Newspaper Page Text
I*o, Mr. Seomour grew weary of law and
Tuiht privacy and retirement a few al
raMons and repairs rendered the place
. iViy i;:.posing"and sufficiently accommo
'i * t j n g for his own wants and those of his
1 >mily. A fine grove of ancient trees
Surrounds the house, affording an inviting
.bade, while walks and drives are abundant,
without materially encroaching upon the
usefulness of the soil. The house is fur
ii-hed in keeping with its own outward ap-
, M “ t ranee, its surroundings, and the well
f'; tastes and character of its occupants.
K \uair of refined comfort pervades the
whole. From the verandah a view is ob
’ aned well worth a long journey to enjoy,
fiown the green slope and across the rich
meadows of the Mohawk valley, all cov
, dat this time with toiling farmers hast
ening to secure the over abundant crop of
hay,"taking in the entire city of Utica and
Jj its surroundings, stretching far away up
or down the Mohawk, the view is finally
] os t in the blue distance, far up the pic
turesque Chenango valley, the opening to
which is directly opposite.
At the time of my visit, this very anx
ois aspirant for Presidential honors was
engaged in superintending his laborers in
- curing the hay crop. I apologized for
the inopportuneness of my call, and re%
marked that 1 supposed him to be a coun
ty gentleman of leisure. He simply
Failed, told the men not to cut any more
_r:ass, but haul in what they had down,
and invited me into the house I made
-ome essay at my business, but he insisted
on my telling him the nows. Like all reg
ular journalists [ protested that I knew
nothing later than appeared in the Utica
m iming papers. “Well, those are the
only papers £ get here,” he replied, “and
those don t reach me till eveniag.” I told
him ail the news I could remember, and
romaked on the enthusiasm with which
his nomination had been received. To
this he replied tint he didn’t see how
people could get up enthusiasm in such
hot weather as this. He thought they
had better postpone politics until it got
cooler. Talking of the heat, I suggested
that the heated term commenced with the
meeting of the Convention. “Yes,” he
said, “and but for that I wouldn’t have
been in this unfortunate predicament. I
went to the Convention on purpose to
prevent my being the candidate. I fought
steadily against it until t' e midnight be
fore I was nominated, and again, fifteen
minutes before my name was presented, I
protested most emphatically against its
use. When they did present it, the excite
ment and the heat and all together com
pletely upset me. Had I been as cool as
lam now, I should have declined. I had
planned out a little trip abroad for myself,
but this affair has changed all my pro
gramme. and unsettled all my plans of
life. I didn’t want the office* j I wanted
Chase nominated.”
“Could Mr. Chase have been nominat
ed? Tasked,”
“l thought so then,” “but I have since
learned zo my satifaction, that had my
name not been sprung as it was, Mr.
Hendricks would have been nominated in
two or three more ballots.”
After some more general conversation,
in which I didn’t secure a promise of that
postoffice, because I didn’t ask for it, I
took my leave. Morris.
-'
THE ATLANTA MASS MEETING.
SPEECH OF HO"/. B. H. HILL.
IiSPRTED FOH THE CHEONICLE & SENTINEL.
When General Cobb had concluded his
address, several bands of music struck up
various popular airs, in different parts of
the arbor, improvised for the accommoda
tion of the audience.
The Hon. B. IT. Hill then came forward
and said: Mr. President and fellow-citi
zens—l especially request entire quiet
while I attempt to address you to-day. In
addition to the fact that I have to fullow
two gentlemen who have no superiors on
this continent, I am, unfortunately, labor
ing under considerable physical disability,
the extent of which is not even known to
myself.
I greet you to-day, my countrymen,
with a joy and gladness that no language
can express.
