Year: 1879

therefore not charg, corruption on


any one. Issues of war


were certainly dead with him.


He had but one political faith to


preserve inviolate, and that |as, local


self-government; but one political


hope, to build up the waste places


in the South destroyed by the war.


He called attention to the difference


between the speech made by the


gentleman from Wisconsin, Mr..


Bragg, not as toned down in the


Record, but as delivered, and partly


published in the New York Herald,


and the speech coming from the Re


publican member from New Hamp~


shire, Mr.. Blair, both of which ap-


peared in the Record on the same


day. He said that when the West


had been in its infancy it had


been fostered by the South.


Mississippi Democrats had stood side
| by side with those from


Michigan in the work of Western


improvements. He had warned


Northern Democrats at the last


Session that the refusal to recog-


nize the just demands of the South


might result in the defeat of South


ern Democrats and the sending of


other representatives who would


form alliances with other parties.


The rapid growth of independent


candidates in the South had already


sustained his declaration. He had


nothing to take back-not a line,


not a syllable. He repeated what


he had then said. He hoped
that the solid South might
still be solid for the Democratic
party, but for that portion Of it that
had the courage and manliness to
treat the people of the South as
their equals and not as interiors in
the Union. The gentleman from


Wisconsin, after having slept on
his speech for nearly a year, and
after nursing his wrath to keep it
warm, had come forward to excom~
municate him (Chalmers), from the
Democratic church, and to give a
general ticket of leave to the rest of
the Southern men who dared to ask
for justice, and for equal distribu-
tions of the appropriations from
Federal Treasury. He (Mr. Bragg
had assumed to speak in the name
of Northern Democrats, and even if
he had the authority to thus speak,
it was the first time anybody had
ever heard of the minority under
taking to turn out the majority of
q party, but this great leader, from
the solid Democratic State of Wis
consin, proposed to show him to the
door of the Democratic party, and
when the South asked for small pro
portion of Government aid, he
he treated her like a mendicant
and said to her like Won Beekman
to old Rip Van Winkle, "giye her
a cold potato and let her go" as
representative of Northern Demo
Gratis the gentleman from Wiscon-
sin had stated that they would not
sell out body and soul to Southern
Democrats, and intimated that they
could do better by getting recruits
from the North, better without the
South than with it. He would like
to know who had appointed that
gentleman salesman of the North
ern Democrats; how many North
ern Democrats could he deliver,
even if he found a purchaser. That
the gentlemen reminded him of the
cowboys and ''skinners" of the
Revolutionary war who belonged to
neither party, but robbed indis~
criminately from both and fed to
the Interior when danger ap-
preached. The gentleman struck first
on one side and then on the other,
and whenever a question came up
requiring fearless courage and man
hood he rushed in frantic terror into
the Republican ranks to shelter his
political head. If such men
were Democrats upon what
principle of Democracy do
they stand? The principles of the
Democratic party at the end of the
war had been peace and restoration;
that the dead past might bury its
dead, and the bloody-shirt should
wave alone from the flag pole of the
Republican banners. But the gen
tleman from Wisconsin had found a
bloodier shirt than had ever waived |
from the battlements of the Repub-
lican party, and he was stretching
his legs in frantic effort to climb
up to the Republican platform and
rob it of its last banner.


After several speeches, most of
them made by Mississippi members,
debate was brought to abrupt ter
by the expiration of the
morning hour. The House then
went into committee on the army
bill.


After some discussion, the bill
was read by sections, but before
any action was taken, the commit
- o,ooo oo1 A. - II o...o - al