7< w^^ \ \ n-f^ii^ pH8.5 i'^-^i. '^ Pntlished by the Union EepnWicao Congreesional Committee, Washington, D. C. S DP E E O JEI //" ON. W. H. WADSWORTH, AT FLEMINGSBUTIG, KENTUCKY, JUNE 13, 1868. Fellow- Citizens : A small portion of the i great Union people of the United States, we have met here to-day to choose our leaders, declare our faith, and give our reasons. The duty of speaking has devolved ujwii me. However much I may have wished to avoid that duty I have not been able to do so, and ?.vsx here to-day to discharge it to the best of my ability. We are here t,o ratify with great cheerful- ness, " shut up in measureless content," the nomination of Grant and Colfax for Presi- dent and Vice Presidentof the United States. To ratify their nomination with the resolu- tions upon which they stand, i>romulgatcd by the Convention that presented their names to the people. To ratify their nom- ination as a testimony in some small degree of our gratitude to them for their distin- gxiished services in the field and in the Legislature, in the great struggle with rel)el- lion. We are here to ratify their nomina- tion upon their well known public lives and history, because the names of Grant and Colfax arc familiar as household words. One, the General of all the armies of the Union ; the other, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and for many years of his life, though still a young man, holding a seat in the national Legislature. I n.eed not speak of General Grant to you, my fellow-citizen.s. The events in which he has been a conspicuous actor, and known throughout the world, are surely known to all of you, placing him beyond the reach of feeble calumny. Suffice it to say that com- ing up from the ranks of the people his whole life has been one of honesty, fidelity to duty, and patriotism to our common counti"}', signalized in the two wars — the war with Mexico and the great war just tcrmi- nat<>d. In the providence of God it fell to his lot t« play the foremost part in the sup- pression of the rebellion — excelling where all did well, leading the heroes to whom our gratitude is forever due. We ratify their nomination? because of the future services we expect at the hand of these nominees. We ratify their nomination, be- cause of the confidence we have in their hon- esty, their ability, and their courage. We rotil^their nomination, because hitherto they have always been successful, and the world demands success of its leaders. Merit, how • ever great, is always topped by success. A QUESTION OF VITAL IMPORTANCE TO Ki;N- TUCKIANS. The deeply interesting question for us to answer is, how Union men of Kentucky are going to act in this contest? With refer- ence, perhaps, to a larger portion of the Union body at least, there can be no ques- tion. They have always been in the front of the right wing of the Union party through- out this whole contest. But it is an inter- esting question with regard to another very respectable and influential body of Unioii men of this State to know what part they are going to take in this contest; where they will pitch their tent ; where they will choose their company for the future, because things have proceeded in onr Srate politics to tlie point where we must decide between what they call the Democratic party and the Na- tional Union Republican party. There are many persons of Union sentiments who think it the duty of the Union people of the State to give their support to the Democratic party, as they call it, here in this Common- wealth of ours. The very first task I propose to myself is to examine reasons why any of us should do so ; and I propose to do this in a spirit of candor and frankness, but with respect to- wai'd the gentlemen wlio differ with me. and, I tru.st, with respect to that party itself. The Democratic party of the United States governed this country for thirty years, almost without interruption. You are my witnesses that they misgoverned it. You are my witnesses that they sowed broadcast the seeds of the bloody liarvest we reaped in the war just closed. You are my wit- nesses that this party, honored so beyond measure by a generous and confiding peo- ple, at last betrayed their trust, and broke this people in pieces by cruel and bloody war. For many years prior to 18G0, the controlling element of the party had been molding public sentiment, and shaping the policy of the Government, with a view to secession and rebellion, ending g» fatally to the people. tL7^ 2 AVhen at last a majority of the people of the United States had got tired of being thus ruled, and elected to power a party opposed to the spread and rule of slavery, this same imperious power revolted against the only friend the institution had in the world — the Constitution of the United States. Giving up the support of this Constitution, with the Supreme Court and a majority of the Con- gress to back it, the rulers and upholders of the Democratic party for a generation re- volted, drew the sword of civil war against the Union, the ideas and tendencies of the age, and the Father of men. For nearly thirty years the Democratic party had