rUuo^^ yinr. 1870. 
 
 /L/V^ 
 
 
Class t_E_4_7. 
 
7t 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 OF THE 7 *- / 
 
 HON. EDWARDS PIERREPONT, 
 
 Delivered at the Great Ratification Meeting 
 
 KEPUBLICANS, 
 
 HELD AT COOPER INSTITUTE. 
 
 Thursday f Nov. 3, 187'0. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 
 Evening Pos? Steam Presses, 41 Nassau Stbeet, cob. Liberty. 
 1870. 
 

 \i 
 

 
 SPEECH 
 
 HON. EDWARDS PIERREPONT. 
 
 You, my fellow citizens — the busiest, tlie intensest people 
 upon the face of the earth — whose pressing avocations of to- 
 day crowd out the memories of yesterday — need often to be 
 reminded of what " you yourselves do know." 
 
 In 1824, the great Henry Clay of Kentucky was Speaker of 
 the House of Representatives. He was the ablest orator in 
 the Democratic party. In that year the people failed to elect 
 a President — Adams, Clay, Crawford and Jackson were all 
 candidates. Neither one had a majority of the electoral 
 vote, and it fell upon the House of Representatives to choose 
 the President. In a caucus of the dominant party, Wm. H. 
 Crawford of Georgia was nominated, but Mr. Clay, with his 
 powerful influence, went over to Mr. Adams who was thereby 
 elected, and Mr. Clay became the Secretary of State. 
 
 From that time onward through a period of twenty-eight 
 years, the great Whig party flourished. Clay and Webster 
 were its giant leaders. 
 
 In 1852, the mission of that party was ended ; its work 
 was done, its fight was over and its army was disbanded. Out 
 of the fragments of the Whig part}'- — out of the Free-soil party, 
 out of the Liberty party, out of Democrats who opposed the 
 arrogant pretensions of the slave power, out of deeply re- 
 ligious men of all parties, who resisted the spread of inhuman 
 slavery — arose the EepubHcan party, which took shape and 
 name in 1854, and whose first great success in 1860, was the 
 election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency. 
 
But ten years of inile, and half those years of civil commo- 
 tion or terrible war ! Years full of sorrows, which pressed 
 the life from many hearts, and sent to untimely graves so 
 many of your kindred. Years in which through faith and toil 
 and prayer and suffering, the nation was saved, and the foulest 
 crimes that ever cursed a christian people, were " burned and 
 pui'ged away." 
 
 Has the party which did tliis Herculean work performed its 
 full mission '? is it ready to disband its forces,— to turn over the 
 glorious fruits of all its labors, to be enjoj^ed, wasted, or de- 
 stroyed by those whose hands are yet stained with the blood of 
 . your own sons ! 
 
 The Saviour tells us, that, when the unclean spirit is gone 
 out of a man, he wanders about seeking rest, and finding none 
 he returns unto the house from whence he came out ; and if he 
 tinds it all empty, swept and garnished, he takes with him other 
 spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell 
 there ; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. 
 
 This foul spirit of slavery and rebellion, you have driven 
 from your house ; and you have washed out his loathsome, fewl 
 "irt *• stains, with much blood. He has wandered through many 
 places, seeking rest ; but finding none, he will surely return to 
 the house from which you drove him ; and if he finds it all 
 swept and garnished and we stand uncovered in the hall, ready 
 to receive him, he will enter in with others more wicked than 
 himself, and dwell there, and our last state will be worse than 
 the first. 
 
 The spirit which has found no rest, and now proposes to re- 
 turn and take possession of your well-garnished house, has be- 
 gun in earnest ; its minions are numerous, bold and active. It 
 can find no rest : — it never will rest. It begins with high de- 
 termination, zeal and energy, and desperation, but in success ; 
 it will leave no art untried, no labor neglected ; it will succeed 
 if it finds none but faithless servants, or jealous inmates, or 
 greedy plunderers, or disappointed seekers, or craven cowards 
 at the gates. 
 
