Year: 1872

An Eloquent Plea for Peace and REQ
onciIiation.


''There is time for war and time for
peace The city of Pittsburgh has recently
witnessed rehearsal of the pomp and
pageantry, the blazonry and the circumstance
Of civil war. A very large number of men
were collected at vast expense, with the civil
purpose of -rekindling the bitterness and
hatred, the animosity and antipathies, the
fears and Civilizations of civil war for the
advantage of political party: I take you to
with ness that the greater portion of the jour
mails of Pittsburgh, as well as the orators on
this occasion, have been trying their best to
make us, the people, hate each other for par
tisan advantage. A stranger would imagine,
who was reading the journals of Pittsburgh
for the last few days, that we were still at
war, and that their purpose was to revive and
to exasperate the hatred and animcsity of
civil war in order to intensity and mvigorate
their side of the conflict. They talk about
"rebels and traitors" Fellow-citizens, are
we never to be done with this We demand
ed of our adversaries in the great war
that they enfranchise the blacks, and the
blacks are now enfranchised. None but
white men now stand disfranchised on the soil
of our. country. We demanded that they
stipulate that the emaneipated slaves shall
not be paid for, and that the rebel debt shall
never be paid by the General Government or
by the State, and they assented to that. So
far as can see, every demand made on the
part of the loyal States and loyal party has
been complied with by those lately in rebel
lion. Everything has been done that we
asked. Everything has been considered, and
still they tell us we want them to repent.
Have they not brought forth works meet for
repentance? And thus coming together In
solemn convention, the representatives of the
Southern people have given their assent to
the platform of the Cincinnati Convention,
which was the most intense, most complete
republican platform that had ever been pre-
All this being done, we are told by these gem
tlemen who met here, " ALI this is mockery.
This is fraud. You don't mean anything by
it. =" and the cry goes on, 9 rebels and trait
ors," "rebels and traitors" denunciation,
prescription the same as ever. -Four years
ago, in the Republican National Convention,
it was declared that this prescription should
speedily cease. Four years have passed, and
thousands of people of Arkansas alone pro-
hibited the most intelligent, the most respon-
sible people Of that State forbidden to e1er-
else the right Ct suffrage, forbidden exclusive
ly by the party that meets here and shouts for
Grant and Wilson. Nobody else asks for
prescription but them No other party re-
quires that any human being should stand
prescribed on our soil for q rebellion that
ceased seven and half years ago. No party,
no men of any party, doubt this. That very
party held a great military parade this





and divide the hearts of the American people
from each other. They hold essential to
their triumph that hatred should con-
tinue; that distrust, suspicion, and aliena-
ton should continue. Do what you VIII, do
what you may. they are determined not to be
satisfied.


Now, feIlow-citizens, it is not enough that
those who fought against the Union should
be prescribed. Those of us who stood for, 1t
are equally denounced if we do not happen to
agree with them in our present politics. Here
stands one who is charged by them with be-
ing secessionist. Gould that be true, fellow
citizens? Look the facts in the face. When
Lincoln had been elected and this conspiracy
for secession began to advocate itself, we Re-
pubicans were told by our own men, and told
still more by those out of the circle, ''4ou
must back out of your Republicanism !; you
must surrender your opposition to the extern
sion 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. I was one of those who said " No !;
there is no such alternative" denied that
the Southern people, the great majority OF
them were against the Union. demanded that
there should be open, free discussion before the
Southern people; an honest, unterrihed, and
unconstrained vote. Ii they proved tnat tne
people of the South wanted disunion, I
would consent to 1t. knew they would not. /
knew that the Southern people, that the great
majority, would have voted as they actually





clinging to the Union. And now, to-day, II
the nation were to be imperiled and there
were Just two modes of saving it, to trust to
the chances of civil war or chances of free,
fair vote of the Southern people, would
very greatly prefer to take the latter chance
rather than the former, for, feloW-c1tlzens,
they do greatly misunderstood and mal1gn
this American people when they assume that
in cold blood, before there had been any clash
of arms, the people in the South, any more
that the people in the North, desire dlsunlon.
In its origin the great masses of those whe
consented to the secession movement neant
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 L
did my best to defeat.


Well, the war is ended. I think it ought to
be ended.-W -We-had a great and terr1b1e, a
bloody a destructive civil war. Our success
was perfect. The defeat of the adversary was
more complete than any defeat recorded IN
history They suffered much. They have
conceded all. Cannot we afford to be magnani-
nous At least they say, fellow-citizens, that
the Southern people may vote some OF
them may. but the instant they vote the cry Is
raised, sfSee how these fellows vote" They
cry, ssYou must vote the other way" LIS that
an election? 1t is only the fashion OF war IN
another aspect.


great hives of American industry. l plead
here for peace and concillation, and for the
interests, especially, of this busy, prosperous,
energetic people, How l have sympsat;nlhheG s 4; hs1

prosperity! How have wondered at and ad-
1nired her magnificent growth, you surely do
know No place on the continent has been
dearer to me than Pittsburgh. There has been
no spot in whose prosperity 1 have more
| heartily rejoiced, and this is because beheveo
her prosperity was firmly linked and bound
together with the prosperity and !. growth T tn q
ness men; appeal to her merchants; ap-
peal to her manufacturers, to stop tins war
| It has gone on long enough. You CANNOT
afford to teach part of your country to hate
you, and to feel that your success and No you you
fion. People of Pittsburgh, ask you to tak'
a generous part in this work Of reconcilnt
your country to each other. 1 ask you to TAX
the hand held out to you by our Southern
brethren in their adoption of the Cincinnati
platform by those who were our enemies


ask YOU to grasp that hand and say, Brothers
we differed, we fought. The war is ended, lie
us again be fellow-countrymen and forget tina


we have been enemies.


Friends and fellow-citizens, I bid you goo


night


WE learn from note lately read bt