Year: 1868

whose lands they live and who are their


friends, and by voting against whom, they


are voting to keep their race back Ii the


colored men owned the land they would


naturally expect the whites to vote in their


interest, and how can they expect white


men to retain them in their employ if they


persist In the course they are pursuing p


He believed that if the Democratic party


were successful we will all behold growing


law and order. and be better satisfied in


two years time by the election of Seymour
and Blair than by that of Grant and Col
fax. Let the latter be put down by every.


thing we hold dear. The Radicals used
the colored people as tools in the last cam
pain, but they won't DO it again. AS for
him, he had turned his back on the Radi-
Gals, and by Gods help would keep it there
for all time to come.


Louis Levy, also of the colored Demo-
cratic Club of Wilmington, next took the
stand. He congratulated the colored peo-
pie on the interest of the campaign before
them, and trusted they would all stand by
the Southern people and vote for Seymour
and Blair. Slavery and secession have
been abolished for all time to come, and
the Southern men only wanted to be met
half way-they would meet the colored
people the other half They had already
guaranteed to them every civil right and
would do justice by them in future He
stood there before them as a free man, and
trusted that on the third day of next No
vember they all might stand as solid as the
rock of Gibraltar for Horatio Seymour
The leagues, with their secret oaths, would
soon be abolished. In every county in the
State colored men are going against these
leagues, and why should not our colored men
r. %Eoo II
honest come up square and fair and look
the issue IN the face as it is. The white
men wouldn't have slavery back if they
could. It is far better and cheaper to hire
hands as at present, which the speaker pro-
ceeded clearly to demonstrate by apt illus
trations. If the colored people vote against
the white people. how can they expect
these to work for their interests. He de-
nOunced, in just and manly terms, the COM
ponent parts Of the body Radical, inclu-
ding its monster heads in this State, and
was especially severe upon Abbott, whom
he expected soon to see flying to his home
in New Hampshire, with carpet-bag in
hand, before the success of the Democracy.
Good people, he said, make good coun-
try, and on the same principle had people
a bad country. Radicalism is bad and rot
ten at the core, and hence the present state
of the country. In conclusion he urged
the colored people to stick by the South
ern men, and to discard all foolish notions
of social equality, which exists nowhere,
neither among whites or blacks.


Repeated calls being made for Judge
Meares, this gentleman took the stand and
for an hour or more favored the meeting
with one of his best efforts. Plain, prac-
tical, sound and full of common sense, it
was capable of being appreciated and un-
derstood by all who heard it. Neither was
it wanting in force, eloquence or beauty of
thought and expression. We took very
full notes of this speech, as of all the 9TH
ers, but fear of want of space, and not
being able to do the gentleman justice, re-
strains us from attempting anything more
than a synopsis of this splendid argument.
He remarked in the beginning that man
sometimes found himself borne along by
the current of popular influence. Such
was his situation, and at the conclusion of
four years of bitter strife and war, in which
he had participated, he had retired en-
tirely from public life. But there are du-
ties which we owe to our friends that we
have no right to escape or avoid. The
hour is dark, our country in peril, the
momentous. We see in the
scale on the one side the rights of the peo-
pile, constitutional law and liberties and
the protection of the citizen, against mil
itary despotism on the other. He shud-
dered at the thought of the latter event.
In this issue there are no halfway grounds;
the contest is waging between military
despotism and the advocates of constitu-
tional law He saw also State issues at
stake He. himself, was not struggling for
mere political objects, was no partizan,
but acting in the interests of all. We
are in the Union or out of it. Take
the Radical say SO and we are in
Then we have the same rights and privile-
ges as the North. The rights and privile-
ges of ten States can't be destroyed with
out destroying all. We will have but one
more election after Grant is elected, and
that as for Louis Napoleon as Emperor
The e. O. A. will sustain Grant as Emperor,
with Logan, that consummate liar and
scoundrel, the friend of Grant, at its
head The speaker then addressed him
self directly to the colored people and pro-
ceeded to hold up to their view some of
the roguery and trickery of the Radicals to
gain their votes. He told them that they


had played into the hands of these scoun-
drels, who were benefited by their ig-
norance. They had sent Abbott to the


United States Senate, where he gets 81, 500
per year, even if he is an honest man and


don't sell his vote to the highest bidder.


The imposition practiced upon US by those
men who come down here worthless in


character and bankrupt in fortune" was


alluded to in terms of Indignation. But


though they may obtain political power
and ascendancy, it gals them to the very


quick that the Southern gentlemen, poor
and impoverished as we are, have still too


high an estimate of honor to recognize


them and extend to them social privileges.


It was then explained to the negroes how


they became free, showing clearly that ii


was no party measure, and bringing to


their notice the declarations of the objects


of the war as passed by Congress during


it's progress. The Howard amendment


was fiercely discoursed upon. The speak


er had never petitioned Congress to re-


move his disabilities and never would. He


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