SPEECH AT THE FLAG-RAISING OF THE GRANT AND COLFAX CLUB, IN WARD SIX,
BOSTON, ON THE EVENING OF SEPTEMBER 14, 1868.
I find a special motive for being here to-night in the circumstance
that this is the ward where I was born and have always voted, and where
I expect to vote at the coming election. Here I voted twice for Abraham
Lincoln, and here I expect to vote for Grant and Colfax. According
to familiar phrase, this is my ward. This, also, is my Congressional
District. Though representing the Commonwealth in the Senate, I am
not without a representative in the other House. Your Congressional
representative is my representative. Therefore I confess a peculiar
interest in this ward and this district.
In hanging out the national flag at the beginning of the campaign,
you follow the usage of other times; but to my mind it is peculiarly
appropriate at the present election. The national flag is the emblem
of loyalty, and the very question on which you are to vote in the
present election is whether loyalty or rebellion shall prevail. It is
whether the national flag shall wave gloriously over a united people
in the peaceful enjoyment of Equal Rights for All, or whether it shall
be dishonored by traitors. This is the question. Under all forms of
statement or all resolutions, it comes back to this. As during the war
all of you voted for the national flag, while some carried it forward
in the face of peril, so now all of you must vote for it, and be ready
to carry it forward again, if need be, in the face of peril.
As loyalty is the distinctive characteristic of our party, so is
disloyalty the distinctive characteristic of the opposition. I would
not use too strong language, or go beyond the strictest warrant of
facts; but I am obliged to say that we cannot recognize the opposition
at this time as anything else but the Rebel Party in disguise, or the
Rebel Party under the _alias_ of Democracy. The Rebels have taken the
name of Democrats, and with this historic name hope to deceive people
into their support. But, whatever name they adopt, they are the same
Rebels who, after defeat on many bloody fields, at last surrendered to
General Grant, and, by the blessing of God and the exertions of the
good people, will surrender to him again.
I am unwilling to call such a party democratic. It is not so in any
sense. It is not so according to the natural meaning of the term, for
a Democrat is a friend of popular rights; nor is it so according to
the examples of our history, for all these disown the policy of the
opposition. Thomas Jefferson was an original Democrat; but he drew with
his own hand the Declaration of Independence, which announces that
all men are equal in rights, and that just government stands only on
the consent of the governed. Andrew Jackson was another Democrat; but
he put down South Carolina treason with a strong hand, and gave the
famous toast, “The Union, it must be preserved.” These were Democrats,
representative Democrats, boldly announcing the Equal Rights of All
and the Unity of the Nation. Thus looking at the word, in its natural
bearing or in the great examples of our history, we find it entirely
inapplicable to a party which denies equal rights and palters with
Rebellion itself. Such a party is the Rebel Party, and nothing else;
and this is the name by which it should be known.
Look at the history of their leaders,--Rebels all, Rebels all. I
mention those only who take an active part. A party, like a man, is
known by the company it keeps. What a company! Here is Forrest, with
the blood of Fort Pillow still dripping from his hands; Semmes, fresh
from the Alabama, glorying in his piracies on our commerce; Wade
Hampton, the South Carolina slave-master and cavalry officer of the
Rebellion; Beauregard, the Rebel general, who telegraphed for the
execution of Abolition prisoners; Stephens, Toombs, and Cobb, a Georgia
triumvirate of Rebels; and at the head of this troop is none other than
Horatio Seymour of New York, who, without actually enlisting in the
Rebellion, dallied with it, and addressed its fiendish representatives
in New York as “friends.” A party with such leaders and such a chief is
the Rebel Party.
Such a party, so filled and permeated with treason, cannot utter any
shibboleth of loyalty. Every loyal word must stick in its throat, as
“Amen” stuck in the throat of Macbeth, after the murder of his royal
guest. Therefore, I say again, let it be called the Rebel Party. This
is a truthful designation, stamping upon the party its real character.
By this name I now summon it to judgment. If I could make my voice
heard over the Republic, it should carry everywhere this just summons.
It should go forth from this schoolhouse, traversing the land, echoing
from valley to valley, from village to village, from town to town, and
warning all who love their country against a party which is nothing but
a continuation of the Rebellion. How can such a party pretend to hang
out the national flag? I do not wonder that its Presidential candidate
has cried out in his distress, “Press the financial question!” Yes,
press anything to make the country forget the disloyalty of the
party,--anything to divert attention from the national flag, which they
would dishonor. But on the financial question, as everywhere else, they
are disloyal. Repudiation is disloyalty, early taught by Jefferson
Davis in his own State, and now adopted by the Rebel Party, North and
South.
Here I come back to the point with which I began. Hang out the national
flag! It is the flag of our country, our whole country, beaming
with all its inseparable stars, and proclaiming in all its folds
the strength, the glory, and the beauty of Union. Let that flag be
the light to your footsteps. _By this conquer!_ And surely you will
conquer. The people are not ready to join with Rebels or submit to
Rebel yoke. They will stand by the flag at the ballot-box, as they
stood by it on the bloody field. History has recorded the triumphant
election of Abraham Lincoln, as the representative of Loyalty against
Rebellion. Thank God, it will soon make the same joyful record with
regard to Grant and Colfax, the present representatives of Loyalty
against Rebellion.
Every man must do his duty, each in his way, according to his
ability,--some by voice, and others by efforts of a different kind,
but all must work and vote. The cause is that of our country and its
transcendent future, pictured in the flag. And permit me to remind you
that our Congressional District has obligations it cannot forget. It
must be true to itself and to its own example. At the last Presidential
election there was a report, which travelled all the way to Washington,
that ours was a doubtful district. On the evening of the election,
as soon as the result was known, I had the happiness of telegraphing
to the President that in this district the majority was some five
thousand for himself and Mr. Hooper. It so happened that it was the
first despatch received from any quarter announcing the triumph of that
great day. On reading it, the President remarked, with his humorous
point: “Five thousand majority! If this is a specimen of the doubtful
districts, what may we expect of the whole country?” This victory must
be repeated. There must be another five thousand majority; and let
General Grant, like Abraham Lincoln, measure from our majority the
majorities throughout the country, giving assurance that the Rebel
Party is defeated and utterly routed in its last desperate struggle.
This is Beacon Hill, the highest point of Boston, where in early days
were lighted the beacon fires which flashed over the country. The fires
which we light on Beacon Hill will be of congratulation and joy.