Year: 1869




that moment republicanism is dead
Still, We must have the Vanderbilts.-
We cannot do without the money kings
and we can not do without individual
independence, and the craftsmanship OF
to-day is to marry and reconcile these
two indispensable elements of the fu-
ture. This task is as fearful as that fu-
ture is momentOus. When Wall street
and State street look down into the poor
mans cradle, they remember that those
tiny hands will in due time WELD the
ballot, and unles wealth hastens to put
intelligence on one side and morality on
the other side of those baby footsteps,
it's own children must soon stand face
to face with anarchy and ruin. There
is one other question which is of equal
significance, and that is the woman
questionable right of woman TO labor.
Some look at this from the humanitari-
an point of view, and there is abundant
reason for so doing. No man can ana
lyze the condition of one-half of the hu-
man race without his heart melting at
the picture. l knew remarkably gen.
erous Yankee who left the fortune de-
rived from his wife back to her as long
as she remained a widow, but if she
married then it went to his sister! ]
don't think that would have happened
if sixty women had set with sixty men
in the Massachusetts Legislature. Ap-
plause.l And know a still sadder case
of wife shut-up in madhouse for
thirteen bitter months, while her hus-
band refused the signature that would
have released her, and that was Massa-
chusetts lawi And when at last she
was released by the Intervention of 9TH
ers, her husband was cruelty able to re-
fuse her last visit to the bedside of her
dying daughter; and that was Massa-
chusetts law! Nevertheless, / am going
to put the question tonight from anoth-
er standpoint-that of its influence in
politics. | don't mean the lower and
disreputable stratum of politics, which
is all guilt, but the upper and respecta-
ble stratum, which is all intrigue. Why
is it tnat man does something in po-
litical caucus and they only call him a
"sly rogue" when, if he did the same
thing on the level of society, his charac-
ter would be marred forever, so initiate
ly higher is society than politics Why,
our politics is most ptible thing,
even its best aspects. How often have
you seen a Conservative, Democrat, or
Republican, turn somersault on to an
Abolition platform, and say in his first
speech, without a blush, "Mr Chair
man, l am proud to find myself here? ?"
[Applause. / remember on my first
introduction to a very eminent and sue
cessful politician, whose life has been a
long struggle against anti-slavery, that
he took me aside at the supper table,
and committed to me i'll great conf
dence the secret that his mother made
him an AbOlitionist.i Watch this man
OIL the platform, and he says: "Mr.
Chairman, you were always right. You
had the Sermon on The Mount. and the
Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution on your side, and here
every American ought to stand" You
would imagine he had married Garri-
SOD s daughter, and was his son by sue
cession. This is the woman question:
This is the interest not of one sex, but
of republican government in lifting the
purity of politics unto the level of the
age, giving us the good material out of
(which to build the ballot box, as we
build society, putting it on a line with
advancing civilization. And let no man
tell you that this necessity is needless
Oh no. Live twenty years longer and
you shall face more mO9s than l have.
Already over the Western mountains
towers the conflict of the two indomita-
bic nations. Rust and conquests, and
the age of the world, have rolled over
the Chinese, and the unchanging type
of the Teuton or the Greek, the China
man comes up above the waves unalter
ed. He never met the blood that bought
him or the circumstances that changed
him. These two forces are to produce
this shock of conflicting races. Already
the ignorant and narrow-minded left
themselves in angry antagonism. /
welcome you to the struggle; 1 welcome
you to the heroic, disiDterested martyr
dom in standing up for the cause that
your fathers have handed down to you.
Summon all your energies; make your
perfect, clean out all its de-
fects. Plant the ballot box, summon
woman to your side, and reconcile la
Dor, and then let the frigate float out
and God defend theright! [Applause. ]