The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1879-09-25
Rebound for Calico Charley.

r. A. HoRR.
Rebound for Calico Charley.
Extracts from the Speech of Gen. Joseph
H. Geiger, at Portsmouth, Sept. !.
The Democratic orators and editors
publish abroad "Let the past be forgot
ten. The dead bury its dead" Their
conduct be unremembered, while the
country was struggling for its honor, its
laws, its Constitution and its life, and
treat war that sent slaughtering armies
into the field and teemed the land with
massacres and blood as q slight misun-
derstanding. That is rich. The man
without q 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 except
by recollectioDs What would you know
Of great mens-Alexander, julius Caesar,
Napoleon, George Washington, Daniel
Webster, General Jackson or me, except
through memory. In it we all stand
forth boldly. They treat the late war
as o dance in which ''the girl with the
check apron on goes down the middle, :"
and the heroine with the short petit
coat "balances to her partner" A huge
joke. Two things, however, they dis
tinctly remember as they take q survey
Of the fearful war through the barrel Of
a goose Quill to confine their vision.
They see Charley Foster selling calico
for seventy-five cents a yard and do not
see him in the field, and their patriotic
eyes pop out like mushrooms with hor-
ror and their hearts grow faint within
them. They think, dream, talk OF this
I2k f..ft
them, and compared with it all other con-
siderations dwindle into insignificance.
Tell them that the slave States had the
control in the Supreme Court of the
United States, the majority Of our for
eign ministry, the ruling Of every Cabi-
net from the beginning Of the Admins
tration of Washington until the election
of Abraham Lincoln, although the
North was superior in wealth, intclli
gence, population and power, and they
reply, What does that amount to when
Charley Foster sold calico for seventy
five cents o yard9 Tell them that Lin
coin was fairly and honestly elected
President, and that the Senate Of Uni
ted States was Democratic to pass on all
his appointments, and they reply, Who
cares about that. when Charley Foster
sold calico for seventy-five cents a yard?
Tell them that old dotard, James Bu-
chanan, declared that the Government
had not power enough to preserve its
life from destruction and they will re-
ply, What has that to do with Charley
Charley Foster selling calico for seventy
five cents yard: Tell them that the
traitors seized our custom houses and
post offices, robbed our Treasury, fired
our flags, battered down our forts, men
aced our capital, threatened our archives,
murdered our President, and they muir
muir, Who the thunder cares for that
when Charley Foster sold cslico for
seventy five cents a yardr Tell them of
the widows and orphans, of the impris-
onment, punishment and suffering Of our
men at Libby, of their languishing and
dying under famine, torture and poison,
without food, water or shelter at Ander
dersonville, and they reply, What the
deuce do we care for that, when Charley
Foster sold calico for seventy-five cents
yard? Tell them of the thousands
and millions and billions of dollars eX-
pended to sustain the government of
our fathers, and they respond, Who
cares for expenses when Char.ey Foster
sold calico for seventy-five cents a yards
Tell them that the intense Dc mocracy of
Kentucky nominated and elected as
their Governor, with q full knowledge Of
his character and conduct, Luke B.
Blackburn, a scuilion aud barbarian, who
had impregnated calico, blankets and
clothing with small. pox and yellow fe-
yer 20 introduce those diseases not only
in our army but among the women and
children, to bear into premature graves
the innocent and unoffending, and they
rejoin, Who cares what Blackburn did
when Charley Foster sold calico for
seventy-five cents q yards Ask them
why Dixon was so foully murdered by
midnight marauders, why Ewing and
Rice voted agsinst proposition that no
one should carry deadly weapons at the
polls, and their reply is, Didn't Charley
Foster sell calico for seventy-five cents a
ysrds Shame, perpetual shame, upon
Northern men who can thus ignore man
hood servility to party. Charley Foster
did not sell calico or any other article in
his line Of trade for any higher price
than any other prudent merchant. i
will bet one hundred dollars that Char
ley Foster gave more money and mate
rial to support the war and the families
of soldiers and sailors that were in the
army and navy than ell the me you
nave In your city VINO Voteu Ior Nallan-
bingham. Democratic towards who,
like Jobs war horse, ''smelt the battle
afar off," and prayed to God that it
might stay there, now are loud in their
screenings, "Where was Charley Foster
during the war?" He was at home TAX
ing care of the families Of those who
were in the fight, encouraging enlist
ments and doing all he could for the
country. Just prior to the war Charles
Foster could number among the loved
and living five brothers and sisters, All
were carried to their graves with typhoid
fever, and he, the very youngest of the
family, was borne to the very gates of
death by the destroyer, but luckily sur
vived to be Governor of Ohio. He was
the only child spared, in their fearful
affiictiOn, to the aged parents. They
besought him to remain with them. and
his fidelity to them, within large and
complicated business which no other
person could either close or carry on,
compelled him to remain in Fostoria.
1t was not time either for all the loyal
men TO be away from Ohio, or the Buck
eye State would have been transferred to
the Confederacy in less than thirty days