Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1879-09-06
Eloquent Remarks of General 4:
ii. GrOsvcnOr of Ohio In his last
Speech Before Leaving Maine.

Speech Before Leaving MAINE
General c. H. Grosvenor of Ohio, made the
closing speech of his engagement in Waldo
county, at Searsmont last evening. In clos
ing he said:
Men of Maine the issue of this great con-
test is now committed to your hands. The
stern duty deyolves upon you that You see to
it that on Monday next through your inaction
or failure of duty no harm shall come to the
Republic
For nearly four weeks | have been speak
ing to the people of this beautiful State.
came he.e total stranger to your people
but came here IA republican, imbucd with
the spirit and genius of rcpublicanism as
taught by the patrarchs and fathers of this
grand old party, and now exempliled by the
Eljahs of the party upon whose worthy
shoulders have descended the mantles of
those who have gone before.
| have been everywhere charmed by what
have seen in your State. | have been
charmed by her green fields, her sparkling
lakes and clear. running rivers, her pine-clad
hills, her grand mountains ana her stern and
rock bound but delightful ocean front, ex-
tending for so many miles along her border.
| have not been more profoundly impressed
By your fair landscapes, your sparkling wa
tiers. your strengthening and life-giying
breezes, than by your Institutions, your free
schools, your hcavenwartl pointing spires and
your stern integrity of character.
was prepared to meet men of integrity
and moral worth in this New England State.
| love New England. | love its great pat
riotism, its intelligence and worth. Born
upon her soil, | have ever cherished fond
memories of her hills, dalcs and people.
/ cauuratul a. the pppplp of Maine 70 -uay
that the busy hum of your great industries
again makes music in your towns and cities.
| charge you that You owe it to the good adj
mnistraton of the republican party, that you
are not, as to these things, where you stood
one year ago. | charge YOU that you do not
undo the work of these years of sad labor,
struggle and suffering
appeal to You that you stand by the record
this grand old Pine Tree State has made since
1861. appeal to you that you go not back
upon the record you made inwar. | con lure
YOU by the pride you have in your past, in
making the history Of the great rebellion, you
do not undo the results your gallant dead
lost their lives to achieve. Could they to-day
look down upon these scenes of political
strife, and hear the bitter utterances of the
Blackburns and Stevenses ofthe late rebellion
from that ''eternal camping ground" where
|
join me in this appeal. You owe something
to the gorificd dead of your proud State.
'erhe dead of Maine, The dead of Maine
| On every field they lie,
On every field of strife made red,
| With bloody victory!
| Their bones are on our northern hills,
And on the southern plain;
BY brook and river, mount and rills,
And in the sounding main"
Stand by the record this State has made in the
councils of the nation, in all this long night
of reconstruction and restoration of national
credit. Stand by the men of your State who
in Congress and Cabinet have shed unfadng
luster upon your name. To your State has
been assigned more than once in Congress the
post of leader, when great questions have been
met and settled To the strong and unerring
craftsmanship of your sons, and the aDdacious
but patriotic and wise leadership of the peer
less ''plumcd knight of the gallant old State
of Maine, the people of this country owe a
debt it cannot pay
Will you next Monday vote to blot out this
bright record? viii you strike from the rolls
of fame the names of your dead of the battle
for liberty and nationality? Will you ex-
punge from your national records, the burn
ing words and brave deeds of your Fessen-
Will YOU in the initial battle of 1880 show to
the solid South where it may strike and find a
wavering line. Will you permit breach to
be made in the strong column of the solid
North, upon which alone the institutions of
this country, which You fought to rescue and
redeem from treason and destruction, depend
to-day for safety?
say no. say you will not do it. | hear
voice that comes rising and swelling from
your pine woods, from your lakes and rivers,
and is murmured by the ceaseless waves of
old ocean upon your beaches, from the graves
of vour dead, from the hearts and consciences
of your true sons and beautiful daughters,
that tells me as by an inspiration you will not
do it,
"There Is a rainbow in the sky
Above the paths where lightnings trod,
Twas written by hand on high,
Ii is the autograph of God"
The honor of your dead, the prestige of the
living, and the record you have made, are all
safe in the keeping of the patriotic people of
this patriotic State.
Do your duty. Win victory. Rescue
Maine from bad rule and shield her from the
false position of being the first to desert her
ancient position at the head of the column.
Send us of Ohio next Monday night such
news as will cheer our hearts, and nerve our
arms TO go forth with courage renewed to
the battle of October, and help us to give gal
liant Charles Foster such majority as his
chivalry and courage have entitled him TO-,
and which will place Ohio in the great GEN.
ter of the grand army of the Union in 1880.
Adjutant Tobie of the First Maine Cavalry
has been in attendance during the reunion of
that association. 1t is singular fact that he
has no recollection of ever having seen ssFirst
Maine Cavalryman" during his time Of SER