One year ago I came, in my humble way,
to this same city, to speak to the people
what I believe to be words of truth and
soberness. There has been quite a change
since then. On that occasion I met, in a
quiet, retired room, some half dozen gen
tlemen, who had made up their minds to
brave the storm that was coming upon us
at all hazards. That little band of half a
dozen in that private room has swelled to
day to thousands of freemen, in the open
air of this once more to be redeemed coun
try. T must confess that the history of the
past year is one to me lull of cheer and
rejoicing. I may differ with most of
you, but I feci that during the past
twelve months the white race of the
Southern States lias done more to
manifest heroism, endurance and cour
age than any other people had ever mani
fested on a hundred battle-fields. [Cheers.]
it is not uncommon for a people to lose
their property; it is nothing new in the
history of nations for a people to be defeat
ed iii battle, it is not even altogether new
unfortunately, that a people should lose
their cities and bury their dead, that they
should be cowed in their spirits, and should
be made almost hopeless of the future.
But there is something else which is pos
sessed by every people far more valuable
than property, far more to be desired than
cities, Jar more to be coveted than the vic
tories of war, and that thing you still pos
sess. notwithstanding your enemies sought
to destroy it—l mean your honor as a
people. There were two propositions
made to you, which I would briefly state,
so that you can see clearly what 1 mean:
The first proposition which afteeted your
honor was, that a Congress in which you
were not represented—a band offbreigners,
not one of whom has ever lived or expects
to live upon your soil—nay, men who have
avowed that they hate you, claimed the
right to destroy the government you had
formed, and to dictate to you »fop. formation
of anew government.
This was done, too, right in the teeth of
the Declaration of Independence, which
says that all government derives its au
thority from the consent of the governed.
You are asked to forfeit your honor be
cause a band of foreigners—men among
whom you had no representatives— 1
among whom you were denied representa- j
tion who confess their hate of you— J
these men claimed the right to destroy
the government which you had formed,
and to dictate the formation of another in
its stead. None but slaves would have ac
ceded to such a demand, and none could
have been other than slaves who would
consent to it.
The second reason why your honor, as a
people, was so seriously involved, is this :
That in the formation of the new govern
ment which this foreign power dictated it
was prescribed, as a necessary condition,
that the intelligent and virtuous of your
people—those whom you had ail your life
deemed worthy of the highest trust— i
should be forbidden to participate, while
those who had been your slaves should
be at liberty, without discrimination, to
participate. You were to form a Govern
ment, under the dictation and by
the direction of a foreign power,
and you, in the formation of the govern
ment, were to be deprived of the services
of the intelligence and virtue of your
country, simply because you had trusted
them, and you had to submit to the gov
ernment being formed by those who had
recently been your slaves, ignorant and de
based as they were. Yfou will remember
now that these are the reasons why your
honor was involved. The base Congress—
the unprecedentedly traitorous Congress
who got their own consent thus to attempt,
in the day of their power, to dishonor an
unarmed people—this Congress, I say,
had a vague, lingering suspicion of the
dishonor of their scheme, and therefore
provided a plan by which the infamy
should seem to spring from your own con
sent. Well, I confess truly, that when I
looked at the picture; when I saw the is
sue and remembered that no people had
ever grown great who suffered their honor
to be sullied—no people had recovered
from misfortune who had yielded their
honor to the enemy—when I remembered
all these things arid saw the condition of
our people, saw all the dangers that sur
rounded them and the power that dictated
these terms, Oh God, thou and thou only,
knowest the anxiety of my spirit! When
the smoke of our burning cities went up to
heaven, and our brave men fell in battle I
was grieved exceedingly; but when a
whole people—millions of freemen—
were asked —-ordered—-commanded by
power to sacrifice their honor at the
bidding of hate, and there were found those
who whispered that the sacrifice would be
made, my heart did sink within me ; and
when I remember now the means and ap
pliances brought to bear to compel you to
yield, I do rejoice in knowing that you
refused [cheers]. I have had only one point
to accomplish in this struggle ; some have
troubled themselves about offices, others
about votes, others yet about carrying the
election against the convention and still
others about the defeat of the constitution.
For all of this I care nothing; the great
and only point which I had ever felt to be
of serious consequence in this struggle was
to induce and persuade the white people of
the South never to consent to this infamy.
