Year: 1868

Read the following extract from speech lately
delivered by Lieutenant-G Governor Woodford, of
New York, at Brooklyn:


few short days passed, and on July 18th,
1868, the terrible draft riots broke out in New
York city. Now l do not charge that Seymour
did not seek to quell the riots. But ! do charge
that these riots were the natural, logical and al
most necessary results of his speeches, his teach
ings and his public and official acts. 1t was the
logic of his polished brain rooted and growing in
the passion of the mob And then when the
storm had gathered, he addressed those mad
dened, brutalized rioters as his friends, and be-
sought their patience by the plea that he had
sent his Adjutant-General to Washington to beg
that the draft might be suspended. When the
tidings of these riots and of Seymour's conduct
and speech reached me with my regiment, was
toiling along dusty road of Maryland in pur-
suit of the retreating rebels. Painting under
the terrible heat, some falling and even dying by
the wayside, men were still pressing on
The loyal arms had been victorious at Gettvs
burg, and we had heard the glad news from
Vicksburg. We were weary, but still we could
see the end and the victory drawing nigh. Like
thunder from clear sky fell the tidings of this
cowardly uprising at our own home against the
Government and the flag. Strong men wept
fercer wrath as they whispered the news down
the ranks, and muskets were gripped with
vengeful feeling such as we had not known be-
fore in skrmish and battle. Could we have
filed that day into Broadway there would have
been bloody reckoning, and short work would
have been made with his excellency's especial
friends. We had left home to fight your battles,
and we felt that you were bound to tax your
selves, if needs be- TO your last dollar to pension
our widows, to succor our wounded, and to feed
our little ones. We were there just as much for
your sakes as for our own, and we felt that
when our ranks grew thin we had right to re-
Inducements, that you were bound in honor to
send us your young men and your strong men,
even if your old men and boys had to work your
factories and your women to till the fields. We
were terribly in earnest We were fighting reb-
els. We meant to stand mp to our work, and we
very solemnly intended that you should stand
squarely up to yours. How reverently we
thanked God when the good Lincoln and the
lion-hearted Stanton said the draft should be
enforced. And how we cheered the soldiers who
were sent from our midst to enforce the law and
uphold the honor of our flag against the North
ern mob. You can now understand how we SOL
diers feel towards his excellency, Horatio Sey-
mour. In the hour of our sorrow and WEAKNESS
he had no encoura cement for us, faith in our
courage, and no faith in the final victory. Now,
in our triumph when the flag streams out on
every breeze, and all our land is one again, we
have no need for thee, Horatio Seymour. Let



of orphan asylums, and the deserter, and the
skulker from the draft, twine laurels for thy
brow we will stand by the old flag, all battle
SCARED, but glorious in victory, while we follow
the great captain of our armies, our own Ulysses
S. Grant. At the battle of Lookout Mountain,
as, following the line of fire, our surgeons
climbed up the billy steep, they met four SOL
ders coming down and carrying in blanket a
shapeess mass. Laying their burden tenderly
down, they asked the doctor to look at their
wounded Color-Sergeant. His shoulder and
forearm had been torn away by shell. The
surgeon knelt, and putting the hair back from
his manly brow, he asked, ''My brave fellow,
where were you ht?'' His eyes Enclosed for a
moment, as he family answered, "Almost at the
top" No. no, my good man, whereabouts are
you wounded?" Again his dying eyes opened,
again his pale lips moved, as he whispered, {" Il
was almost at the top, sir, bearing the flag,
when the shell struck One moment more
and should have been clear up" He gave one
gasp and his brave spirit was gone forever. And
so, dear friends, it is with US to-day. We are
almost at the top. In faith and love we have
carried the flag for four long years of struggle
until now above the clouds, fighting as
Joe Hooker fought up in the clear sunlight of
absolute justice and right Only once more
close up the ranks. Only once more press up
the mountain slope, and we shall plant our dear
old flag clear up on the mountain top OF final
victory for liberty and the rights of man.