Year: 1868

the merits and achievements of Grant, the
great standard-bearer of the Republican
party. He has always been true to his
country and his God, and such man is
always the noblest work Of that God. As
to the second man upon the ticket, it only
need be said that he sprung from the people,
and as such he could never be other than
the unfailing friend of universal humanity
1t is true the people of Virginia will not
have say in the election of Grant and Col
fax, but they are, like the Israelites under
Moses, allowed to see, if not to enter,
the promised land. At the marriage feast,
when the fatted calf is killed, the people of
Virginia shall be allowed to take their
places at the table. Great applause from
the negroes.] If true to themselves, the
sons of this great Commonwealth cannot
long be deprived of their liberties.


Tho speaker then proceeded to compare
| the respective Presidential candidates now
before the people. Of Seymour he had
little to say, but Blair he regarded as q very
bad man. Blair had been nominated to
please the southern Democrats. God help
the South if he was elected. Why, the only
| ground of his nomination was that infamous
| letter in which he declared that the whole
reconstruction legislation of Congress was
unconstitutional, and should be overthrown,
| if necessary, by the bayonet. What pro-
lection would there be for the negroes in
case of such mans elevation to any office
of national trust Would any colored man
he allowed to vote ["No! No!"l Not one.
If any Conservative gets into power, can
the colored man expect to vote? "No!"
IL oil of n
| Conservatives are their best friends. Not
only so, but they are circulating reports
that the colored people are becoming Con-
servative and are forming Democratic
clubs. He pronounced this statement an
unmitigated lie, and knew that his hearers
would do the same. [''Dat We will!"l


He alluded to threat made by some
body-a Virginian, he said-that if the
| negroes did not vote to please their old
masters they should be driven from the
country. T" Shameful ~ No, such pro-
position is worse than Shameful it is mon
strous; it is infamous. He could hardly
believe that any son Of the old State that
gave Washington, Jefferson, and Madison
| to the world could utter such sentiment.
Certainly no gentleman could. The colored
people had won encomiums from friend and
foe for their bearing under all circum-
stances toward their old masters, and he
must be monster who would think of drlv-
ing such people from among US.


The eyes of the world are now upon the
colored people, and every friend Of humani-
~ eagerly watches to see what now will be
their course-whether they will sustain
their reputation so nobly achieved. Would
they sell their birthright for mess of
pottage, sink themselves into worse
slavery than they have ever before expe-
rienced, and be damned by all posterity
They would do this if they went with their
former masters. These old rebels had net
yet given up the attempt to make Conserva-
tives of colored men. They used to threaten
them, but now they pat their woolly heads.
As to the Radicals, he was free to confess
that they wanted the negroes to join their
party because they had nobody else at the
South, and it was to the negro's interest to
go with them.


General Wells then made spirited de-
| fence of himself and brother carpet-baggers.
The old Virginians and the carpet-baggers
both told the negro that he should have his
rights. The difference was, that the former
said the negro didn't have any rights at all, 3,
and the carpet Dagger says, "My dear fell
low, YOU are entitled to all the rights of a
man-of a white man." If a carpet-bagger
had S 0 900 in his pocket, these Nirginians
these Virginians Of long name and noble
ancestry-would run after him to the ends
of the world.


In conclusion, the speaker gave the ne
groes what he called good advice, and wish
| ~, 2.yhI panp1a tharp fh ot
he might give them some. They must not
sell their souls for their bellies; they must
stand together they must avoid chickering's :;
they must present united front to the enc
my; and he predicted glorious future for
the Republican party of Virginia.


SPEECH OF GENERAL wICKHAM.


After the applause that followed General
Wells's last words had subsided, Captain
Platte begged leave to introduce one Of Vir-
ginia's most distinguished patriots-a man
tried in the forum and in the tield-a man
no less distinguished for his military than
for his civic record. He meant General
Williams C. Wickham, late of the rebel
army, now g good citizen Of the United
States.


General Wickham was received with
laundering cheers. He said that although
disfranchised by the fourteenth article, land
although his State could have no voice in
the coming Presidential struggle, when in
vited he could not refrain from rendering
his humble tribute to the great captain
whose name had been brought forward by
the Republican party. He then sketched his
own record, claiming to be devoted to his
own beloved State, but also warmly attached
to the Union, of which she was once mem
Der. He had always been a Union man,
and in 1861 held the same views which now
made him q scalawag. Il that meant man
sincerely anxious for speedy reconstruction,
and believing that the election Of Grant
was the surest way to accomplish that re-
suit. then he wos q scalawag. He would
rather be called scalawag than Demo-
crat, for the rule Of 10 party had ever been
more disastrous than that of the Demo-
cratic party. Grant and Colfax meant
peace. Seymour and Blair meant pro-
| longation OF the struggle. Blair had advo-
Gated overthrowing the present southern
State governments. Would the people who
fought for the supremacy of the Union per-
mitthis Would not such movement plunge
our beloved country into war still more
horrible than the last. If anything can
bring therecreant States back into the Union
the reconstruction laws would. Those
States had no other rights but those given
by the conqueror to the conquered. The
first terms offered by the Government tothe
seeded States were the best we ever had,
and we never will have better. But for the
"policy" of Andrew johnson those terms
would have been accepted, and those States
would now have been in the Union.