The Portland daily press., 1879-09-18
THE BOYS IN BLUE.
Rannion Of the HAYES Regiment

Can't. Balls An address of welcome was de-
liverd by Walter L. Campbell, to which the
President responded in an appropriate speech.
We give the following abstract of his re-
marks
Comrades aiad Felow Citizens: After al
most year spent in Washington engrossed IN
public affairs it is a great pleasure TO Visit
again my friends in Ohio, and especially to
meet so many of my old comrades at this
yearly reunion of the Twenty-thlrd Regiment
there has been a vast improvement in the
business condition of our country. When l
lastEyisited this beautiful valley of the Mahon-
ing four years ago, the financial crisis and the
gloomy outlook Tor business and labor and
CAPITAL occupied the thoughts and depressed
TIE spirits of the people wherever met them,
whether in public assemblies, at their places of
business or at their hospitable homes. Now,
however, how great and how gratifyingls the
change All around us, here and throughout
the country generally, we see cheering and
hopeful indications of better times. Not only
have specie payments been resumed, but bust
ness activity and profitable employment for
capital and labor have come also.
Since our last reunion, in several OF the
states and IN Congress events have occurred
which have revived the discussion of the ques-
ton as to the objects for which we fought III
the great conflict from 1861 to 1865, and as to
what was accomplished by the final triumph
of the Union cause The question is, what
fought for the Union justly claim; and what
ought those who fought for secession, faith
fully to accept as the legitimate results OF the
war?
1 need not enter into any discussion of the
causes of our civil war. We all know that the
men who planned the destruction of the Union
and the establishment of the Confederate
States based their attempt on construction OF
the constitution called the state-rights doc
trine, and On the interest of the people OF
A. -, 81, nd ion,
of slavery. The doctrine of state-rights was,
that each state was sovereign and supreme,
and might nullify the laws of the Union or
secede from the Union at pleasure. They held
that slavery was the natural and normal con-
dition of the colored man, and that, therefore,
slavery in this country could and should be
the corner stone of free government.
No man has ever stated the issue of the
civil war more fully, more clearly, or mo re
accurately than Mr.. Lincoln. In any inquiry
as to what may fairly be included among the
things settled by our victory, all just and
patriotic minds instinctiyely turned to MIR.
lincoln. To him, more than to any other
man. the cause of Union and liberty is III
debted for its final triumph. Besides, with all
his wonderful sagacity, and wisdom, and
ly, and powerfully, during four years of awful
trial and responsibility, on the questions
which were continually arising to perplex and
almost confound him, he at last became the
very embodiment of the principles by which
the country and its liberties were saved. All
good citizens may now well listen to and heed
his words None have more reason to do 1t
with respect and confidence, and genuine
regard, than those whom he addressed in his
first inaugural speech as my dissatisfied fel-
low-countrymen." The leader of the Union
cause was so just and moderate, and patient
and humane, that many supporters of the
Union thought that he did not go far enough
or fast enough, and assailed his opinions and
his conduct; but now all men begin to see that
the plain people, who at last came to love him
and to lean upon his wisdom and firmness
with absolute trust, were altogether right, and
that in deed and purpose he was earnestly
devoted to the welfare of the whole country,
and of all its inhabitants.
'FOur score and seven years ago." said Mr.
Lincoln, "our fathers brought forth on this
continent new nation, conceived in liberty
and dedicated to the proposition that all men
are created equal. Now we are engaged in
great civil war, testing whether that nation, or
any nation so conceived and SO dedicated, can
long endure
And again, in closing, he said: ut is rather
for MS that we here highly
resolve that the dead shall not have died in
vain; that the nation shall, under God, have
the people, by the people and for the people,
shall not perish from the earth" +.
No statement of the true objects of the war
more complete than this has ever been made.
1t includes them all-nationality, liberty,
equal rights and self-government. These are
the principles for which the Union soldier
fought and which it was his aim to maintain
and perpetuate
Enthusiastically the states have the powers
and rights reserved to them in and by the Ma
tional Constitution, and upon this point, in
another part of his great message, Mr.. Lincoln
says,
state rights, as principle, is no other than the
principle of generality and locality. Whatever
concerns the whole should be ccnfided to the
whole-to the general government; while
whatever concerns only the state should be left
exclusively to the state. This is all there is OF
original principle about it,
On the subject of suffrage, Mr.. Lncoln's
guiding principle was that mo man is good
enough to govern another man without that
other mans consent"
Thus we have it from the lips and pen of Mr..
Lincoln-the great leader and representative OF
the Union cause-in the most solemn and au-
thentic form, complete statement OF the is
sues of the war. He held that the Union is
perpetual; that its government is national and
supreme; and that all of itssnhabitants should
be. free and be accorded equal civil and political
rights.
1t is enough for my present purpose to say
that, as matter of history, all of the political
parties of the past when charged with the re-
sponsibility of directing the affairs OF the gov
eminent, have maintained in their practical
administration of it, precisely the same princi-
pies which were held by President Lincoln.
No one can overstate the evils which the
country must suffer if lawless and violent OPP
position to the enjoyment Of constitutional
rights is allowed to be permanently successful.
The lawlessness which today assails the rights
of the colored people will find other victims
tomorrow. This question belongs to no race,
to no party and to no section. 1t is question
in which the whole country is deeply interest
ed.
Patriotism, justice, humanity, and our ma
terial interests, all plead on the right side OF
this question. The coored people are the
laborers who produce the cotton which, going
abroad to the markets OF the world, gives us
that favorable balance of trade which is now
doing so much for the revival of all business.
The whole fabric of society rests upon labor.
If free laborers suffer from oppression and in
justice, they will either become disconnected
and turbulent, destroyers of property, and not
producers of property or they will abandon
the communities which deprive them of their
rights. In either case, social order
perity depends are imperiled and perhaps
sacrificed. 1t will not do to say that this is an
affair which belongs solely to the distant states
of the South. The whole country must suffer
if this question is not speedily settled, and
settled rightly. Where the two races are
prosperity can only exist by the
united and harmonious efforts of both the
white people and the colored people The
only solid foundations for peace and progress
in such communities are equal and exact JUS
tice to both races.
Happily, in the very communities where
Iawlessness has been most general and most
successful, there are editors of newspapers and
other influential citizens who speak out and
these crimes against free govern
ment 1t is plain that sound public opinion
is forming where it is most needed. No COM
munity can afford to allow any Of its citizens
to be oppressed-to lose their rights. To be
Indifferent on the subject is to disregard inter-
est and duty. The Union citizens and soldiers
can do much to remove the evils we are con-
sidering. Let it be understood that no public
man in any party will be sustained unless he
will undertake to carry out in good faith the
pledges made in all our platforms in regard to
the rights of colored citizens; unless he will
support laws providing the means required to
punish crimes against them; and unless he
will oppose the admission of any man to either
House of Congress whose seat has been OBJ
tanned by violation of the Fifteenth Amend
ment. The right of suffrage is the right of
Its free exercise is the vital
air of Republican institutions.
THE FALL RIVER STRIKERS.