Presidential election, 1872.: Proceedings of the National union Republican convention held at Philadelphia, June 5 and 6, 1872 .../ Reported by Francis H. Smith, Official reporter.

- PHILADELPHIA, 1872. 17
country, in favor of the nominees of this Convention, and in November, when the
votes are counted, I have no doubt whatever that General Grant and his associate
will be re-elected, and that the Republican party and principles will be established
for the next four years. God grant it may be so. [Applause.]
General SHELBY M. CULLOM, of Illinois, in behalf of the Illinois delegaILon, asked that Governor RICHARD J. OGLESBY, of Illinois, be invited to
address the Convention. [Loud cries of "Oglesby!" "Oglesby!"]
Governor OGLESBY appeared upon the platform and addressed the
Convention as follows:
SPEECH OF GOVERNOR OGLESBY.
hear. President and Gentlemen of the Convention: I have been listening for nearly
two hours to'somle of the best speeches that have been made for a long time. You have
first been entertained by the excellent and forcible speech of the temporary president
of the Conventibn. After that you listened to the solemn words of invocation-one
of the noblest and most fervent prayers that has ever been uttered in this city
or this nation. You listened then to the Senator from Illinois, (General Logan,)
who spoke for a few moments, and again to the Senator from Indiana, (Governor
Morton,) who spoke at some length; but greatest and best of all, especially to those
of us who never before have listened to his great words, we heard from that venerable,
sublime man, of New York, who stood before us the impersonation of American
dignity and American benevolence. [Great applause.]
I thought as the golden words fell from that oracle, that grand old agitator, how
happy he must now be to realize the results of his long years of labor, when you and
I were young and useless, as he saw before him here these colored men, redeemed
and elevated to the high plateau of American- freemen. [Renewed applause.]
The honorable Gerritt Smith has not only been a great instrument in the hands of
God, before these American people, in lifting up this down-trodden and abused race,
but he has taught you and me a little sense-to know and respect their rights.
[Cheers.]
Why, this Republican party, as Senator Morton has said, is nothing more nor less
than this great Republic. Without the Republican party the Republic would be
nothing. [Cheers and cries of assent.] It has elevated us in the eyes of the world,
in my opinion, to that high mark in American politics that no other party preceding it has, in our political history, ever attained before. In this convention to-dayneither a constitutional nor unconstitutional, but rather extra-constitutional bodythe representatives of the outspoken sentiments of the respective States, speaking
here for the whole people, that mighty tribunal before which politicians quake and
tremble, come to record the solemn verdict of the Republican party of the United
States. [Tremendous applause.] It is a solemn, grand result.
That little man, who but a few years ago was as unknown to fame and to this country
as that poor colored man now redeemed and sitting in your midst; the young man
who passed through West Point unnoticed, who passed through the Mexican war in
the same way, unnoticed retired to private life.' You and I know that among all
the great names but a few years ago, this little man's name, Ulysses S. Grant, was unknown. I] felt deeply grieved the other day by that great Senator from one of our
grand States-that noble State that shines like a diamond on the Atlantic coast-that
noble State which rocked the cradle of American liberty-that noble State that has
ever stood first in behalf of human liberty-I felt really aggrieved in my own soul
when I heard the voice, the grand, potent voice of the Senator from Massachusetts
speak in such disrespectful language regarding the President, pronouncing against that
man violent and disrespectful epithets, culminating with the weak, almost imbecile,
charge that he was a tanner. What has been the history of General Grant? He
went a stranger to West Point. He bore the ensign of his country as a subaltern officer iln the Mexican war. He retired from the army and went into the ranks of private life, and, as an American citizen ought to do, when the hour came for him to
support his wife and children, he went to work like an honest man. [Applause.]
How came the American people to select him for their general? Can you tell;?
Can history tell? No; no man can tell, unless it is written upon the necessities of