The Jeffersonian., August 10, 1876, Image 1

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aim1, him j U'aanjumji ji muuk.uui miuKwwwnwjui
SJcuoteb to politics, literature, Agriculture, Sticncc, illovnliti), nno (Scucral 3ntelligciicc.
UJJL1 X1
if
VOL. 34.
Published by Theodore Schocli.
Ti-RM-i-Two (l )l'.nM a year In mtvanee -nnl if not
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i'ont will he oh a mod.
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JO IS 1III.TI.G
OF AI.L KINDS,
Executed in the highest stylo of the Art, and on the
most reasonaMo terms.
A DISGUSTED DEMOCRAT.
GEN. TUTTLE LEAVES THE PARTY.
iowa's renowned war democrat can
stand it no longer he fought for
THE UNION AND DOESN'T PROPOSE TO
SEE PRINCIPLES ESTABLISHED BY THE
AVAR OVERTHROWN THE DOINGS OF
THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES HAVE
OPENED HIS EYES.
Perhaps the severest loss which the
Democratic Party has yet suffered in the
West is that of Gen. James 31. Tuttle, of
Iowa, who has abandoned the party un
equivocally, and told in vigorous language
why he ean no longer remain with it. (Jen.
Tin tie was a war Democrat and, as a suc-tv.-ful
officer and strong man of great
popularity he has been the head of the
hwa Democracy for fifteen years, their
candidate for Governor in 18oo, and for
Congress in loO. lie was always stronger
than his part', and has always maintained
the principles for which ho fought. The
recent successes of his party and the doings
of the House of Representatives and the
St. Louis Convention have shown him what
v,;'.iid be the result of Democratic victory
i:i the Priskleiitial canvass. He therefore
repudiates his party and its two-faced ticket.
:w! 1 announces himself a voter and worker
J'r Hayes and Wheeler. This he did in
r- r-ponso to a serenade by the Hayes and
W heeler Club of Des Moines, on Thursday
evening last. We take the leading points
of his p'och from the Iou:i Stdtc Jityisfcr.
The speech was impromptu, but is none
the worse for that, as it breathes through
out with strong clear-cut sentences. Gen.
Tut lie spoke as follows :
Mil. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF
Til;
1 c
Hayes and Wheeled Club: When '
ic:uie
to change my party
1 thought
tait 1 might le allowed to do it quietly.
It was a private act, and required no pub-
T" . 1 . t
lie an;
luncement, and there was no one to
whom I was obii
:;u action. Rut
,(IU tl iV7 liL.t'lllll I'l i I
as n-v course
lias been so
1 - i
a.ieo,
nd 1
Have been
called so severe lv
t account,
porumify t
I may as well embrace this op
j tell both r.iv Democratic and
niv Ju'i'ui.iican melius why t uac i
ii ii- i . i r l
t t
! ' Democracy, and why 1 am here to
:ii
The act of my change was a private one,
but mv reasons for so doing were public
i'.-. Hli'l t.:ie) JJUJ I'V lOi'J.
i i vi .... 1 ,
and shall
vs.
1 am no speaKcr, an
d make no
pp
tensions
of being one. Rut I can talk to
V -I
Viehjl
ihovs. 1 have been considered
;btf'ul by many Democrats for nearly two
rs. Laughter. Indeed, I never have
u a Democrat if the issues on which
v are fighting this year are the princi-
of the part-. Great applause. Rut
rly two years ago the course of duty was
e! pcd much more plainly than it ever
pie:
Ii
.lev
I....-:
tha
Wo!
i oeeii lUore.
t was wrong I
hat I had seen be lore
had continued to 1
ope
il l be found to be mistakes that would
b
uj o.i iC j.
REBEL DEMOCRATS.
Nearly two Years ago I was in St. Louis.