gov- erned us here in the South with a rod of iron, in the sole interest of slavery, with a view to secession. This party organized a Presi- dential campaign in the interests of seces- sion and rebellion, with Breckinridge as leader, that Douglas might be defeated or Mr. Lincoln more surely elected, having long before declared that if he was elected they would revolt and dissolve our Union. They destroyed their party to precipitate the de- struction of their country. They went into the rebellion upon the fact of Mr. Lincoln's election, and the Democrats of the North, spurned and abandoned by their rebel allies, lost all power and. influence in the country. THE WAR AGAIXST THE UXIOX. War broke out, and all right-minded peo- ple, under the lead of Lincoln and Douglas, Crittenden and Guthrie, rose up to meet this daring attack upon the Union and the free- dom and progress which it represented. The people everywhere rallied to the country's cause, and when 75,000 men were called for, above 300,000 came to the rescue. Now, at this time the Democratic party seemed to have been blotted from the political map. It had no existence till the anti-slavery policy of tlie Government was developed by the events of the v;ar. The Democratic party seized this opportu- nity to organize, and many of us in Ken- tucky, alarmed for the result, gave it our :-ycipi;thy, regarding the Democi'ats of the '. , orth then in arms against their late leaders of the South, and thus friends to the Union and the war against rebellion, as friends also to the Constitution. We came to their aid speedily in the border States, and in the election in 1862 they elected members from nearly all the districts in some of the States, and came with a few votes of having the House of Representatives. At once the old leaders, with the old sympathies, champicm- ed the party, and began to declare their op- position to the war, in many ways throwing their influence into the scale on the side of the enemy. Instead of supporting the Gov- ernment in the prosecution of the war, they pursued ,a policy evidently designed to stop and abandon it ; of course there were many exceptions, but I speak of what I believe to be the real power of the party. The next Congressional elections were disastrous. The Presidential election came on. They met in National Convention and nominated for President a worthy man, a soldier of the Union, once of great popular- ity, a gentleman alv>-ays honoral'le in my eyes — I mean George B. McClellan. He was compelled to rei^udiate the party plat- form, and declare that the war for the Union must never be abandoned. But we were de- feated. Notwithstanding such evident dis- gust by that party for the principles we cher- ished, still, with other portions of the Union people of the South, the Union Democracy of Kentucky gave its support to the Demo- cratic party North throughout the war. KENTUCKY UEBELS AND THEIR NORTHERN ALLIES. The war terminated at last, owing to the valor of our soldiers and the genius of our commanders — in spite of all opposition, covei't and open — in favor of the Union. Now, mark what followed, you that have any hope of comfort or honor in the Demo- cratic party. In Kentucky, men left the State and swore allegiance to a foreign, rebel power, but left their wives, sisters, daughters and property behind in our midst, under and to our protection ; and these men continual- ly invited and ))rought war around our fire- sides and in the midst of their own families, plundered our fields and stables, massacred om* inhabitants and burned our towns ; at last, conquered in battle, they returned to the homes they had abandoned. The Union party in power in the State of Kentuckj', in a generous spirit, xiesirous of healing all the wounds of the body politic, and restoring a solid peace to our afflicted Commonwealth, forgave them all the penalties of the law, and restored to them the franchise. They were scarcely warm in their seats before that same Legislature was urged, by ambitious aspirants among them, to call a State Convention. By a voice almost unan- imous it refused to do so, pronouncing in- stinctively against its polic}', for a reason they did not fully recognize at the time, but which must now be apparent, viz : In such a Conveniion, the sympathies of rebellion and those of Unionism would never harmon- iously interflow and fuse together. If called there must be a disintegration of the hetero- geneous elements that composed it. So the Convention was refused. Then these enfran- chised rebels and their sympathizers who staid at home and lent their aid as they safe- ly could, to divide the LTnjon, called a State Convention, not of the Union Democratic party that had voted for McClelhm, tut call- ed a Democratic Convention proper of the men who were fresh from the rebellion, who had voted for Jefferson Davis, editors, ex- Congressmen and officers in the late rebel army, who had been for five years denounc- ing the Democratic party, while the Union men of Kentucky gave it their support, call- ing it very vile names indeed ; who had been denouncing the Union and fighting it