“My liege, on my return from the Philadelphia Convention I tarried a while in Berks county, which is in Pennsylvania, and is distinguished for the unanimity with which they vote Democracy. My liege, they learned down there mor’n six weeks ago that the war wuz over, and therefore yoo coodent stir em up on drafts. Taxes they had got used to, and that didn’t move em; and so the speaker wuz emptyin school-houses by talkin uv the results uv a glorious war, wich they all opposed, and praisin our mutual friend Seward, wich they had alluz hated as a Ablishnist, and hedn’t heerd yet that he had jined the Demokracy. Wuz it any wonder that we went under? Ther ain’t but one thing left to us, and that we strangely neglected. My liege, why wuz the Nigger not made the central figger this year, ez before? They is the capital uv the Democrisy, its refuge, its tower of strength. I spoke in Berks county myself, following one of them new-fangled Democrats, who hed set em all asleep talkin stuff to em that they didn’t understand. Mountin the rostrum, I ejaculated,—
”’Men and Brethren, do yoo want to marry a Nigger?’
“‘No! no!’ they answered, straightenin up towunst.
“‘Do you want niggers for sons-in-law?’
“‘No! no!’
“‘Do you want laws to prevent you from marryin niggers?’
“‘Yes! yes!’
“‘Do you want to be marched up to the polls by those who tell you how to vote, beside a nigger?’
“‘No! no!’
“‘Then vote the Demekratic ticket.’ And they all replied,—