Now. there- is nothing peculiar in simply
i,.!ii!g been at St. Louis. Rut 1 was there
abu iit ISt'.l. Cheers. That was just
ai'ter the first battle of Rail Run, and St.
L
"ins was tliorouginy, wuuiv, insanm
i ii ! i' : ,i ..
reb
It was worth a man's life then
almost to be seen in the Union uniform.
A I'iiion officer about the hotels, where
congregated the noisiest secession elements,
was hooted at and derided, and told, with
sneers. - Yes, you'll go South, and you will
come back, as the Union soldiers have just
come back from Rull Run, with your tails
tucked." Rut, as I remember it, none of
our troops from Iowa even came back in
thit shape. Laughter and applause. That
was the feeling in St. Louis iu 1801, and
thi feeling I found there again, i:i the same
spirit and in the same places, re-expressed
by the very same men, when I was there
in 1-74. "it was then I heard the news
that the Democrats had elected a majority
of the national House, and these same fel
lows who swarmed about the hotels talking
treason and deriding Union soldiers in 1SG1
were exultant and delirious with joy this
last time. I remarked to a gentleman who
had been a comrade with me in the war,
'This looks like the same set of fellows who
were spouting treason here at the begin
ning of the war. What is it that is excit
ing them so. and what ails them? We
a.-ked a squad of them what it was that
uncle ''them feci so good ?" I heard onc
ol'llieui gay "We have got them this time.
We can beat them this time." Wc asked
who they meant by "them ?" They replied,
VvVil elect the next President, and then
we've got them. Then we'll get pay for
all our property destroyed in the war, and
then we'll get pay for our lost slaves. Wc
have the I louse overwhelmingly now, and
ii 1S7C, the Centennial year, wc can get
i he Senate and a Democratic President.
Then we can appoint our committees to
suit ourselves, and choose our own Southern
Claims Committee or Southern Claims
Court, and make good our losses by the
war." They meant that they would get
pay for all the property destroyed by
. uion
Army, and pay for u!l their
meipateu
laves.
THE LX-REBF.L PROGRAMME.
Said one, "Give us jossessiou of the
Government, and the North will be the
rebels next time." This was the talk, and
the talk in earnest as was the talk of the
same men in 1S01. They mean it. They
talked it over coolly and seriously. Said
they had already a united South, which
would be nearly enough, and that their
Democratic allies in the North dare not
deny them the little more, the few
more votes, that they would need. This
is their idea to-day to gain by legislation,
by means of diplomacy and trickery, what
they failed to gain by means of force. I
believe it : I know it. All their expressions
suggest it, and all their actions prove it.
What else do they mean ? Why is it that
the State of 3Iissouri has issued to every
former owner of slaves in that State a
certificate for $1,000 for every slave, pay
able when the General Government will
pay it ? This very thing, the total amount
of the value of their emancipated slaves, is
now estimated as a part of the State debt of
Missouri. I used to think that this was
a Republican falsehood the certificate
matter. Put it is an actual fact, and these
certificates, and all certificates or showings
of losses sustained throughout the State,
are being saved up as carefully as money
against the day when the Democracy, and
the rebel clement ruling it in the national
Government, shall have attained to power.
If Missouri will do this thing, and hold
out this promise to pay for all emancipated
slaves, why will not all the Southern, all
worse rebel States do it, and will not they
uo it :
THE CONFEDERATE HOUSE.
When these things came to my know
ledge I could do no less than halt for
further developments, watching suspiciously
ever' movement made thereafter which 1
could see had a tendency toward drawing
the D emoeraey North and South nearer
together, a union when I could f-ej would
inevitably put the old rebel element at the
heal of and virtually in control of tho party.
ause.j Lvents have culminated
rapidly since then, and I had not long to
wait to see
the wl
iole
programme.
The
light
wemocratie House soon ;
enough. Cheers.
