The banner of the South. (Augusta, Ga.) 1868-1870, August 15, 1868, Page 5, Image 5

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(nit it is in your power, your rights and interests may receive some protection. I .hall offer some advice to Governor Bul ], ,k. Although he has not sent For me or ummoqed me to his councils, I shall w; ,ive etiquette and give him some advice which will do him good and be of great benefit to the State if he follows it. jf he does not follow it, it has cost hint o little, he will have no right to complain 0 f me for having offered it. I would just ..‘y to him: Mr. Bullock, the of Georgia have done you no wrong. It is your duty to inflict as little evil upon them as possible. Remember the circumstances under which you nave been called upon to execute the duties of your Gubernato rial office, and my advice to you is to be have yourself just as well as your nature Lnd education will admit. [Laughter and applause.] I would say to him, in all kindness, that in the matter of character and reputation you have everything to make and nothing to lose. [Laughter and applause.] A better opportunity never was offered to any man. He is like an adventurous youth who goes into a jumbling house without money to play at ran. He has everything to win and noth ing to lose. He may break the bank, but the v auk cannot hurt him. I would say to him, Mr. Bullock, this Constitution which has been imposed upon the people f Georgia against their will and without their approval, invests you with a great deal of power. Exercise it in a way to do good to the State if you can. You havt got a judiciary to appoint. I would advise you to .send for the official copy of the ad dress of the Chairman of the Grant and Colfax Executive State Committee written by one Joseph E. Brown, in which he as sumes to announce for you that the Judi ciary of Georgia will becorruptly appointed to subserve base and partisan purposes, and when you get it make a bonfire of the paper, and blot from your memory therec ollection of its contents. Be not deceived with the idea that becaase your predeces sor the author of this paper, was partially successful in adding to his strength and popularity by a corrupt use of his official patronage, that a like success will attend a like corrupt course on your part. If the argument based on considerations of patri otism and duty cannot reach you, let me warn you, as a matter of policy, not to resort to a course of conduct so un worthy. so base, and which, in the end, will be of no benefit to you, but must produce calamitous results for the State. The appeal I make for the appointment ot an honest Judiciary is one which should commend itself to the favor of any mau holding the high position you occupy, even though he reached that position by a not over creditable accident, the details of which I will not stop to discuss. I beg you to remember that since the organiza tion of the Supreme Court of Georgia no one has been appointed to that Bench who did not command the respect and confi dence of the people. No one has ever filled that high station on whose integrity and honesty the shadow of a doubt ever rested. It remains with you to determine whether the high character of that Bench shell be maintained, or whether it shall become a refuge for destitute and discarded politicians whose infamy and treachery have made them outcasts from the com panionship of honest men. [Applause.] In the name of the people of Georgia I call upon you this day to drive from your presence these bad men who ask you to forfeit the only claim you can ever have to public respect and confidence, by the ap pointment of such men to offices of trust and honor. Rid yourself of the miserable vermin who are fastening themselves upon you, who are calling on you to appoint them to the Supreme Court, the Superior Court and the Dis trict Court, and who, in the better days of ti e Republic, would never have presumed to solicit the appointment of a door keeper or a messenger—men whom you know to be unworthy, and whose only ‘•laim to the positions they seek at your hauls is the record of their own infamy. 1 jmd applause.] How strange and start ling it will sound to the ears of those who live beyond the limits of our State to hear an appeal made by the people of Georgia to him who exercises the highest executive power to grant the State an honest judiciary ! And yet straDge as it “ay appear, startling as it is ; the rumors wlii .h fill the atmosphere of this capital justi y the apprehension upon which the appeal is based. Therefore, I say to you, -dr. Bullock, be warned in time. Commit n ,°t these outrages upon a people who, God knows, have suffered enough at the uand- of their oppressors. If you heed nor this warning voice to-day, the time will come when you will repent in sack- Ci " tn and ashes the degradation which you will have brought upon yourself by the infliction of such an outrage upon a brave, a generous, and an honest people, in whose conduct toward you, you can find no justification for the injury you will nave done. All 1 ask of you is to appoint honest nien to these high positions, men who will administer the laws of the State ln °-ydiencc to the conscientious obliga tions of their oaths. Fill all the offices wua honest men. Protect the Treasury from the robber-band who are assembled here to break in and steal. Do these things, and at the end of your service you will have the consolation of knowing that if you have done the State no good” you will have refrained from doing it am' serious harm. [Applause. J And for you, this would be a result which your wannest admirers could not have reasonably antici pattd. [Laughter and