The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-03-21

brains, and he has got the pluck to change his
policy just as often as the end to be attained
requires that change.
THE BoURRoNs AND THE IMPLAcABLEs.
vi course, there are men at the South and
Noftn who can never be concliated. They
are the lmplacables in the South-the Bourbons
IN the North. Nothing will ever satisfy them,
Iheilmpacables want to own negroes and IN
whip them; the Bourbons never will he salts
ted until they can help catch one. The Impla.
cables with violent hands drive emigration
from their shores. They are poisoning the
springs aud sources of prosperity. They dine
on hatred and sup on regret. They mourn over
the lost cause and partake of the communion
OF revenge. They strike down the liberties of
tnelr feIiow-ctizens and refuse to enjoy their
own. They remember nothing but wrongs and
they forget nothing but benefits. Their bosoms
are hlled with the serpents of hate No one
can compromise with them. Nothing can
change them. They must be left to the soften
ing influence Of time and death. 1 believe in
was it was Charles Lamb who, when walking
in cemetery, said to his mother after reading
the eptaphs. "Mother, where 10 they bury the
bad people" If in future years when one
walks through the cemetery where sleep the
lmplacabes and the Bourbons, think the
guestIon-proyided the epitaphs are true-will
The Bourbons are the allies of the implsca-
bles. A Bourbon in the majority is an Impla-
cable. An Implacable in the minority Is a
Bourbon. We do not apeal to these men; we
appeal from them. But there are in the South
thousands of men who have accepted in good
faith the results of the war. There are thous-
ands OF them who admit that they were not
successful in the late civil strife There are
thousands OF these men who wish to preserve
this Y MON. They are tired of strife. They are
longing for real Union, based upon mutual
respect and confidence. These men are willing
that the colored man should be Free They are
willing that he should vote for the Government
OF his Choice; they are willing that his children
should be educated; willing that he should have
all the rights of an American citizen. There is
air enough for US all, let everybody breathe.
There is water enough for US all, let every body
drink: There is liberty enough for us all, let
everybody be free. The man who is not willing
to extend to every other human being every
right that he claims for himself is a dishonest
mean, and selfish man. The men, North and
South. who still love the country are tired of
Implacables, they are dsgusted with Bourbons
These men wish to unite with the patriotic
men of the North-with the men in the North
who have an interest at stake in the great work
OF re-establishing Governments law. For my
part, call me OF what party you please. 1 am
willing to join hands with these men, without
regard to race, color or previous condition.
The men OF the South have already made Us
their debtors.
WHAT SOUTHERN coNGREssMEN DID.
Let me tell you something. If the High
Joint Commission had failed; if the vics-Presi.
dent had never counted the vote; If the cleo.
tion had been thrown into the House of Repre-
sentatives, Samuel j. Tilden would not have
been elected, but Rutherford b. Hayes would
have been elected by Southern votes.
know what L am talking about During
the last Congress the Southern members
not all of them, but enough of them, men
who had fought upon the field of war aga inst
no of nnr xxrafp Aal1 l. eAat-
hands, so to speak, the destiny of the United
States. With one word they could have
plunged us into the hell of civil war; We were
not saved by the Northern Democrats; we were
not saved by the great host of honesty and re-
form. We were saved by those who once
sought to destroy the nation, because they had
had enough of war, They refused to act with
the Bourbons of the North. They said: "We
like this country; we know what war is; our
land was laid waste; our homes and towns and
cities were reduced to ashes; there shall be no
more war that we can prevent. A President
shall be chosen and that President shall be in
augurated." Men, say, who had fought upon
the field of battle against our party stood mp in
the caucuses of the Democratic party in Wash
ington and used those very words. To them
we are indebted for the peaceful solution of the
question. They gave us peace; they preserved
1t, so to speak, and am willing to unite with
them to preserve that priceless gift forever.
Why should we live in enmity? If there is any
way to settle this question by reasoning, by ar
gument, by compromise, let US settle it in that
way. When the President delivered his inau-
gural he knew exactly the position that had
been taken by these Southern men He must
have known it. He knew the patriotic stand
they had taken. He knew the opportunity had
been presented to the South to show that they
still loved this country, and he knew the oppor.
tunity had been grandly improved by them.
Knowing all this he extended TO these men, to
the entire South-not the word of war, bat the
olive branch of peace.
sUBLIMrrY OF The PRESIDENTS COURSE.
In the political history of the world there has
been no grander, no sublimer act. Remember
now, that this was done In the midst of politi-
cal excitement, when the storm of hate was at
its fercest; when the Democratic party of the
North was denouncing the President as fraud
and cheat; when it was demanded that Mr..
Tilden take the oath of Office and unsheath the
boisterous sword of civil war. RecoIect, this
was when they resolved in Congress that
the decision of the High Commission was
illegal and void, when Senators in their places
were charging Judges of the Supreme Court
with perjury, wilful and corrupt; when men in
high places were predicting the downfall of the
Republic; when the Democratic portion of the
Legislature of Ohio publicly renounced all con-
fdence in God, the President, rising above the
passions, prejudices and hatreds of the hour,
above every consideration except the honor,
the glory and prosperity of the whole country,
|
past; let us forget everything except the debt
we owe to the brave men who saved our nation.
Let US dig a grave, and dig 1t wide and dig it
deep, and let US throw into this sepulchre the
chains and whips and auction blocks; let US
leave there our prejudices the hatreds and
heart burnings Of the years that are dead, and
let us bury them out Of the sight OF men, and
over them all let us write this epitaph,
Sacred to forgetfuness.'
We have fought and hated enough. Our
country is prostrate, labor is in rags; energy
has empty hands; the wheels of the factory are
still: in the safe of prudence money lies locked
by the key of fear, Confidence is what we
need; confidence in each other; confidence in
our institutions, in our form of government, in
the great future; confidence in law; confidence
in liberty, in prog ess and in the grand destiny
of the great Republic. l extend to you, each
and all, the olive branch of peace"
Fellow citizens of the South 1 beseech you to
take it. BY the memory OF those who died
for naught, by the charred remains of your re-
membered homes, by the ashes of your states
men dead, for the sake of your sons and your
daughters, and their fair children yet to be,
implore you to take it with loving and with
loyal hands. 1t will cultivate your wasted
fields; it will rebuild your towns and cities; 1t
will fill your Golfers with gold; it will educate
your children; it will swell the sails OF your
commerce; it will cause the roses to JOY to
Chamber and climb over the broken cannon of
war; it will flood the cabins of the freedmen
with light and clothe the weak in more than
coats of mail, and wrap the poor and lowly In
measureless content Take it; the North will
forgive if the South will forget Take it; the
negro will wipe from the tablet of memory the
strokes and scars of two hundred years, and
blur with happy tears the record of his wrongs.
Take it; it will unite our nation; it will make
us brothers once again. Take it; and justice
will sit in your centre under the outspread
white wings of peace. Take It; and the brain
and the lips of the future will be free. Take it;
it will bud and blossom in your hands and fill
your land with fragrance and with joy. Take
political history, and the star of hope heralds
again the rising sun.