For some time I have
ave me
been ready to
answer the rjucstion, "Have you left the
Democratic Party ? 1 have. Great ap
plause. And 1 am often asked now, "Is
it so ? Will you vote for Hayes and
Wheeler ?" It is so ; and I will work for
them a;
applaus
well as vote for them. Renewed
se.j .iy jK-niocrue menus asx me
tor my reasons, i here arc plenty of them,
and of all of them cannot be told in these
few remarks. And it is not necessary to
tell all. First, let me say that my abandon
ment of Democracy was not caused, as has
been cbarg"d by the press of that party,
because of the currency or tariff questions.
1 have no objection to those planks iu the St.
Louis platform. Rut my reasons are, as I
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 I met an old Democratic
friend one of the Van Ruren County
Democrats, whom Dave Sheward, in his
screed in the paper the other day, said
never had any faith in my Democracy after
I went into the war. (Applause.) Quite
excitedly he wanted to know if it was true,
the report that I had really left the Demo
cratic Party. I answered. "It is a fact."
He asked the reasons for it. 1 told him
they were quite plenty and sufficient, and
as we had pleutv of time I would tell him
some of them. Something of what I have
already stated here was firnt said, and then
I said that the first thing I didn't like in
the Democratic House was the appoiutment
of Fitzhugh, tho Sergeant at Arms of the
Confederate Congress, as the Doorkeeper
of the House, and tho displacement of
Union soldiers many of them crippled in
the war with the cx-members of the rebel
army. (Great applause.) -He wanted to
know if they didn't have a right to do this.
I answered that they had, but that I also
had the right to disapprove and denounce
it. Another thing I didn't like was Ren
Hill's rebel speech and its bold utterance
of treason, and I didn't like the rebel yell
in response to it all over the South, for I
had heard that -cll before, and I knew
what it meant. (Great cheers.) They tell
me the Democrats that I am "scared of
Ren Hill." I don't think I am ; I don't
think I was "scared of" any of the Hills
when I met them in the South ; I do not
remember that I was. (Great cheering.)
Then I told my friend how worse than all
of the many bad and unblushing acts of the
Democratic House, I esteemed as infamous
the act of appointing to the clerkship of the
leading committee of the House the man
Hamblcton, who named his son John
Wilkes Rooth, after the assassin of Presi
dent Lincoln. (Immense cheering.) This
outrageous act, in. truckling to tho rebel
demerit, tho northern Democrats dare not
disown, and for all 1 know, this man is still
clerk of that committee. The little child,
so dishonored by its name and the signifi
cance of it, had the good sense, thank God,
to die. (Applause.)
ben hill's speech.
That speech of Ren Hill's, and the
record that the Democratic Party has
made in regard to it, would have been
enough of itself to send any man who cares
for his country out of all fellowship with
it and the party in whose name and by one
of whose leading members it was made.
Hill in that speech defended Andersonville
and the atrocious treatment of Union
prisoners in the Southern prison hells.
Could I indorse that and still remember
my own comrades who suffered in them
more than death and hell? Can any party
succeed which even tacitly indorses, senti
STROUDSBURG, MONROE
.ttUMMlMI.'ai
ments like these ? Hill also said in that
speech, "We wont out of the Union hug
ging the Constitution, and we came back
into the Union hugging it." What a hug !
(Great laughter.) That was what they
went out for, not to be rebels, but to "hug
the Constitution" of the Union they were
trying so hard to destroy. I have seen
them when they were doing this "hug
ging." (Applause and laughter.) I re
member one morning in April, 18G2, the
first day of the battle of Shiloh, as the
rebel troops came bearing down upon us
that I ascended an elevation to watch them
through a field-glass as they came. It was
a grand sight, as they came in three
columns, with their muskets at "right
shoulder shift" that form in which an
army looks its grandest, and by which it
alwa3s appears to have three times its
actual strength. There was a blaze aud
shine of glory on those advancing columns
that I took to be the lustre and shine of
bayonets in the sun. Rut I judge now,
since Hill's speech, that it was not bayonets
they were bearing, but Constitutions that
they were carrying along and hugging.