I knew that elections would be declared
successful; I knew that, right or wrong,
they would say that the elections were
carried. They came for that purpose.
That was not the point with me. 1 wanted
your women and children to see; 1 wanted
posterity to know ; I wanted a record made
so that it could be read by all men, now
and forever, that the white people of the
South refused to give their consent to this
iniquity. [Cheers. ] That is why I wrote
and spoke ; that is why I despised the in
famous and defied the powerful. Still, fel
low citizens, it was a time to fear. If I
doubted and trembled on that occasion
do not blame me; if I feared you would not
be equal to the great crisis, don't chide me.
Remember the powerful influence brought
to bear. The claimed to be all
powerful, and they avowed their purpose
of carrying out this infamy, and if you did
not accept it, of making you accept a worse.
First of all these in casing out that plan,
they sent the military here ; they sent an
army of bayonets to make war upon a
helpless people as another means of ac
complishing this infamy and securing the
form of your consent ; they came to some
of your own public men—natives of Geor
gia and of the South —men whom you
had honored of old, and they bought them
upas co-adjutorsin the work. [Cries of Joe
Brown.] No, I don’t allude to that man. I
tell you, my friends, his name forms a sub
ject that is becoming too vulgar for refer
ence in decent company. [Cheers and langh
ter, and cries of “that so.”] I speak of a
class, and I affirm fearlessly, and I want
the people of the country to know it, that
there was not a single Southern public
man who advocated the acceptance of this
Reconstruction scheme who was not
bought, and bought with a price by your
enemies. [Cheers]. The price has partially
been paid, and you are to pay the balance.
[Laughter.] What arguments did they
use ? Did they appeal to your pride,
your honor or your interests?
Not at all. They came among you and
travelled from the seaboard to the moun
tains, and they told an impoverished people
“If you don’t accept this infamy the little
property that you have left shall be confis
cated, and every man of you shall be
disfranchised !’.’ Congress, claiming to be
all-powerful, installed an army in your
midst, and found citizens ready and willing
to urge, to persuade, to intimidate and to
threaten a starving and almost helpless
people.
Oh, my countrymen, proud as I know
Southern blood to be, don’t chide me if, in
this dark hour, I felt uneasy. I confess
that I did. I watched the first election —
the election for the Convention—with in
tense interest. I happened to be in New
York city when the first election in the
South came off, and I shall never forget
how my hopes were lifted and my desires
fulfilled ou receipt of the first telegram
from the South, giving, as one of the facts
connected with the first day of the election,
that the whites refused to have anything to
do with it. I waited anxiously for the
second day, thinking that perhaps the
“superior race” had crowded in, and the
whites were, on that account, unable to
get to the polls. [Laughter.] The second
day came, and brought the news that the
whites had, almost to a man, remained
away from the polls—only a few
carpet-baggers and office-seekers
voting, thus the elections went on to the
last. I tell you, fellow-citizens, I moved
among the inhabitants of the great com
mercial metropolis prouder that day than
ever before. I shall never forget meeting
some of the prominent men of that city,
one of whom said to me, “We had been
taught to believe that the people of the
South would endorse this measure, and
they have had nothing to do with it. Why,
added he, “your people are more honorable
than we gave them credit for.” Well, the
power with the bayonet said that a Con
vention was ordered. All knew, however,
that it was ordered by negroes not by
whites—though,in truth, nobody did order
it but the bayonet and certain scoundrels.
The negroes never ordered it. I exonerate
the negroes. ]. Laughter.] I affirm to day
another great fact, which I want to be re
membered, and which, whenever the occa
sion may demand,! stand prepared to sup
port : The Convention in Georgia was
defeated by thirty thousand votes' [Wild
cheering.] Ah, my friends, there is noth
ing like it in history ! You were poor,
you were betrayed, tempted, threatened —
you were told that every man that did’nt
vote for the Convention, must have his
little remaing property confiscated, besides
being disfranchised, and that the list of
voters was to be used to ascertain who you
were.
