Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-09-03
E. ]. PHELPS IN 1864.
TIE RANKEST COPPERHBADLSl
sumner and Greeley DcnOunc-
ed as ssNIiscreants."

REMARKABLE SPEECH OF THE PRESENT DEMO-
CRATIC NOMINEE FOR GovERNoB-sEcEsH
DEMocRAcY-HATRED OF LINCOLN AND THE
'NIoaER"-UNIoN SOLDIERS sTIdMAT1zED AS
''HEssIANs"-T WAR DECLARED FAILURE.
GFrom the Rutland Herald, Aug. 2Ith.l
Onthe 9TH of August, 1864, the present Dem
ocratic nominee for Governor, L. J. Phelps,
Esq, of Burlington, made a long address before
the Democratic association of Burlington.
We have obtained full report of the ad-
dress, and the liberal extracts we make may
be relied upon as entirely authentic, as the re-
port was made stenographically and the care
fully written manuscript is in our possession.
Let it not be forgotten that when Mr.. Phelps
spoke the bitter and contemptuous denuncia-
ton of Lincoln, that great man had already
been placed by the common consent of the
civilized world in the first order of patriots
and statesmen that our war, so far from be-
ing failure was already an assured success.
Gettysburg had given Lees army n blow
from which it had never recovered. The
fall of Vicksburg had opened the Mississippi.
Sherman's army had repeatedly beaten Hood
Atlanta fell within thirty days after Mr..
Phelps drew his dreadful picture of defeat.
The speech opens with an eloquent sketch of
the blessed peace and prosperity and nation
al happiness that existed prior to the election
of n Republican President in 1860, whose in
auguration was followed by the great civil
war The orator then describes, as follows,
the contrast which the red letter of 1864 pre-
sents to the happy days when the South
owned slaves and had a pack of Federal
hounds in every Northern State to hunt
them:
1--WE have got a national debt piled up
which all are beginning to see we cannot car
ry and nobody is going to say how we can re-
pudiate it. We have got u taxation that en-
ters into every article that we eat and drink
and have aud use and wear and see, that lit
orally follows us from the cradle to the grave
We have got the price of living-and by that
| mean the comforts and necessarios, not the
luxures-we have got the price of our daily
bread raised to such pitch that the COM
forts of life are dropping away from the ta-
bles of the best Of us every day. No man.
liberty is safe against arbitrary, unauthorized
arrest, not only unwarranted by any law that
we know anything about but expressly pro
hibited by the Constitution. No mans free
picked up tonight for the words speak to
you and carried of TO some fort. The news
paper that ventures to print what ! say, how
ever insignificant and uuimportant, may be
suppressed tomorrow by the bayOnct. do
not care a cent, in this hour Of public calam-
ity, for any party that was ever organized,
except for the public relief Let those that
want offices quarrel over them. Let those
that care to carry on party warfare, carry it
on. l have something else TO do, and so
have you. But we have got first this ques-
tion to settle, whether or not we are to be
permitted to live and earn our bread any
longer in the land in which we belong"
Mr. Phelps then discusses the origin and
| progress of this dreadful change from the
prosperity of slavery to the chaos of war
Here is his tribnte to the abolition agitators
and their heirs, the Republican party
"You can remember as well as l how long
ago it was when there used TO be a set of
| long haired, miserable creatures around the
country pedding what they called abolition
| (aughter), and dirty little set they were, as
you all know. (Renewcd laughter.) They
would come around the country and stick up
their dirty little handbills and have a meet
ing Well, there would not be many there
| except few strong minded women. (Laugh-
/
| they could get rid of the boys but they
| ,r0HM throw rotten eggs, and they lr0uld ride
one of them out of town once in
a while ON rail, and then there would be an
awful row about free speech being invaded,
| etc Still, we did not hear much about it.
We heard about as much as you do now of
''women's rights" But in process of time
this thing was taken up by a set of polti-
clans in the State of New York, who had the
sagacity to see that by diligently working
away they might make something out of this.
| 1t began to insnuate itself into certain class
of pulpits and into n certain kind of religion
such as it was and by and by certain set
of political managers began to say, We must
conciliate these fellows; We must have their
vote Said the Wings We must concilate
these fellows or the Democrats will get their
vote Said the Democrats We must con
cilate them or the Wings will get their vote.
| Lets pass some sinking resolution or pass
some unconstitutional liberty bill through the
Legislature aud humor them in that way.
Time and again some men would remon.
strate. They saw that on any subject in the
world when you desert your principles you
are lost, but they were overruled, Well, gen
tlemen, it came to pass that, in disregard OF
the very warning to which referred little
while ago, the last words of Washington, to
beware of sectional controversy, which is q
kind of fire that once started you cannot stop,
disregardng that the last presidential elec.
ton saw a great party arrayed, and saw it
succeed too, i'll electing a President by the
votes of the Northern States exclusively
against every individual vote cast south OF
Mason and Dxon's line. We saw party
successful and putting into the seat of Wash
ington and Jefferson n man who was hostile
to their institutions, which they had no au-
thority to meddle with at all. Well even
then, when Abraham Lincoln, this twentieth
rate back-country attorney (applause and
laughter)-the man imposed upon a people
who did not know him by set of politicians
who did know him, without one single quail
fcation for u statesman, not one, not one
when he was inaugurated and stood there on
the Capitol steps and received the oath of of
flee at the hands of the venerable Chief Jus
tice, it was not too late then, even though the
people of the South, excited, alarmed, were
looking this way and that, and each one ask
ing his neighbor what is going to be done
Even then it was not too late. This whole
nation hung with painful solicitude on the
eth of March, 1861, to hear the language Of
that inaugural address, from which they ex
pected to augur either peace or war. There
was the time fora statesman, or an honest man
even. There was time for him TO have poured
oil upon these waters. Well, many saw
thouBnI anu clhluleu lnht hS nhu' LIS WI"
were of that point-no- point description thai
any man could interpret about as he pleased
Everybody said, IT'S all right-we sham
have any trouble after ALL. Southern mel
even congratulated each other. Well, W,
had war war that is not to be justified; q
war in which the Southern people who begar
it committed a mad and objectionable crime
war which, besides being mad crime, wa
a great mistake.
~ want to recall the line of policy tina
was suggested by Gen. Geo. b. Mcclellan il
July, 1862, not when he was a candidate TO
the presidency, but when down at the from
engaged in carrying on this very war
want to read from document which ough
to be familiar to all of you in this campaign
Gen McClelans report of his operation
when in command of the army of the Poto
mac. From his opportunities of knowing
! a.. ..,.Lir.,...L. Of thn gnnlLArn nnnnla L.