(Vociferous cheering.) I saw them doing
a good deal of hugging, these rebels who
were not rebels, but simply "Constitution
buggers." (Renewed cheering.) The boys
who are here before me, who were with
me at Donelson, saw some of it there.
(Laughter, and cries by soldiers, "That's
so." "We saw them at it in a good many
battles.") What patriots they were, doing
so much for "the Constitntiou of our com
mon country !"'
DEMOCRATIC BITTERNESS.
One thing I have now come to which is
painful to speak about, as it is largely a
private matter. So far from being allowed
to leave the Democracy in peace, as I had
hoped and expected, with noise about it,
j you have seen, many of you here, what has
been said and charged against me in the
Democratic press. Rut what ou have
seen is nothing. In the last ten days I
have received scores of letters, the most of
them anonymous, abusing me without stint,
and charging me with all sorts of crimes.
These things, which would annoy any man
who had foiling have simply confirmed me
iu my estimate of many members of the
party I have left, and have simply intensified
in' conviction that my course was and is
right. I can see by these an explanation
of one thing that puzzled me iu the career
of my old comrade in arms, Gen. John A.
Logan. Logan and I were together a
great deal in the fore part of the war, and
we talking things over as fellow Democrats,
and in every respect nearly we agreed.
After the close of the war we met agaiu.
When I had parted from him he was a
Democrat ; then he was a Republican aud
bitterly anti-Democratic. 1 said to him,
'1 can understand vour course in clanging
parties, and I cannot blame you much ; but
what I cannot understand is what makes
you so terribly bitter again t the Demo
crats." He replied, "You will never fully
understand it till you yourself leave the
Democratic Party, which day will surely
come ; but then you will sec it plainly
enough. You will get all sorts of anony
mous, villainous, cowardly letters charging
you with all sorts of crimes and heaping
upon you all sorts of vile abuse."
THE REBEL ABUSE OF THE GENERAL.
1 know the public charges made against
Logan, and know personally what atrocious
lies many of them were, and I could not
conceive that partisan malignity could
any further than it went in the coinage of
them. Rut now 1 do see. In esc letters
have received charge me with being a rob
ber, an incendiary, and a murderer ! These
charges they make to describe my career
and record as a soldier. Can I be blamed,
then, in view of such abuse as this for
departing from my resolved purpose of
privacy, and publicly hurling back upon
their authors all such accusations. When
ever you find one of these men charging
me with these things, scratch his skin, and
you will fiud a rebel. (Tremendous ap
plause.) Let me refer to some of these
charges briefly. I will not be long,
although I find my time is far too short
for telling it all, and I do not want to
weary you. They say I stole cotton and
made money by it. It's a lie. Applause.)
I say it with that word because that is the
word. (Great applause.) I captured but
two lots of Confederate cotton, as it was
called cotton belonging to the Rebel
Government. I turned it over and took
duplicate receipts fur it one of which I
sent to the Secretary of the Treasury,
where it is now, and the other I kept, and
now have it. I never made a cent in cotton,
and never tried to do it. I make short
work of these charges because that is all
there is of it.
THE VICKSBURG SOLDIERS GOLD SPECULA
TION.
They say I speculated in gold while at
the head ot my command. It is a tact
Laughter. The Wall street brokers were
running up the price ot gold, speculatm
on the fast increasing perils of the Repub
lic, saving that Vieksburg could not be
taken, and that therefore the rebellion would
be victorious. They did not scruple thus
to speculate even if it was destroying the
credit of the Government and helping the
Confederates. Wall street and the rebels
were together then, as they are now irn
mense applause and they bet against us
Tlint tiT..o ..II lliorn wua nf it V knew
That was all there was ot it
we could take Vieksburg, and
knew when
it would be taken before. Wall street did
We knew the Mississippi would go down,
so we could land on the rebel side we had
already landed on the other side and knew
that when we did land, on their side there
COUNTY, PA., AUGUST
would be trouble. So in April we organized
together, a number of our officers, and
formed a club, laughter all drew our pay,
and got all the money we could. I put in
this all my money, and everything that I
had, and borrowed every dollar that I could.
