ican
candidate for Governor of Virginia, I went to Richmond, and spent
a pleasant day with him. In the evening I attended a mass meeting
in the open air, at which there was a very large attendance. There
was no disorder in the large crowd before me, but off to the right,
at some distance, it was evident that a party of men were endeavoring
to create some disturbance, and to distract attention from the
speeches. While I was speaking Wise rose and, in terms very far
from polite, denounced the people making the noise. He succeeded
in preventing any interruption of the meeting. The speech was made
without preparation, but, I think, better for the occasion that
the one in Petersburg. I stated that I had been born and lived in
a region where a large portion of the population was from Virginia
and Kentucky; that I had always been taught to believe in the
doctrines of the great men illustrious in Virginia history. To
the charge made that I was engaged in waving the bloody shirt I
said:

"If it means that I said anything in Ohio with a view to stir up
the animosities of the Civil War, then, I say, it is greatly
mistaken. I never uttered an unkind word about the people of
Virginia that mortal man can quote. I have always respected and
loved the State of Virginia, its memories, its history, its record,
and its achievements.

"Again, although I was a Union man from my heart and every pulsation,
just as my friend Wise was a Confederate soldier, yet I never heard
in Ohio a man call in question either the courage or purity of
motive of any Confederate soldier who fought in the Confederate
ranks. I never uttered such a sentiment. I disclaim it. What I
did say was this--what I say here in Richmond, and what I said in
Petersburg is--that the war is over and all animosities of the war
should be buried out of sight; that I would not hold any Confederate
soldier responsible for what he did in the war, and all I ask of
you is to carry out the acknowledged results of the war; to do what
you agreed to, when Grant and Lee made their famous arrangement
under the apple tree at Appomattox; to stand by the constitution
and laws of the land, to see that every man in this country, rich
and poor, native and naturalized, white and black, shall have equal
civil and political rights, and the equal protection of the law.
I said also, that by constitutional amendment agreed to by Virginia,
every man of proper age in this country was armed f