Decatur Democrat, Volume 24, Number 21, Decatur, Adams County, 26 August 1880 — Page 10

. - . . . ...U/.’. / Oe.in ,«•> rj- z. .1- 1 I n nn-rt r, ~.•. I n.lllifnlnosa to the Union, end wltn uonunciatlons of the Democratic party. The <1 otrine that the States of this Union have the right to manage and control their I own domestic affairs has always been a Dem- i ocratic doctrine, and is to-day. It was once i the doctrine of the Republican party, as will I appear from a resolution found in its N ation- i al platiorm of 1880. The fourth resolution of < that Republican platform declares: < ‘•The maintenance inviolate of the rights of 1 the States, and especially the right of each State to order ana control its own domestic i insr Rations according to its own judgment i excl&slyely, is essential to that balance of i power on which the perfection and endurance i •four political fabric depends, and we de- I n ounce the lawless invasion by armed force i on the soil of any State or Territory, no mat- ] ter under what pretense, as amongst the i gravest of erimes.” i If the Republican party, after it came Into I power under this resolution, had lived up to I its pledge to the people, we would not have so I much grouad for complaint against It to-day. , Mr. Porter says the Republican party has re- I deemed its pledges. This was a pledge that I haa been trodden underfoot and disregarded ! by the Republican party. The domestic instl- I tntions of theSHatea have been taken charge I of by the Federal Government under Republl- ! cau law. 1 refer now particularly to the law I appointing Hupervfeors to take charge of elec- i Uonti la the several States, and of Deputy i Marshals to act under these Supervisors of a »ctlons. This law u as passed by the Republican party under the plea that it was necessary in th* Southern (States. | FEDERAL SUPERVISION SOUTH. The Constitution of the United States pro- i ▼ides that) the time, place andmanner of select- I l>ig Senators and Representatives in Congress ' i-hall be prescribed in each State by the Legis- | l.i ure thereof, but the Congress may at any I time wake or alter such regulation, except as tc the place of choosing Bunators. Under this I pi ovisl m of the Constitution the Congress ot the U*ltt d Estates evidently bad the right to e >ge the manner of selecting Represents - I t- Wb, and alsoto provide for their election in i a' I.Staies v he a the States had neglected or I rif.sidwdo so. The law M’as said to be exelusively for the Southern States. Undtrtbis m me law they had a right to send the United Su es trmy into any S afe to take charge of t'lee'ec'l ns. The Southern States were man- ' by Supervisors and Marshals, backed by K.ted »ta as troops withdrawn bayonets, and it w-is> thus that designing men from the ISbith. called carpetbaggers, Were protected in thalr management of the Southern States. Th# United St can army kept the people ol the S utheriM Stites In subjection, while ‘the c-Vrpet-’paggeni, by manipulating the negroes, ■ got all the places of pdwer, and, under the f pretext of going iato various schemes for Intel nal Improvement in the different States, Issued largo quantiHes of bonds, that they might get bold of the ©ash proceeds from the sales thereof. Every extravagance that could t># thought of was engaged in. These carpet■»*eg- rs, having ue common interest with the >- cple of th> se Htatcq, the extent of the Uunxiering commitmd by the agents of the MsPublican party iji the Southern States la Bimply appalling, and from first to last no effort was made t# cheek it by the party responsible for the robbery. President ’ ;*nt appointed men to office la that section vl h especial reference to length of finger and d pt-h of pocket, and he found more No. J i nl«ve« than were ever before Invited to 1 elp earry on any ci vllized Government. The t i owing figures will show the amount of debt Kie Republic a Legislatures, composed in the o. ainof aegroe# and carpet-baggeK,, involved t-: n. <yf the Southern States, then under the control of the Republican party, from the dose of the war to the month or June, 1872. 1 k;» debt aggregates the enormous sam of two hundred and e fthfcv-four millions of dollars or ■ uweabonH. Thu figures for each of the ten I States r#tejr*d te wld toot up in round numtoers aafSdowsu Th# S#ht and liabilities at thectose of the v-tr of the Mtaw of V irginia were By January 1, 187!, that debt was increased, u?ider Radical rule, to 845,500,600. Th# debt of North Carolina, at the close of the war, was 811,000, 000. By Jannwy 1,-1872, it i wa* iwefenMyi tom early 816,000,000. th# close of the war, >