We all put in this money, our pay as
soldiers, and made a purse of it, and sent
a man to Wall street to sell gold short at
sellers' option on ninety days, and put up
our money as margins. It was simply a
bet on our part that we could take' Vieks
burg, and that we would do it, and a bet
on Wall street's part that we couldn't and
wouldn't. We staked our lives, too, on
top of the bet. Wc did take Vieksburg.
Great cheering, frequently repeated. The
river went down and we went in. Renewed
cheers. Wc won our bet and Wall street
lost. Langhter. We made money, I
made money, lots of it, and I am glad of it.
It served a good purpose to the Union, too,
as well as to our pockets. It was not known
the day our gold was sold whose it was.
Rut the next morning it was announced in
the New-York pres3 that it was the money
of the Union officers before Vieksburg. their
bet virtually that they would take Vieks
burg. In twenty-four hours gold went
down fifteen cents. Cheers. Some of the
noble men who foil iu the capture of Vieks
burg were in "the club." and their families
to-day arc saved from poverty by the profit
of this soldiers' bet with Wall street. Sub
bucd applause. You may call it a bet,
and morally wrong, if you choose. I am
willing to accept the responsibility of it as
it is. Applause. So I did speculate in
gold while I was actually at the head of my
division, and that one charge is true.
Laughter.
THE BURNING OF RICH REBEL HOUSES.
Another charge is that I am a house
burner. The news that I have left the
Democratic Party seems to have got awav
uown in tne old rebel country, and some
oue down on the Lower Mississippi writes
to a St. Louis paper, wondering if I am
the Gen. Tuttle whose troops, on the march
rom Miiliken s Rend to Grand Gull, burned
so many line houses on .Lake ot. Joseph,
among them the finest residence in all the
Southern country, that of Col. Rowie, the
inventor of the famous Rowie knife. I am
the man, much laughter and applause the
same Gen. Tuttle who with his boys went
along there. Nearly all the houses were
burned before my command came up. The
Rowie mansion was not. I was in it. It
was the grandest house I ever saw, or read
about. This house and furniture are said
to have cost $500,000. The upholstering
was grand beyond all description. I found
a number of Union soldiers in the house,
belonging to Steele s division, which was
just ahead of mine. They were lounging
around in their muddy boots, enjoying the
luxuries. I sent them on to their com
mand, and passed on with the head of my
division. Mv command was probably five
miles long the road. After about half of
the division had passed, and I was about
two or three miles away, I looked back, at
tracted by an immense blaze, and the Rowie
house was gone.
I suppose it was burned by the some of
my boys. I do not doubt it. Some ot my
soldiers of Iowa regiments, foo were just
out of a rebel prison, with all of its tor
tures fresh in their minds and this was
their first march. They remembered well,
and they probably know something about
it. Our orders were all against burning
the houses. I suppose we could have pre
vented their burning if we had made it a
specialty. (Laughter.) Rut we had an
other specialty on hand just then. Re
newed laughter. I his is my record a3 a
house-burner.
THE STEALING WOOD CHARGE.
They charge me, too, with stealing wood,
and name the amount twenty cords. The
amount is rig;ht. I Great laughter. I 1 got
the wood. Renewed laughter. Philo,
there, (pointing to Mr. Case, the drummer
of the martial band present, sitting at one
side, and who was drummer of Company
D, of the Second Iowa,) knows about that.