 Pardon me while I turn you to the history of the past, that 
 you may read the future. " That which hath been, will be 
 again." For more than fort}^ years the Congress which was 
 
elected two years before the presidental contest, has determined 
 that contest. And now, a new House is to be elected. Within 
 a few days we shall know whether the Congress which continues 
 through the term of General Grant, is Republican or not. If 
 it is Eepublican, then you may be reasonably sure that the 
 next President will be a Republican ; if it is anti-RepubUcan, 
 then you may reasonably fear that the next President will be 
 the humble tool of the Rebel Power, swift to do its biddiuo- 
 ready as they have promised, to set at naught the amendments 
 to the constitution which favor liberty, and ready to recompense 
 the slave-holder for his liberated slaves. 
 
 Do you think that the members of the late convention 
 which was governed by rebel chieftains, have radically changed 
 since then ? Not at all. The same men generally, and the 
 same spirit precisely, which ruled the last, will rule the next 
 Democratic Convention. 
 
 Let us look at this question in the light of common sense, 
 and of recent events. 
 
 Last week the State Agricultural Society of Georgia held a 
 gi-eat fair at Atlanta. When Hon. Benjamin Yancey, President 
 of the society came, he found the old star-spangled banner 
 waving over the congregated people, and he ordered the hated 
 flag to be pulled down ; and nothing but fear of future con- 
 sequences, it is said, kept their dusty feet from trampling the 
 abhorred ensign in the mire. Last week in this very hall, 
 eulogiums of unmingled praise were pronounced over the Rebel 
 dead ; and our younger children are puzzled to know whether 
 Lee or Lincoln was the worthier patriot. Last week, at 
 Alexandria, close by the capitol of the nation, a public recep- 
 tion was given to one called the " Great Ex-President Davis." 
 
 These are but a few of the many indications of what has 
 already begun. 
 
 Just now, there is dissatisfaction felt by a few Republicans, 
 1 dare say. It is always so. Two years before the re-election 
 of Mr. Lincoln, Seymour carried New York ; but in 1864, 
 when the people had to face the real question, they forgot 
 their differences, and redeemed the State. 
 
 It is not given us to know the future ; a kind Providence 
 has veiled it from our eyes, and no wise man would lift the cur- 
 
6 
 
 tain, if lie could, whicli God's hand has drawn over the stage 
 of our destiny. But, through reason, and the history of the 
 past, we may fairly predict what is hkely to happen. 
 
 We can plainly foresee that the Congress now about to be 
 elected will be Republican ; not in the ratio of two to one, but 
 by a fair working number, which makes a far stronger adminis- 
 tration than a two-thirds majority. 
 
 When the legislative branch of the government is so numer- 
 ous that it can pass laws over the veto of the Executive, the 
 selfishness and vanity of abounding power is sure to cause 
 disturbance in the harmony, and thus weaken the vigor, of 
 administration. We can foresee that the Eepublican party, 
 chastened and consoHdated, will grow wiser in some respects ; 
 will more carefully consider the internal revenue, the tariff, and 
 the navigation laws, and adapt them to the intelligent wants 
 and the real interests of the whole country. But we can also 
 see that success does not spring up from the ground, and that 
 without the use of means, our desired ends will not be accom- 
 plished. 
 
 You are soon to elect not only a Governor, Lieutenant- 
 Governor, and other State officers, but you are also to elect an 
 entire Congressional delegation. This, therefore, is a very 
 important canvas ; it bears directly upon national issues ; it 
 may determine the next Presidential election. Your candi- 
 dates are all good men. Gen. Woodford as Governor, and 
 Mr. Kaufman as Lieutenant-Governor, would secure the best 
 administration to the State. One had an excellent record in 
 the war : both have an unsuUied reputation in civil life. No 
 honest man can doubt that, if elected, they would faithfully 
 carry out the principles and the wishes of the Republican 
 party. No honest or chshonest man can doubt that the op- 
 posing candidates, if elected, would, to the fullest extent, carry 
 out the principles and the wishes of their party. To which of 
 the two parties can you most safely entrust the government of 
 the State ? — to that which has proved true to the Union ; or to 
 that which is to-day in close alliance with the enemies of the 
 Union ? 
 
 We judge a tree by its fruits. None but poison fruits ever 
 j^rcw upon the old slave-tree ; and fruit from any branch en- 
 
grafted on that stock, will smell of death and taste of blood 
 for many years to come ! 
 