Miserable threat! Proud people—noble
people ! The verdict you gave was that,
though many of our gallant spirits were
sleeping under the sod, there wa3 heroism
still left the South. [Enthusiastic
cheers. 1 Well, the false convention as
sembled and a thing called a constitution
was framed. It had to be ratified, and a
Governor and officers hud to be chosen, and
what was the appeal then ? Os course, if
the Southern white people approved the
constitution, this dishonor was complete.
They had exhausted appeals to your fears
—you could not be frightened from your
honor —and the next thing was to buy you
up. So they put in the new Constitution
something called relief. The few men in
the South (who, unfortunately, were South
ern men from accident or other cause)
who had sold themselves to engage in this
work, being entirely conscious that they
were bought up for the purpose, thought,
of course, that the same means would
answer for the balance of the people. They,
therefore, sought to buy you, and they
promised you relief. I came here to this
very city and I took occasion to notify you
that this promise was put in the new Con
stitution for no other purpose than to cheat
you, and that the rogues and hyprocrites
who put it in, did so with the distinct
knowledge that it would be stricken out
after the election. They used it well. They
bid high. The question was this: how
many men in (ieorgia are willing to confess
themselves no better than negroes if they
could thereby get rid of their debts ? how
many ot you would be willing to be ne
groes, if by being negroes you could
be excused from paying your debts? Well,
I came to this city in March to inaugurate
the fight on that question, and some of
you, my friends, were weak-kneed. You
didn’t do right. A good many of you came
to me then and said, “Don't you say any
thing against the Constitution; everybody
is going to vote for it, everybody was going
to be sold.” It was a great wound to
inflict upon _ me. I was struggling for
nothing on this earth but to preserve the
honor of the people of Georgia, and, know
ing that they could not be frightened, I
hoped they could not be bought. We
made the fight and let the whole world
know it, the white people of Georgia, by
an overwhelming majority, refused to be
bought.
Some few men, I apprehend, are about
in the category of the poor negroes who
voted for a Convention to get “forty acres
and a mule.” Ah, you poor victims of a
wily hypocricy; of men to whom God gave
a white skin by mistake. [Laughter.]
You who went upon the public block, be
fore your countrymen and the world, and
publicly proclaimed that you were willing
to be a negro, if, by being a negro, you
could be excused from paying your debts,
how do you feel to day, after agreeing to
be a’negro and having to pay your debts,
too ? I Laughter. ]
My friends, General Cobb made a re
quest of the military; I shan’t make
any—never intended to; but I ad
visc you, poor fellows, to make one
The only evidence of how you voted is in
the possession of the military. Go then be
fore they leave and ask them to burn up
the record. The great majority of the
white people spurned the bribe and de
spised the bribers, and let it be forever re
membered, to your pride and honor, that
the people of Georgia, under the threat of
the bayonet, with the temptations of
treachery all round and in the very ashes
of their poverty, have said to all mankind:
“We can neither be frightened nor bought
from our honor.” [Great Cheering.]
I have said" the Military declared a
Convention had been ordered, when there
was thirty thousand majority against it.
They also declared that Gordon was de
feated, and that the Radical party had
succeeded, when, in truth, Gordon was
elected by nearly ten thousand votes.
[Tremendous Cheers.] I say that it is so,
counting the correctly registered voters
and correcting the frauds of the ballot. I
repeat, counting the honest registered
voters, I say that this Express agent was
largely, defeated tor Governor, and he
knows it, and they know it.
VVe won two victories, and we won them
against the bayonet, against force, against
fraud, against treachery and against the
negroes. The white people of this country
are not going to consent to this thing; they
never have and never will. If the Radicals
have been unable thus far to get the consent
of the white people to this scheme of infamy
will they be able to do it hereafter? How
can they? They have appealed to your
fears and your avarice and taken advantage
of your poverty, but they have been disap
pointed ; they have failed in their schemes
and I tell you that there is no argument or
appliance which they can use in the future
more powerful than these they have used
in the past. Any people who can with
stand such appliances offeree and pressure
as have been brought to bear upon you
within the past twelve months, can never
be seduced or driven from their honor.