Also 31 r. Moore, sitting there, (pointing
to Mr. W. S. Moore, of the Second,) knows
about it too, aud was there. Roth of you
helped load the wood, helped me steal it
r 31 r. Case That a so, General. Ihe oe
eond Iowa can swear to that. I Ihe cir
t .
cumstances were these :
I was ordered to take my regiment and
proceed to Paduean and join a fleet going
up the Tennessee River, to take l-ort
Henry. At Cairo I learned that Fort Henry
was taken. My orders were changed to pro
ceed to Smithland and join the fleet going
up the Cumberland River to Fort Donelson.
The officers of the steam-boat that I was on
with mv regiment were bitter rebels, and
sought opportunity to delay us, fco that we
couldn't reach there iu time. When we
arrived at Smithland the fleet had been
gone six hours. The Captain of the boat
said he had no Cumberland River pilot, aud
couldn't go up that river. I forced him to
go at the point of the bayonet, and placed
a file of soldiers in front of the pilot-house,
with order not to allow the Captain and
pilot to live a minute if any accident hap
pened to the boat. (Cheers. Capt. 3iills,
of Des Moines, afterward, Colonel, was ol-
tieer of the day, and had charge of the
snuad, and all who knew that noble man
and heroic soldier know that he would have
performed his duty. Rut we had not been
"oine: long till one of my soldiers, who was
an old bteam-boat man, told me that the
f 'a nt ain was nlavinsr it on me." that there
wasn't half a cord of wood on the boat
altogether, and that the purpose was to
run out of wood at some point beyond the
10, 187G.
reach cf fuel, and so prevent our
getting
to 1 ort Donelson.
I began to watch for wood. Laughter.
Soon 1 saw some this same twenty cords.
ordered the Captain to land the boat for
the wood. He protested that he didn't
need it that he had plenty of it. I told
nm that he could pull ashore or pull hemp.
Laughter. He landed the boat. Cheers.
A fussy old rebel was on the spot, the
owner ot the wood. Ihe Captain asked
urn if he would sell it with a rebel wink.
The owner, of course, said no. I said we
would take it without making a bargain.
He said wc couldn't take it. I replied pcr-
uips we couldn't, but we wound try.
Laughter. We tried, and every man in
the regiment, officers and all, were soon
oudmg wood, and it was on the boat speed
ily. Yes, every soldier in the lot helped
me to do that stealing. Laughter. J he
owner wauted to know, as we were leaving,
who was going to pa him for the wood. I
told him that I didn't know, and that all 1
knew was that we were bound for Fort
)onclsoii, and no rebels were going to stop
us oil the trip if wc could help it. That
is the storv of the wood. "Cheers. I doii't
know exactly how much I stole. I didn't
ask the juice and didn't pay for it. This
is the robber that I was then. Rut we
lid get to Fort Donelson, and some of you
lave heard of the fun that the Second Iowa
tad there with that lot of Ren Hill's "Con-
stitution-huggcrs."
THE SECOND IOWA Sj FIRST REBEL FLAG.
They say I am a murderer. Well, I'll
tell you about that. Some anonymous
coward has sent me an extract from a pa-
rcr in 3Iissouri name of the paper not
given, but the piece cut out charging me
with having murdered a man m Stewart.
3Io., ami with shooting men after they had
surrendered. As to the first, that was an
incident of our trip as we first went to the
front. Ihe town was on the Hannibal and
St. Joseph Road. The Second Iowa was
the first Union regiment that made the
trip along the whole length of that line.
Others had gone part of the war, but the
Second made the whole trip, and were the
irst Union troops that the rebels down
there had seen. As we came un to this
ittle town a rebel flag was streaming from
a pole in a door-yard. It was the first rag
of the Confederacy my boys had seen, aud
they said it must come down. Cheers.
I anticipated no trouble, but after the boys
went up there I heard some shots, and then
I went up. A young rebel had heard ot
our coming to the town, and had raised the
flag, as a defiance and a menace, and said it
should float if he had to protect it with his
lie. He got a enance. He said, with his
revolver drawn, as the boys came up, that
the first man who laid hands on that flag
ie would shoot dead. The bos proceeded
to take the thing down and he got killed.
