Year: 1872

lions of Americans who feel that they


themselves are condemned and banned


] In the act which doOms their leaders.


| It is not for the sake of the prescribed


alone that I speak. Every community


has the right to the best services OF all


its citizens. Men say to me, Why,


You don't want to elect Governor Wise


or Tombs, or somebody else do you p


No, don't want to elect any of those


men, but suppose other people do


Who are you: who am to say whether


they shall or not? It is not q question


| for me but whether American citizens


whom you say have the same rights TO


vote and hold Office for you shall, be at
liberty to vote for the men they prefer,
or shall be compelled to vote for the
men you prefer. The question reaches


not several hundreds, but several mil
| lions of our people. Well, they say
! 81 What do the people care about this.
| The banks are making money, the pec-


pie are prospering, manufactures are


thrifty. Who cares that few hundred


or thousand men are DISTINGUISHED"
I care. I say war which ended near


ly eight years ago ought to have mad


nearly ali its bloody traces wiped out


before this time. Great applause


say that while we have often been
amused with promises of general am
nesty, the Government of the country
has practically been controlled by men
like Senators Morton and Chandler and
Gen. Butler. Senator Chandler is ssay-
ing, "Wel, all may forgive rebels If
they will, but never CAM Now that
spirit is not one which should rule re-
publican country. A republic should
be generous and faithful, generous to
errors whereof the very last evil cOnse-
quences have long since faded away.
Grant that it was wrong, lndetensioly
wrong; the attempt has been nobly bat
tied and defeated. Grant that the whole
Confederate movement was as heinous
as you please still 1t was utterly de-
feated it became a lost cause and
there is no more probability and, L
might say, no more possibility, of an
other serious attempt to divide TINS
American Union than there is of an at
tempt to disrupt and destroy the solar
system Never before did the Union
stand so strong as to-day. Never was
its future so assu- ed as it is to-day, and
never did any movement result IN more
and utter discontinue than
the Confederate movement. Then
say, seven and half years after the last
shot was fred in behalf of that move
ment, 'it is time for amnesty complete
and perfect it is time for oblivion of
0ffenses that so long since passed away.


Fellow-c citizens, we stand on the prIIl-
,iples embodied in our platform. Those
principles our adversaries do not assall.
They confess Judgment, but they insin-
nate that purpose is therein indicated
which is not our real purpose, and that
we mean something utterly different,
and thereupon they proceed to attribute
TO US purposes which we never cher
shed, which we positively disayOw, and
which they ought to know are utterly
absurd. The most important of them
are utterly forbidden by the COnstitu-
ton, and they know it. No man can go
to Congress or be chosen President,
without taking a solemn oath to sustain
the Constitution, which absolutely for
bids the payment of the rebel debts, or
the payment for emancipated slaves. L
commend my cause to the sober judg-
ment of the American people. do
them to Judge us without prejudice,
without passion and with spirits unln-
famed by wrath and vengeance. ask
them to Judge us as citizens who are
trying to do what we believe
best for our country and 1 do trust
that passion and prejudice will no pre-
vail that we shall be judged as we are,
and not as we are represented, and that
the benefcent triumph which will in
crease the value of every acre of land in
the Southern States, which will increase
the product of these States, make their
people harmonious-black and white
and make them live IN more trustful,
peaceful and fraternal relation than they
have hitherto held toward each other
I trust that this result will be attained,
and that generations to come shall re-
jOice over the inception, the progress
and the triumph of the Liberal move
ment. [Applause.I Frieds, bid you
good night.