Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-08-13
From Col. John ". Forney's Speech in Phil
aAelphla Last kveninG.

Abraham Lincoln. And now, following
his example really for the first time
the Democratic party has made that
tender to the South and to the North
which must prove the only practical
method for perpetual peace and prosperity.
And the man who triumphed in war comes
to triumph in peace. The hero Of Gettys-
burg brings the South with him, not as his
prisoners, but ~ his friends. He lays down
at the footstool of tho nation, npon the al
tar of the constitution, the suffrages of the
whole South-the solid South, if you
please-and they in their turn pledge
themselves to abide by the administration
of their conqueror, and, by the succeeding
covenants, to maintain the Union and pre-
serve emancipation. Now, fellow citizens,
what more did we fight for? To hold the
South In the Union, to iberate the slaves,
to overthrow the doctrine of misrepresent-
ed state rights, to solidify the govern
ment.
In 1858, when with Thousands Of others
afterwards broke away from the Demo
cratic party, it was to accomplish these
four things. Twenty-Five years ago the
party in whose ranks was born, and to
whose efforts I gave the best years Of my
life, would not listen| mean the leaders
now-to the lessons which General Han
cock and General Grant and others forced,
not alone upon Northern consideration,
but upon the whole institutions of the
country. It is strange how history re-
peats itself! left the old Democratic
hearthstone with sorrow and with fear,
and when l departed I felt how much easier
it would have been for me to remain, if
only could have secured my own consci-
entious consent. realize again to-day
that no citizen can attach himself perma-
nently to party in any country without
consenting in q large degree to become
that party's slave. It demands signal
courage to assert yourself against the ma
jOrity. Patronage makes more towards
than the battlefield. Misrepresented mo-
tives keeps many brave man in compan-
ionship with others he despises. The
friendly phrase of the hour is that I have
come back to the Democratic party. Yes,
and Columbus like have come back to
find vast Democratic party captive to the
truth. I have returned with hundreds of
thousands of others, either those who de-
parted with me for little while, or those
who remained to await the vindication of
Where, to-day, is the Democrat to be
AOuASA " AO NuOOtAVA0 tAAO "A0AOSA3 VI NOCo
not admit the necessity of the preservation
of this union? What Democratic statesman
or politician is ready to restore human
slavery? No man, even among the
extreme Southern men, is bold enough to
assert that allegiance to state is stronger
than allegiance to the whole union. And
if those of the South do this, if they freely
do it, shall not we of the North hail Gen
eral Hancock as general deliver if he
brings tho whole country together In the
same spirit The great mist the Re-
publican politicians Of to-day are making
is precisely the blunder made by the
Democratic politicians quarter of a Gen.
tury ago. These politicians do not realize
how rapidly the world grows. They
cannot understand that there is
no such thing as consistency in
evil. No man can live to-day without
changing for the better. No party can
exist without yielding to the eloquence of
the facts of science. Adaptibility is the
magical logic of the times. You might as
we'll try to restore the old night schools of
Philadelphia, and educate our young me-
chanics there, and demoli your high
school and extinguish your tremendous
primaries, by which hundreds and thous-
ands of poor boys and girls are trained to
science and to scholarship, as to try to re-
store the Democratic party of the day to
the position it held in 1850, and not only
the Democratic but the Republican party.
Both have been elevated and evangelical,
and what is gospel to-day of the South
would have been rejected as impiety and
punished with persecution if it had been
preached in 1850. All confess how true it
is that the bitter waters of the war have
been everywhere followed by the sweet
fountains of peace. What writer, what
speaker, whether historian or clergyman,
North or South, does not write and speak,
does not philosphize different language
to-day from the threats and recriminations
preached and written during the hot blood
of the war? Then mere politics poisoned
the whole atmosphere; politics in the
pulpit, politics in the parlor, politics in
the kitchen, politics in the clubs, politics
in society. Fashion quarantined its divini-
ties unless, in the South they made JEFF
ferson Davis god, or in the North
accepted Charles Sumner as an idol. But
now how changed! Even jefferson Davis
reverts to his sincere philosophy before the
war, and Charles Sumner, like Abraham
Lincoln, dies, calling upon the Almighty
to help him in the good work Of spreading
peace and fraternity over the nationl
The only men that remain obstinate and
unchanged are the Republican ofice-hol-
ders and the Republican ofice-seekers.
They are unforgiving because they are
paid to be unforgiviDg. They reject peni-
tence, although no more qualified to judge
than other men, because if they accept
penitence they become penniless them
selves: 1 am told that in appealing to you
tonight, as I do from my soul, to treat
these people of the South as il they were
your friends and neighbors, as they desire
you to treat them, and as they wish to
treat you in return, am asked to place
the Government of the United States in
their hands! Well, gentlemen, you for
gave these men Of the South. Did you
mean or did you not mean to forgive them?
You quarrel with your neighbor you
pass him on the streets for years without
speaking to him. Your quarrel is accept
ed by your wife and your children. You
revel in scandal Of those you have long
loved. At last some good Samaritan
comes along, some honest optimist, and
restores peace. By this reconciliation do
you make that neighbor your inferior? If
you attempted it he would kick you out Of
his door. You are glad to receive him in
your arms. You are happier because you
hated him. You are 90 proud and glad to
be restored to his favor, as he is to yours,
that you do not weaken the restoration of
good feeling by the word forgiveness. In
fact, true benevolence makes the object
forgiven often the superior, precisely a