George S. Boutwell

“ More than all else, and as the culmination of all else, we have demonstrated the practicability of a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. All this has been made possible by and through a system of universal public education—a system which taxes the whole people, and educates the whole people in good learning, and in the cardinal virtues which adorn, dignify and elevate the individual man and furnish the only security for progressive, successful, illustrious national life. ”

“ After the overthrow of slavery and the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, Mr. Sumner gave no wise aid to the work of reconstructing the government upon the basis of the new conditions that had been created by the war and by the abolition of slavery. As every guarantee for freedom contains some element of enslavement over or against some who are not within the guarantee, men sometimes hesitate as to the wisdom of accepting guarantees of rights in one direction which work a limitation of rights or privileges in other directions. ”

“ Therefore I say that by the reconstruction some men desire you render secession certain, bankruptcy throughout the North certain. The repudiation of the Public Debt is not a matter of expectation or fear, it is a matter of certainty, if you assent to any reconstruction of this Union through the instrumentality of Jefferson Davis and his associates. You must either drive them into exile or exterminate them. Break down the military power of the people, and exterminate or exile their leaders, and bring up men at the South in favor of the Union—there is no other way of security to yourselves. ”

“ The corruption of our political maxims has relaxed the tone of public morals and degraded the public authorities from terror to the accomplices of evil-doers. Platforms for fools— plunder for thieves—offices for service—power for ambition—unity in these essentials—diversity in the immaterial matters of policy and legislation—charity for every frailty—the voice of the people is the voice of God—these maxims have sunk into the public mind; have presided at the administration of public affairs, have almost effaced the very idea of public duty. ”

“ Next to the restoration of the Union and the abolition of slavery the recognition of universal suffrage is the most important result of the war. It has its evils but they are incidental, and their influence is limited to times and places, while the advantages are universal and enduring. Universal suffrage is security for universal education. It is security against chronic hostility to the Government and security against the manifestation of a revolutionary spirit among the people. They realize that with frequent elections, the evils of administration may be corrected speedily. ”

“ The rebels of the South have some cause. They believe in the institution of slavery,—they have been educated under its influence. They thought it in peril. They made war with some pretence on their part for a reason for war, but what excuse, what palliation is there for those men in the North, who, regardless of liberty, of justice, and of humanity, ally themselves, openly some and secretly others, with the enemies of the Republic? ”

“ It is a maxim of another language, which we may well apply to ourselves, that, where the voting-register ends, the military roster of rebellion begins; and, if you leave these four million people to the care and custody of the men who have inaugurated and carried on this rebellion, then you treasure up, for untold years, the elements of social and civil war, which must not only desolate and paralyze the South, but shake this government to its very foundation. ”

“ GENERAL GRANT AS A MAN AND A FRIEND The simplicity of General Grant's nature, his frankness in all his intercourse with his fellow men, his freedom from duplicity were not touched unfavorably in any degree by his rapid advancement from the ordinary pursuits of ordinary men to the highest places in military and civil life. There was never in his career any ostentatious display of power, never any exercise of wanton or unnecessary authority. ”

“ Freedom of opinion and freedom of speech are of more value than public office. The movement for the reform of the civil service is, in its best aspect, but an attempt to rescue the body of office holders from the tyranny and discipline of party and of party leaders. Thus much upon public grounds, but, for myself, I shall not seek protection under a general policy. ”

“ I cannot imagine that in a hundred years this anniversary, in its organization and conduct, will be thought worthy of imitation. Let us imagine, or rather indulge the hope that then all the States of the south and the north, from the Arctic Seas to Patagonia, will be united in a national and international celebration in recognition of an event that has increased twofold the possibilities, comfort and happiness of the human race. ”

“ An armistice, according to its general acceptation and use, implies a suspension of hostilities upon the expectation and condition that they are to be resumed; and if hostilities are not to be resumed then a cessation of hostilities is an abandonment of the Government. It is treason. (Voices—"That's so," and loud and continued cheers.) I declare here that the proposition for a cessation of hostilities is moral and political treason (voices— "Good") ; and, further, every man who knowingly and after investigation, and upon his judgment favors a cessation of hostilities, is a traitor. ”