applause. J . And now 1 turn from an appeal to those m power to you, my countrymen, and I invoke your aid and co-operation in the great work before us, of lifting our State from its present fallen condition, and restor ing it to its former prosperity and equality among her sister commonweal] r of the Union. It is a noble work, wc u] yof the best efforts of our people, in which all good men can and ought to unite with an earnest and cordial good will. The day of arms has passed. We look for the dawn of a day of peace—such peace as carries healing on its wings and diffuses blessings over the land —not such peace as is offered to you at the point of the bayonet, or is contained in the findings of a military commission, but the peace which is found ed on justice, is supported by the law, is accompanied by liberty, and brings rejoic ing .nd contentment to every heart. Such is tt e peace which will follow the election of Seymour and Blair, and the restoration of the Constitution—a peace which will be for to-day, to-morrow, and for all time to come, because it will be a peace that would calm all the troubled waters, quiet all apprehensions, restore confidence and security in all the departments of life, and cause every one, everywhere, to feel that the good old days of the Republic had re turned. Such a peace is worthy of the best efforts of patriots, the prayers of Christians, and will command theblessingf of Heaven. [Loud applause.] I am here to day to invoke your aid and co-operation in carrying forward this great and good work. THK WORK FOR TIIE TRUE GEORGIAN. My countrymen, I care not who you are, I care not what has been your past party history, I look to jmur status to-day. I want to know what you intend to do for your country in the future? She has suf fered much, she has been wounded deeply, her body is covered over with the evidences of these wounds and this suffering. This old Stare—that has been so kind to you, so generous to me, beyond all that I deserve, beyond, perhaps, what you deserve—this noble, gallant, bleeding old State calls upon her sons to come forward and aid in the good work of redeeming her from the hand of the wrong-doer and oppressor. Is there in all Georgia one single heart, native or foreign, who will not respond in this the hour of her greatest trial, the hour in which she is struggling for liberty and for the con stitutional rights of all her children? The issue is fairly before you, my friends. None can fail to read it right. No man can plead ignorance. Not one who heard the expo sition to which you and I have listened this morning, not one who has heard the eloquent voices of her sons throughout this land for months, can plead ignorance here after. The issue is made; on the one haud is a continuance and aggravation of the wrongs from which she has so long suffer ed and is still suffering, and on the other a speedy deliverance from the bonds which have bound her and the opening of a bright and promising future. The path is open ; you are invited to tread it. On the one hand there is uarkness, and shadow, and gloom, and continued misfortune and oppression; and on the other there is freedom, prosperity and peace. Choose you tiiis day between these two offerings made for your free-will acceptance. My friends, that great party of this country which now brings within its fold every true man of the land, North, South, East, and West, without reference to past political differences, comes and lenders you the guarantees of that Constitution which was framed by the wisdom and consecrated by the blood of your fathers. Come and stand by us. Give your support to the men who are pledged to carry out these principles. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES. We have put a candidate before you for the highest office in the country—a man known as a statesman throughout the land —a man whose record in the past has been true to those great principles of constitu tional right. We have placed before you a candidate for Vice President, one who, it is true, like Gen. Grant, fought you during the war,but, unlike General Grant, ceased to fight you when the war was over. [Applause. 1 I honor a brave man. lean do reverence to his virtues, though he has drawn the sword against me. I honor such a man, and to-day give evidence of it in the cordiality with which I will cast my vote for Frank P. Blair for Vice Pres ident of the United States. But the man who, after the battle is over, travels over the field, and, with a valor that I cannot commend, draws his sword to thrust it in to each corpse as he passes along, such a man can never command my respect, and if my advice is heeded will never get a vote in Georgia. Let the people of the North understand that we give to Seymour and Blair our warm and hearty support, with a perfect knowledge on our part that the one in the Cabinet and the other on the field were Fully identified with those who prosecuted the war against us, and to whose over whelming numbers we finally surrendered. We do not pretend to say that we support them because they warred against us, but in spite of it, believing, as we do, that in a restored Union they will extend to us those sacred constitutional rights of which they are now the chosen and honored represent atives. And this is all that the people of the South ask or expect at the hands of the people of the North. These are the men, these are the pledges which are offered to you by those whom I commend to your confidence and support to day. On the other hand you are offered for the Presidency Gen. Grant. I have said as much of him as he ever said of him self, and, therefore, he has no right to complain that I have not treated