to appear at the bar of your court. Fournier admitted that he was present at the first gathering that took place at the Jacobins; that from there he had gone to the Cordeliers, the place of the general meeting; that, at that meeting, there was a question of proceeding to ring the alarm-bell, to close the barriers, and to slaughter a number of the members of the convention. But because he stated that, in the scenes in which he had participated, he had not been animated by evil intentions; and,—as if to butcher a part of the convention had not been reputed as an evil, you set him at liberty by ordering that he should be heard later on as a witness, if it was thought best, before the Revolutionary Tribunal. It is as if in Rome the Senate had decreed that Lentulus might become a witness in the conspiracy of Catiline! This inconceivable weakness rendered powerless the sword of the law and taught your enemies that you were not to be dreaded by them. At once a new plot was formed which manifested itself by the constitution of this central committee which was to correspond with all the provinces. This plot was counteracted by the patriotism of the section du Mail, who denounced it to you; you ordered before your bar the members of this central committee; did they obey your decree? No. Who then are you? Have you ceased to be the representatives of the people? Where are the new men whom they have endowed with their almighty power? So they insult your decree; so you are shamefully bandied about from one plot to another. Pétion has let you into the secret of still another one. In the petition of the Halle-au-Blé, the dissolution of the National Convention is being arranged for, by accusing the majority of corruption; opprobrium is being poured upon them from full cups; the formal design is announced of changing the form of the government, inasmuch as they have made manifest that of concentrating the exercise of sovereign authority in the small number of men therein represented as the only ones worthy of public confidence. It is not a petition that is being submitted to your wisdom. These are supreme orders that they dare dictate to you. You are notified that it is for the last time that the truth is being told you; you are notified that you have but to choose between your expulsion, or bow to the law that is imposed on you. And on these insolent threats, on these burning insults, the order of the day or a simple disapproval is quietly proposed to you! And now then! how do you expect good citizens to stand by you, if you do not know how to sustain yourselves? Citizens! were you but simple individuals, I could say to you: "Are you cowards? Well, then; abandon yourselves to the chances of events; wait in your stupidity until your throats are cut or you are driven out." But there is here no question of your personal safety; you are the representatives of the people; the safety of the Republic is at stake; you are the depositaries of her liberty and of her glory. If you are dissolved, anarchy succeeds you, and despotism succeeds to anarchy. Any man conspiring against you is an ally of Austria. You are convinced of it, as you have decreed that he shall be punished by death. Do you wish to be consistent ? Cause your decrees to be carried out, or revoke them, or order the barriers of France to be opened to the Austrians and decree that you will be the slaves of the first robber who may wish to put his chains upon you. DANIEL W. VOORHEES (1827-1897) ANIEL WOLSEY VOORHEES, one of the most noted men of the Central West during the Civil War and Reconstruction period, was an orator of great if irregular power. With such a training as that of Chatham and Brougham, he might have attained the highest rank. Having an education in history and general literature which the circumstances of his early years rendered defective, he had nevertheless a native power of intellect which for twenty years made him one of the great forces of national politics. Born in Butler County, Ohio, September 26th, 1827, he began life as a lawyer at Covington, Indiana, in 1851. Elected to Congress in 1861, as a Democrat, he began at once those vehement but skillful attacks on Republican policies which won him his great reputation as a “Copperhead" and gave him enduring popularity with his Democratic constituents in Indiana. Elected to the United States Senate in 1877, he served continuously until his death, April 10th, 1897, doing a notable work in diverting the country from the sectional issues growing out of the Civil War. As a politician Voorhees ranks with Lincoln himself. The skill with which the Democratic minority at the North held its ground and, in spite of continual blunders in detail, finally made the advances of 1876, 1884, and 1892, has seldom been surpassed in the history of politics. SPEECH IN THE TILDEN CONVENTION (Delivered in the Democratic National Convention in St. Louis, My Fellow-Citizens of This Convention: I AM overwhelmed with gratitude to so many of my fellowcitizens of distinguished character from every part of the United States, who have done me the singular honor of calling for my presence on this occasion and under