Year: 1876

simply "Constitu.ion- -huggers.' The
boys who are here before me, who
were with me at Donelson saw some
of it there. What patriots they were,
doing SO much for "the Constitution
Of our common country"


DEMOCRATIC BITTERNESS.


One thing | have now come to,
which is painful to speak about, as it
is largely private matter. So far
from being allowed to leave the
Democracy in peace, as l had hoped
and expected, with no noise about it,
you have seen, many of you here,
what has been said and charged
against me in the Democratic press.
But what you have seen is nothing.
In the last ten days | have received
scores OF letters, the most Of them
anonymous, abusing mo without stint,
and charging me with all sorts Of
crimes. These things, which would
annoy any man who had feeling, have
simply confirmed me in my estimate
Of many members Of the party | have
left, and have simply intensified my
conviction that my course was and is
right. ! can see by these an expla.
nation Of one thing that puzzled me
in the career of my old comrade in
arms, Gen. John A. Logan. Logan
and were together great deal in
the fore part of the war, and we
talked things over as fellow Demo-
Gratis, and in every respect nearly we
agreed. After the close of the war
we met again. When | had parted
from him he was a Democrat; then
he was a Republican, and bitterly
nti-Democratic. / said to him, 81
can understand your course in chang
ing parties, and cannot blame you
very much. But what l cannot un-
derstand is what makes you so terri
bly, bitter against the Democrats. !"
He replied, "You never will fully un-
derstand it till you yourself leave the
Democratic party, which day will
surely come, but then you will see it
plainly enough. You will get all
sorts Of anonymous, yillainous, cow
ardly letters, charging you with all
sorts Of crimes, and heaping upon
you all sorts Of vile abuse"


THE REBEL ABUSE OF TIE GENERAL.


know the public charges made
against Logan, and know personally
what atrocous lies many of them
were, and | could not conceive that
partisan malignity could go any
farther than it went in the coinage Of
them. But now | do see. These
letters | have received charge me
with being robber, an incendiary,
aud murderer! These charges they
make to describe my career and
record as a soldier. Can be blamed
then, in view of such abuse as this.
for departing from my resolved pur-
pose Of privacy, and publicly hurling
back upon their authors all such ac-
cusations. Whenever you find one
Of these men charging me with these
things, scratch his skin, and you will
find a rebel.


Let me refer to some Of these
charges briefly. will not be long,
although ] find my time is far too
short for telling it all, and l do not
want to weary you. They say stole
cotton, and made money by it. It's
lie. ! say it with that word be-
cause that is the word. | captured
but two lots of Confederate cotton, as
it was called-cotton belonging to
the rebel government. turned it
over, and took duplicate receipts for
it-one OF which sent to the Secre-
tary of the Treasury, where it now
is, and the other | kept, and now
have it. / never made cent in cot
ton, and never tried to do it. | make
short work Of these charges, because
that is all there is Of it.


THE yIcKsEUR1 SOLDIERS GOLD SPEC


ULATIoN.


They say speculated in gold,
while at the head Of my command.
1t is fact. The Wall Street brokers
were running up the price of gold,
speculating on the fast increasing
perils Of the republic, saying that
Vicksburg could not be taken, and
that therefore the rebellion would be
victorious. They did not scruple
thus to speculate even if it was de-
strying the credit of the government,
and helping the Confederates. Wall
Street and the rebels were together
then-as they are now, and they bet
against US. That was all there was
Of it. We knew we could take Vicks-
burg, and knew when it would be
taken before Wall Street did. We
knew the Mississippi would so down,
so we could land on the rebel side
1--WE had already landed on the other
side) and knew that when we did
land on their side there would be
trouble. So in April we organized
together, a number of our officers,
and formed club, all drew our pay,
and got all the money we could.
put in this all my money, and every.
thing that l had, and borrowed every
dollar that could.


We all put in this money, our pay