Year: 1872

/


His Speeches at Pittsburg, Pa, Cincinnati
I Ohio, and Louisville, KY.
| Horace Greeley reached Pittsburg, Pa, or


his westward tour, Thursday evening, the 10th


ult., at seven clock SHe was met at the de-


pot by torchlight procession, and escorted te
the st. Charles Hotel, from the balcony Of


which he addressed an immense assemblage ol
people, as follows:


| FeHow-eitizens: The wise King says "There
| is time for war and time for peace. The
city of Pittsburg has recently witnessed re-
hearsal of the POM and pageantry, the blazonry
and circumstance of civil war. A very large
| number of men were collected here, at vast .ex-
pense, with the single purpose of rekindling the
bitterness and hatred, the animosity and anti
pathies, the feass and Civilizations of civil war,
for the advantage of political party. / take
you to witness that the greater portion Of the
journals of Pittsburg, as we'll as the orators on
this occasion. have been trying their best to
make US, the people, hate each other for the


sake Of partisan advantage. 1as


A stranger would imagine who was reading
the journals of Pittsburg for the last few days
that we were still at war, and that their purpose


was to revive and exasperate the hatred and


animosily of the civil war, In order to intensity
aIlQ lutlSUIdlC 1lCli S1OC VI Cuc EOuuiCt. 1HclI
talk has been about rebels and traitors Are


we never to be done with this? Wedemanded


of our adversaries in the great civil war that


they surrender their arms and go to their homes.
They surrendered them. We demanded that
they enfranchise the blacks, and the blacks are
enfranchised. None but white men nos- stand
disfranchised on the soil of our country. We
demanded that they stipulate that the emanci-
pated slaves shall not be paid for, and that the
rebel debt shall never be paid by the Govern
ment or by the States; and they assented to
that Soifar as | can see, every single demand
made on the part of the loyal States and people,
has been fully complied with ON the part of
those lately in rebellion. .aa


Still they tell us we want them to repent
Have they not brought forth works meet for
repentance In solemn convention the repre-
sentati Of the Southern people have given
their assent to the platform of the Cincinnati
Convention, which was the most intense, the


most complete Republican platform that had
ever been presented by any national convention
whatever. All this being done, we are told by
these gentlemen, who met here, that all this is
mockery and fraud /; you do not mean anything
by it, and the cry goes On "rebels and traitors,
denunclation, and prescription the same as
ever.


Four years ago in a Republican National
Convention it was declared that this proscrip-
ton would speedily cease. -Four years have
passed, and still it is maintained that there are
this day thousands of people 10 Arkansas alone,
probably the most intelligent and responsible
people Of that State, forbidden to exercise the
right of suffrage forbidden exclusively by the
party that meets here and shouts for Grant and
Wilson. Nobody else asks for prescription but
them. No other party requires that any hu-
man being should stand prescribed on our soil
for rebellion that ceased seven and half
years ago. No party, 30 man of any party, but
this-the very party that held a great military
parade this week in order to further separate
and divide the hearts Of the American people
from each other. They hold still to their
triumph that hatred, distrust, suspicion, and
alienation should continue. Do what you WILL
do what you may, they are determined not to
be satisfied.


Is it not enough that those who fought a.
gainst the nation should be proscribed2 Those
Of us who stood for it are continually denounc-
ed if we do not happen to agree with others in
our present politics. Here stands one who is
charged by them with being a secessionist.-
Could that be true? Look the fact in the face
When Lincoln had been elected, and the con-
spiracy for secession began to advocate ITSELF
we, Republicans, were told by our own men,
and told still more by those out of the circle
You must back out of your Republicanism,
you must surrender your opposition to the ex-
tension Of slavery, or consent to great civil
war;" This, they said, was the only alterna-
tive bloodshed and devastation over the whole
country, or you shall surrender the principles
on which you have just carried the election


| was one of those who said, "No; there is
no such alternative. denied that the South
ern people-the great majority of them-were
against the Union. [ demanded that there
should be open, free discussion before the
Southern people, and an honest, unterrifed,
unccnstrained vote, and if they approved, if the
people of the South said they wanted disunion,
[ would consent to it. [ knew that the South
ern people-the great majority of them-would
have voted, as they actually did that winter,
not for secession, but for clinging to the Union.
And now to-day, if the nation were to be i'm
peried, and there were just two modes Of saw
ing ito trust to the chance of civil war or to
the chances of a free, fair vote of the Southern
people, would very greatly prefer to take the
latter chance, rather than that of war. For,
fellow citizens, they do greatly misunderstood
and malign this American people when they
been any clash of arms, the people in the South
any more than in the North desired disunion.
In its inception, in its origin the great masses
of those who consented to this secession move
ment meant nothing by it but to back down the
North, and make us consent to the extension
of slavery. That was their purpose, and that
purpose did my best to resist and defeat
Well, the war is ended, and | think it ought
to be. We had great, terrible, a bloody, a
destructive civil war. Our success was perfect.
The defeat of our adversary was more complete
than any defeat recorded in history. They have
suffered much they have conceded all. Can
not we afford to be magnanimous2 At least,
they say that the American people may vote.
Some of them may but the instant they vote
the cry israised, "Soe how these fellows vote p
They cry, You must vote the other way" Is
that an election2 1t is only fashion of war in
another aspect.


Mr.. Greeley. then spoke in complimentary
terms Of the prosperity and growth of Pitts
burg; and closed by asking the people to grasp
the hand held cut by their Southern brethren
and forget that they had been enemies.


SPEECH IN CINCINNATI, OHIO.


Mr.. Greeley delivered an able address before


the chamber of Commerce upon the subject Of


Finance, after which at late Of that night


(Sept. 20th) to large assemblage in front o


the Burnett House, he spoke substantially Al