with fire and sword, and had declared if we would give them a sheet of blank paper on which to write their own terms, they would not live with us again. These people called a State Convention and made a nomination for clerk of the Court of Appeals, and coun- ty officers of pure unadulterated Democrats and opponents of the war. Now was the time to test the fidelity of our late Democratic allies North ; to test the sincerity of their sympathy with the Union men of the South, and the cause which they loved. Wc( were entitled to their sympathy and support in this contest with those who came fresh and red from the criminal rebel- lion. Here was the crucial test which was to prove whether the Democracy of tlie North was a Union party and would support the Union Democratic party or the rebel Democratic party of Kentucky. You know the result. We were deserted. The Democrats of the North would not go forward, and taught by the war to something better than the resolutions of '98 and slavery, they gave up the Union and the future ;they embraced the past, and returned like a dog to his vomit. They entered the contest on the side of those who had been most conspicuous in the ranks of the enemies to the Union, andthrewoverboard,without remorse of con- science, those Union men who had stood by them in the hour of their difficulties. The act signalized at once the inevitable sympathies of the Democratic party. North as well as South. The controlling power in that party through the war was opposed to it. While many of them, I gratefully remember, proved their devotion to the country in the legislative forum and by going into the field; but the real, vital, energetic forces in the party gave its sympathy to the war against the Union, denied the right of the Govern- ment to put down the rebellion, acknowl- edged the right of a State to secede, many denouncing the war as unholy ; the editor of their most popular newspaper, exceeding the license of^ the press and the bounds of decency, even justified the assassination of the President of the United States, the kind- est enemy that ever struck a foe and wept. In this first opportunity to show whether for the future they would build their party upon a Union basis, or whether they would }ook to rebel sympathizers in the South ior support, they repudiated true Union men, and took up with their adversaries. It is a question, gentlemen, how far we who stood for the Union, will ever find for ourselves forgiveness and acceptance in a party controlled by our adversaries- But such considerations as these are of minor importance. If by giving our support to the Democratic party we could accomplish great public ends important to the welfare of the people ; to do this we should be ready to sacrifice all personal, considerations. The service demanded of us by this Democratic party of Kentucky, is indeed onerous and bitter. We must silence our sympathies for the Union cause and the men who sustained it. We must forget that those who died in the great battles, died honorably, in a good cause, and against a bad one. As to the living, we niu.st forget their services in the war and what is due to them, preferring those who fought for the rebellion. We must for- get their generous zeal, and die great pro- vocations that prompted to any excess they may have committed, and while we exag- gerate the one, we must overlook the other. We must not recall rebel atrocities, assas- sinations of unarmed citizens, the slaughter and starvation of prisoners, the burning of houses, towns. Court Houses, fair grounds. &c., but pass that over. All this we must bo required to do and ?nu.pose God Almighty meant nothing by such a con- flict as we have passed through ? All that great fermentation of ideas that resuUed in war and baptized our land in blood — did it mean nothing? Has it done nothing? Are we where we started ? IVc are to-day a thmi- sand years away from the age that preceded the war. The child scarce able yet to syllable its mother tongue was born under the old or- derof things, andwhich he mil never see again- THE CONSTITUTIONAJ. AMENDMENT. But I come now to an affair that con- cerns U5 as citizens of Kentu-jky chiefly. We have proceeded from tjie thirteenth Constitutional amendment abolishing slav- ery, to the fourteenth amendment. It is now a fixed and certain thing that there is no escape from the fourteenth Constitu- tional amendment. If it has not already been adopted by States enough to make it a part of our Constitution, itwillbein afewweeks, perhaps in a few days. The Senate is just now about to pass what is called the Omni- bus bill, which admits six Southern States to representation in the -Union, which, with Arkansas and Tennessee, making eight. — These States are required by the law recog- nizing them to ratify the fourteenth amend- ment ; audit therefore will be the law of the land after the lapse of a few weeks. This great measure equalizes the power of the voter in all the States, declares sacred the obligatioHS of the nation created in its defense; prohibits the payment of the rebel debt and compensation for emancipated slaves, and