 The Kepublican party, during its short career, has done 
 collossal work ; but its labor is not ended. It is now in 
 its prime of power ; its greater work is yet to be done. It 
 has torn down the decayed old fever-breeding tenement, and 
 cleared away the rubbish. It has laid the new corner stones 
 upon the rock of humanity, justice and equal liberty ; and 
 now the building of the structure requires more skillful hands, 
 more wise forecasting minds, than it required to tear down the 
 ruined edifice, which, incongruous and falsely reared, was 
 tumbling to its fall. The soldier nobly did his work ; he will 
 have the undying gratitude of patriots of his own time, and 
 " the thanks of millions yet to be !" But the work of the Re- 
 publican statesman has but just begun, and the Eepublican 
 mission will not end, until the statesman's work is finished. 
 
 Expect some blundering in the beginning, which a generous 
 people will forgive, to a party which is honest in its main 
 purpose, and which has such a record of great deeds, and 
 heroic success in the saving of the nation. Be quite sure, 
 that the Republican mission is not ended. It is the Demo- 
 cratic party, which untrue to its earliesr history, and to the 
 honest convictions of its best men, has lost the confidence of 
 the people, and must perish as a national power. The only 
 chance which it has of electing the one it nominates, is to 
 nominate a Republican. But I don't think they will nominate 
 a Repubhcan. I think they will only nominate from the 
 BepuUicaii State of Ohio, its present Democratic Senator — an 
 able man — not destined to be elected. 
 
 Let me give you some of the elements of my confidence. 
 And, first of all, the people as a whole, desire what is best 
 and right ; and their instinct is wonderfully true in the discern- 
 ment of what is best and right ; and when they come soberly 
 to consider the effect of restoring to power the old slave- 
 liolder, the rebel, the opposer of the war and the hater of the 
 Union, and those who would a thousand fold, have preferred 
 the rebel General Lee to the patriot General Grant, they will 
 not hesitate to vote again for the great general who won heroic 
 victories over the enemies of the Union, and saved the nation 
 in its day of peril ! 
 
8 ■ 
 
 Next, the entire emancipated vote will be given for those wlio 
 proved the negro's friend. During the entire war, not an 
 instance can be named, where fear, or hope, or gain, or danger, 
 could ever make the bondsman swerve from his fidelity, or 
 betray a soldier of the North ; and it is all folly to suppose, 
 that the freed slave will vote for his old oppressor. 
 
 Next, the country will gratefully remember what the Bepub- 
 lican party has done ; that through weariness and every dis- 
 couragement ; through difficulties vast ; through long and 
 desolating war ; through dangers and dissensions at home, it 
 overcame all ; it saved the countrj^ entire, made liberty real 
 and universal, preserved our glorious heritage of freedom ; pre- 
 pared the way for our rapid development in wealth and great- 
 ness — gave a safe and uniform currency to the whole nation, 
 and equal rights and equal laws to all ; destroyed the inhuman 
 monster, so long our reproach, our blight, our terror and our 
 curse ; and ushered in the day, when it was no longer statutory 
 crime to teach a poor benighted soul to read the word of God ! 
 and made it no longer possible, under the Union flag, and 
 under the very dome of the capital, for brutal ruffian to tear 
 the child from its mother's arms and sell it to eternal slavery ! 
 
 Next, the country will remember at the fitting time what the 
 opposing party has done ; it will remember its opposition to 
 the war, its sympathy with our enemies, its readiness to receive 
 with open arms the chiefest leaders of the rebellion ; allies of 
 those whose cruelties to our prisoned soldiers shocked human- 
 ity ; allies of those who planned and executed those cold 
 atrocities unknown to christian war; they will remember 
 Andersonville and the Libby ! 
 
 The country will remember that when the rebel General Lee 
 died, every anti-Republican Journal, from the Pacific coast to 
 the furthermost corner of Maine, deplored his loss, as that of 
 a pure patriot, and a christian hero, whose memory should be 
 cherished, and whose name should be handed down to our 
 children as one most honored in our history ; and they will 
 remember that Secretary Boutwell was assailed through those 
 journals, because he did not wish to have raised in mourning 
 for Lee, the flag of the Union, which that general had dis- 
 honored and betrayed ; every hater of that flag was a sincere 
 