him with proper respect Os Mr. Colfax, the candidate for the Vice Presidency, I am not sufficiently informed of his history in order to give you any very satisfactory account of him. My opinion is, however. if, when in the days of his infancy, his mother had been told that he would be a candidate for Vice President, it would have run the old lady crazy, j Laugh ter and cheers.] It is sufficient to say of them that they stand before you as the repre sentatives of the Chicago platform. That is condemnation enough. But these men, fellow-citizens, are of to-day and will pass away. The principles which they repre sent belong to the future and will live long after those who upheld them are forgotten. THE CHICAGO PLATFORM. You have before you the great political truths presented by the Democracy of the country. Let us go for a moment to Chicago and see what was presented there for the people of this country. What is offered to you by that convention of wild and bad men who placed General Grant and Mr. Colfax before the country ? I will not stop to discuss the double-faced resolutions on finance. I come to the main starting proposition which you are called upon to give your sanction to, and which most nearly affects your interests. Fellow-citizens, that platform announces to you that a white man’s Government shall be guaranteed to the people of the North, but that negroes are good enough for Georgia and the people of the South. I do not pretend to quote the language or the precise words, but such are the prin ciples and doctrines enunciated. The Radi cals have not denied it in their press — they have not denied it by their public men —they cannot, dare not, deny it. That platform says that the negroes of the South shall be guaranteed and protected in the exercise of political power, the right of suffrage, the right of sitting in the jury box, the right of holding seats in the Leg islature and upon the bench, and that it is all right and proper for you and for the people of the South that this should be the case ; but when asked to put it to the people of the North, to the freemen of the West, and the freemen of the East and the Middle States, they said, “iNo ! they are entitled to a white man’s govern ment; they are entitled to the protection whicii had been given them by the fathers of the land, from the earliest organization of the Government; they are the sons of the revolutionary fathers who fought and with their blood won the liberty of this country —by their wisdom adopted the Constitution. They shall have a white man’s government; they are worthy of it; they deserve it; but for those rebels down South, those men in Georgia, those women and children in Georgia, they deserve no such protection; they shall have guaran teed to them no such Government.” My friends, what think you of these men of the North ? What think you of the Grants and Colfaxes? of the Thad Ste venses ? the Sumners and the Wilsons of the North, who went to Chicago and then wrote it down in cold blood—there was no passion—there was no excitement —there were no war tones sounding throughout the land—but coolly, calmly, passionless, they wrote it down upon their platform : “The people of the South, you must sub mit to negro suffrage, you must submit to negro supremacy; but for our own people we reserve the old landmarks of the Con stitution?” To-day they defend the policy which puts these negroes in the Legisla ture. To-day that platform says my friend [pointing to Mr. ToouibsJ and mycelf are properly and justly excluded from the right of suffrage, from the right of hold ing office; but these negroes are the proper people to make laws to govern and control this great and good State of Georgia. SCALAWAGS AND CARPET-BAGGERS. What think you of Northern men who who are prepared to perpetuate this geatr wrong and outrage upon our people ? Can you say to them, “Brother?” Can you say to them, “Friend?” Can you wel come them to your house, when they come to your midst, either with the in signia of office or in the habiliment of pri vate citizens? Why should they wonder and stand amazed because we bid them not to the feast when our friends are in vited to assemble and make merry among themselves ? Shall these men, ought these men, to expect it ? Pardon me if I dwell upon it. I want to express it, and I urge it upon you, until there shall exist in the heart and soul of every son and daughter that walks and breathes her pure air, and lives upon her happy soil, this conviction, that these men of the North, these Chicago men, these men who call upon you to vote for Grant and Col fax, and that Grant and Colfax, who have indorsed these things, are neither worthy of your vote, your respect, or of your confi dence, much less of your kindness and hospitality. My friends, they are our ene mies. I state it in cool and calm debate. If they were our friends, they could not dou bly wrong us,and ifihere beat in their bosom one single kindly emotion for the people of the South, they would never have made this public declaration to the world of your unworthiness and the contempt which they feel for you. Enemies they were in war, enemies they continue to be in peace. In war we drew the sword and bade them defiance; in peace we gather up the manhood of the South, and raising the banner of constitutional equality, and gathering around it the good men of the North as well as the South, we hurl into their teeth to-day the same defi ance, and bid them come on to the strug gle. We are ready for it if they are. [Great applause.] But, my countrymen, if those are the feelings which rise in our bosom, in reference to these men of the North —these men who have no bond of union