention at Worcester, which nom
mated him again for Congress, Mr.. George
F. Hoar said:
Our Democratic friends, if they agree up
on a nomination, to-day, will admit, it will
not be for them to question, that their candi-
date is man of honor and Of character. If
SO, he proposes to vote for the candidates and
measures OF his party. He will not set up his
own notions and carry them out, without no.
tice to any instructions from his constituents
Now ten months ago Congress met, and the
first act of the Democratic party as repre-
scented there, after the light Off past twenty
years, in the face of the history and the expe-
riencc of the nation, every Democrat but two
| in the House declared that his choice for
| Speaker of the House was Fernando Wood
of New York and, unless great and I'M
known change has taken place in the plane
and purposes of that party, he will be brought
| forward again at the next session as the rep
resentative of their opinions on finance, hu-
man rights and official integrity. and if the
| Democrats in this district are victorious, your
vote will be cast for Fernando Wood of New
| York for the second Office in the Congress of
the United States. You know his record, as
did those who voted for him. At the out
break of the rebellion, 1861, he, as Mayor,
sent a message to the City Council Of New
York declaring that secession was fixed
fact, and the South was justified in it, and
called upon the city to cut loose from the ma
ton and set up as an independent, free mu-
nicipalty. In the same month when the
police seized arms which were consigned to
traitors he sent despatch to Robert Toombs
to say that the work was none of his, and that
If he had power he would punish the act. To
vote for Democrat for Congress, no matter
how he may agree with you on any particular
| question, is to vote with the Democratic par
ty in the organization of the House, and for
the measures of which Fernando Wood is the
exponent. There is besides, another ques-
ton involved. There is a necessity to keep
firm hand on the newly reconstructed States
at the South. Every mail and every pulsa
lion of the telegraph tell of outrages there
against loyal men and the freedom of cleo
tons. Some Of our Democratic friends tell
us that these stories are gotten up for the
elections, and will disappear as soon as the
elections are over. | should be glad, with
out regard to which side is benefited by them,
to believe that this was true, but it is little
difficult to doubt the substantial truth of these
statements, as they come to us from Louis
lana and Tennessee. 1t is not unlikely that
the men who were responsible for the perpet
uation and defence of slavery, for the horrors
| of Andersonville, and for making slaughter
pen of the Louisiana Republican Convention,
have failed since then to become angels OF
light! l, myself, had a position during the
last Congress on the Committee of Elections,
and l know, from evidence then adduced tha:
there was scarcely an election district in some
of the States where the elections were not
preceded by scenes of violence and blood
shed.
It is said that these stories come just be-
fore the elections. This is true, for the facts
themselves happen just before the elections.
(Applause.) l see in one of the most able of
the independent papers in this State, in some
comments on the recent Republican State
Convention, the opinion that it was unworthy
Of Mr.. Dawes, its Chairman, to quote these
outrages. Perhaps we may find some testi-
mony which will convince the editor of this
paper in relation to these stories Mr.. IIoar
here read from the recent speech OF the Hon.
Carl Schurz, at st. Louis, in which he adj
mitted the prevalence of bloody outrages,
which were met by the better classes only by
condemnatQry resolves and pious wishes.
Mr.. Schurz said 1--WE know many of these
stories are true that the victims were mostly
poor negroes, and that there is ruffianly ell.
ement at the South, which, if not checked by
all the forces of society, will result in blood
shed as a pastime, especially when it is done
as a partisan service and in harmony with
public opinion."l He proceeded: Carl
Schurz tells you all this, and that it will be
worse unless it is encountered by all the
forces of Society Now, one of the forces of
society is the Massachusetts delegation in
Congress, and the question for you is not
whether you will let the men who plundered
South Carolina, if such there be, remain in
office, nor whether it was decided right or
wrong who was the proper Governor of Lou
isiana, but whether you will leave these poor
negroes, who think as you do as their only
crime, to be slaughtered, without invoking
the aid of the Government and the moral SEN
timent of the world against it. do not deny
the errors of the Republican party, but con-
slider that the Republican party is only the
majority Of the American people, and those
who declare it corrupt make the same charge
against the country.