establishes the equality of citizenship by birth and naturalization. Let us examine into its efiFect upon the representation of the States. The number of blacks in the Southern States in 1860 was about 4,000,000. Let us say that the war has kept that population stationary. We will start with a basis in 1870 of 480,000 blacks. This will not be at their former rate of increase, as the blacks do not thrive as fast in freedom as in slavery. By a comparison of statistics, we find that their increase in the future can not be put at more than fifteen per cent, in ten years, instead of twenty- three per cent., the rate of increase in ten years previous to the war. So in 1900, we would have about 0,500,000 blacks in the South, all represented save in Kentucky. We had in Kentucky, in 18G0, 236,000, which will give us in 1900 about 364,000. The ratio of the number of blacks in Kentucky, in my opinion, increases in- btead of diminishes, as they come in from other States. Let us, gentlemen, be a little candid. Is not universal suffrage already here ? Is there any power on the face of the globe that can roll it bask ? Does not the tide set that way all over the world ? The African in ten States holds the ballot ; it would be just as easy to enslave him again as to take the bal- lot away from him. What party will under- take the work V Why abuse me? These are the- facts — I did not make them ; I cannot claim any part of the credit the world awards the doers. Mine only be the modest merit that recog- nizes the work wlien done, and comprehends, in part, its magnitude, and the high mean- ing it symbolizes. A RESOLUTION IN EAVOR OF THE POOK. I take it for granted therefore, my fellow- citizeufi, that whatever party comes into power in 1869, the basis of representation oi these States has been permanently changed. The importance of being fully represented according to the weight of our population in that Congress which declares war, makes peace, levies enormous taxes, and disposes of the great business of the nation will ad- dress itself with force to the minds and con- sciences of reflecting prudent men every- where in the State. Whoever can show a hope for a different state of things for the future, (if he dare call it a hope, ) would have hoped on at the Deluge after all the world was in the sea. Let us take comfort ; the revolution that has occurred means peace and progress, because it means Liberty and Justice. It is not a revolution in favor of the patrician or privilege of the strong and powerful, the rich and titled, but in favor oi the poor, the humble and the ignorant ; the veriest poor and ignorant of our people — God's poor. I have long sought of the best men and minds I know in our State, an answer to the question — how arc the States filled with a large black population, to take that people out of the hands and away from the influ- ence of outside peoples, and make them friends of the State for peace and for war ? I get no answer. Southern statesmanship is atr-aid and silent. There is but one answer; give the black man every reascm for loving the Commonwealth, the mother of %ts all, that any other citizen has, and he will vote her ticket and fight Jier battles. But now? Why little South Carolina has three-fifths of her people for a foe that looks beyond her brother for friends, hope and protection. She's but a bogus Common- wealth while this lasts, paralyzed in peace and war. Why, the rebels were fools to get up a rebellion before they had made friends with nearly half their people. If they ever wish to rebel hereafter, they must first get the black man on their side. In their brave but utterly stupid struggle for independence, they had over four millions of enemies in their midst. They saw their assailants using this element, and still had not the wit or courage to emancipate and arm them. It said some of their captains saw the necessity and called for the measure. But the petty poli- ticians of Richmond, dwarfed in the presence of events too great for them, could not see it, and so went down under the blows of Grant, clinging to the rags of slavery. The lesson was not new. .States that do not rest on a united people must fall. Tlie ten States already have jx'ace on the negro ques- tions. He is a voter, in numbers sufficient to command respect. The political parties, under a necessity to win the voter's favor quit calling each other Abolitionists, and only strive to convince the black man of the in- terest they always took in his welfare. Ne- groes make good Democratic delegates in rennessee, and the party (thongh beaten) \ -iis very proud of a few thousand black votes obtained in the recent Georgia elec- tions. Great is the black man in the eyes of the Democrats in Georgia and Tennessee, vhen found in tho ranks cf his party. HKGEXERATED REBEL.S. And, ray friends, the rebels never will be converted until the day shall come when they .shall have to ask the black man to help them to get into office. When that time coujes the rebellion, will be over, be- cause it will be unpopular, and men aspiring for office will keep in the back- ground, the fact that