these circumstances. I cannot attribute it to anything in my humble career; I know not what to attribute it to, and I may say that at least for once in my life I am at a loss as to the manner in which I shall respond to such an overwhelming compliment as has been paid to me. I feel abashed in the presence of this mighty congregation of people who expect to hear my humble words. I am here with you, fellow-Democrats of the United States, for the exalted and patriotic purpose of endeavoring to redeem and wrench our country from the hands of despoilers and public plunderers. I am here with you for the purpose of trying to better unite the scattered, shattered, broken bands of our Union by gathering together in one mighty brotherhood, looking in each other's faces, renewing ancient friendship, steadying the column, turning its head towards victory and glory in the future as we have done in the past. We are entering upon a new century. Portions of the last century were full of glory. The closing years of our last century, however, have had tears and blood commingled, sorrow and gloom. The cypress of mourning has been in 'thousands of households, but with the coming of this new century there comes a new dispensation, the dawn of a revelation of glory such as shall eclipse the past years of the century that has gone by. Standing, as I do, one of the humble representatives of the great valley of the Mississippi, we stand in a central point to invoke union, to invoke harmony, to invoke a compromise of conflicting opinions in the Democratic ranks. There is nothing, my friends, in the differences and divergences of opinion in the Democratic party that cannot be honorably, easily, smoothly, and harmoniously adjusted, so that when the lines of battle are formed, there shall be no heartburnings, no divisions, no collisions of thought. There is no reason why we should not thus adjust our differences, if differences we have; and standing, as I do, one of the representatives of the great Mississippi Valley, we appeal to the people of the far East. We say to them: "What is for your prosperity is likewise for ours." You all rest upon the prosperity of the agricultural interests of the mighty Mississippi Valley. The foundation of commercial glory and greatness is the farmer's plow and the sickle and the rich harvest. We freight your ships, we make your cities prosper. You, in turn, benefit us in a thousand ways. We interlace and interchange and bind our interests together, when we properly consider it. We appeal to you now. Give us a living chance in this convention and in this contest, and we will make a glorious return in October for your final charge upon the enemy. I I stand in your presence neither arrogant nor suppliant. stand for absolute justice, willing to concede everything that is just to everybody else, only asking the same mete to ourselves. Let us not be extreme to each other; let us not seek to be distasteful. Man's talent to be disagreeable to his fellow-man is quite sufficient without cultivating it at all. We should cultivate amiability and friendship rather. I make these remarks to our brethren of the East. We have fought a thousand battles with you for the Democracy, and never one against you. Our scores of political conflict are upon our breasts and none upon our backs. To our old-time brethren of the South a word or two also! I am one of the men surely that need no apology to look my Southern brother in the eye and expect him to believe that I speak to him with no forked tongue. No political battle was ever so hot, the clouds of obloquy and storm and danger never ran so low or black over the heads of the democracy with whom I have worked and toiled for years, as to deter us from standing by all the constitutional rights and guarantees of our oppressed Southern brothers. I say to my Southern brethren who know me, and whom I know, do not in this hour of national counsel, this hour of national preparation for the great conflict against the Radical foe arrayed against you and led, as was well said by the distinguished gentleman from New York, by the pirate's flag of the bloody shirt,-do not in this hour leave us in the Northwest, wounded, helpless, to be scalped and murdered upon the field of battle. We have no personal animosities to gratify, we have no personal aims to subserve. If there is one man who can get more votes than another, were my own brother a candidate, I would be for that other man. The times are too serious, the issues too mighty, for a personal thought to intervene. men. Three times in the last twelve years we in the Northwest have charged the enemy's lines under the head of the gallant democracy of New York. If it has to be so again we will dress in parade, and even if it be a forlorn hope, we will fight it like I say there are no heartburnings, there are no animosities to gratify. Men of this convention, it was no purpose of mine to speak here. I feel like apologizing for it, but your voice sent me here. I did not desire to speak, but I belong to that class of men who cannot speak and say nothing. I must say something. And what I say is the utterance of a sincere heart. In the |