52 THEY DAMAGE THE REPUBLICAN CAUSE. 



erally at a very safe distance in tlie rear ; some of them on sutlers' 

 wagons ; some bearing cotton permits ; some of them looking sharj)ly 

 to see what might turn Tip ; and they remain there. They at once 

 ingratiated themselves with the Blacks, simple, credulous, ignorant 

 men, very glad to welcome and to follow any Whites who professed 

 to be the champions of th^ir rights. Some of them got elected Sena- 

 tors, others Representatives, some Sheriffs, some Judges, and so on. 

 And there they stand, right in the public eye, stealing and plunder- 

 ing, many of them with both arms around negroes, and their hands 

 in their rear pockets, seeing if they cannot pick a paltry dollar out 

 of them ; and the public looks at them, does not regard the honest 

 Northei-n men, but calls eveiy " carpet-bagger" a thief, which is not 

 the truth by a good deal. But these fellows — many of them long- 

 faced, and with eyes rolled up, are greatly concerned for the educa- 

 tion of the Blacks, and for the salvation of their souls. [Great 

 laughter.] " Let us pray," they say ; but they spell pray with an 

 "e," and, thus spelled, they obey the apostolic injunction to "pray 

 without ceasing." 



Fellow-citizens, the time has been, and still is, when it was 

 perilous to be known as a Republican or an Abolitionist in the 

 South ; but it never called the blush of shame to any man's cheek to 

 be so called, until these thieving carpet-baggers went there — never ! 

 [Applause.] They got into the Legislatures; they went to issuing 

 State-bonds ; they pretended to tise them in aid of railroads and 

 other improvements. But the improvements were not made, and 

 the bonds stuck in the issuers' pockets. That is the pity of it. 



"Well," some say, "you have just such thieves at the North." 

 Yes, we have — too many of them! [Applause.] But the South 

 was already impoverished — was bankrupt — without money, without 

 thrift, almost without food ; and these fellows went there robbing 

 and swindling when there was very little to steal, and taking the 

 last ten-cent shin-plaster off of dead men's eyes. They were recog- 

 nized by the late aristocracy not merely as thieves but as enemies. 

 Says Byi'on's Greek minstrel, 



" A tyrant — but our masters then 

 Were still at least our countrymen. " 



Thus we regard the men who annually rob us at Albany, at 

 Trenton, and at Harrisburg. They do not carry their plunder out 

 of the State when they get any. These fellows do ! The South 



