You cannot make it, as the Democratic party does, by passing a resolution.
If your father voted the Democratic ticket, that is disgrace enough for one family. Tell the old man you can stand it no longer. Tell the old gentleman that you have made up your mind to stand with the party of human progress; and if he asks you why you cannot vote the Democratic ticket you tell him: "Every man that tried to destroy the Government, every man that shot at the holy flag in heaven, every man that starved our soldiers, every keeper of Libby, Andersonville and Salisbury, every man that wanted to burn the negro, every one that wanted to scatter yellow fever in the North, every man that opposed human liberty, that regarded the auction-block as an altar and the howling of the bloodhound as the music of the Union, every man who wept over the corpse of slavery, that thought lashes on the naked back were a legal tender for labor performed, every one willing to rob a mother of her child—every solitary one was a Democrat."
Tell him you cannot stand that party. Tell him you have to go with the Republican party, and if he asks you why, tell him it destroyed slavery, it preserved the Union, it paid the national debt; it made our credit as good as that of any nation on the earth.
Tell him it makes every dollar in a four per cent, bond worth a dollar and ten cents; that it satisfies the demands of the highest civilization. Tell the old man that the Republican party preserved the honor of the Nation; that it believes in education; that it looks upon the schoolhouse as a cathedral. Tell him that the Republican party believes in absolute intellectual liberty; in absolute religious freedom; in human rights, and that human rights rise above States. Tell him that the Republican party believes in humanity, justice, human equality, and that the Republican party believes this is a Nation and will be forever and ever; that an honest ballot is the breath of the Republic's life; that honest money is the blood of the Republic; and that nationality is the great throbbing beat of the heart of the Republic. Tell him that. And tell him that you are going to stand by the flag that the patriots of the North carried upon the battle-field of death. Tell him you are going to be true to the martyred dead; that you are going to vote exactly as Lincoln would have voted were he living. Tell him that if every traitor dead were living now, there would issue from his lips of dust, "Hurrah for Hancock!" that could every patriot rise, he would cry for Garfield and liberty; for union and for human progress everywhere. Tell him that the South seeks to secure by the ballot what it lost by the bayonet; to whip by the ballot those who fought it in the field. But we saved the country; and we have the heart and brains to take care of it. I will tell you what we are going to do. We are going to treat them in the South just as well as we treat the people in the North. Victors cannot afford to have malice. The North is too magnanimous to have hatred. We will treat the South precisely as we treat the North. There are thousands of good people there. Let us give them money to improve their rivers and harbors; I want to see the sails of their commerce filled with the breezes of prosperity; their fences rebuilt; their houses painted. I want to see their towns prosperous; I want to see schoolhouses in every town; I want to see books in the hands of every child, and papers and magazines in every house; I want to see all the rays of light, of civilization of the nineteenth century, enter every home of the South; and in a little while you will see that country full of good Republicans. We can afford to be kind; we cannot afford to be unkind.
I will shake hands cordially with every believer in human liberty; I will shake hands with every believer in Nationality; I will shake hands with every man who is the friend of the human race. That is my doctrine. I believe in the great Republic; in this magnificent country of ours. I believe in the great people of the United States. I believe in the muscle and brain of America, in the prairies and forests. I believe in New York. I believe in the brains of your city. I believe that you know enough to vote the Republican ticket. I believe that you are grand enough to stand by the country that has stood by you. But whatever you do, I never shall cease to thank you for the great honor you have conferred upon me this day.
Note.—This being a newspaper report it is necessarily
incomplete.
BROOKLYN SPEECH.
* The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher and Colonel Robert G.
Ingersoll spoke from the same platform last night, and the
great preacher introduced the great orator and free-thinker
to the grandest political audience that was ever assembled
in Brooklyn. The reverend gentleman presided over the
Republican mass meeting held in the Academy of Music. When
he introduced Ingersoll he did it with a warmth and
earnestness of compliment that brought the six thousand
lookers-on to their feet to applaud. When the expounder of
the Gospel of Christ took the famous atheist by the hand,
and shook it fervently, saying that while he respected and
honored him for the honesty of his convictions and his
splendid labors for patriotism and the country, the
enthusiasm knew no bounds, and the great building trembled
and vibrated with the storm of applause. With such a scene
to harmonize the multitude at the outstart it is not strange
that the meeting continued to the end such a one as has no
parallel even in these days of feverish political excitement
and turmoil. The orator spoke in his best vein and his
audience was responsive to the wonderful magical spell of
his eloquence. And when his last glowing utterance had lost
its echo in the wild storm of applause that rewarded him at
the close, Mr. Beecher again stepped forward and, as if to
emphasize the earnestness of his previous compliments,
proposed a vote of thanks to the distinguished speaker. The
vote was a roar of affirmation, whose voice was not stronger
when Mr. Ingersoll in turn called upon the audience to give
three cheers for the great preacher. They were given, and
repeated three times over. Men waved their ats and
umbrellas, ladies, of whom there were many hundreds present,
waved their handkerchiefs, and men, strangers to each other,
shook hands with the fervency of brotherhood. It was indeed
a strange scene, and the principal actors in it seemed not
less than the most wildly excited man there to appreciate
its peculiar import and significance. Standing at the front
of the stage, underneath a canopy of nags, at either side
great baskets of flowers, they clasped each other's hands,
and stood thus for several minutes, while the excited
thousands cheered themselves hoarse and applauded wildly.
As Mr. Beecher began to speak, however, the applause that
broke out was deafening.
In substance Mr. Beecher spoke as follows:—"I am not
accustomed to preside at meetings like this; only the
exigency of the times could induce me to do It. I am not
here either to make a speech, but more especially to
introduce the eminent orator of the evening. * * * I stand
not as a minister, but as a man among men, pleading the
cause of fellowship and equal rights. We are not here as
mechanics, as artists, merchants, or professional men, but
as fellow-citizens. The gentleman who will speak to-night is
in no Conventicle or Church. He is to speak to a great body
of citizens, and I take the liberty of saying that I respect
him as the man that for a full score and more of years has
worked for the right in the great, broad field of humanity,
and for the cause of human rights. I consider it an honor to
extend to him, as I do now, the warm, earnest, right hand of
fellowship." (As Mr. Beecher said this he turned to Mr.
Ingersoll and extended his hand. The palms of the two men
met with a clasp that was heard all over the house, and was
the signal for tumultuous cheering and applause, which
continued for several minutes.)
"I now introduce to you," continued Mr. Beecher, leading Mr.
Ingersoll forward, "a man who—and I say it not
flatteringly—is the most brilliant speaker of the English
tongue of all men on this globe. But as under the brilliancy
of the blaze or light we find the living coals of fire,
under the lambent flow of his wit and magnificent antithesis
we find the glorious flame of genius and honest thought.
Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Ingersoll."—New York Herald,
October 81st, 1880.