Year: 1876

knowledge could not do less than
halt for further developments, watch
ing suspiciously every movement
made thereafter which | could see
had tendency toward drawing the
Democracy North and South nearer
together, a union which l could see
would inevitably put the old rebel
element at the head of snd virtually
in control of the party. Events have
eliminated rapidly since then, and |
had not long to wait to see the whole
programme. The Democratic House
soon gave me light enough.


For some time l have been ready
to answer the question: "Have you
left the Democratic party?" | have.
And | am often asked now: sIs it
SO? Will you vote for Hayes and
Wheeler" 1t is SO; and l will work
for them as we'll as vote for them.
NY Democratic friends ask me for
my reasons. There are plenty Of
them, and all os them cannot be told
in these few remarks. And it is not
necessary TO tell all. First, let me
say that my abandonment of Democ.
racy was not caused, as has been
charged by the press Of that party,
because Of the currency or tariff
questions. | have no objection to
those planks in the st. Louis plat
form. But my reasons are as have
already indicated, and will now state
further.


The democrats who press me for
my reasons may know them. On the
road the other day met an old
democratic friend--onc of the Van
Buren county democrats. whom Dave
Steward, in his screed in the paper
the other day, said never had any
faith in my democracy after | went
into the war. Quite cxc;.caly he
wanted to know if it was true, the
report that l had really left the
democratic party. answered, at
is fact" lie asked the reasons for
it. ! told him they were quite plcn-
ty and sufficient, and as we had
plenty Of time | would tell him some
Of them. Something OF what | have
already stated here was first said,
and then ] said that the first thing !
didn't like in the democratic House
was the appointment sof Fltz Hugh,
the sargent-a -at-arms Of the Confeder-
ate Congress, as the doorkeeper Of
the House, and the displacement Of
Union soldiers-many Of them Grip
pied in the war, with the ex-mem-
bers of the rebel army. He wanted
to know If they didn't have q right to
do this. answered that they had,
but that l also had the right to dis
approve and denounce it. Another
thing | didn't like was Ben Hills
rebel speech and its bold utterance
of treason, and l didn't like the rebel
yell in response to it, all over the
south, for had heard that yell be-
fore, and knew what il meant. They
tell me-the democrats-that ] am
s.scared of Ben Hill." | don't think
am; don't think l was "scared Of"
any of the Hills when | met them in
the South; l do not remember that
| was. Then told my friend, how
worse than all of the many bad and
unblushing acts Of the democratic
House, | esteemed as Infamous the
act of appointing to the Clerkship of
the leading Committee Of the House
the man Hambleton, who named his
son John Wilkes Booth, after the
assassin of President Lincoln. This
outrageous act, in trucking to the
rebel element, the northern democrats
dare not disown, and for all know,
this man is still the Clerk of that
Committee. The little child, SO dis
honored by it's name and the signifi-
cance of it, had the good sense, thank
God, to die.


BEN HILLS SPEECH.