, 1888-04-26
In TONES.
VOORHEES, Vivid Excoriation Of
the Kansas Senator.
Mcclellan and Hancock Were
Mighty in Trying Hours,
Heroes Without Counterpart in
Roman History.

WASHINGTON, April 25.-When the
consideration OF the presidents message
came up in the senate to day, Mr.. Voor-
hees said the position of the Republican
party on the tariff question might be des-
cribed thus:
/. Taxation not to be limited by the
expense of the government with the view
to the protection of manufacturing mon
opolists.
2. All protection and all its profit to
insure the further enrichment of capital
lists, but not a dollar Of it to the laboring
men and women.
g.. That if any reduction of taxes was
to take place it must be on alcoholic
liquor and tobacco and not on the prime
necessaries of life.
Passing to the charges that the Demo
Gratis in congress had been hostile to
Union soldiers in the matter of pensions,
Voorhees, contrasted the action of both
parties in that matter, and claimed that
the Republicans made a mean and parsi-
monious record compared with the Demo-
Gratis. Referring to the attack made in
the senate upon the memory of Mcclellan
and Hancock, he said the presiding officer
of the senate holding the highest official
position now held by Republicans, had
descended to the floor and attacked the
memory of American heroes who were
sleeping where flowers and tears
commingled on Memorial Day, resting
from their glorious lives in the bivouac OF
the dead. The plous task of making a
response had been appropriately per
formed by one whose CONSPICUOUS dar-
ing in arms had given him the generous
right of chivalry to speak in their praise.
1t was true that not even the eloquent
tongue of Senator Blackburn could reach
Mcclellan or Hancock with the assurances
of their country devotion and love.
Voorhees, proceeded to draw a vivid
picture of events during the war, begin
ming with the scenes in Washington on
the night Of the first battle of Bull Run.
In that hour of national extremity Nc
Clellan had been called by the despairing
official in authority to perform a task
greater by far than ever performed by
Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar or Napoleon
in the same length of time. He recalled
latter the second disastrous battle of
Manassas) Mcclellan riding out to meet
the retreating troops and being greeted
with cheers more thrilling and pathetic
than those which greeted Napoleon on his
return from Elba. Then came the bat
tie of Antietam, a victory unparalleled in
war, considering all conditions. all i'm
me late peril being gone and a sense of
security being felt, Mcclellan had again
been stricken by partisan malice, and had
closed his lofty military career forever,
and to tn 8 day the clamorous kites and
crows and other lgnoble scavenger birds
sought to tear and mutilate McClellan's
august fame.
Yes, Mcclellan" he said, was a
Democrat, and when removed from his
command on the It'll of November, 1862,
he could with uplitted hand have sworn
that he had saved the Republic, as did
Cicero in the forum at Rome. Among
the highest, most fortunate and most dis
tinguished characters produced by the
war, where" he asked, could a name be
found cleaner. purer, freer from self seek
ing or more devoted TO the sublime sense
of duty than that of McClellan2'
Voorhees, then changed the scene to
Gettysburg, where, he said, the last home
of the Southern confederacy disappeared
forever. "What invisible spirit of air,
he asked, Intent upon evil to the senator
from Kansas could have been in attend
ance on him when he stood up and opened
his mouth in the senate chamber on the
9th of March2 Mcclellan and Hancock
were the heroes OF two of the most conse-
quential battles of the war-Antietam and
Gettysburg-the loss of either of which
would have brought European recognition
to the confederacy and darkness and dis
may, if not final desolatIon. They had
commanded the only battles fought north
OF the Potomac and each time had met the
enemy as an invading force, strong, conf
dent and flushed with recent victories.
-"Antietam and Gettysburg had in
volved the possession of the capital and
the perpetuity of the governments, and
to Mcclellan and Hancock (now stigma
tized as allies of the c~onfederacy) had
been committed the m~easureless and
awful trust of defending and preserving
them both. If asked hereafter where
were the great leaders of the Democratic
party during the war, (where the Demo-
cratic candidate Of 1864 for the presl-
dency and tho Democratic candidate OF
1851 Tor the presidency the undulating
slopes of Antietam and the crested
heights OF Gettysburg would be pointed
TO- ne knew them both, and he bowed
70 'heir mighty shades. They were of
iofIler mould than Greek or Roman his
tory And yet" he said, ''such
were Lhe great soldiers who were Knocked,
scotfed and denounced as belonging To tbe
subservient elements of the Nortb and
who were accused of treason by those wbo
were of the breed of Jobs war horse and
who, like him, 'snuffed the battle afar
off,"
Leaving that subject, Voorhees, passed
to what he called the campaign of politi-
cal luminosity declared against the people
of the South Of their rights, their securi
ty aud their good name. "When future
historians come to inquire why and how
the Republican party had lost its tremen-
dous hold on the PROSTATE South and had
skunk away to return no more forever, he
would be puzzled to find an answer, and
would finally write that its administration
through all that region had become so
vast and intolerable a scandal,
filling the civilized world with its foul
odors. that an intelligent and omnipotent
public opinion had demanded its down
fail and the declaration Of home rule and
decent government. And yet it was that
party whose leaders now fumed and
threatened the Southern people and states
because they did not welcome it back