admirer of Lee, — his memory is sacred in their love ; and his 
 virtues have been exalted through the party press, as far above 
 those of the martyred Lincohi, or the great Union General 
 Geo. H. Thomas, who was fi-om the same State as Lee, and 
 who was Lee's superior in every virtue, and every heroic 
 quality that can ennoble man ! Turn me to a Democratic 
 Journal, even in the loval states, which spoke of the dying 
 Thomas, with one ten-thousandth part of the love and ad- 
 miration with which the same journal spoke of Lee. The two 
 generals were both from Yirginia ; both were educated at West 
 Point at the national expense ; both had registered a solemn 
 oath to defend the Union, its flag and its laws ; one, before the 
 war, was of high rank in the armies of the Union, petted and 
 trusted by General Scott ; great in place, and influence ; able, 
 if determined, to have averted this fratricidal war. He violated 
 his solemn oath, deserted his old friend Scott, betrayed the 
 Union which had fostered, educated and made him ; trampled 
 in the dust the old flag which had waved so gloriously over 
 him in Mexico, and bathed his recreant sword in the blood of 
 his countrymen. 
 
 Thomas, also fi-om the South, a much younger man, and 
 under far gi*eater temptations, was true to his country, to his 
 flag and to his oath. Thomas dies, having hved true to 
 honor, to patriotism, to eveiy christian virtue! No half-mast 
 flag was raised for him over Democratic journals ! No parad- 
 ing of his great virtues and lofty patriotism appeared in Dem- 
 ocratic prints. There is deep meaning in this, and it will not 
 be forgotten. 
 
 " Tell me where thou dwellest and whom thou lovest, and 
 I will tell thee who thou art." All this will be remembered 
 when the soldiers' graves are decorated, and on election day, 
 for one generation at least. 
 
 This ovation to the shade of Lee was a " got up " affair : It 
 was a cold political contrivance ; there was no grief in it ; a 
 circular letter was sent round to many respectable and to some 
 eminent men, to get them to join in the demonstration ; their 
 patriotic refusals, which will appear some day, upset the plan, 
 and changed the whole progi'amme. All men respect heartfelt 
 sorrow ; but the mother who mourned for her children, and 
 2 
 
10 
 
 the old father, who wept for his son whom the treason and the 
 sword of Lee had slain, did not come to Cooper Institute to 
 parade their grief. A public demonstration of this kind is 
 made to honor the acts of the hero's Hfe, and the principles 
 for which he contended. In this case, it was to honor the acts 
 and the principles of Jefferson Da\'is and of Robert E. Lee. 
 
 Every man well informed in public affairs knows that 
 the entire Rebel element of the South will heartily join 
 in electing any Northern Democrat who may be nominated ; 
 confident, as they are, that he who may thus be elected, will 
 be under the absolute sway of the same confederates who 
 dominated over Tammany Hall in their late convention. I do 
 not say that if a Northern Democrat were elected President, 
 he would wish to disturb the peace of the Union by violating 
 the amended Constitution, and the re-construction laws ; I dare 
 say he would earnestly desire the prosperity of his country ; 
 but he would be utterly powerless for good, in the hands of 
 those who elected him. The great party which puts the 
 President, in power is stronger than the man; so must it 
 always be, in a government like ours. Careless observers mis- 
 take the public mind ; they meet with criticising men who are 
 not personally satisfied ; who want something different ; who 
 always do want something different ; who are never content, un- 
 less all goes as they direct, nor even then. I heard all, and much 
 more of this talk, in 1862, about Mr. Lincoln ; and yet he was 
 triumphantly re-elected in 1864. I hear much less of it in 
 1870, and I predict that General Grant's election in 1872 will 
 be equally triumphant. I know that the confidence of the 
 people is strong and increasing ; they believe in his honesty, 
 his foresight, his firm purpose, his real sympathy with the 
 people ; in his silent, latent forces, equal to any emergency ; 
 and in his luck and unfailing good fortune ; they will vote for 
 him again, as will all the more intelligent men who wish well 
 for their country. It is of the utmost interest to the Repubhcan 
 party that this question of the succession be settled ; only a 
 year from next May, and you make a new nomination. 
 Nothing so much distracts and weakens the party in power, as 
 to be casting about for the next Presidential candidate. I re- 
 gard the question as already settled ; your enemies are trying 
 
