Year: 1868

| BEECHEh


| On the evening of the 9th instant, the
Rev. Henry Ward Beecher delivered an
address at the Brooklyn Academy of Mu-
sic, on " The Issues of the Canvass" He
spoke as follows:


| LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: When, next
March, the President to be elected by the
people shall take his place in Washing
ton, it will have been four years, lacking
few days, since war in its active form
was closed. During that time the country
has gone through a vast deal of excite
ment, run rapidly forward, question fol-
lowing question, until now the questions
are not the same only the principles are
the same The issues of 1868 are not the
issues of 1866, but the principles that un-
derlay the one underlie the other. Par
| ties are substantially the same as they
were in 1865, and further back, as they
were in $780, because in 1860 the Repub-
lican party, then young, achieved its first
victory 1t was new and unpractlsed. 1t
| went before the country claiming the ad-
ministration of the government from the
hand of an old, expert party, which had
long record of early glory and OF late
eclipse. The Democratic party began by
being friend to the whole people. Cor
rupted by power, it abandoned this prin-
ciple of faith to mankind and humanity,
and became substantially the instrument
of class. That was the damning sin OF
the old Federal party, that it represented
class and not the whole people; and
that, to certain extent, was also the sin
and weakness Of the Whig party and the
Democratic party slew them because 1t
did, in its better day, believe profoundly
in the common people. 1t slew these par
ties, and has now itself stumbled into their
grave. In 1864 the two parties argued
their claims to the administration OF this
government before the people a second
time, and the people determined that the
Republican party by its principles, by the
record of its deeds, and by the men who
chiefly shaped its policy, by its tendencies,
in short, by its past and by its future,
ought to administer the government OF
this nation Now, in 1868, the question
is once more to be determined by the peo-
ple Shall the Republican party be in
structed to carry on to completion the
work of the past ten years, or shall that
work be repudiated, or shall the Demo
cratic party be installed in power charged
to complete the work which the Republi-
can party has begun? Look at the mean
ing of the last ten years of American his
tory. The letter and spirit of our insti-
tutions, and the character of our people
made it sure that sooner or later there
would arise moral and then a political
protest against slavery 1t was impossible
in such nation that slavery should exist,
and there be no protest, unless humanity
died in the bosoms of men. The anti-slav
cry agitation was the logical sequence OF
American ideas. Men did not make
that agitation 1t lay in the very frame
and structure and genius of our American
institutions and government, and men
were the instruments of causes deep as
everlasting principles. Against the inf1u-
ence of this protest the South at last COM
mitted the supreme blunder of the cen
tury, and drew the sword. The issue in
evitably involved the question of liberty.
The Republican party at an early day
sought to avoid the true issue of the war
and to maintain the Union without med
ding with slavery. But Gods logic pre-
vailed, and the Republican party were
driven by events that were mightier than
they to emancipation, which was the logi-
cal sequence of their position. The first
step was to confer citizenship upon all
that dwell under our flag, without distinc-
ton of color or nationality. Applause.]
The principle of liberty inresistibly car
ried the party forward, and partly by its
own intelligence and partly by the logic OF
events, the Republican party has passed
upon the doctrine of the inherent right of
all men to " life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness" 1t is living question. 1t has
gone through fire and been baptized in


blood. 1t is the faith of the Republican
party. [ do not undertake to say that
that party has committed no error. 1t is
made up of men. Political parties do not


represent celestial things in this world.


Laughter But admit that the Republic
can party has stumbled and hesitated,
does it follow that the people are no longer
to repose the government in its hands?


They are not errors in principle. They


have been faults in the bark and not in


the heart-wood. In the same length of
time it never was given any other party
to perform so many illustrious deeds, to
associate it's name with changes SO pro-
found and that are to be so illustrious por


ton of our history. 1t has revived the
original doctrine of our fathers which had


been in Babylonish captivity, and achiev


ed an emancipation second only to that of
the Russian serfs. In 1860, when the South
made war, the Republican party carried
forward the war to victory and saved the
nation. 1t has settled the question whether
this people is a great nation, or only a
temporary council of separate States.
And the Republican party has made itself
responsible for the repayment in the
standard currency of the world of the
money that was borrowed to feed the SOL
dier and to defend the government APP
plause.l There is but one competitor for
the place of the Republican party. ask
you tonight, has the Democratic party
earned the right to administer this govern
ment? Has it earned the right to admin
lister upon the effects of the Republican


party Has it been the party of freedom


It is not to be denied that it was p0rticeps
crinainis antecedently of the war, with all
those counsels which brought on the war.
The Democratic party were in sympathy,
and but for the assurances given to them
.. by it's leaders, the South never would have
ventured into the monstrous blunder OF
that war. When war came, such was the
spirit of the Democratic party that the
truly loyal members in it, end there were
a great many such men, found it impossi-
BILE to maintain their standing in the party,
and while in name they were War Demo
, Gratis they became substantially Republi-
, cans The Democratic party opposed the
,, war, either openly or insidiously. Give
me the man who strikes fair blows in the
face Deliver me from the man that takes
me by the hand and says. "How art
thou?" while he strikes me under the
, fifth rib with hidden dagger. Applause.
At every step gained in the progress Of
the war by the Republicans, emancipa-


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