How he was killed I don't know exactly.
Philo, there, pointing to 3Ir. Case again,
sitting near by, holding the same old drum
that he drummed through the war, can
tell you more about that than I can.
31r. Case Ihe fellow said he would
shoot the first man who dared even to touch
the flag or the staff, and the boys went for
it. He tried to shoot, snapping his revol
ver twice. He didn't get a chance to snap
it again. His flag came down, and so did
he, Cheers.
The General H ell, that s the story ol
it. I didn t see that part ot it. 1 saw tho
flag after it was down, though, and saw the
foolish young rebel lying there dead. That's
all I know about it, and perhaps I am re
sponsible. II so, I have nothing to take
back. Our business down there was to put
down the rebel colors, and of course wc
commenced as soon as we saw where the
work commenced. Cheers. The boys, in
taking down the rebel's flag, had to shoot
the rebel to do it, and to 'save their own
lives in doing it ; and so I am charged with
murdering him.
In having done my duty as a soldier, in
my humble and yet earnest and well-mean-
iug way, I am now called, after I have left
the Democratic Party, a robber, a burner
of houses, a murderer justas Gen. Logan,
honest, noble, true-hearted, and patriotic,
was so stigmatized after he had left the
same party. Do you wonder, gentlemen,
that I have been stung into making publicly
the remarks that 1 have here 1 have no
abuse to make of any one. I call no one
by name. I state simply the general facts,
that others may see as well as myseli that
the war and the hate of Union soldiers did
not die, as the St. Louis platform says,
eleven years ago.
THE ST. LOUIS CONVENTION.
That convention did not look as though
treason was an odious thing, nor that re
bels were any the less to be honored than
patriots. That gathering proved
what the Democratic House had already
proved, that the old rebel clement is run
ning the Democratic Party, and that its
whole hone of success is staked on their
solid support. They were all there at St.
Louis, and were the lions ol the day, cs
pecially honored and cheered by the con-
vent ion, and honored and lionized by the
same gangs of rebels who were spouting
treason and abusing soldiers there in lbbl,
as we were going to the front, and who
were talking the same treason when I was
there two years ago. Applause. Why is
it that the mountain of Tildcn has so re
vived and rein-spired the old rebel clement?
hy so much more so than the candidacy
of Greeley four years ago, when there was
some hope of a new party and the death
for trood of the old Democracy ? You can
answer as well as we'd a3 I can. I look
like they knew their man. Applause.
The alarming demonstrations daily develop
io.
ing iu the South would look like it. I see
that the Leader interviewed my old friend
Peter Myers, now living in Missouri, to-day,-and
that Peter s:n-s that the stories of rais
ing the rebel flag in Missouri are untrue.
I hope they are. Rut the reports seem to'
be well authenticated, and I fear some of
them are too true.
For the people to do these things" would
be bad, but not so bad, we must remember,
as Mas the rebel speech of Ron. Dill in Con
gress, so hearlly cheered by hisJ Democra
tic colleagues, and so wildly applauded in
the South. That speech, let me refer to
again a moment. The Democrats and
Democratic press now say they do not iii
dirse this speech. Rut they cheered it
when it was made in the House, and tho
South cheered it, and their denunication of
it now is not so much denunciation of the'
spirit of it as of his imprudence in making
it.
GOOD BYE DEMOCRACY.
Vnd now, in conclusion, as to the reason'
wliy 1
have not left the Democratic Party
sooner, iney say 1 wan t ohiee. aud that
have wanted office. If I had, gentleman.
I would have left the Democratic Party'
years ago, for it is a matter of record that
have said for years that there was never"
my hope of the Democrats carrying Iowa.