11 
 
 to make you think tliat it is not settled. But it is settled. If 
 General Grant is not the man, who is he? Name me any 
 six, out of whom one can possibly be selected, as against 
 General Grant, You cannot name them ; and a President of 
 the United States does not spring up in a day ; he must have 
 made a record. The people know that Grant was a great 
 general in our war ; that he led our brave soldiers to difficult 
 and to glorious victory ; that by his great qualities he preserved 
 the unity of this proud nation ; they know that his latent pow- 
 ers appeared when most needed, and that they will again ap- 
 pear in all their determined vigor, when necessity demands ; 
 they know that he was inexperienced in politics when he came 
 into power ; they know that he means to do right, and that he 
 grows wiser by time ; they believe in him ; they trust him ; 
 they are determined that he shall have a fair chance ; and if 
 everything does not go exactly as they could wish, they wisely 
 prefer " to bear" the little ills they have, than fly to others that 
 they know not of ;" and if God spares the life of General Grant, 
 he will be the next President of the United States ! 
 
 Let us look straight into the face of this business, my country- 
 men : the most tempting place of power now upon the earth, is 
 that held bv the President of the United States, brief in its 
 tenure, to be sure, but dazzling exceedingly, in the distance. 
 
 In too eager chase after this receding rainbow, many of our 
 best Statesmen have stumbled to their ruin. 
 
 No Southern Rebel can soon hope to be President : — No 
 Northern Democrat can ever hope to be President, save 
 through the aid of Southern votes. The confederate vote will 
 be given to the Northern Democrat only upon one condition ; 
 the condition is, that the South stand behind the recovered 
 throne, and wield the sceptre as they will. If that day comes, 
 your new amendments, your new guarantees of Freedom, your 
 re-construction acts, and your vast financial system, will be 
 trampled into dust, and the debt incurred in subjugating the very 
 men thus restored to power will be scoifed and repudiated. Be 
 not again deceived, ye who did not believe that civil war could 
 come ! The brave men, the great judges, who gave liberty and 
 glory to England by condemning a traitor-king and a corrupt no- 
 bility, (on the return of the Stuarts,) died upon the scaffold, or 
 
12 
 
 fled to this counti^, where they dragged out a wretched life in 
 dens and caves of the earth. No one beheved that such could 
 be their fate, when the great Cromwell died : Don't you think 
 it will be safer at least to keep confederate generals out of the 
 goverment during the present generation ? 
 
 The southern demands upon the northern Democracy have 
 always been absolute; when these demands were relactantlij 
 conceded, the south threatened secession ; — when not luholly 
 granted, they made war. 
 
 The price of southern aid, is abject submission. Uninformed 
 men think that the South must have changed, — that they must 
 have learned something by their defeat in 1868. 
 
 Not a bit of it. They had nothing to learn. They prefer 
 the rule of General Grant, to any Democratic rule which is 
 not entirely subservient. They say now, as they said to North- 
 ern Democrats at the Charleston convention ;.i*Aw/, or we leave 
 you to your fate. They despise the northern dough-face ; they 
 respect, while they hate, the northern Radical, vfliojiglds for 
 his principles. 
 
 I have said thus much, because I wish now, at this stage of 
 our history, to call the attention of the great party which de- 
 stroyed slavery and baptised " Liberty and Union " with their 
 blood, to the evils of distracting counsels, to the sin of wander- 
 ing after strange gods, and of thereby permitting the cast-out 
 spirits to return into possession of your re-constructed govern- 
 ment, and thus to make its last state worse than before the war ! 
 And one other word let me say : In politics as in war, there 
 must be a leader, whose decision is final ; without it, there can 
 be no success. The President is that leader ; he is patient in 
 listening to suggestions — ready to take advice — but when he 
 decides upon a course, all true men will cheerfully acquiesce ; 
 this is the only way to success. With many commanders, and 
 no general, victory was never won. Here Hes the greatest 
 danger against which I warn the Republican Party. 
 
 In the vast diversity of interests, the President has a most 
 perplexing task. — Ten thousand men press him with almost as 
 many different views. He must decide; — he cannot satisfy 
 all. He will do he tbest he can. Sustain him ; and he will 
 prove as wise in peace, as he was great in war. 
 
13 
 
 The candidates whom your conventions have nominated, are 
 all good men ; vote for them, if yon would retain your power ; 
 elect them by honest votes ; neglect no honest means for success; ; ^ 
 show that you still mean fidelity to that great party which un- ^-^^..^ik^t-Mj^ 
 hrnmsA the ta|jie of four million slaves, and saved the nation 
 fi'om dissolution and eternal disgrace. 
 
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