Year: 1866

General Blair delivered speech at JEFF


ferson City on the Sd of March, from which


we extractthe following: esi is-s


"The denuncation with which this veto


has been met and the clamor which poll
! ticians have been in haste to get up, will
avail them nothing. claim that the Amer
| lean people in his nomination and In the
| nomination Of Mr.. Lincoln, have passed


upon this identical question, and that our


armies when they marched on to victory,
| from the time that the war was first made
| victory and defeat were alike borne by
our armies until final triumph perched up
on our banner-this identical doctrine pro-
claimed by Andrew johnson in his message,
nas beer, been the animating principle OF our


"The President of the United States,
reared in Tennessee, among the people Of
the South, had probably private griev-
ances than any man in his State, or in the
Southern States, for he was prosecuted at
the outbreak of this rebellion, and driven
from his home, his property was confiscat-
ed, and every indignity was heaped upon
him; and yet, Notwithstanding that fact,
forgetful of his private grievances, and
only thinking of the good of his country,
he has chosen to stand by the declared doc
trine on which we entered into this contro-
versy. Cheers.l He has shown himself
capable OF rising above those petty griefs
which are merely personal to himself, and
for the sake of peace and harmony, and for
the sake of his country, he is willing to
forget all, and give to these people the
hand of fellowship, and bring them back
into the Union in order that we may
have firm and perpetual peace. Now
| can understand, and every man who
has lived in one of these border States
can understand, why it is that this animos-
ity has been so much more bitter, and so
much more personal, in the border States
than elsewhere. Here In Missouri, where
the tide of battle swayed to and fro, and al
most every mans fireside was invaded by
the enemy, and Outrages have been COM
mitted by persons belonging to one or the
other party; these things are all calculated
to engender bitterness which it is difficult
to forget, and which it requires just such
manhood as is to be found in Andrew john
son to forget and forgive. [Great applause,
and Kisses from the disunionists, But
which, my friends, it is absolutely neces-
sary should be done in order that we may
have peace, for we can not have it upon any
other terms. 1t would be utterly i'm
possible to have any thing like peace If this
warfare is kept up-if the spirit of persecu-
oOh 10 NSPO up' lhlS SplIlb Vi polSCCublOH,
intolerance and malignity seems to be more
rampant here than any where else out of
the Internal regions that have ever read
of. [Cheers.l II this spirit is not checked,
how is it to be supposed that we can, ever
have any thing like peace and security for
persons and property, if men are to be per-
secuted for acts which they have committed
heretofore, when such acts were not crimi-
nal under any law that has hitherto exist
ed? If we hunt those people to their holes
and push them into the mountain, they will
become as wild beasts-they will repel the
injury wherever they have it in their power,
whether upon single individual or upon
two or three. We will make for ourselves
what England has made for herself in Ire
land by her system of repression"