Year: 1867

float. Applause.l No Confederacy o.


disunien. and destined to further dis


integration, binds your rights. The


Republican partyof the country is the


party at once of Union and liberty


because they believe with the distin


guished hero of Tennessee. Andrew


jackson, that ''the Federal Union mus


and shall be preserved" Applause i


of liberty, because they believe in the


perfect and absolute enfranehisement


of the humblest childhood in the com.


monwealth, or brought into il by immi


grafton; and they give to each of you


special interest in your country, be


lieVing that Democratic institutions can


only be maintained by securing to Ia


Dor its just reward, to enterprise Its
just return. The Republican party


during the administration of Abraham


Lincoln, (God bless him y while you


of the Statesof Tennessee were regarded


as out of the Union, passed Home.


stead bill We own, you know, l was


about to say Countless millions of acres


of public lands, and the Radical party


as the Southern leaders are pleased to


call it-and 1 gladly accept the title


myself, for a radical is a man who goes


to the root of thing, and l believe


that the Republican party has gone


right there, to the root, and is there.


fore justly to be called the Radical par


ty. (Applause.) The party, call it by


what name you may, has provided by


law that any one of you young, unmsr-


ried men may go upon eighty acres o.


the public lands, and have it surveyed


and reside upon it for five years, and


then pay about ten dollars for the cost


of surveying and making the title, and


this eighty acres shall be yours. Colored


men and white mer if you are poor


and fail to become independent land


owners and farmers, it is your own fault.


There is your land go and possess
yourself, and the broad flag of great


nation will float over you and that ma.


ton will see that none shall molest OF


make you afraid, while you sit under


the vine and fg-tree. But l think ]


hear some young man say" az cannot go,


because l have learned to love Mary


(Laughter.) Well, bless your innocent
soul that difficulty is Of easy solution


Get the parson to tie the knot between
you and Mary, and your eighty acres


becomes one hundred and twenty, BY


virtue of the fact that you take to you
wife. (Applause.) If that won't do, gel
Mary's father to go and settle on the
adjoining 120 acres; and if he be poor
man, and hss verified the maxim, "a
fool for luck and poor man for child
ren," the law makes provision for each
Of the chickens. So if the family be
a large one, you will have a tolerably
large sized plantation on which to reap
the fruits of your industry. You see
what these little words ''0nr Country"
mean to the American citizen, and you
may see why take possible exceptions
to one of the planks in a platform l
read to-day in one of your Memphis
papers. 1t was in sense and substance
this Against the reputation of any
honest debt, or for the payment of any
honest debt, / forget which. If that
means for the payment of every hon.
est debt lawfully contracted, l respond
to it heartily, and say to the framer
that at least in one point he and /
agree. But if it mean, that debt con-
tracted for the support of the army
and navy, for the overthrow of the
Government of the country, either by
the so-called Confederaey, or by State
making an element of that Confedera-
cy, then 1 dispute the proposition
These debts were not properly created ;
these debts are not legally binding (;
they are not even debts of honor, and
were extinguished by the surrender of
the armies of the Confederscy. Whan
all Confederate property and all Con-
federate State property became by act
and law the property of the United
States and it cannot be that while the
United States was entitled, as the
British Courts have decided to the
property of the Confederate States and
the Confederscy, that honor or law re-
quire the payment of debts contracted
by either of these States or the Confed-
eracy at large, nor should they be-
For instance, should Alabama. not to
speak of your own State, pay a debt
contracted by the bastard State known
as.the Confederate State of Alabama? ?
Who contracted these debts? Why,
there ara scarcely five citizens to. the
square mile in some States; Texas for
instance. You may want TO 60 to Ell
ther of these States. This principle be-
ing carried out, you will find that the
land given you under the Homestead
law shall be taxed first. for the State !;
second, for the General Government,
and, thirdly, to pay debt contracted
in a war which swept away their broth
ers, their kinsmen and their neighbors
by the thousands and tens of thousands.
No, that cannot be. This land, from
ocean to ocean, from the lakes to the
gulf, must be free from all taxation,
except that which Is necessary to the
support of the State and General Gov
ernments. This broad land must know
no other taxation than this.


And that brings me, my friends, face
to face with a question find you are
here in the South. l loitered
Il did not do it voluntarily-it was
because the train did not make the
and we lost several hours
ut the Confederate crossroads. Laugh
ter. I saw Nasby there. saw him
take poor colored man up to drink.
Says he, George, what will you take?"
Whisky" said George. You know
that Nasby has received RandalPs let
ter, saying that the negro must be con-
cost what it may. The bar
keeper had the decanter 10 his hand,
and said sharply, in chivslric tone.
Take off your hat, GeorgeH George
took off his hat. The bar-keeper had
no objection to dealing out the fluid
and taking the change; the only OBJ
lection was giving it to him with his
hat on. 1 say 1 loitered. there three
hours. l found ths constant topic in
was that the people wonld
be getting along wonderfully well if
the Government did not take every
thing in taxes and that even the dark
les, though they could not take care of
without their masters,
might possibly get along if it were not
for that internal two per cent. tax on
cotton. took the liberty to suggest
that perhaps it it was necessary
well, yes," said they, ''some tax is
necessary, but they need not take all
the poor darkey owns" Wonderful
sympathy for the darkeyl RsndalPs
letter has been very efhcacious.


But a word or two about the cotton
tax. like to look in the face of col
pred men. Many whom met on the
route here never knew me personally,
although they had heard my name