lam proud of Georgia, and I pray that
when God takes me hence my bones may
be laid in her honored old soil. [A voice,
“you’ll go to Heaven.'’ 1
My friends, I wish to pass now to another
subject. The issue has some what changed. I
have told you what the is-ue has been the
last twelve months, and I wish to state here,
in a few words, the main points in
issue now. Some who consented to be
bought for the purpose of inducing the
people of the South to accept this infamy
offered this excuse: They said they were
not going to be Radicals, they were not
going to consent to negro government, but
they said “let us seem to go into this thing,
let us get back into the Union, and then
we’ll turn it all over, and do as we please.”
That was an argument based upon treach
ery. They had betrayed you, and they
were Justifying their treachery to you by
proving that they were going to betray the
Radicals. That suggestion deceived a
great many people for a time. For myself,
I had nothing to do with it, because I could
not consent to join traitors. I don’t be
lieve in treachery—no people ever saved
themselves by it. Where the honor of a
people is involved they cannot swerve from
principle for the sake of policy. The only
line of honor is a direct one. But what is
the result ? Those manipulators at Wash
ington who bought these Southern
men had more sense than the men they
bought. They were not going to be caught
in any such trap as that, aud in
this respect my prophecy has turned out
to be correct. The issue now, then, is this :
Shall this infamy which has been thrust
upon the people of Georgia and of the
other Southern States, be valid and per
petual? That is the first point to which I
wish to direct your attention. In order
that it may be perpetual, the Chicago
platform says that the rights of the Norta
ern States to regulate the franchise and to
change and modify their own Constitutions
shall not be infringed, but the Southern
people shall not have the right to change
their Constitutions at will. Now, if any
thing in American history never was dis
puted Defore it is this, that the States were
members of the Union on an equal footing;
and there is no man, from George Wash
ington down, whether high or low, wise or
simple, black or white, who ever had any
idea that the Union formed by the States
was a Union of unequal States; it was al
ways admitted that the States were equal
and each retained control of the franchise.
I state a mere fact and history; since the
acknowledgement of our independence we
have added twenty-four new States to the
Union, and in every act admitting a State
as a member of this Union, it is distinctly
stated that she is admitted on an equal
footing with all the other States. But
this Chicago Convention, with the Georgia
Radicals in it, for the first time in Ameri
can his" ory makes the declaration that the
Union shall be a Union o ?unequal States.
L want you all to remember that point. It
is the great aim of the Radicals. Where
are you now, my good Union-men? You
that wanted to get back into the Union
and were willing to sacrifice everything for
the accomplishment of that object; you
that congratulated the country upon being
again “in the Union?” [A voice “none.”]
It is a Uuion in which the Southern States
are vassals and the Northern States rulers.
I want you to hear it and to remember it.
That is mere sheer naked disunion in the
most odious and traitorous form in which
the word was ever spoken. [GreatCheers.]
It cuts the femoral artery —it is a stab to
the very heart and destroys the Union of
equal States which our fathers formed.
I read with shame and mortification—(l
knew the poor fellow did not know much.)
I read, I say, in the papers that this stupid
Express Agent, in the presence and under
the protection of force and treachery, went
yesterday, through the farce of being in
augurated a miserable sham Governor of
Georgia. Why. every word he uttered
.shows he does not, this day, know the
difference between a restored Union of
equal States and a constructed neio Union
ot unequal States. Take that fact down :
pencil it carefully and take it to your
hearts. It I ea n teach you to take home
with you that single sentence, you will not
have come nere to-day in vain. There
was,u j the history of any people, such
a boM, plan, palpable, universally admit
ted cause ot war as that simple statement
m that Chicago platform.
‘ 3 not aIL You - yentle
men, who think you are members ofa Legis
lature poor, deluded souls, how 1 pity you!
