At an impromptu meeting for congratulation, on the evening of
the Presidential election, as the votes were announced, there
were speeches by Mr. Hooper, Mr. Sumner, Dr. Loring, Mr. Rice,
and Mr. Everett. Mr. Sumner spoke as follows.
FELLOW-CITIZENS,--The trumpet of victory is now sounding through the
land, “Glory, Hallelujah!” [_Loud cheers._] It is the silver trumpet
of an archangel, echoing in valleys, traversing mountains, and filling
the whole country with immortal melodies, destined to awaken other
echoes in the most distant places [_cheers_], as it proclaims “Liberty
throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof.” [_Great
applause._]
Such is the victory we celebrate, marking an epoch in our history and
in the history of the world. But beyond immediate victory are two
things not usually occurring together,--a funeral and a birth. [_Great
laughter and applause._] The funeral we celebrate is of the Democratic
party, which we bury to-night with all the dishonors that belong to it.
Loathsome with corruption while still above ground, let it be hurried
out of sight, where it will no longer be a nuisance. [_Tremendous
cheering._]
The Democratic party had ceased to be patriotic. It was in sympathy
with the Rebellion, so much so as to be its _Northern wing_. Such a
party could not exist in a country that had determined to exist. It was
an outrage and a shame, and hereafter it can never be mentioned except
with judgment. [_Cries of “That’s so!” and cheers._]
The extent of its degradation is seen in the frauds it has perpetrated
to influence this election. Nothing so mean as these. Fraud is always
odious; but it becomes more so in proportion to the occasion on which
it is employed. It is odious in small things,--doubly odious in greater
things. To cheat one man is crime; to cheat a whole class of men is
greater far. But if these men be citizen soldiers fighting for their
country, and it is proposed to cheat them of their votes by barefaced
fraud, I know no language to depict the despicable and most intolerable
enormity of the offence. And yet this is the fraud attempted,--happily
the last and dying fraud of the Democratic party. [_Applause._] Do you
inquire the origin of this fraud, and its vicious energy? I answer, It
is Slavery. Men who make up their minds to sustain Slavery stick at
nothing. If willing to forge chains, they will not hesitate to forge
votes. If ready to enslave their fellow-men, they will not hesitate to
cheat soldiers. Therefore all these recent frauds are derived naturally
out of that baseness and insensibility to right bred of Slavery.
[_Applause._] But these frauds testify against the Democratic party,
that undertook to perpetrate them.
There was an English monarch, whose head, as it dropped from the block,
was held up to the people, while a voice cried, “This is the head of a
traitor!” Thus do I hold up the head of the Democratic party, and say,
“This is the head of a traitor!” Let it be buried out of sight, and let
the people dance at its funeral. [_Tremendous applause._]
I have said that we celebrate a birth, as well as a funeral. The birth
is the new life of our country, born to-day into assured freedom, with
all its attendant glory. The voice of the people at the ballot-box
has echoed back that great letter of the President, “To whom it may
concern” [_laughter and loud cheers_], declaring the integrity of the
Union and the abandonment of Slavery the two essential conditions of
peace. [_Loud applause._] Let the glad tidings go forth, “to whom
it may concern,”--to all the people of the United States, at length
now made wholly free,--to foreign countries,--to the whole family of
man,--to posterity,--to the martyred band who have fallen in battle
for their country,--to the angels above,--ay, and to the devils
below,--that this Republic shall live, for Slavery is dead. This is
the great joy we now announce to the world. [_Here there was a perfect
torrent of approving cheers._]
From this time forward, the Rebellion is subdued. Patriot Unionists in
the Rebel States, take courage! Freedmen, slaves no longer, be of good
cheer! The hour of deliverance has arrived. [_Renewed cheering._]