Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1880-09-23
GENL. GARFlELDS
APPEAL TO
Young Men.

IIOh4 q oDCCOh dD AoiAo I'll
Saturday before the Ohio election OF
1879.
Now, fellow-citizens, a word before
I leave you, on the very eve OF the
holy day of Coda fit moment to
consecrate ourselves finally to the
great work of next Tuesday morning.
I see in this great audience tonight a
great many young men-young mcn
who are about to cast their first vote.
I want to give you a word of sugges-
ton and advice. heard a very brill
liant thing said by o boy the other day
up IN one of our northwestern coun-
ties. He said to me, General, L have
agreat mind to vote the Democratic
ticket" That was not the brilliant
things I said to him, "Why?'
well" said he, 'my father is a Repub-
.lican, and my brothers are RepubI-
cans, and I am a Republican all over;
but I want to be an independent man,
and L don't want anybody to say,
"That fellow votes the Republican
ticket just because his dad does and
I have half q mind to vote the Demo-
critic ticket just to prove my indie
p~endence." I did not like the thing
the boy suggested, but 1 did admire
the spirit of the boy that wanted to
have some independence of his own.
Now, tell you, young man, don't
vote the Republican ticket just be-
cause your father votes it. Don't
vote the Democratic ticket, even if he
does vote it. But let me give you this
one word of advice, as you I about
to pitch your tent in n Of the great
political camps. Your life is full and
buoyant with hope now, and I beg
you, when you pitch your tent, pitch
1t among the living and not among
the dead. If you are at all inclined
to pitch it among the Democratic peo-
pie and with that party. let me go
with you for a moment while we sur
vey the ground where L hope you will
not shortly lie. It is a sad place,
young man, for you to put your
young life into. It is to me far more
ike a graveyard than like a camp for
the living. Look at 1T! It is billowed
all over with the graves of dead issues,
of buried opinions, of exploded theo-
ries, Of disgraced doctrines. You
cannot live in comfort in such a place,
Why, look here! Here is a lite double
mound. I look down on it and I read.
Sacred to the memory Ct Squatter
Sovereignty and the bred Scott De-
cision." A million and a half of Dem
ocrats voted for that. but it has been
dead fifteen years died By the hand
of Abraham Lincoln, and here it lies.
Young man, that is not the place for
you.
But look q little further Here is
amonument. a black tomb, and be-
side it, as our distinguished friend
said, there towers to the sky a monu-
ment of four million pairs of human
letters taken from the arms of slaves,
and I read on its little headstone this:
Sacred to the memory Of Human
Slavery" For forty years of its infa-
nous life the Democratic party taught
that it was divine-God's institution.
They defended it, they stood around
it, they followed it to its grave IS a
mourner. But here it lies, dead by
the hand of Abraham Lincoln; dead
by the power of the Republican party;
dead by the justice of Almighty God
Don't camp there, young man.
But here is another--a little brim-
stone tomb-and I read across its
yellow face, in lurid, bloody lines,
these words: Sacred to the memory
of State Sovereignty and Secession"
Twelve millions Of Democrats muster
ed around itin arms to keep it alive;
but here it lies, shot to death by the
million guns of the Republic. Here
it lies. it's shrine burned to ashes I'M
der the blazing ~rafters of the burning
Confederacy. It is deadl L would
not have you stay in there a minute,
even in this balmy night ali, to look
at such a place.
But just before I leave it I discover
a new-made grave, a little mound
short. The grass has hardly sprouted
oyer it, and all around I see torn pie
ces of paper with the word fiat" on
them, and I look down in curiosity,
wondering what the little grave IS,
and I read on it: Sacred to the
memory of the Rag .Baby;" nursed in
the brain of all the fanaticis.n of the
world; rocked by Thomas Ewing
George FL. Pendleton, Samuel Cary
and a few others throughout the land.
But it died on the 1st Of January,
1879. and the one hundred and forty
millions of gold that God made, and
not fat power, lie upon its little a
oass to keep it down forever.
Oh, young man, come out of that!
That is no place in which to put your
young life. Come out, and come over
into this camp of liberty, Of order, Of
law, of justice, of freedom. of all that
is glorious undef these night stars
Is there any death here in our
camp? Yesl yesI Three hundred
and fifty thousand soldiers, the NO.