The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1880-08-20
SPEECH OF col. FORNEY IN PHILADELPHIA

ly the services OF General Hancock to the
Union cause, aud in particular to this city
aud State. The hero of Gettysburg who
trumphcd in war, now brings the South
with him,not ~ prisoners, but rs friends " no
pledge themselves to maintain the Union
and preserve emancipation. What more did
we fight for? What more have we to ask
The only men that remain obstinate and i'm
placable are the Republican office holders
and the Republican office seekers, who are
uniorgiving. They reject pentencc because
ii they accept penitence they will become
penniless. Continuing, Colonel Forney said
There must be an end to sectionalsm in
this country, as there is an end of small pox
and to naturalize sectionalism is like inco~-
pora,iug pestilence into your daily life. How
is sectionalism to be ended? When Louis
lana joined hands with Vernon. at Ciucin-
natl, on the 23rd Of June, 1880, and presen.
ted Winfield S. Hancock a, peace offering
TO the North and as a love Offering to the
whole nation, Dougherty, of Pennsylvania,
glorifed, and Daniels, of Virginia accepted
| NhC HithEts w hNt bOtbti Nbuli liltF htN'
done? They took the Union soldier, who,
only seventeen years before, to speak Of no
other fields on which he fought and to make
no invidous comparisons, overthrow them,
One would think such conce.s on would
satisfy even the patriot John Cessna, chair.
man of the republican State Committee, who
remained so long in the Democratic party
opposing the sentiment which gave peace
to the county, and now stands out the fierce
adversary of Winfield S. Hancock who
conquered the Confederates of Gettysburg
10 1868. But men like Mr.. Ces. na who now
hold the pursestrings of the nation and the
municipalities, reject Hancock because he is
a Democrat. Boil down everything that is
said against Hancock, and take up in detail
every accusation, and all that remains is
lie is Democrat. remember while was
in Washington from 1858 to 1861, to 1865,
this objection was not so fashionable as it is
now. When Democrat came in with q
Pennsylvania regiment We were as glad tt
see him as if he had brought mine of gold
When remembering the fact that every sue
cessful soldier, without exception, was borr
in the Democratic party, aud still retain,
that lingering love for the party which al
men retain for the home in which they
were reared, is it strange that the hearts o
the masses who fought in our war yearn t
such a man as Hancock, and, whether thes,
masses were Democrats or whether they wer,
republican,, are proud that such soldie
should have been put forward as PTesi
dent?
The politicians saw General Grant pre-
sented for the Presidency at Chicago tw'
months ago. He had served them and th
Republic as no other man had ever served
nation or a party. In England he and hi
posterity would have been enobled all thei
liyes,and yet the very men whom he fed ant
fatened in Office hunted him as if he hat
been highwayman and at the very mo
meut after they hads to speak, ,assassinste ted
him, they rushed in hot haste to confer tn
Presidential purple upon an Ohio politician
who is so barnacled and blasted and tabooe'
with offences against the law that since h.
has been placed upon their ticket for Presi
dency it is daily becoming a question whethe
they shall not pull him off as hastily as the!
put him on. Such is the gratitude of party
Look into every county of Pennsylvania, int
every ward OF Philadelphia, into every coun
ty of every Northern State, and see whethe
under these same influences, the spectacle
enacted at Chicago several weeks ago is no,
on similar scale repeated there. Graft
tude to culture in Philadelphia, gratitude
to integrity, gratitude to experience, igrati
tude to the veteran who fought for the Re-
public in Philadelphia, gratitude to the col.
ored men, with their ready assistance al
every election Where is it Find it for me
Your large salaries, larger some Of them
than those paid to the President of the Uni.
ted States, where do they go? How far does
this medicine of gratitude apply to those
who give out tn Sc grea. salaries =? And to
craftsmanship, l refer you to your City
Councils and to your State Legislature. To
crown all, study how these men who own
these G ffices persecute those who differ from
them. Providing for themselves they pun
ish all whom they think may at some time
become candidates for their places. AT my
side sits an old Republican, William Calhoun
who has lived here all his lie. The story
he tells about local politics here, and punci-
yates by his own experience, would shame
the legends of the bull-dozing of the
South.
If the election for President in November
| could be conducted with the omnipresence
| of office, ii the men paid out of the public
treasury to do the work of the government
were not regular praetoran guard, there
would be no more chance of decent vote tor
General Garfield in November next, than
there is for Mr.. Weaver, the gentleman who
has been named as the Greenback candidate
| for that high office. But as it is, this Official
| army, blind and deaf to reason, driven by
men who receive almost royal remuneration
for doing nothing,is an influence that would
be entirely resistless il, In this world of a
republic, there were not other agencies be-
fore which the dependencies of government
must NOT quail and fall. 1t is the happy
fact of the present time that while an i'm
mense amount OF money is squandered in
what is called civil service, there are mill
ions Of men who earn their livelihood, not
only by mere physical labor, but by their
skill of hand, by applying art to me-
chanics, by making industry science, and
by elevating what are called the trades of
the day to a higher plain. until the word ar
tisan digniies and signifies human product
without parallel
1t is among these millions that find the
antidote to the disease of official interference
in our elections and in the management of
our parties. Do you think the skilled work.
Ing men of the United states, free to think
and fearless to act, in the present struggle
sympathize with the office holders Do you
think they read the bllghlei record of James