The 1st of June was the day appointed. I arrived in Chicago, at a late hour, on the 29th of May, stopping at the Grand Pacific hotel, and soon after received the calls of many citizens in the rotunda. On the evening of the 30th I was tendered a reception by the Union League club in its library, and soon became aware of the fact that one segment of the Republican party, represented by the Chicago "Tribune," was not in attendance. The reception, however, was a very pleasant one, greatly aided by a number of ladies.
The next morning, accompanied by Senator Charles B. Farwell and a committee of the club, I went to Springfield. I have often traversed the magnificent State of Illinois, but never saw it clothed more beautifully than on this early summer day. The broad prairies covered with green, the wide reaches of cultivated land, rich with growing corn, wheat and oats, presented pictures of fertility that could not be excelled in any portion of the world. I met Governor Oglesby and many leading citizens of Illinois on the way, and on my arrival at Springfield was received by Senator Cullom and other distinguished gentlemen, and conducted to the Leland hotel, but soon afterward was taken to the residence of Senator Cullom, where several hours were spent very pleasantly. Later in the evening I attended a reception tendered by Governor and Mrs. Oglesby, and there met the great body of the members of the legislature and many citizens.
On the 1st of June an elaborate order of arrangements, including a procession, was published, but about noon there came a heavy shower of rain that changed the programme of the day. A platform had been erected at the corner of the statehouse, from which the speaking was to be made. This had to be abandoned and the meeting was held in the hall of the house of representatives, to which no one could enter without a ticket.
It was not until 2:40 p. m. that we entered the hall, when Governor Oglesby, taking the speaker's chair, rapped for order and briefly addressed the assembly. I was then introduced and delivered the speech I had prepared, without reading or referring to it. It was published and widely circulated. The following abstract, published in the Chicago "Inter-Ocean," indicates the topics I introduced:
"The Senator began first to awaken applause at the mention of the name of Lincoln, repeated soon after and followed by a popular recognition of the name of Douglas. He quoted from Logan, and cheers and applause greeted his words. There was Democratic applause when he proclaimed his belief 'that had Douglas lived he would have been as loyal as Lincoln himself,' and again it resounded louder still when Logan received a hearty tribute. He touched upon the successes of our protective policy, and again the applause accentuated his point. He exonerated the Confederate soldier from sympathy with the atrocities of reconstruction times, and his audience appreciated it. He charged the Democratic party in the south with these atrocities and the continual effort to deprive the negro of his vote, and the audience appreciated that. His utterance that he would use the power of Congress to get the vote of a southern Republican counted at least once, excited general applause. They laughed when he asked what Andrew Jackson would have thought of Cleveland, and they laughed again when he declared the Democrats wanted to reduce the revenue, but didn't know how. He read them the tariff plank in the Confederate platform, and they laughed to see how it agreed with the same plank in the Democratic platform. From discussion of the incapacity of the Democrats to deal with the tariff question, from their very construction of the constitution, the Senator passed to the labor question, thence carrying the interest of his hearers to the purpose of the Republicans to educate the masses, and make internal improvements. His audience felt the point well made when he declared the President allowed the internal improvement bill to expire by a pocket veto because it contained a $5,000 provision for the Hennepin Canal. In excellent humor the audience heard him score the Democracy for its helplessness to meet the currency question, and finally pass, in his peroration, to an elaboration of George William Curtis' eulogy of the achievements of the Republican party. He read the twelve Republican principles, and each utterance received its applause like the readoption of a popular creed. 'The Democrats put more jail birds in office in their brief term than the Republicans did in the twenty-four years of our magnificent service,' exclaimed Senator Sherman, and his audience laughed, cheered, and applauded. Applause followed each closing utterance as the Senator outlined the purposes of the party for future victory, and predicted that result, the Democrats under the Confederate flag, the Republicans under the flag of the Union."
I returned the next day to Chicago, and in the evening was tendered a public reception in the parlors of the Grant Pacific hotel. Although Chicago was familiar to me, yet I was unknown to the people of Chicago. One or two thousand people shook hands with me and with them several ladies. Among those I knew were Justice Harlan, Robert T. Lincoln and Walker and Emmons Blaine.
Upon my return to Mansfield I soon observed, in the Democratic and conservative papers, hostile criticism of my Springfield speech, and especially of my arraignment of the crimes at elections in the south, and of the marked preference by Cleveland in the appointments to office of Confederate soldiers rather than Union soldiers. A contrast was made between the Nashville and Springfield speeches, and the latter was denounced as "waving the bloody shirt." Perhaps the best answer to this is the following interview with me, about the middle of June:
"So much fault is found with the Springfield speech by the opponents of the Republican party, and so many accusations made of inconsistency with the Nashville speech, that perhaps you may say—what you meant —what the foremost purpose was in both cases?"
"I meant my Springfield speech to be an historical statement of the position of the two parties and their tendencies and aims in the past and for the future. In this respect it differed from the Nashville speech, which was made to persuade the people of the south, especially of Tennessee, that their material interests would be promoted by the policy of the Republican party."
"Do you find anything in the Springfield speech to moderate or modify?"