,■■■ ....... x'iwMßiw - -,--f t wUora thojaru ..IneteU our «MlJ> or will be carried back to Its original moorings. Thu military will be kept in strict subordination to the civil authorities; the right® of the States usurped by the Federal Governernment under the Republican party— for instance, the control of elections in the several States by Federal officers acting nnder Federal authority, and the transfer ot numerous trials from the State Courts to Federal Court®, will be restored to the States where they belong. We could make now the same declaration against tire Republican party that our patriot io forefathers made against the King of Great Britain with equal truth. They declared that their citizens had been arrested for trifling offenses and transported to distant countries and there tried among strangers. Since the Republican party came into power, and even during the past year, we have In Indiana witnessed the same thing done here. Parties in Jennings County were charged with violating the election, laws, and notwithstanding they had a Court in their own County, they were brought to Indianapolis and tried there for thirty days among strangers, by a Federal Court, for an offense against the State laws. They were bankrupted, very nearly all of 1 them acquitted and then allowed to find their way back home, i I’ou will not have to stand such outrages upon i the rights of our people much longer. We will not report to arms, my fellow-citizens, but we i will settle such questions at the ballot box. i FEDERAL SUPERVISION NORTH. Mr. Porter and other Republicans laugh at 1 the objections made by the Democratic party I to the usurpations of the Federal Government 1 in the appointing of Supervisors and Mar- I shals to take charge of elections in the several I States when Congressmen are to be elected. I The right of Congress to pass a law for the government ol elections in she South while I States there were in a disorganized condition, 1 was never opposed by the Democratic party; but the use or the United States army to back Republican Marshals while robbing the peo- 1 pie of the south has ever been opposed ’ by Democrats. We supposed these Mar- I shals and Supervisors of Elections would he confined in their operations to 1 the Soul hern States, as it was claimed the iaw was made especially for them. But it proved to be so very advantageous to the Republican party in carrying the elections, that it was en- 1 atflea thereby to inaugurate its fraudulent i President Under that law the leaders of the Republican party had their Supervisors of Elections, and their Marshals, backed by the army of the United States, to protect them in 1 their frauds; and at that time the Republican party was so Intent on upholding State rights it Insisted we could not go behind the lertiflcatesof elections issued by the States, not- 1 withstanding we Democrats were telling them they were fraudulent, and we were ready and anxious to prove them so. The Republican party has b°en excited ny 1 this, like, a lion by a taste of fresn blood, till it 1 is now and has been for some time putting in practice this same law in some of Die Northern .-States. Pe qsylvania has suffered much - by it, In 18f6 the Democrats discovered that ’ Republican Supervisors had perpetrated great frauds in the registry of voters in Plnla- i detphla. They charged that 20,G00 names upon the registry bo ks were a fraud and a fiqtlcfti. 1 ' Th«y brought the case before aCouut in IHiila- I drtpnla. Thsy were enabled to investigate 1 | 12,080 of the 20,060 they charged as being fraud- ' ulerit, and the Court decided they were so and 1 order -d them stricken off Yet the ' Republican party says: “We are only using 1 tills law to preserve the purity of theb illotbox!” We Democrats say ir. is used I for the purpose of corrupting the ballot box, 1 and I know of nothing that could go further to ' show it than this one act. You will bear in mind that the duties of Supervisors of Elections 1 commence with the registration of voters. No I i siioii an instance Ison record in any State j under a State law, free from Federal supervision. I In the city of New York, in 1878, they had 1 ' over twelve hundred Republican Deputy 1 -Marshals appointed to preserve order at the poTs. These Deputy Marshals were the lowest t.w“ of humanity. Many of them had just come from the penitentiary. On the day b«- ! lore the election these Supervisors Issued war-;| i rants for 3,100, ajd oM ejection day they arrest- 1 * ed over one thdusand ml n charged with Intent

Unctions anti Htate opera 10.-js; snil unless we dw this, no good, purpose can bo answered.” Be said also: “Let one body of the Legislature be constituted during good behavior or life. Let one executive be appointed [for life[ who dares execute his powers. * * All State laws to be absolutely void, which contravene the general law. An officer to be appointed in each State to have a negative on all State laws. All the militia and the appointment of officers to be under the National Government. *' * The people are gradually ripening in their opinions of Government; they begin to tire of an excess of Democracy.”— Yates’ Debates of the Convention, pt ges 132-137. Fellow citizens, compare the views expressed by Mr. Hamilton, the leader of the old Federalist party, with the practices of tbe Republican party in the Southern States, and point out the difference. THE BONDED DEBT CHANGED AND MADE PERMANENT. Leading Republicans and their candidate for Governor claim much credit for the management of the bonded debt of the country. They have managed that debt so as to consolidate the wealth of the country in the hands of the few, as they have managed to concentrate the political power of the States In the hands of the Federal Government. The thousands that have been bankrupted and the tens of thousands of tramps made by them, hold their policy in contempt. During the war the very wildest schemes of Inflation were adopted, and values weregreatly enhanced by such inflation. The war debt was made at least twice as large