If I had been an office seeker. I should
lave left the old party long ago. I am not
a candidate for office, and never will be. I
uive no aspirations for prominence in poli
tics, and I do not see, why, when as a pri
vate citizen I have tried to change my party'
quietly, all this abuse should be heaped up
on me.. I can stand it, though, and it in
nowise changes my conviction as to my'
duty, o..ly to intensity and confirm it. Ap-
plause
i
J'
I feel in earnest now as I did during the
war. L iieers. 1 have no retreat to make.-
Renewed cheers.) The reason I have left
ti
ie Democratic Party is that I have no-
faith in it, (cheers.) and no faith in the old
rebel clement who I have long feared would
come to the front, aud who I now know'
and see have come, and whose coming has'
made my way clear and my course of duty
plain. (Great applause.) Seeing these'
men again 1 1 t'io head of tl e part, and
seeing the defiance of the men who last held
office in the National Government under'
the Democratic Party, makes things plain
l k .11. T-v . r
enough. Among tne last uemoeratic ot-
ieers of any note were Floj'd and Jake
Thompson, the Democratic Secretary of
War and Secretary of the Interior. They
tole from the Government they were sworn?
to serve to help the rebellion raised to de
stroy it, and beside their crimes and their'
corruptions all that is charged against the'
Republican officials, admit it all to be true'
even, sinks into in significance.
Why, old Jake Thompson, encouraged-
by the defiance of Ren Hill xliis speech,
went down to W ashington a lew months
ago, and like a braggart demanded investi
gation that he would waive the legal point
of time. He went down there blowing,
and got sued for the mono that he stole
for the rebels. (Great cheering.) If old
Floyd were alive, he too, probably would
go down there, under the protection of the
rebel shadow of Ren Hill, and demand in
vestigation. (Laughter.) Rut like the
child covered with the curse of the crime
against Abraham Lincoln, he also had the'
good sense to die. He was at Fort Donel
son with the other "Constitution-huggers,"
but he skipped out early, so as to be safe.
f he had stood his ground like a brave
man, he would probably have had the good
fortune to die earlier. (Laughter.) Rut
he lit out. He could steal for the Con
federacy, but he wasn't willing to die for it.
(Laughter.)
It is Ids fault, gentlemen, and not mine,
that his memory is not to be spoken of witlr
more respect. This Thompson and this
Floyd were the last of the Democratic,
rulers, and they, represented the domination
of the South in the Democracy then. And
Thompson and his friends, and the friends-,
of Floyd, arc again pressing to the frout
to assume party control. As they
have come as leaders, I haw asked and
taken the privilege of leaving the Demo
cratic ranks. (Cheers.) This, follow citi
zens, is why I am here to-night. (Renewed
cheers.)
Finally,-gentlemen, I would say keep ts
solid front and we'll beat them. (Cheers.)
I hope and think we will. I am with you,
and with you in earnest. (Great cheer
ing.) Close up for the fight. They mean5
business, and we must. (Applause.) It
is something of the old fight, only it is to
be fought at the ballot-box instead of on
the battlefield. Renewed applause, fre
quently repeated.)
I thank you, gentlemen, for having heard
me so patiently. I have not tried to make
a speech ; I am not a speaker. I have tried
simply to tell you, my neighbors, why I
have changed parties, and at the same time
to make brief answer to a few of the many
mad and venomous charges which have
been made against me because of my act.
The State Iteyixter adds : At the con
clusion of the General's speech the audience
rose to its feet with three theers for him
and his speech, and the martial band, hav
ing in it the band of old Second Iowa, with
the same old drums, played 'Hail to the
Chief ' with an unction that fairly electrified
tho audiouce and brought back to tho old
soldiers present the vivid memories of tho
days when they were at the frout, led by
this same band. It was a scene of his his
tory, and the only regret expressed was a
deep regret that it had not been announced
beforehand that the General would speak,
so that the crowd to hear h'nn could havo
been 5,000 instead of 500.
t a.
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J
ir