they served the lost cau.se- They will then do what others are now doing who were engaged in this work ; confess their faults and ask forgiveness. Wlienthat day comes I trust it will not bt so difficult for a man to perceive the value and magnitude of the truth, that he should be willing to allow every other man the same privileges he claims for himself, however high or low, rich or poor, that man may be, of whatever race or color ; not to perceive that other truth, that a State which deals out impartial justice is alone truly prosperous and secure — that such a State then can have 110 enemy in the bosom of its society, a,ndis equally secure against foreign enemies or domestic treason. But it is said there are other reasons why a Union man in Kentucky cannot ally himself with the National Uu'ou Republican party and support Gen. Grant for the Presidency. Because, in fact, they are Radicals in favor of radical measoi-es, and Union men must join the Democratic party to put down Radicals. Talk about voting down Radicalism ! — Gentlemen, Radicalism is the greatest suc- cess of modern times. It fought the biggest battles, took more prisoners, subdued the bravest men and the greatest numbers of them, that was ever done in any nge or coun- try. With a bankrupt Treasury, inherited from its opponents, itknew how to raise not less than six or seven thousand millions of dollars, and fought a rebellion to its death, with nearly half the country in revolt against it, after every defeat rising in unshaken faith that Almighty God ruled the destiny of the United States to higher issues ; they raised armies of millions of meij: and while meeting with defeat after defeat, embarrassed by op- position at home and mocked by the rulers and nobles of Europe, its coui-age rose still higher, to the day of complete victory. While the stniggle raged, it emancipated 5,000,000 of people, calling a race to life and liberty — a fact that will be luminous while the mem- ory of the race remains among men. Do you think this Radicalism could be scared by the eternal devil? When Hannibal, after Cannae, encamped at the gates of the city, the Romans put up for sale in the forum the ground under their feet : So themen who con- quered the rebellion, while it was yet exult- ing over the defeat of Bull Run, opened the Treasury and built up the Capitol, kigher and broader, for the future Congress of the Union. "With charity for all. and malice toward none, with faith in the right as God gives to see the right," let us go on with this Union cause ; let us keep the standard of our faith full high advanced, marching under it with confidence while carried in the hands of its greatest Captain. Let us not desert that cause and run after that cold and bar- ren feast to which the Democratic party has invited us. This political organization, like the institution of slavery, is worn out and broken in pieces. TRUTH TO PROGRESS. We ai"e to advance to newer and better issues. A true Democratic party will always be respected in the eyes of the lovers of the people, because the lovers of the people rev- erence God the Father of the people ; that God who makes no distinction between them. W^hen they come to His heaven, re- deemed by the blood of His Son, who died for all, it will not matter whether they were white or black, or to what race they be- longed. They will be good enough for God. This Government of ours has held out to the world the principles of the Declaration of Independence, that all men are born free and equal. But you know how fashionable it had become, in latter times, to say this birth- i-ight belonged only to white men. It was even fashionable in some places to read it ." all white men," etc. But our fathers meant by it all men. In Europe it is all men born of certain families that have the right to freedom and equality. For the Englishmau it is the Queen who derives her right from God to govern the nation, and transmits it to her children ; next to her, it is the nobles ; ne.\;t to the nobles, some fellow who has made a fortune selling soap and tar, and who is only ambitious (like Edmund About's Frenchman) to marry his daughter into a family that has done no work for four hun- dred years. The idea is held, there, that the mass of mankind are too ignorant to en- joy the right of sufl'rage. But the ti-ue American idea is that sufl'rage is not the due of intelligence ; not the due of race, wealth, &c., but knowing no practical test by which we can confine it to the virtuous and intelli- gentalone, thatitisthedueof all the people- The masses of mankind are what might be called ignorant, they have no "book larnin," they have not been to college, a 8 LIBRORY OF CONGRESS 013 786 532 4 # great many cannot read and write ; but the masses of mankind, however ignorant, love their country, work for it, fight for it, die for it. They are as true to-day as the inlKjlligent portions of the community. Intelligence alone is not a sufficient security for the per- son that casts the ballot. Lucifer was not wanting in intelligence; he was the brightest of the sons of God, and he rebelled. Jeff. Davis and