with you—these men who never trod upon your soil unless it was to plun der and to rob —these men who know not these women and these children—these men who have never worshiped at your altars, who never communed with the good men and women of your State around that altar erected to the living God —if these are your feelings toward strangers in blood, and sympathy, and association, what can be your feelings toward those men of Georgia who trav elled these hundreds of miles to meet these men at Chicago, who sat upon the bench with them, who went into the council chamber with them, and who there joined their voices and united their hearts in pro nouncing that the men whom they have left behind them—the men of Georgia who had honored them overmuch, who had lifted them from the lowest dregs of society and elevated them to the highest offices of honor, profit, and trust. What say you of such men who went to Chicago, and there, crouching at the feet of our enemies, declared that these good people of Georgia deserved the fate that had come upon them, of being put under the ban of negro supremacy? My countrymen, don’t think I speak harsh words because I say hard truths. I speak of those delegates to the Chicago Convention. I speak of them in unmeasured terms. JOE BROWN. A friend told me, as I was coming heft the other day, that he heard another sas that by a speech that I had made at Davis Hall I had made half a dozen votes for Joe Brown. Well, I come to make half a dozen more to-day. He and his associates were at Chicago. He and his associates joined and united in pronouncing this in famous doctrine —the negro is good enough for G eorgia, but not good enough for Ohio and New Yprk. Are not the people of Georgia right in assigning him the status which he has taken for himself? If negroes are good enough for Georgia, it is that kind of Georgia that he is, and I shall not dispute the doctrine. [Laughter and applause.] Let him associate with them, but white men of this country cut loose from him. [A voice says “Amen.”] Amen and Amen! Let it reverberate over your mountains, down your valleys, from your old men and your young men, your women and your children, until one grand chorus shall ring through every throbbing heart! “Overboard with him !” “He has turned traitor to the country !” I tell you very frankly, my friends, I am not an intolerant man ! but, when I see a white man talking to Joe Brown and that class of men, a ieeling of revulsion comes over me. I can’t help it. But when I see them talking to a negro, I feel sorry for the negro. That is six more votes for Joe Brown. 1 will give him about three more, and quit him. I say to you, my friends, you owe it to yourselves, you owe it to the noble dead who sleep in their graves, to observe these things. You go here, and I houor you for it, and scat ter flowers over those graves. God bless you for it 1 They are the graves of good, true, and honest, and noble, and brave, and generous men. [Applause.] But as you return from that solemn duty turn your back to the right and left upon those who dishonor the memory of the dead. You owe it to the living,you owe it to your own children and to their children. Write down in their memories this day and all days and for all time to come the feeling and spirit of abhorrence with which you regard these men. 0, Heaven ! lor some blistering words that I may write infamy upon the forehead of these men [ap plause] . that they may travel through earth despised of all men and rejected of heaven, scorned by the devil himself. They may seek their final congenial rest ing-place under the mudsills of that an cient institution prepared for them from the beginning of the world. [ Laughter and applause. ] SOMETHING FOR NORTHERN MEN TO TELL WHEN THEY GO HOME FROM THE SOUTH. Fellow-citizens, being in a counseling and advising mood to-day, I am disposed to ask a favor of another class of our fellow-citizens ; a class of whom I have not asked favors heretofore. They have been amongst us for the last three years, men of the North, some of them in high mili tary position, some of them wearing the simple vestiuents of private life. Now the time has come when many of these are to leave us and return hack to their homes, and in the part which they have played to return no more forever. [Applause.! Now, of these gentlemen personally, 1 know nothing, hut I have a word to say to them and to ask them to bear a message from the people of the South to the people of the North. You have been here for three years. When you return to your homes tell your people that you came here and found our land one general plain of desolation; the ashes stand, or stood then, where this beautiful city now stands. You found our people overwhelmed by numbers, a conquered people, if you please, but a brave and generous people still. You have been in our midst and have seen the wrongs that have been done this people. You have seen their old men and their young men torn from the bosom of their families, and from their labor and occupa tion without warrant or authority of con stitutional law. You have seen them car ried to the dungeon, and from the dungeon to the courts which had no jurisdiction under the Constitution. Tell your people of the North these things, when you go. Tell them, too, you have seen the polls opened, you have seen Georgia’s noblest sons, born upon the soil and reared under her institutions,sons whom she has delight ed to honor, sons whom you have received with welcoming arms in all the Northern States—you have seen these sons, upon whose character not one single blot rests, you have seen them driven from the polls. Tell them that! Tell them that you have seen the