Year: 1868

f Ul4llE W .MlAA AAAa SLUG anu Ill. EttUaCa
\ Who before thought it worth while to


explain to Sam, or Pompey, or Cuffee,


any thing about laws or principles Of
government Now, they and an their


collfreres are hearing wOndrous things
HabOut the best laws and principles
and methods Of government. Is not


that education? It is the vote which
is to educate those men as well as the
sehool-house. And the vote will al


ways bring the schoOl-hOuse, and the
sehool-house viii always bring the


church, and the church will always
promote the right use Of both, and
! conserve that liberty which has Great


ed it. lGreat cheering We have


begun to find out that, many as are


the evils which are incidental to suf


frage, yet the good which is in it is


far disprOpOrtiOnate to any evils that


are incident to it. 1t is quite in vain
/ to quote to me as an argument against
suffrage, the voting Of those poor
Southern hOrdes-if you choose to


call them SO. / have seen in letters


in the newspapers descriptions, and


did not doubt that they were true, Of
the way that men voted in those


Southern precincts. Quite ridiculous


it was, aud I could not, Republican as


1 am, help laughing; but laughter is


free yet in this country, which ever


side man is on. Laughter. But,


1 bethOught myself, these hordes Of


black voters who don't know the


meaning of a vote, who don't know


what the word suffrage means, and,


perhaps, think it is an idol, or some


thing ofthat kind-they are very ri


diculO1s; but, really, I can point you


out q gang Of emigrants in New York


who will vote before great while,


and whose voting is quite as ridicu-
lous [Applause. I don't think that
Southern plantations have yet come


half way up to Northern New York
wards. Laughter aud applause. I
Ignorant 7otingl The plantation


votes and the emigrant-ship votes,
and they both vote bIunderingly-the


one as well as the other. Men say,


how would you bear to have those ig-
Inorant blacks brought up to vote
alongside of you, an educated and re-
fined white man? l answer, we have
had the poor, ignorant emigrant vot-
ling alongside Of US for long time,
land have had to bear it. 1t is not any
harder for you to bear with ignorant
black men than it is for US 10 bear
with ignorant emigrants. When


Southern men complain that they are


being put through a severe ordeal in


this way, we say to them, you are
mot suffering any more than we have


suffered; we in the North have had


to 90 through this ordeal of free vot-
ling, and have learned to bear it very


well. You protest. We did protest,
but we have got over that. We have


learned that, although it is not for the
time being ajoyous, but a grievous
.tthing, yet in the end it does work
i out peaceable fruits in them that are
exercised thereby. daughter and
Applause. Uncertainty is very an
lnoying to me, here in my own native
land, to hear an unqualified son Of
Erin declare that ought to be hang
ed tO.the' nearest tree, laughter, but
] l have learned to bear it; it does not
hurt me any more. Why? Because
such men know not what they say
they know not what manner of spirit
they are. Of But 1 know that this


untained and rampant zeal is a part
Of that great fermentation which is GO
ing on here, and which, by and by,


will precipitate the lees and leave a


pure article of wine-my temperance
friends will excuse the figure. Laugh
ter and applause know, in other


words, that while this fermentation is
going on, by means of it we are max
ing our best citizens out Of men who


came to US as emigrants-meu whom
we did not originally want to vote,


but who would vote, and have voted, i,
and through votingas well as through


the other influences that surround
/ them here, have become or are be-


coming most worthy citizens. Zap


plause. In twenty years every ship


load of emigrants either dies off or


makes a batch of good voting citizens.
/ Laughter and cheers. Now, the on
IIy question is, will the boiler bear the
| pressure? Laughter. With rs it
will. It has done it. 1t has done it
in most critical times. If we could


bear the pressure while we had on US


the burden Of a gigantic war, five
could bear the burden while we were
taxing our people, while we were
4 ilevying recruits, while the arm Of
this Government was go heavy; If
even then, under those severe tests,


We could still maintain the integrity
of the Commonwealth, and of Ameri-
! can principles, in spite of foreign
i lvotes-if we could stand that test, we


can stand any. [APplause We
did stand it, and now, for one, I not
lonly am not opposed to emigrants
i voting, but, if had the power, I
n would shorten the term of naturalza-
1 ton, not lengthen it. IF a man gave


me substantial, satisfactory evidence
4 that he intended to dwell here, be
i should not be here year before he
lshould be a citizen, because 1 hold it
4 better that man who is going TO re-
side here should bave the responsible
litv of citizenship upon him at once
than that he should remain lawlcss
land without responsibility. Zap
plause 7 / do not say that free suf-
frage has no evils attendant upon its


exercise, but do say that the good
| is immeasnreably greater than the
evil. TApplause. Now 1 do not


undertake to say that it is an agreea-
/ BILE thing to have thu whole fabric Of
Southern society broken up, to have


all the old subordinations and rela-


tions Of rank subverted in a moment.
III do not say that it is pleasant for
the accomplished plantation owner,
educated, perhaps, in Glasgow, or
Edinburgh, or Oxford, or Cambridge,
| to come home to-day surrounded with


wealth and with a thousand men to
serve him, and to find tomorrow that
he is nothing but a plain man among
men. That's not pleasant. But, la
dies and gentlemen, it never has been