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[111] the highest pitch of feeling. Mr. Garrison quoted, as the1 most effective reply possible to Mr. Phillips's present attacks on the President, from speeches which his colaborer had made in 1861 and 1862, before either proclamation of emancipation had been issued, and in which he had repeatedly praised Lincoln as in advance of public sentiment, and declared himself satisfied with the rapid progress of events. Passing from these, he replied specifically to Phillips's current criticisms and complaints, expressing his conviction that the people could not do better, politically speaking, than to reelect Lincoln, and that they ought, as a matter of justice and to vindicate the democratic principle, to keep him in office until he should be the acknowledged President of the whole United States. He also animadverted upon the Convention which was to meet in Cleveland the following week,2 to nominate Fremont for the Presidency:
Gen. Fremont, as yet, has not shown a single State, a single3 county, a single town or hamlet in his support. Who represents him from Massachusetts, on the call for the Cleveland Convention? Two men, both non-voters, I believe, and neither of4 them has a particle of political influence. Now I call that the step from the sublime to the ridiculous. Is that the best Massachusetts can do for Fremont? For, remember, I am speaking now of the “coming man” in the next election, who is to run Abraham Lincoln off the track. If I were speaking on a moral issue, I should speak in a very different manner of those whose names appear on that call; for the man who stands alone in a moral cause, though all the world be against him, if God be for him, stands in a majority, and is conqueror. But when you come to politics, that is another sphere. Then you must have5 men and money; then you must have votes; then you must have something of political influence and respectability. But, with one exception, the signers to the call for the Cleveland6 Convention have not one ounce of political weight in this country.

Mr. President, we are getting on well. We are to have all our friends contend for, in the end. There is no difference among us in this respect. We all go for equal rights, without regard to race or color. We have not relaxed our vigilance or

1 Lib. 34.94.

2 May 31, 1864.

3 Lib. 34.94.

4 S. S. Foster, Karl Heinzen.

5 Cf. ante, 2.436.

6 B. Gratz Brown.

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