“ Lincoln did not live to see the consummation of his great undertaking, in the cause of Freedom, but the work of ratification by the States was accelerated by his death, and on the 18th day of December, 1865, Mr. Seward, then Secretary of State of the United States, made proclamation that the amendment had been ratified by twenty-seven of the thirty-six States then composing the Union, and that slavery and involuntary servitude were from that time and forever forth impossible within our limits. Such was then the universal opinion in all America. ”

“ I ask these men here, who cheered the resolution adopted at Chicago, whether they, men of Massachusetts, and in Faneuil Hall, will say, one of them, with his face to the patriots of the Revolution—will say that he asks for peace through any craven spirit that is within him? Is there a man among them all, from whatsoever quarter of this city, renowned in history—is there a man of them all who will stand here and say he is for the cessation of hostilities? If so, let him speak, and let him, if he dare, come upon this platform and face his patriotic fellow-citizens. ”

“ God cannot pardon me if I have done wrong, yet I cannot see my wrong except in serving a degenerate people. The little, the very little I left behind to clear my name, the Government will not allow to be printed. So ends all. For my country I have given up all that makes life sweet and holy, brought misery upon my family, and am sure there is no pardon for me in Heaven since man so condemns me. ”

“ We do not deceive ourselves, when we claim for the United States the first place among the states on this continent. We are the first of American states in population, in wealth, in our system of public instruction, in our means of professional and technical education, in the application of science to the practical purposes of life, and finally, in experience and success in the business of government. ”

“ The power may be abused as every power may be, in the hands of dishonest or corrupt men. This is one of the perils to the public, a peril from which no government can escape. With us a change of rulers is a remedy for political wrongs that do not belong to the catalogue of crimes. It may be said, however, that this power of removal gives to a dishonest administrator of a department the opportunity to secure the appointment of his political friends in the place of political opponents removed, and this whatever may be the method of appointment. ”

“ I am glad to know that you contemplate the army for a pursuit. Our people will in the end surrender all business except that of the war, and that which pertains to the war. Our country is in a sad condition. It is already clear that the influence of France and England is against us. How sadly all our anticipations in regard to the war have failed us,—the insurrection of the blacks, the material deficiencies of the South, their want of men, and worst of all the friendship or the indifference of England. ”

“ If the negroes in America are entitled to freedom from a state of subserviency, are not the colored races in the Philippines entitled to freedom, and that whether they are under the Constitution or beyond its jurisdiction?
You are called to a choice between the doctrines of Nathan Dane and Abraham Lincoln on one side and the doctrines and policy of President McKinley and his supporters on the other side. The point I make is this: The three propositions cannot stand together. Dane and Lincoln are in harmony. They guaranteed equality and self-government to all. ”

“ If, before the war, any man in this country was disposed to undervalue a government thus conducted, he should have learned by this time the wisdom and strength of a government which embraces and embodies the judgment and the will of the whole people. ”

“ There are occasions which confer greatness upon an orator. Such are revolutionary periods, the overthrow of states, radical changes in a long-settled public policy, struggles for power, empire, dominion. These and kindred exigencies in the affairs of men and states, seem to create, or at least to furnish opportunity and scope for, statesmen, orators, poets and soldiers. ”

“ At the end of each coming century, and for many centuries, no one can foresay how many, millions on millions in the Americas and in Europe will unite in rendering tribute of praise to the enthusiast and adventurer whose limited ambitions for himself were never realized, but who opened to mankind the opportunity to found states freed from the domination of the church and churches freed from the domination of the state. ”

“ After reading the despatch, the President turned to his maps and traced the line of Grant's movements as he then understood and comprehended those movements. That night the President became cheerful, his voice took on a new tone—a tone of relief, of exhilaration—and it was evident that his faith in our ultimate success had been changed into absolute confidence. In the dark days of 1862 he had never despaired of the Republic, when others faltered, he was undismayed. He put aside the suggestion of Mr. Seward that he should surrender the chief prerogative of his office ”