Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1879-10-01
ELOQUENT WORDS.
spoken by Vice President Will.
lam A. Wheeler,
Before the New York Republican State
Convention, at Saratoga.

Before the New York Republican etat<
Convention, at Saratoga.
GENTLEMEN OF TEE CONVENTION: Thrice
have been honored with the position to which
you have now assigned me, and, il gratitude
can be computed by progression, thrice am
grateful for your kind partiality. I had the
honor to preside over the Republican State
Convention twenty years ago, when the slave
Executive Congress and the courts in COM
paste domination, was nevertheless demanding
yor Us peculiar interest rights and protection,
without the pale Of the constitution, was &C.
cretly organizing vast conspiracy against the
integrity Of the Union, and kndling the fame
Of the ruthless civil war which, within two
years thereafter, opened its dread drama in
Charleston harbor in the glare OF eleven bat
teries Of artillery, which hurled their iron bolts
upon one small, siege-worn company Of United
States troops, whom the Government, In ito
earnest desire to avoid hostile demonstrations,
was endeavoring to feed, and not to reinforce.
It was at sumter that the experiment Of starv-
ing the Government was initiated, with repeti-
ton at Andersonville and other places Of his
tOrio brutality, and moro recently at Washing
ton 1t the late extra session Of Congress. came
to this position again in 1872. The curtain had
then fallen upon tho bloody drama opened at
Charleston. The long, weary, battling years
that had intervened had drifted into the dead
past. The flag had been lifted up from its hu-
miliation at Sumter, and, again inv1olate and
supreme, proclaimed the national sovereignty
tros,N hn 10 "a Ia nd hA0
million of the defenders Of that sovereignty
were sleeping In soldiers graves. The blood
of hundreds Of battle fields, the emblems OF
mourning, the tears in . million OF sacYiflcial
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 i'm
mutable law Of the Supreme Ruler, such sacri-
fees had not been made in vain; that the ma
tons blood, the nations tears, and the nations
treasures bad found compensation in the des-
truction Of the germ Of tho fatal heresy Of %
cesson and in saving the grand framework Of
fragments. With immense majorities in Con-
gress and every Northern State, and omnipo-
tent to fix the status Of its defeated enemies.
the Government, with magnAnimity for which
the history OF the world furnishes no parallel, +,
treating the contest as one Of principle, and
the low level OF mere personal triumph, had
condoned the crime Of treason and rebellion,
ard actually reinvested traitors and rebels with
the rights they had forfeited, and made them
equal participants in the privileges they had
insolently cast of in their mad purpose to de-
stroy the national authority This magnanim-
ity has been supplemented by every possible
effort to establish in the Southern section Of
this country q substantial era Of reconciliation
and peace. Military gsrrisons have been with
drawn, all alleged national interference hereto
fore compla ned Of discontinued, and, contrary
to all politici precedent appointments to Of
fee have been given to those who, few years
since, were moving heaven and earth to pros
trate the Government and Union. To-day we
are here confronting the consequences
Of the magnanimity Of the Government
and Of it, wasted and despised efforts 70 con-
ciliate its late armed assailAnts. In the light OF
recent events it is not hyperbole to inquire,
hollow truce, patched mp to enable the rebellion
to choose new line Of assault upon the new
Union and was the mushroom COnfederscy
proclaimed at Montgomery really failure, or
are the founders and ideas to become the liv-
ing, controlling forces of the country? The
destroy the unity of the republic has again taken
living form in . solid South, supported by the
whole power OF the party North, which
in 1861 declared that the constitution had
left the Government powerlees in the
valorous spirit but fsinting fesh, pledged
itself TO resist coercion unto blood; and
which, when our victorious legions had pre-
pared the winding sheet Of the rebellion, in its
National Convention assembled resolved the
war . failure.
STATE RIGHTS AND MULTIPLICATION.
Stripped of all guise, the two great parties Of
the country are again ranged on either side Of
thn NJ dam rk al nj
National Government and the States. Wherein
now differs the issue from that made up ip
1857 Then, the Democratic party demanded
Of President Lincoln that he should periure
himself In his Official oath or they would over
throw the Government by armed force. Lin.
coln answered, in bis inaugural: You have
no oath registered in heaven to destroy thu
Government, while have the most solemn onl
to preserve, protect and defend it." Thil
demand was referred to the last dread court ol
arbtrament, where for four years, in the whit
heat of fearful war, the great argument pro
ceed,d, until at last, ct Appomattox, the yer.
whose MARSHALL Of the Union forces hst
brought rebel ~kitors to submission and
avenged an outraged nation. That verdict VA
that tho constitution OF the United States va
not compact entered into BY the States, bu
was ordained and established by the people
OF the United States for themselves and theil
posterity; that no State or combination Of Statel
can nulfify the constitution; that the Union is
family Of States, Independent of each other fol
local concerns, but united under one Govern
ment for the management Of common interest,"
and the preservation Of the general peaoe-t
plan, to borrow the language Of another
blessings Of . small State with the stability ant
power Of great empire" In short, that ver
dict was that the nationality proclaimed by on
fathers shall stand until justice. domestic tran
quillity. the common defense, the general vel
fare, and the blessings Of liberty shall. In God
| own good time, under the stars and stripes, b
the lasting heritage Of all who may 20 DWELLING
upon tho face of this entire continent And th
Republican party Of tho Empire State, remem
befing that the great charter Of our nationANs!
| was enacted upon her soil, and recelun& 20
heroic deeds, tho sacrifices and the hdehty 9
| the almost half million of her sons who partc1
pated in that bloody assise. pledges itself her
anew to stand by the verdict.
| In this year Of grace the same Demomaa
| party which sought to coerce President Hncon
| from his Official duty has demanded Of Preel
his Official oath; that be should surrender
prsrogatve Given him BY the constitution.
that Congress alone might become the lAw
making power, and that the party might
Congressional enactment strip the Governmen
Of the power TO protect iss citizens. % eoioIc
| tts laws for the preservation Of We peece q a
for the security Of the ballot boz, to theend tna
| the palladium OF our liberties might b loft
| prey to fraud and violence in the South an
| swindling rspeaters IN the North This revc
lutionary demand wAs accompanied BY q
menace that, tho President refusing, e
| whole machinery Of the Government snoaI
he supplies which oonstitute ~ very LII
4 eurrcnta This new agseult upon ne coo -
| stitutjon. differing In form only from IA