Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1888-11-23

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end, and that, my Democratic friends, it is
now my business to tell YOU.
The space between our seaboards, east
and west, is vastly wider than that be
tween the great lakes and the gulf Their
climates are different and there are differ
ences in the pursuits and business interests
Of the inhabitants, yetthey are one in aifec-
ton, for the Union If so why should there
have ever been, why should there be now
division between the North and the South
Why should that division have led them to
a rebellion The man who lives by his
own labor comes after while TO love his
occupation. Disliking to he disturbed in
it, he grows patient and calculative, and
10 a degree submissive. Not SO he who ha-
bitually derives his bread from the en-
forced toll of another man. He turns self
willed impatient, naughty, tyrannical, and
after awhile. when the enforced toll a
thing Of inheritance, passes to succeeding
generations, they exalt themselves into su-
perior beings, and that somebody should
bring them their meal ready cooked and
set it before them is Of course. They ex-
ercise domination ns of natural right. In
their eyes labor is n sign Of inferiOrity.
The indspusition of the workingman to
be disturbed they take to he cowardce and
they say Of the mechanic hit him, use him,
he is without spirit He is only a mudsll.
NV fellow citizens. this is the whole phil
osuphy of our sectional differences, North
and South The North built upon free la
Dor the South feasted fattened and made
merry on slave labor. In course of time, by
natural law, the inhabitants of the two sec
tiOns grew apart into two peoples. They are
two distinct peoples now-twO peoples with
terrible unsettled aggravation on the part
Of the South My associates here Mr.
Johnson and Captain Hegler, will tell you
when they come to speak that the question
Of the hour is protection or free trade. If
they will allow the opinion, for the utter
ance Of which no one is responsible but my
self, | tell you the issue to be decided next
month, the issue TO which all others are but
incidents, is Which Of the two distinct
peoples will you choose as trustees of the
government Now, my Democratic friends,
take it if YOU had a supernumerary dog,
which you thought well Of, but were called
upon to give to one of two neighbors you
would give it 10 him whom you thought
most friendly TO the brute, wouldn't you
Is it possible you care less for your govern.
ment If am justified in thinking better
of you than that, the point Of consideration
is, which of the peoples of the sections is
the best friend of the government One
sentence will dispose of the question As
respects the majority in the North, they
never struck blow nor fired shot, ex
cept in defense Of the Union. Of such are
the Republican party, and Ben iamn Harri-
son. Can as much be said of the South
Let us see.
A moment ago, speaking Of the necessity
for another than the Democratic party, !
said there would have been no such need
had not the latter been wickedly betrayed.
1t Is in order now to speak of that betrayal
will not dwell upon the rebellion. l am
TRYING to be dispas, s,iunatc-ludlcial If YOU
please--aud would like tp have YOU follow
me IN the same temper. 50 let pass its
thuusnndfolds Of blood, its outlay of treas
ure, its debt, yet upon US, its pension list,
which after all is but partial record of the
men it left manned and disease struck, and
of the widows and orphans Of the dead.
For your accommodation, my Democratic
friends, and the sooner to get at my real
argument. let the rebellion be treated as a
tremendous night mare, a horror impossi-
bic except in the dream of murderer who
is to die IN the morning. or of a leper in his
scabs Who made it To accuse you would
be to accuse myself, for while it was hatch
ing we were Democrats together. Your
case was exactly mine. Before the war
opened we thought it would come In an
ticipation Of it | studied military books and
drilled a military company for six years.
In our eyes Seward, Greeley, Harrison,
and gentle singers like Whittier, the Quak
er, were the unnaturals, stirring the fire 10
fetch the hell broth to boil They sent
the hymn books to Kansas and old John
Brown to Harpers Ferry, so it seemed to
US. and when Abe Lincoln, erecting his
gaunt body TO its full height, said, shaking
his bony finger in Douglas face, a house
divided against itself cannot stand, we
called to each other, "Now it is coming
We passed the warning on, and were not
afraid Afraid Of what The old Demo
cratic party was true. We saw it alert and
ready. all its arlnor ON. We saw the lion
heart ON its shield, and in the centre of the
heart the constitution, an Illuminated word
of God. In this spirit We sat looking ex
pectantly at the North BY and by the
Charleston convention came on and startled
us 1t ended with division. Part ad
journed to Baltimore then there were two
candidates in the field We were dazed by
the procession Of events that followed. Abe
Lincoln was elected. A cabinet officer
from Virginia plundered the treasury. The
navy was distributed over the seas. The
contents of the arsenals were expressed
South-all under Mr. Buchanan's eyes
Still we sat dazed with farewells of def
ance jeff Davis and following of South
ern Senators abandoned their seats in the
Capitol. A convention was held at Mont
gomery, Ala, another constitution was
promulgated, the Fourth of July was abol
ished, and a new flag adopted. Still we
sat dazed, or if we went about it was to ask
with chilly premonition, What is the mean
ing of it all p If Republican answered
Treason, war we whistled to keep our
courage up, or tried to laugh at him. At
last. from a girde of batteries a gun was
fired at Fort Sumter. You remember the
sound of that gun, my Democratic brother.
In your field, on the highway, at home,
wherever you were, you heard it, and then
WE'LL speaking for myself heard it, and
knew it was call to arms Then we came
out of our dazement and stood up, you and
|, all of us, even the humblest man, know
ing who began the rebellion, knowing upon
whom history would eternally fasten it,
knowing it was begun for slavery, know
ing that the Democratic party had been the
victim of conspiracy that the lordly
Southern barons had done their work Sc
cretly that they had not consulted us of
the rank and file that somebody in our
political household had assured them that it
was not necessary to consult us that some
body had pledged "A hundred thousand of us
to hold the Republicans from crossing the
Ohio river that somebody had written for
arms that we might open a war here and
signaize our devotion to the party by max
ing Indiana the twelfth confederate state.
You were innocent of the intent so was |.
We stood up, say, knowing that we had
been betrayed None the less, each of us
was then summoned to choose between the
North and the South, and now today the
same summons is upon the choice offered US.
pause now to beg that you will not mis-
understand me. | am not saying that the
South contempates renewing the war. Oh,
no Why should they By some madness
Of trust in the North, some inscrutable de
cree Of Providence. the engineers of the
late Confederacy are in possession of the
government. Their scheme is now to hold
it, and as they relied upon you To help them
destroy it, they are relying upon you to
help them keep il. The audacity of their
reliance satisfies me that in their opinion
we of the North are the hewers of wood
they thought us in 1860 Neither am
saving what they will do with the govern
ment if you help them retain It, 1t is part
" because we do not know their intentions
and partly because all the evidence they
have furnished us is against their honesty
of purpose that | would dissuade you from
trusting them further. They cannot shut
our eyes TO the fact that within our genera
ton they set up government OF their own
and fought four years to maintain it. Is
that nothing now In those four years the
Union was in abeyance Is that nothing :
Is it something to be repeated They sur
rendered with arms in their hands. Why
should not speak plainly They are con
quered enemies, and who of you has ad
vices of the breaking of the millennium :
Hands were given us for defense (; our rea-
son was designed to enable US to anticipate
danger Let us use it in this instance to
test the spirit Of the South. Let us go out
in search of proofs of their friendliness.