poor, ignorant, debased, un happy, unfortunate, and deluded negro taken, not by the voice of persuasion and of argument, but by a power which he could not and dare not resist, and you have seen him go and fill up that ballot box that formerly received the votes of the good and true men of Georgia. Tell them that you have stood here in her legislative halls. Gray-headed fathers have told you that these seats were once filled by the noblest and truest men of the land—her Crawford, her Troup, her Forsyth, her Berrien, her Lumpkin, her Wayne—her great and good men in the days that are past. Around me here I see the gray headed fathers ot this land who once filled these seats. Tell them whom you saw there on yesterday. True, some of her sons, good and true men, are there to try to save and rescue their State from wrong, but tell them that the seats of Troup and Clark were filled by two negroes who could not write their names. Tell them that my own old county of Clark—these men will recognize the name when I speak of Clayton, Dougherty, Hull, and Hope, and Thomas, aud, in later days, the brave and gallant Deloney, and other good citizens— tell them when you go to the North the seats formerly occupied by these men were filled by illiterate negroes. Tell them when you go there that in times past you were told that the good men of Georgia assem bled at her capitol to inaugurate her gov ernment, these men whose, names I have mentioned to you ; but never in all the history of this State was any man, be he good or bad, placed in that chair, with those insignia of office, hut in response to the voice of the people of Georgia. I care not, gentlemen of the North, mil itary and civilians, with what prejudices you come here; I care not how passion has been inflamed. These are solemn truths, and it is your duty as honest mon to tell the message I this day give you. Tell them that on the 4th day of July—a day memorable in the history of your country —a day honored and celebrated by the good men of the land —Georgia was sum moned by the party who now rules her destiny, to assemble in mass convention at her Capital. You were here and saw that scene. Go, I ask it as a favor; I will hum ble myself so far as to beg that the truth may be carried from Georgia and spread broadcast among your people. You wit nessed that assembly. It was a mass meeting of the Radicals of Georgia. Twenty white men were there, and proba bly all who deserved the name of white men, outside of spectators, did not reach quite a-half a dozen. They were a motley crowd of negroes. They spoke of Georgia; they thanked this beneficent legislation that had brought the great blessing upon the land. Men stood upon that platform who been honored by Georgia, and, ad dressing that assembly of dark faces and kinky heads, with not one white man scat tered, here or there, called them “my coun trymen!” VVell, if they are his country men, let him and his countrymen seek some more congenial climate. Africa is open to him, and not knowing Joe as well as I do, the people of that continent might bid him come. Go, gentlemen of the North, and tell your people that there was assembled in Georgia —this great and noble old State — that crowd! and a more respectable one works on my plantation every day, be cause they work for their daily bread and meat., and are respectable compared to the set of worthless creatures whom the Radi cals of both North and South pretend to call the people of Georgia. Tell them that that was the people in whose hands and under whose control you left this noble old State, when you turned your back upon me, to seek your own homes, and then tell them that on the 23d of July there was another assemblage call ing themselves the people of Georgia.— Come now, and stand here by my side. I want you to cast your eyes over this vast assembly. Come and look upon those daughters of Georgia, and, gentlemen of the North, tell me —you have hearts —you have souls —you have in your own States mothers, wives, and sisters; I ask you to come here to-day and stand upon this plat form and look upon our mothers, and sis ters and wives and little ones, and tell me in your heart is it right and just and proper? Does your own heart dictate it, that those women and children ought to be under the dominion of those negroes that assembled on the Fourth of July ? If there is one pulsation left in your heart —if there is one single throb left to beat for the peo ple of the South —come and look upon this picture. Around them you see old men, denounced they have been as rebels, but from their youth up they have lived in Georgia. Their neighbors know them, respect them, esteem them, love them. — Ought these men to be placed under that negro dominion? Ought these men to he required to how their necks to the yoke which oppression and despotism have pre pared for them ? Oh, men of the North, as ye travel homeward, spread these truths broad cast ; and when you receive a cordial welcome into your own homestead, and that wife and 'mother and daughter im press upon your lips the kiss of affection and love, remember, I. beg you, remem ber the mothers, and wives, and daugh ters of Georgia. If you cannot feel for them in that hour, then the spirit of love and affection has departed from you, never again be reclaimed. Tell them that in the midst of all this desolation, in the midst of all these wrongs that there was not in all Georgia a single daughter hat bowed her head to the yoke. Tell them that our brave men stood submissive at the point of the bayonet. Tell them that kind ness and generosity would have won back the allegiance of their hearts, but all the bayonets that ever were made in the Ameri- 5