The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1879-09-17
s5s SPEECH
Na1 OF
Vice PRESIDENT WHEELER
Upon Taking the Chair as
President Of the New
III York State Conven-
ton, at Saratoga,
on the 3rd inst. sat

on the 3rd inst. sat
GESTLEMEN OF rHE CONVENTION :
Thrice have ] been honored with the
position to which you have now as
signed me, and If gratitude can be
computed by progression, thrice am
grateful for your kind partiality. l
had the honor to preside over the Re-
publican State Convention 90 years
ago, when the slave power, having
the Constitution, the laws, the Ex-
ecutive, Congress and the courts in
complete domination, was, neverthe-
less, demanding for its peculiar inter
est, rights, and protection without
the pale Of the Constitution, was Sc
cretly organizing vast conspiracy
against the integrity of the Union,
and kindling the flame of the ruthless
civil war which, within two years
thereafter, opened its dread drama in
Charleston Harbor in the glare of /
batteries OF artillery, which hurled
their iron bolts upon one small, siege
worn company of United States SOL
diers, whom the Government, in its
earnest desire to avoid hostile dem
onstratiens, was endesvoring to feed,
aud not to reinforce. 1t was at SUM-
ter that the experiment Of starving
the Government was ipitisted, with
repetition atApdersonviIle and other
places of historic brutality. and more
recently at W sshington At the late
extra session of Congress / came
to this position again i'll 1872. The
curtain had then fallen upon the
bloody drama opened at Charleston.
The long. weary, battling years that
had interveued had drifted into tie
dead past The nag bad beeh .iiked
up from its humiliation at Sumter,
and again inviolate and supreme, pro-
claimed the national sovereignty from
the Potomac to the Rio Grsnde. A
half million Of the defenders of that
sovereignty were sleeping in soldiers
graves. The blood Of hundreds of
battle.Gelds, the emblems of mourn
ing, the tesrsin million Of sscrifcial
homes, the bereft, the desolate, the
helpless, the SCARED, and the wasted.
encountered on every hand, attested
the costliness of the sacrifices which
had been made for the national life.
We then confidently believed that BY
an immutsble law of the Supreme
Ruler, such sacrifices hsd not beeI
made in vain; thaIthe nations blood,
the nations tears, and the nations
treasures bad found compensation in
the destruction of the germ of the
fatal heresv of secession and 10 saw
ing the grand framework of our Gov
ernment IRON falling into wretched
fragments. With immense msjorities
in Congress and every State, and om-
nipotent to fix the status Of its defeat
ed enemies, the Government. with q
magnanimity for which the history Of
the world furnishes no parallel, treat
ing the contest as one Of principle,
and not of personal hatred, and lift.
ing itself above the low level Of
mere sectional triumph, had condon-
ed the crime OF treason and rebellion,
and actually reinvested traitors and
rebels with the rights they had for
ieited, and made them equal partici-
pants in the privileges they bad inso-
lently cast of in their mad purpose to
destroy the national authority. This
magnsnimity has been supplemented
by every possible effort To establish in
the Southern section Of this country
q substantial era of reconciliation end
peace. Military gsrrisons have been
withdrawn, al alleged nationsl inter-
ference heretofore complained Of, dis
continued, and, contrary 10 ell politi.
cal precedent, appointments to of6ee
have been given TO those who, few
years since, were moving heaven sud
earth to prostratc the Government
and Union. To-day We are confront
ing the consequences of the msgnan-
unity of the Government and of it's
wasted and dcspised efforts to con-
ciliate it's late armed asssilants. In
the light of recent events it ID not
byperbole to inquire, ives tie surren-
der of Appomattox . wretehed, bol-
low truce, patched up to enable the
rebellion TO choose new line Of as
saalt upon the Union! and was the
mushroom confederacy proclaimed at
Montgomery really : failure, OF are
the founders and ideas to become the
living, controlling forces Of the coon-
try? The spirit which de6ed the au-
ihority and sought TO destroy the
unity of the Republic hes sgain TAX
en- living form 10 . solid South, sup-
ported by the whole power OF the
party North, which ID 1861 declared
that the Constitution bad lslt the
Government peWerlsss 10 the iacs Of
N srred eueuy, which, with yaiof-
oss spirit bot faintisg aesh. plsdged
itself to resist coercien unto blood !;
On d which, when cur hvieeesieas le-
81 ons hsd prepared The windingsshsss
OF the rebeIlios, 10 its Nssiossf Con.
' entioa assembled reselvsd the wss {
fsilure. sise ssassysD sesiy
STATE HiaHrs AsP syIriglcArl1S
Stripped Of III euise, the two, great
parties OF the country ere again rang,
ed on either side Of The line of qe.
narration of tks po yers Of the NJ
uonal Go vernpent and The Btatea
Wherein nov differs the ipqs from
that ns1e np In 1851 & Tfsps slhe
i9iasi1 odt % b.as1 90 ot hslxoa >