Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1876-08-09

know II they didn't have right to do this.
l answered that they he'd, but that also
had the right to disapproyc their doing it,
and denounce the deed. IApplause.]
Another thing didn't like was Ben Hills
rebel speech and its bold utterances OF trea-
son, and didn't like the rebel yell In re-
Spouse to 1t, all over the South, for l had
heard that yell before and knew what it
meant. [Great cheers.] They tell me--the
Democrats-that am scared of Ben HILL"
l don't think l am; don't think was
"scared OF" any of the Hills when 1 met
them in the South; don't remember that
was. (Great cheering,] Then l told my
friend, how, worse than all OF the many bad
and unblushing acts Of the Democratic
House, esteemed as infamous the act OF
appointing to the clerkship of the leading
committee of the House the man Hamble-
ton, who named his son John Wilkes Booth,
after the assassin of President Lincoln. I'm
mense cheering. This outrageous act, in
trucking to the rebel element, the Northern
Democrats dare not disoWn, and for all
know, this man is still the clerk of that
committee The little child, SO dishonored
by its name, and the significance Of it, had
the good sense, thank God, to die. APP
plause.
One thing have now come to, which is
painful to speak about, as it is largely pri-
vate matter. So far from being allowed to
leave the Democracy in peace, as | 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
is nothing. In the last ten days have re-
ecived scores Of letters, and most of them
anonymous, abusing me without stint, and
charging me with all sorts Of crimes. These
things, which would annoy anv man who
had feeling, have simply confirmed me in
my estimate of many members of the party
/ have left, and have simply intensified nv
conviction that my course was and is right.
/ can see by those an explanation of one
thing that puzzled me In the career OF my
old comrade in arms, Gen. John A. Logan
Logan and were together a great deal in
the forepart Of the war, and we talked things
over as acknowledgements, and in every re-
spect nearly we agreed. After the close of
the war we met again. When | had parted
from him he was a Democrat then he was
a Republican, and bitterly anti Democratic.
| said to him: 81 can understand your
course in changing parties, and ] cannot
blame you very much. But what cannot
understand is what makes you so terribly
bitter against the Democrats" He rcplied
You never Will fully understand ii till you
yourself leave the Democratic party, which
day will surely come; but then you will
see ii plainly enough" Well, | have found
out.
knew the public charges made against
Logan, and know personally what atrocious
lies many of them were, and Icould not con-
ceive that partisan maligrity could go any
farther than it went in the coinage of them.
But now | do see. These letters have re-
ccivcd charge me with being a robber, an IN
cendiary and murderer These charges
they make TO describe my career and record
as a soldier. Can | be blamed, then, in view
..f IA al, fea,
my resolved purpose Of privacy, and pub
licly hurting back upon their authors all
such accusations? Tremendous applause.
Let me refer to some OF these charges
briefly. will not be long, although find
my time is far too short for telling it all, and
/ don't want to weary you. They say stole
cotton, and made money by it. It's II lie.
Applause. / say it with that word because
that is the word. Great applause | cap
turcd but two lots of Confederate cotton, as
it was called-cotton belonging to the Rebel
Government. | turned il over and took du-
pieatc receipts for it--one of which | sent
to the Secretary of the Treasury, where it
now is, and the other ! kept, and now have
it. | never made Il cent in cotton, and never
tried to do IT, make short work Of these
charges, because that is all there is of 1T.
They say speculated in gold while at the
head of my command. The Wall street
brokers were running up the price of gold,
specializing on the fast increasing perls or
the Republic, saying, that Vicksburg could
not bc taken, and that therefore the Rebel
lion would be 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 applauscl, and they bet
against us. That was all there was of it.
We knew we could take Vicksburg and knew
when il would be taken before Wall street
did. We knew the Mississippi would 90
down, so we could land on the rebel side
1--WE had already landed on the other sidet-
and knew that when we did land on their
side there would be trouble. SO in April we
organized together, n number of our officers,
aud formed a club, laughter, and drew our
pay, and got all the money we could put
in all this money, and everything that | had
and borrowed every dollar that could
We all put in this money, our pay as sol
diers, and made a purse of il, and sent a
man TO Wall street to sell gold short at sell
er's option on ninety days, and put up our
money as margins. II was simply bet or
our part that we could take Vicksburg, ant
that we would do IT, and bet on Wal
streets part that we couldn't and wouldn't
We stakcd our lives, too on the top of the
bet We did take kicksburg. Great cheer
ing, frequently rcpeated.l We won our bet,
and Wall street lost. Laughter We made
| money; made money, lots Of it, and ! am
| glad of it, 1t served good purpose to the
| Union, too, as well as to our pockets. 1t was
| not known the day our gold was sold whose
! it was. But the next morning it was an
nounced in the New York press that it was
| the money of the Union officers before
| Vicksburg, their bet, virtually, that they
| would take Nicksburg. In twentyfour
hours gold went down to ffteer cents
| iCbeersl Sumo of the noble men who fell
| in the capture Of NickSburg were in "tht
| club" and their families to-day are saved
| from poverty by the profit Of this soldiers
| bet with Wall street. You may call it bet
| and morally wrong, If you choose, ] am will
| ing to accept the responsibility OF this as il
| is. [Applausel SO / did speculate in gold
while was actually at the head Of my diyis-
| ion. That one charge is true. Laughter. ]