Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1879-09-18
Rebound for Calico Charley.
Extracts from the Speech of Gen. Jos.
II. Geiger, at Portsmouth, Sept. l.

| EXTRACTS from tne speech OF ten. Jos.
H. Geiger, at Portsmouth, Sept. /.
The Democratic orators and editors
publish abroad Let the past be forgot
ten. Let the dead bury its dead Their
conduct be aforementioned, while the
country was struggling for its honor, its
laws, its Constitution and its life, and
| treat war that sent slaughtering ar
mics into the field and teemed the land
with masSacres and blood as a slight
misunderstanding. That is rich. The
man without memory is an idiot; the
man who will not exercise it is fool.
What would any of you know about
past events or incidents of your life eX-
cept by recollection? What would you
know of great men ?-Alexander, Julius
Cesar, Napoleon, George Washington,
Daniel Webster, Gen. Jackson or me, ex-
cept through memory. In it we all stand
forth boldly. They treat the late war as
a mere dance in which the girl with the
check apron on goes down the middle"
and the heroine with the short petticOat
balances to her partner" a huge joke.
Two things, however, they distinctly re-
member as they take survey of the
fearful war through the barrel of goose
quill to confne their vision. They see
Charley Foster selling calico at seventy
| FIVE cents yard and do not see him in
the field, and their patriotic eyes pop out
| like mushrooms with horror and their
hearts grow faint within them. They
think, talk, dream of this outrageous
behaviour until it fattens them, and COM
pared with it all other considerations
dwindle into insigniticance. Tell them
| that the slave States had the control in
the Supreme Court of the United States,
the majority of our foreign ministry,
| the ruling of every Cabinet from the
beginning of the Administration of
Washington until the election of Abra-
ham Lincoln, although the North was
snpeior in wealth, intelligence, popula-
tion and power, and they reply, What
does that amount to, when Charley Fos-
| ter sold calico for seventy-five cents a
yard? Tell them that Lincoln was fair
ly and honestly elected President, and
that the Senate of the United States was
Democratic to pass on all his appoint
ments, and they reply, Who cares about
that, when Charlie Foster sold calico for
seventy-five cents a yard? Tell them
that old dotard, James Buchanan, de-
clared that the Government had not
power enough to preserve its life from
destruction, and they will reply, What
has that do with Charley Foster selling
calico for seventy-five cents yard
Tell them that the traitors seized OuI
custom houses and postoffices, robbed
our Treasury, fired on our flags, battered
down our forts, menaced our capital
threatened our archives, murdered oul
DraciAapf anh thayr Ghn thl
thunder cares for that, when Charley
Foster sold calico for seventy-five cents
a yard? Tell them of the widows and
orphans, of the imprisonment, punish.
ment and suffering of our men at Libby
of their languishing and dying under
famine, torture and poison, without
food, water or shelter at AndersOnville
and they reply, What the deuce do we
, care for that, when Charley Foster sold
calico for seventy-fye cents a yard
; Tell them of the thousands and millions
and billions of dollars expended to sus
tain the Government of our fathers, and
: they respond, who cares for expenses
, ! when Charlie Foster sold calico for sew.
euty-five cents yard? Tell them that
the intense Democracy of Kentucky
nominated and elected as their Cover
nor, with a full knowledge of his char
acter and conduct, Luke p. Blackburn
I a scullion and barbarian, who had i'm
pregnated calico, blankets and clothing
, with smallpox and yellow fever, to in
trOduce those diseases not only in oul
army but among the women and chill
dren, to bear into premature graves the
innocent and unoffending, and they re-
join, Who cares what Blackburn did
when Charlie Foster sold calico for sew
enty-five cents a yard? Ask them why
Dixon was so foully murdered by mid
night marauders, why Ewing and RicC
voted againsta proposition that no on,
should carry deadly weapons at the polls
and their reply is, Didn't Charley Eos
ter sell calico for seventy-ive cents
yard? Shame, perpetual shame, upol
Northern men who can thus ignOr
manhood servility to party. Charlie,
Foster did not sell calico or any othe
article in his line of trade for any highe
price than any other prudent merchant
| will bet one hundred dollars that Char
ley Foster gave more money and materi
al to support the war and the familie
of the soldiers and sailors that were il
the army and navy than all tn
| HUI 1Ou HdNC III yOuI City WIZ NOltu ~
Vallandigham. Democratic coward
who, like Jobs war horse, "smelt til
battle afar off, and prayed to God tina
1t might stay there, now are loud il
their screenings, "Where was Charlie
Foster during the war;" He was a
home taking care of the families of thos
who were i'll the fight, encouraging en-
listments and doing all he could for tn
;. country. Just prior to the war Charlie
e Foster could number among the love,
and living five brothers and sisters. Al
were carried to their graves by typhoi,
fever, and he, the very youngest of tn
family, was borne to the very gates o
. death by the destroyer, but luckily sur
vived to be Governor of Ohio. He wa
the only child spared, in their, fearful af
Fiction, to the aged parents. They be
sought him to remain with them, ant
his fidelity to them, with a large ant
complicated business which no othe
person could either close or carry on
compelled him to remain in Fostoria
1t was not time either for all the loya
men to be away from Ohio, or the Buck
eve State would have been transferred
to the Confederacy in less than THIRTY
days after the COpperheads had ascer
tained their preponderance. His recorC
during the struggle is all right. l chal
lenge any man to show me an applica
ton from the family of any one who
was in the army for anything thai
Charles Foster could hOnorably give
that was not freely given, and there art
thousands of dollars now uncOllected OF
his books against soldiers, and he rejoi,
ces that he was able to help those who
were fighting for him. He never pre-
sented IA bill to any man on his return
from serving his country and he never
will. Many of the soldiers paid and
some were unable to pay, but never by
} direct request or intimation was any
man in the army or navy asked by
Charles Foster to pay a cent of his in.