Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1876-08-03
Good Reason for Losing Faith in the
Democracy.
When He Found the Rebels in Full Com
mand He Said Good Bye.
Reply to the Abuse Heaped upon Him by His
Old Associates--A Speech as Full OF
Sharp Points Pfn-cushiOn.

The following is the speech made
by Gen. futile, of Des Moines, at the
organization of the Hayes and
Wheeler club, a: that place, on
Thursday evening, July goth
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen o.
the Hayes and Wheeler club
When | concluded to change my
party | thought | might be allowed
to do it quietly. 1t was private act,
and required no public announcement,
as there was no one to whom / was
obliged to account for such an action.
But as my course has been SO assail-
ed, and / have been called so severely
to account, | may as well embrace
this opportunity to tell both my Dem
ocratic and my Republican friends
why / have left the old Democracy,
and why | am here tonight. The
act of my change was private one,
but my reasons for so doing were
public ones, and they may be told,
and should be. (Cheers.) / am no
speaker, and make no pretensions of
being. But | can talk to you as
neighbors. | have been considered
doubtful by many Democrats for
nearly two years. (Loughterl In
deed / never had been Democrat if
the issues on which they are fighting
this year are the principles of the
party. (Great applause.) But near
ly two years ago the course of duty
was developed much more plainly
than it ever had been before. What |
had seen before that, that was wrong,
| had continued to hope would be
found to be mistakes, and would be
mended.
REBEL DEMOCRATS.
Nearly two years ago | was in st.
Louis. Now there is nothing pecul-
lar in simply having been in St.
Louis. But was there also in 1861.
(Cheers.) That was just after the
first battle of Bull Run, and St. Louis
was thoroughly, wildly, insanely
rebel. 1t was worth mans life
then almost to be seen in the Uuion
uniform. A Union officer about the
hotels, where congregated the noisiest
secession elements, was hooted at and
derided, and told with sneers, eyes,
you'll 90 south, and you will come
back, as the Union soldiers have just
come back from Bull Run, with your
tails tucked" But as | remember it,
none of our troops from Iowa ever
came back in that shape. daughter
and applause.) That was the feeling
in St. Louis in 1861, and
and this feeling | found there again,
in the same spirit and in the same
places, re expressed by the very same
men, when | was there in 1874. 1t
was then / heard the news that the
Democrats had elected majority of
the National House, and these same
fellows who swarmed about the no.
tells talking treason and deriding
Union soldiers in 1871 were exultant
and delirious with joy this last time.
| remarked TO a gentleman who had
been o comrade with me in the war.
"This looks like the same set of fell
lows who were spouting treason here
at the beginning of the war. What
is it that is exciting them SO, and
what ails them? We asked squad
of them what it was that made "them
feel so good p | heard one OF them
say "we have got them this time.
We can beat them this time" We
asked who they meant by {" them ? !"
They replied, "We'll elect the next
President, and then we've got them
Then we'll get pay for all our proper
ty destroyed in the war, and then
we'll get pay for our lost slaves.
We have the House overwhelmingly
now, and in 1876, the Centennial
year, we can get the Senate and a
Democratic President. Then we can
appoint our committee to suit our
selves, and choose our own Southern
Claims Committee and Southern
Claims Court, and make good our
losses by the war;" They meant
that they would get pay for all the
property destroyed by the Union
army, and pay for all their emanci
pated slaves.