Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 September 1871 — Gen. Noyes’ Speech. [ARTICLE]

Gen. Noyes’ Speech.

The Republican nominee for Governor of Ohio made a brilliant speech at Columbus recently, in which he ably summed up and reviewed the history of the Republican party, and then gave his views on the propriety of granting amnesty to the exrebels, as follows: “We want the hatreds and animosities engendered by the war to die away, and the South once more to start on Us career of prosperity and happiness. To this end I am inclined to think that the true policy of the Administration and of Congress would be the grant of general amnesty to all the excepted classes, for the reason that many of those now under disabilities are as loyal as those who have all their civil rights without restriction, while some of the latter class are notoriously disloyal. Few people 1 know how many or what persons are now excepted from the privileges which amnesty confers, and we lose the benefit of what might otherwise prove exemplary punishment. • It would, as it seems to me, be better to exclude from the provisions of general amnesty such persons, by name, as have persistently refused to accept the situation, and who decline to adapt themselves to the changed condition of affairs—such men as Davis and Toombs, and Stephens—prominent persons, who still declare that nothing has been settled by the war; who openly threaten to renew the attempt at secession whenever opportunity pretents, itself, .and whq refuse to wash from their hands the blood of their old treason. This would he a significant, warning to ovil-dosrs, as well aseieoognt-1

tion and encouragement of those who era well disposed.” Gen. Noves dwelt severely on Ihe Democratic Ku Klux outrages at the Booth, and alluded In the following forcible language to the Democratic rioters in the city of New York: “ And, my friends, the same spirit of intolerance, mean prejudice and disloyalty which has wrought such fearful work in the South, recently developed itself in the New York riots. Here let me not be misunderstood. I hold no man, or clast of men, of whatever nationality, religions or political preferences, responsible for these riots, provided that man or class of men discouraged them beforehand and denounced them afterwards. Bnt there are two classes who cannot be sufficiently held up to the public reprobation and scorn—the rioters themselves, and the cowardly, pusillanimous and weak politicians, who, for political ends, in disregard of their bublie duties, and in violation of their official oaths, permitted one of the most disgraceflil breaches of the peace which has occurred in the history of this country. We have no safety in this country but in absolute freedom for all men of whatever creed or nation. The end of free institutions is not far off when it shall come to pass that the representatives of whatever belief cannot peacably pass along over streets, to go whithersoever they will. I am glad to observe that the great mass of our foreign-born population in Ohio regard the toleration of such riots as fraught with great danger to all classes and conditions.” Gen. rtoyes snowed that the Democracy were not sincere in their so-called “ new departure," but that General McCook rather gloried in his opposition to the liberty-protecting amendments, though in answer to a direct question, put to him at Chardon, Ohio, he seemed to place himself pretty squarely on the Republican platform. Such acquiescence is not positive, honest or reliable. The Republican party goes before the people with no uncertainty in its position on this vital matter. Liberty and suffrage have been given to all men without distinction of class or color, and such gifts ones bestowed can never be taken back. To do so would be to make a revolution such as the world has never known. His closing plea for the Republican party is so eloquent and appropriate that we append a paragraph or two from it, as follows: “Shall we desert the party which saved the republic in time of war, and which has assured prosperity and happiness in time of peace, to place in the control of affairs the very men who sympathized with treason during all our bloody struggle, and whose highest pleasure since the close of the rebellion has been to embarrass the government and excite sectional hostility and social discord T whose triumph would result in the ruin of our national credit, now firmly established; in the assumption of heavy burdens of debt in order to conciliate Southern sentiment and to secure Southern support; in the success of reactionary tendencies, utterly opposed to the true spirit of progress and the advance of liberal ideas. “If the Republican party, on the other hand, shall be continued in power, everything promises well for the future. The tide of emigration is setting rapidly from the shores of either ocean; railroads and telegraphs, more potent than constitutions and laws, are binding the States inseparably together; the forests of the far West are giving away to fields of wheat and broad acres of waving oorn; the enter) prise and capital of the North and East are finding their way to the neglected plantations of the South; education and intelligence are being diffused among the masses ; our mechanical inventions are rapidly multiplying and making labor easy; the refinements of civilization are beautifying our social life; the national resources are being developed, wealth is accumulating, comfort and contentment fill all our homes, labor is rewarded as nowhere else, and tflere is work for all to da We may congratulate ourselves that the civil war which for four years desolated the land has left us more prosperous and happy than ever before. Grateful for the blessing's of free institutions, and for the abundance with .which our lives are crowned, we look trustfully to the future. Remembering the glorious conditions of our State, and the great names whose lives adorn the history of Ohio, the wise counsels of her statesmen, and the brave deeds of her soldiers—having confidence in the patriotism of her people, and faith in the Providence which overrules us, we dare to hope for the success of such principles, now and hereafter, and will insure prosperitv, and wealth, and happiness to that posterity whose inheritance we have helped to secure.”