- you who come here and go through the
form of passing laws, I want you to hear
one thing. Not only is that doctrine of
unequal States in the Chicago platform,
but it is in what you call your Omnibus
Admission Bill. That bill prescribes the
manner in which you shall go back, and
every one of you who voted the other day
to get back, as you say, into the Union,
agreed to the doctrine that Georgia shall
never have the right to do what Ohio can
do; that the Southern States shall never
have the right to do what the Northern
States can do. You agreed to remain for
ever an unequal member of the Union.
You agreed that you would get back into
the Union by consenting that Georgia
shall never have the power to modify or to
change her own State constitution, as to
her own domestic affairs according to her
own will and pleasure. [A voice, “They
didn’t know any better.”] Ah, you rene
gades—you rogues—who tried to steal your
neighbors’ property and could not do it
Ah, ye men that adopted the Recon
struction measures for the purpose of
getting hack into the Union and then
catching the Radicals by changing the
Constitution afterward. Are you not
caught caught by Thad. Stevens—
caught by Charles Sumner ? I don’t know
but one thing that is worse, and that is
agreeing to be a negro, to get rid of your
debts, and then after becoming a negro
having your debts to pay. [Cheers, with
cries of “good.”]
Remember, oh, my countrywomen—
mothers, teach it to your children as you
rock them in their cradles and in the nur
sery ditties, by which you send them to
sleep—tell them that men—white men
Georgians—some of them “to the manor
born”—have come upon this classical old
hill, and have deliberately put upon record
their solemn consent that the proud old
State of Georgia goes back into the Union
on the express condition that she shall
never be equal to other States. Oh, you
renegades from everything that can make
you hope for even a chance of being gen
tlemen. You have buried the sovereignty
of your State; you have sullied the char
acter of your ancestors and agreed to make
vassals of your, children. You have agreed
to wear a Radical yoke in order to vote
yourselves eight dollars a day f r a few hot
days in summer. [Cheer* J That is the
Luion we have—a Union of unequal States.
Ye cowardly, base, disunion ists of the vilest
type, you disgrace humanity by calling
honest men rebels! That is not all. l r ou
have not only agreed to inequality, but vou
have also agreed to what is called the
equality of races; that is, you have agreed
to equality among the races as a condition
of getting back into the Union, and you
have agreed that that shall never be
changed, but you are so given to lying that
you could not tell the truth even when you
thought it was to your interest to do it.
[Laughter.]
You say in your record that you have
agreed to an equality of the races when
you know, you vile hypocrites,that the ver
agreement you make includes the disfran
chisement of the intelligent, virtuous and
educated, and wealthy white men, and
that they shall not be allowed to hold
office in this country, or while any scalawag
or negro may. Is that equality ? [Several
cries of “no. ] If a negro has a right to
vote and hold office why not these men
whom you have always trusted ? Oh,
you whited sepulchres—ye who are de
grading the poor negro by your example
of fraud and treachery. Ye vile renegade
from every law of God and every right of
humanity, you are deceiving the unfortu
nate negro to his ruin. [A voice “that’s
what’s the matter.”] If the negroes ever
get a permanent right to vote in this
country it must be by the emsent of the
people that live here- If the negroes,
when this infamous proposition wa* made
to them by more infamous white men to
disfranchise the white people, had come
out and said publicly and openly, “We
are willing to accept the franchise; if there
is any benefit in political equality we want
it, but we will never consent to disfranchise
the intelligent white men of this country.
If the negroes had come out and said that
they would have furnished an evidence
that they were capable of exercising the
franchise. [A voice “some of them did
it.”] Yes, and those that did it must for
ever be remembered. lou Radicals of the
Legislature have agreed to degrade your
own State and people, and you have agreed
that that degradation shall be perpetual.
The question in this contest is whether
that programme shall be carried out.
That is where Grant stands, and where
Colfax stands, and where all you vaga
bonds stand. Where do we stand ? Where
do Seymour and Blair stand ? Upon the
glorious ancestral doctrine that the States
are equal, and that white blood is superior.
[Loud applause. ] Now choose ye which
you will vote for. Some of you got scared
last fall for fear of losing your property by
confiscation, others #f you were afraid of
5