Read and Circulate. Great Reconstruction Speech of Ex-Governor O.P. Morton, U.S. Senator from Indiana [caption title]

[N.p., 1868. Good.. Broadside, 25.5 x 18.5 inches, printed in eight columns. Old folds, a bit frayed at the edges, short closed tear at bottom affecting a few words, minor loss in five columns along one fold line. An unrecorded broadside printing of Indiana Senator Oliver P. Morton's speech on Reconstruction and the prospect of African American voting rights, delivered at a Republican Mass Meeting in Richmond, Indiana on September 29, 1865. The work was also published in a 24pp. pamphlet entitled Reconstruction and Negro Suffrage, which is a scarce work in its own right. Morton's speech covers a myriad of topics and angles with regard to Reconstruction and "negro suffrage," illustrated by the section titles within the speech. These include "Mr. Lincoln's Plan," "Rebels Can Not Hold Office," "Negro Suffrage Under the Assumption of Congress," "Suffrage -- The Power of Congress Over It Denied," "'Masterly' Argument Against Extending Suffrage to Negroes," "A 'Look to Home' -- The Negroes of Indiana," "The Congressional Scheme of Suffrage Denounced and Sumner's Arguments Refuted," "Effect of Negro Suffrage in the South -- Negro State Governments and Negroes in Office Everywhere," "Colored Balance of Power," and "The Solution of the Difficulty - 'Masterly' Argument in the Direction of Mr. Doolittle's Amendment."

Elected to the Senate as a "Union Republican" in 1867, serving as one of the most vocal "Radical Republicans," and despite being paralyzed as a result of a stroke, according to the DAB, Morton "became one of the ablest and one of the least compromising of the supporters of 'thorough' Reconstruction. Probably did more than any other man to obtain the ratification of the Negro suffrage amendment to the Constitution." Morton also ran, unsuccessfully, for the White House in 1876.

The broadside also prints an 1862 speech by James Harlan, Republican Senator of Iowa, in which he expresses great dissatisfaction with the command of General Grant, as well as Ulysses S. Grant's official 1865 report on "Reconstruction in the South," a short section blaming Grant and not Butler for the "horrors of Andersonville," and General Butler's infamous 1862 proclamation declaring that any women in New Orleans would be treated as "a woman about town plying her avocation" (i.e., a prostitute) if they "insult or show contempt for any officers or soldiers of the United States."

An unrecorded broadside printing Indiana Senator Oliver Morton's speech, rich in Reconstruction, and greatly in favor of African-American voting rights.