Speeches of Benjamin Harrison, Twenty-third President of the United States — John Shaqi
Speeches of Benjamin Harrison, Twenty-third President of the United StatesHarrison, Benjamin
History
Speeches of Benjamin Harrison, Twenty-third President of the United States
Harrison, Benjamin
Harrison, Benjamin, 1833-1901; Speeches, addresses, etc., American; United States -- Politics and government
we can, upon this question, arouse the indignant protest of the North,
and unite our efforts in a determination that those who perpetrate
these wrongs against popular suffrage shall not by means of those
wrongs seat a President in Washington to secure the Federal patronage
in a State, we shall have done much to bring this wrong to an end. But
at least while we are protesting by representatives from our State
Department at Washington against wrongs perpetrated in Russia against
the Jew, and in our popular assemblies here against the wrongs which
England has inflicted upon Ireland, shall we not at least in reference
to this gigantic and intolerable wrong in our own country, as a party,
lift up a stalwart and determined protest against it?
But some of these independent journalists, about which our friend
MacMillan talked, call this the "bloody shirt." They say we are trying
to revive the strife of the war, to rake over the extinct embers, to
kindle the fire again. I want it understood that for one I have no
quarrel with the South for what took place between 1861 and 1865. I am
willing to forget that they were rebels, at least as soon as they are
willing to forget it themselves, and that time does not seem to have
come yet to them. But our complaint is against what was done in 1884,
not against what was done during the war. Our complaint is against
what will be done this year, not what was done between 1861 and 1865.
No bloody shirt--though that cry never had any terrors for me. I
believe we greatly underestimate the importance of bringing the issue
to the front, and with that oft-time Republican courage and outspoken
fidelity to truth denouncing it the land over. If we cannot do
anything else we can either make these people ashamed of this outrage
against the ballot or make the world ashamed of them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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