Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1876-09-27

His Great Speech at Cooper Institute.
New York.

y
spoke in New York, the other night, TO
what the Tribune, of that city, describes
as 1.-the largest and most enthusiastic
audience which, during the last ten years,
any single speaker has attracted" The
New York Times characterizes the ad-
dress as one of the best political
speeches ever delivered in New York"
The Hon. George Opdyke presided over
the meeting, and introduced Col. lnger-
soil, who spoke substantially as follows,
being often interrupted by applause and
bursts of laughter:
My friends, two political parties are ask
ing the votes of the people; one wishes to
retain the power that it has held for sixteen
wears the other wishes office. The Demo-
cratic party, with the hungry, starving eyes
of wolf, has been looking in at the Nation
al Capitol and scratching at the doors of the
White House for sixteen years. Occasional
" it has retired to some congenial eminence
and lugubriously howled about the Const-
tuition. The Republican party comes to you
with its record open, and asks every man,
woman and child in this broad country to
read its every word; and say to you there
is not line, paragraph or page in that
record that is not only an honor to the Re-
publican party, but to the human race. On
every page of that record is recorded some
great and glorious action, done either for
common country. We ask everybody to
read its every word. The Democratic party
comes before you with its record closed,
record of blot and blur, and stain and trea-
son, and SANDER and malignity, and asks you
not to read solitary word of what it has
done, but be kind enough to take its infam-
Gus promise for what it will do. Allow me
to say here that character-good character
rests upon a record, and not upon a pros
pectus. A man has good or bad charac-
ter by what he haE really done, by what he
has really accomplished, and not by what he
promises to do. If promises would make a
good reputation, Samuel j. Tilden and the
Democratic party would have one in twenty
four hours. propose to tell you this even
ing, my friends, little of the history of the
Republican party, little of the history of
the Democratic party, and first the Republi-
can party.
The United States of America is free
country; it is the only free country upon
this earth; it is the only Republic that was
ever established among men. We have read,
we have heard, of the Republic of Greece, of
Egypt, of Venice; we have heard of the free
cities of Europe. There never was Repub.
lie in Venice, there never was Republic in
Rome, there never was Republic in Athens,
there never was free city in Europe, there
never was Government not cursed with
caste, there never was Government not
cursed with slavery, there never was Gov
ernment not cursed with almost every in
fanny until the Republican party of the
United States made this a free Nation. |
want no grander, no higher, title of nobility
than this, that ! belong to the Republican
party and did little toward making the
Republican party u fact. In order for you
to ascertain what the Republican party did
for us-for us-l mean to refresh ourselves
for we all know it, but it is well enough to
say it now and then in order to refresh our
selves. In order to understand what this
great party has accomplished, let us for a
moment consider the state of the country
when the Republican party was born. When
the Republican party was born there was on
the statute book of the United States of
America a law known as the Fugitive Slave
law of 1880 under the provisions of which
every man in the State of New York was
made by law a bloodhound and could be
set, could be Kissed, upon "a negro who was
simply attempting to attain his birthright
of freedom, the same as you would hiss
dog upon wild beast. That was the Fugi-
tive law of 1850. 1t made every man, every
Northern man, a dog; it put round his
neck a collar, and they did not have the de-
cency to put the mans name on the collar,
but they put the pame of his master. At
the same time in nearly all of the Western
States there was law by virtue of which
hospitality became an indictable otfense.
There was law by virtue of which charity
became crime, and "a man, simply for an
act of kindness exercised, could be indicted
imprisoned, and fined. 1t was the law of
Illinois, of my State, that if | gave drop
of cold water, or crust of bread to a poor
fugitive from slavery, | could be indicted,
fined and imprisoned Under the infamous
Slave law of 1850, under the infamous Black
laws of the Western States when the Repub
lean party was born, if a woman, 99-10Oths
white, had escaped from slavery, carrying
her child in her arms, had gone through
wilderness and tangle and swamp and river,
and finally got within one foot of free soil,
with the light of the North star reckoning
her to freedom, it would have been an iu-
dictable otfense to have given her drop of
water and a crust of bread. And under the
Fugitive Slave law it would have been the
duty cf Northern citizen claiming
to be a freeman, to clutch that
woman and hand her back TO
the dominion Of the hound, the Democrat
and the lash. What more? The institution
of slavery had polluted and corrupted the
church, not only in the South, but large
proportion of the church of the North, so
that ministers stood up in their pulpits here
and in New England and defended the very
laws that | have mentioned. Not only so,
but the Presbyterian Church South in 1863
met in General Synod and passed three reso-
lutiOns, two of which were: " Resolted, That
slavery is divine institutions; ReSojg,d,
That cod raised up the Presby terrain Church
South to protect and perpetuate that insu-
tuition" What more had slavery done: 1t
had corrupted our courts so that, in nearly
every Stat Of the Union, if Democrat had
gone to the hut of poor negro and shot
down his wife and children before his very
eyes, and strangled the babe in the cradle,
his testimony was valueless, aud he was not
allowed 10 appear before the Grand Jury and
prosecute the wretch. Justice TO him was
not only blind, but was deaf, and that was
the idea OF justice in the United States
when the Republican party was born.
When that party was born the bay of the
bloodhound was the music OF the Nation The
dome of the Gapitol at WASHINGTON "a Il IL,