Breckinridge were not wanting in intelligence, and they committed treason against their country and against mankind. Those things which will govern best in ever 1/ land, are virtue and intelligence; hut there is no plan by tohich you can secure them unless you let every person vote, save those guilty of crime. iShow »ic how you mill get all the virtue and intelligence with- out enibracing all the people, and I will give up my right to vote. Me that loves his coun- try, however ignorant, vnll find out how to vote right. If he makes a mistake to-day he wiU correct it to-morrow. To say that where equality prevails, virtue and intelligence will be less powerful than vice and ignorance, is to say 1 have no faith in God, and to forget that God and the race never die; that He employs men simply to work out His de- signs, consciously or unconsciously, willing or unwilling. It forgets, too, that vice has no power, except it wears the mask of vu-tue. "Hypocrisy is the homage which vice pays to virtue," let us remember. FRUITS OP LIBERTY AND XJXION JN 15u0. What are to be the fruits which peace, born of liberty and justice, shall bear to this land when the year l-OOO dawns upon it, we do not know at large, but only in pert perceive. There then will be in this broad land of ours, according to the progress shown by the census of the past, 100,000,000 of people. Some 7,000,000 of these people will be blacks. This vast population are to occupy this country from the Atlantic shore to the Pacific. They are to be the foremost people on the face of the glol)o, greater in real pop- ulation, greater in wealth, greater in the magnitude and number of their cities, in the number and extent of their farms, and in agricultural im^jroveracnts, in manufactures and commarce ; in all material signs of pro- gress and power than any nation of the past. So much for material progress. But what of the spiritual progress of so great and rich a people, all free, and equal, under laws formed by the spirit of justice, sustained by the con- sent of all ? it would require the inspiration and the tongu« of St. John to draw that pic- ture. This black race which will have grown to 7,000,000, will have relatively decreased ; instead of being in the proportion of four or five millione in 40,000,000, as now, they will have decreased to 7,000,000 in 100,000,000. But a few generations will show that tlie supe- rior capacity of the white race will grow it out as surely as the blue grass under your feet grows out " tlie trefoil clover." All that is needed to ensure this result is peace, liberty and justice,, under a govern- ment administered with economy. Under the operation of these principles, there can be no disfranchised class. The a men engaged in rebellion constitute a class. |. Sooner or later eveiy rebel must have the same privileges under the laws granted to all others. Yes these privileges must be ex- tended even \o those who took part in the rebellion. It should not, cannot be long withheld from them. A HEAVY CONTRACT. The work of putting down the Radical par- ty which, it is said can be done by our join- ing the Democratio party, is a very large con- tract. This Radical party crushed a Radical rebellion— the greatest piece of Radicalism I know anything of — which but for Rad- icalism would have broken up our couut]7, stopped her progi-ess and carried us back again to the ideas of the feudal ages. \Vhile this Radicalism was putting down this rebel- lion, it finished the Capitol, reared its dome to the skies, and placed upon it the statue of Liberty, all golden this day with the beaois of this June sun. When that year 1900 shall dawn, other wings with other domes perhaps still grander, will have been added to accom- modate the Congress of these United States. I believe that future generations, who en- joy these blessings of liberty and equality in that day, will look back with pride upon those who stood by the Government of the United States in these days of trial and chief among soldier braves thej will single out for praise Ulysses S. Grant. Our love toward the whole people, and our faith in the Father of men impels us to the standard of the Union. The ."^ucoess of thejirinciples it represents is not doubtful. They may not triumph to-day, nor in Ken- tucky, but to-morrow and elsewhere, and here at last, they will triumph. Truth has all the years of God to 'fight her battlos. And the battle once begun, "though baflSed oft, is ever won." Though you and I may not live to see the perfect day of liberty and justice, hope and work ; for the one, it is said, is simply faith in God ; and the other, worship. What though ive die, humanity will survive while the earth lasts ; the indi- vidual perishes, but the race is immortal- But in this present contest wo have a cause and a leader hitherto triumphant. We do not doubt but that the banner which Grant now bears will be carried to final victory in November, securing to us and to our pos- terity a tasting peace. PRINTBO AT THE GREAT RKPUBLIC OFFICE, VfASHINGTON, I>, C. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 013 786 532 4% r»<5i3m2ilTC6®