INTRODUCTION.

The second volume of Mr. McClure's addresses presents his attainments as a public speaker in every possible phase, and no apology need be offered for presenting them. The two legal arguments with which the volume opens are the only addresses of that character which have been preserved. The great interest felt in the legal issues involved in those cases induced a stenographic report of the arguments on both sides, and as legal arguments are seldom prepared in full by lawyers it is not surprising that only two of his many addresses in the court have been preserved.

Both of these arguments were delivered before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and are on subjects which involved not only great legal questions, but which also enlisted an unusual degree of popular interest. The one relating to the rights, duties and penalties of citizenship was delivered before the Supreme Court soon after the war, and as the legal point at issue was a new one before the courts of either State or nation, and as it affected the right of franchise in very large circles in this and other States, popular interest in the dispute was very general and earnest. It is entirely safe to say that this argument is the most exhaustive presentation of the mutual relations between our free government and its subjects that has ever been presented in any of our American courts.

The other legal argument given affected alike the interests of the bench, the bar and the press, although the immediate question involved was the right of a Judge to debar two prominent attorneys for criticism published in a newspaper of which they were the editors after the final judgment of the court, and on a case in which the debarred attorneys were not professionally interested. It attracted very general attention and wide-spread interest, not only throughout the members of the legal profession and the editors and publishers

of the State, but also amongst Judges as the powers of Judges to enforce their decrees were also interwoven with the issue. These cases are fully explained in the preface to the arguments, so that the reader, familiar with the facts upon which the issue was predicated, can appreciate the forcefulness with which they were presented.

The list of miscellaneous addresses is quite varied in the scope of the subjects discussed. The one portraying the crime against citizenship was delivered under circumstances which can hardly be appreciated by the reader of to-day. At that time Mr. McClure had withdrawn from all active participation in politics, and was devoting himself exclusively to the practice of his profession in Philadelphia. At the first election held under the amended constitution of the United States that conferred the right of franchise upon colored voters, there were intense prejudices cherished in this city against the voters of the newly enfranchised race, and it was not confined by any party lines. While one of the great parties was almost if not quite united in opposition to colored suffrage, the other great party, and the one that had been most potent in securing the freedom of the slaves and that had battled most earnestly for the recognition of the rights of freedmen, was most reluctant to accept universal suffrage without regard to race in this city and State.

The prejudice against the African race in the North was even stronger than in the South. The laws of caste were then, as now, equally severe in both sections, but the prejudice of race was very much stronger in the North against the negro than in the South. There was a bond of sympathy between slave-masters and their families and their slaves that greatly tempered the feeling of the Southern people toward their servants. They were the nurses or personal servants of the family, their devotion was generally thoroughly faithful, and the Southern man or woman would not hesitate to ride by the side of a slave in the car or elsewhere because it exhibited master and servant, but in the North where no such relations existed, the prejudice of race was even stronger than in the South, and when the right of suffrage was conferred upon the colored race the popular prejudice against it was not confined to any political faith.

At the first election held in Philadelphia after the right of suffrage had been conferred upon colored citizens there was much turbulence in several localities, and in the riots which occurred for no other offence on the part of the colored men than offering to exercise their unquestioned lawful right of suffrage, Catto, Chase

15

and Gordon, three prominent colored citizens and one a professor and teacher, were killed on the streets in the presence of the multitude, and a number of others were wounded. This brutal ebullition of passion inspired solely by the prejudices of the white man against the black man, called out a public meeting to denounce the murderous assaults made upon colored voters, and to demand equal protection for voters of every race. It was this occasion that called out Mr. McClure's pointed and pungent address, and that meeting and the healthy and heroic sentiments expressed by the speakers, made such an impression upon the community that violence was never thereafter known on the race issue at Philadelphia elections. It is a most disgraceful blot upon the good name of Philadelphia that not one of these brutal murderers was ever brought to punishment.

Mr. McClure's address to the Grangers, although given more than twenty years ago, is just as pertinent and logical to-day as it was then. The Granger movement at that time was battling for cheap money, and was almost wholly absorbed in what was known as the Greenback movement of that time. The Greenback movement was simply the beginning of the cheap money tide that has hindered substantial business, and at times impaired public and private credit ever since the war. What was Greenbackism a quarter of a century ago is the free silver craze now. It is the mad effort of people oppressed by debt to escape from their obligations as cheaply as possible, and the illogical idea is popularly accepted by those who feel the pinch of hard times as the proper method of relief. The Greenback theory has been long exploded, but it has its logical sequence in the free silver theory of to-day that is struggling to make a fifty cent dollar under the utterly absurd idea that cheap money would benefit the working or debtor classes. In point of fact they are those who would most suffer, and the wholesome advice given in this address could be as profitably studied to-day in resisting the surges of cheap silver money, as at the time it was delivered.

The address on The Sovereignty of the People was called out by a decision of the Supreme Court of the State prohibiting the convention that had framed the new constitution from creating election officers to hold an election in Philadelphia. The tone of the opinion was strongly against the reforms proposed by the new fundamental law, and the criticism made by Mr. McClure was certainly warranted by the existing political conditions. The address on Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief was delivered before the Loyal Legion in New York, and has attracted great attention all over the

country. While that phase of Mr. Lincoln's public record has never been especially discussed before, no one has ventured to dispute Mr. McClure's declaration that Lincoln was the actual Commander-in-Chief from the first defeat at Bull Run until Grant was appointed Lieutenant General.

The address delivered at Curtin's tomb, the Farewell address to the Senate, and the Clover Club welcome exhibit the exquisite sentiment which pervaded many of Mr. McClure's utterances, and they are well worth preserving as such. The addresses classed as Humorous and Satirical are so clearly explained in the preface to them that no extended reference need be made to them in this introduction. They are all strongly tinged with partisanship, but are well worth preserving as relics of the political struggle inspired by the revolt against the rule of Grant when President. They are among Mr. McClure's boldest utterances, and will be read with unusual interest by all who have any recollection of the fierce partisan conflicts of that day.

The eulogy on Curtin, given in the Appendix, is one of the most carefully prepared of all Mr. McClure's public utterances. The theme to him could not but be one of unusual inspiration as he had been a devoted friend of Curtin for nearly half a century, and perhaps one of the closest in his political and personal confidence. Upon the whole this second volume presents Mr. McClure in almost every phase of oratory, and as such it will be valued by the many who appreciate the sincere and heroic efforts he ever gave in defence of his convictions.

March 1, 1895.

C. W. MCKEEHAN.

LEGAL ARGUMENTS.