Ottumwa weekly courier., 1876-07-26

boOlll, after the assassin OF President
Lincoln. Immense cheering.1 This
outrageous act, in trucking to the
rebel element, the northern Demo-
Gratis dare not disown, and for all
know. this man is still the Clerk of
the Committee. The little child, so
dishonored by its name and the sig
niiicmce. had the good sense, thank
God. to die. Applause.
BEN HILLS SPEECH.
That speech of Ben Hills. and the
record that the Democratic party has
made in regard to it,would have been
enough of itself to send any man who
cares for his country out of all fell
lowship with it and the party in
whose name and by one of whose
leading members it was made. Hill
in that speech defended Anderson
vile and the atrocious treatment of
Union prisoners in the Southern pris-
on hells.
Could I endorse that, and still re-
member my own comrades who suf-
tered in them more than death and
hell? Can any party succeed which
even tacitly endorses sentiments like
these? Hill also said in that speech,
I'VE went out of the Union hugging
the Constitution, and we came back
into the Union hugging it." What a
hug f! Great laughter.] That was
what they went out for, not to be
rebels, but to thug the Constitution"
of the Union they were trying so
hard to destroy. have seen them
when they were doing this "hug-
ging." [Applause and laughter.l L
remember one morning in April,
1862, the first day of the battle of Shi-
loh, as the rebel troops were bearing
down upon us, that i ascended an ei-
ovation to watch them through
tield-glass as they came. 1t was
grand sight, as they came in three
columns with their muskets at "right
shoulder shift that form in which
an army looks its grandest, and by
which il appears to have three times
its actual strength. There was a
blaze and shine of glory, on those
advancing columns that took to be
the lustre and shine of bayonets i'm
the sun. But judge now, since
Hills speech, that it was not bayonets
they We're bearing, but Constitutions
they were carrying along and hug
ging. Vociferous cheering.] saw
them doing great deal of hugging,
these rebels rebels who are not reb-
els, but simply "Constitution-hug-
gers" Renewed cheering The boys
who are here before me, who were
with me at Donelson saw some of it
there. Laughter, and cries by SOL
diers, "That's So" 1--WE saw them at
it in a good many battles."] What
patriots they were, doing SO much
for the "Constitution of our common
country!
DEMoCRATI BITTERNESS.
One thing l have now come to,
which is painful to speak about. as it
is largely private matter. So far
from being allowed to leave the De-
mocracy in peace, as 1 had hoped and
expected, with no noise about it. you
have seen, many of you here, what
has been said and charged against
me in the Democratic press. But
what you have seen is nothing. In the
last ten days have received scores
of letters, the most of them anon
ymous, abusing me without stint, and
charging me with all sorts of crimes.
These things, which would annoy
any man who had feeling. have SIM
ply confirmed me in my estimate of
many members of the party l have
left, and have simply intensified my
conviction that my course was and is
right. l can see by these an explana.
ton of one thing that puzzled me in
the career of my old comrade in
arms, Gen. John A. Logan. Logan
and | were together great deal in
the fore part of the war. and We
talked things over as fellow Demo-
Gratis, and in every respect nearly we
agreed. After the close of the war
we met again. When had parted
from him he was Democrat: then
he was Republican, and bitterly
anti-Democratic. l said to him, 81
can understand your course in chang
ing parties, and cannot blame you
very much. But what / cannot un-
derstand is what makes you SO terri.
dly bitter against the Democrats
He replied, "You never will fully
understand it till you yourself leave
the Democratic party, which day will
surely come, but then you will see i
plainly enough. You will get al
sorts of anonymous, villianous, cow
ardly letters, charging you with al
sorts of crimes, and heaping upo,
you all sorts of abuse"
+ THE REBEL ABUSE OF THE GENERAL
i l know the PUBIC cfarges Iriatl
d against Logan, and know PERSONAL
I what atrocious lies many of thcr
g were, and ! could not conceiv
g that partisan malignity could g
!. any farther than il went in the coin
age of them. But now i do see. Thes
l letters / have received charge m
with being a robber, an incendiary
and murderer! These charge
, they make to describe my caree
and record as soldier. Can L b
blamed then, in view of such abus
as this, for departing from my re
, solved purpose of privacy, and pub
licly hurting back upon their author
all such accusations. Whenever yo,
!. find one of these men charging m,
with these things, scratch his ski
and you will find n Rebel. [Tremen
dous applause.
Let me refer to some of thes,
charges briefly. will not be long
although l find my time is far too
short for telling it all, and / do no
want to weary you. They say stol,
, cotton and made money by it. It's +,
, lie. Applause. say il with tha
! word because that is the word
,, Great applause.] | captured but two
: loads of Confederate cotton, as it wa
> called,-cotton belonging to the rebe
|, government. | turned it over, an(
', took duplicate receipts for it--one O
> which ! sent to the Secretary of tn,
Treasury, where it now is, and tn,
other l kept, and now have it. l new
Y er made Il cent in cotton, and neve
I tried to do il. / make short work O
!. these charges because that is all ther,
: is Of it.
1 THE yICKsRURG SOLDIERS GOLD spECU
LATION.
They say speculated in gold Will,
at the head of my command. 1t is {
: ! fact. Laughter The Wall stree
i brokers were running up the price O.
!; gold, specializing on the fast increas.
4 ing pcrils of the Republic, saying thai
Vicksburg could not be taken, and
that therefore the rebellion would bt
: victorious. They did not scruple
thus to speculate even if it was de.
stroying the credit of the government
and helping the Confederates. Wall
Street and the rebels were together
then-as they are now Immense ap-
plansel, and they bet against us.
That was all there was of it. We
knew we could take Vicksburg, and
knew when it would be taken before
/ Wall Street did. We knew the Mis-
sissippi would go down, so we could
land on the rebel side-.(we had al
ready landed on the other side)-
and knew that when we did land on
their side there would be trouble.
So in April we organized together, a
number of our officers, and formed a
club, [laughter,] all drew our pay,
and got all the money we could. /
put in this all my money and every
thing had, and borrowed every dol
lar that / could.
We all put in this money, our pay
l IL %