as it would have been had It been conducted upon a gold basis. Our bonds were issued and exchanged for this depreciated money. Designing men In the Republican party designingly depreciated tijem. Greenbacks, when first Issued, were convertible Into 5-20 bonds, which would have kept them of equal value with the bonds, but feeing that the Republican party repealed the law, although they never refused to take that depreciated money for the bonds. After the bonds had been bought with the depreciated money nothing could be gained by keeping it depreciated, and their next effort was to appreciate it by contraction. We Democrats opposed that, and in 1868 declared in favor of paying off the bonded debt in greenbacks— the money, and the only money, we got for them— unless the law under which they were issued, or the bonds themselves, provided otherwise. This alarmed the friends of the concentration of wealth, and they hastily passed a law through Congress declaring that the bonded debtor the country should be paid in coin— called the law of 1863. MrGarfield supported that law, and when in the Forby-fourth Congress a resolution was offered in the House of Representatives declaring that 85,000(00 had been > spent on the floor ot Congress to secure the passage of that law, Mr. Garfield was one of the first men to take the floor against the passage of the resolution. The resolution asked for an investigation. He wanted no Investigation. Five millions of dollars was nothing compared with the enormous am unt made by speculators by the passage of that law- Senator Morton, of Indiana, made a grand speech against the law, and voted against it. He denounced it as being in the nature of a new contract, and as a bull movement to increase th# value or eur bonds abroad. He inristidif they meant a new contract to say so, meimlug that under the old contract it was clear they could be paid in greenbacks. They were then worth 30 per cent, less shan coin. No less than 1500,000,000 was made by the passage of that act. By where made? By those who held the bonds? Whom was it made off of? Those who had them to pay— the laborers of the country— Ahe creators of all the wealth— they were the men who shouldered that burden. Yet our Republican friends and their candidate for Governor say they are the enecial friends of the laboring man! He insists that the Republican party has ever been tho friend of laboring men. 1 defy him to point out a single act of that party which has not been In the interest of the capitalists of tho country, against the laboring man, whenever their interests were opposed. Let him point to one, if he can. I* z The army of the country was composed of laboring men, and thdy have a particular

t it.ltd, 11 An nut t<> rorkjltl t.nw OirlUer retire—mentof United States legal tender notes;” but In a suit now pending in the United States Courts, managed by Republican leaders, they expect to get a decision declaring It unconstitutional. The resolution in our platform has ever been my doctrine for a sound business policy; and we are now looking to nothing else but business. We have been brought to that by contraction, and the debt placed out of our reach for payment, as I have stated, in any other way than with coin. Gold, silver and paper issued by the Government is the policy of the Democratic party to-day, and has ever been my policy .except when we had been carried so far from it by the Republican party, and such an immense debt piled upon us—twice as large as it would have been had it not been for a deviation from that policy. The policy of the Repubilcan party was ever different from mine and from the Democratic party. Its policy was to go back to resumption upon a gold basis and have nothing /mt gold money. The Republican party having demonetized silver in 1873 and passed a resumption law for the retirement of greenbacks in 187e, we Democrats said, as has been charged by Mr. Porter and other Republican speakers, that to go back to a gold basis, retiring greenbacks with no silver in circulation, was nothing but bankruptcy to the entire country, or, at least, of that portion of it in debt. And while the policy of the Republican party remained as the policy of the country there never was such a record of bankruptcy known In the history of tlie world. Every man of feeling was shocked; the business of the country was paralyzed, and the money that we had was kept close in reserve, except when used to buy property at still lower rates. It mattered not how low the rate was, it was expected to be Jess. 1 can give you some Idea of the bankruptcy and loss a»d ruin done by this Republican policy, by reference to R. G. Dunn Co.’s commercial reports, that firm being one oi the principal commercial agencies in the country. They give a list of failures in the United Ktat.es from 1872 to 1877, in the aggregate, as follows: Number of failures, 40,778; total liabilities, 81,087,622,075. And these immense figures are but a traction of the sum total of disasters that have fallen upon the country. The recorded liabilities of those who went down beneath the curse of Republican financiering while undertaking the course of contraction, furnishes meager data upon which to predicate a sath factory estimate of other losses, the sum total of which, by those most familiar with the subject of shrinkage in the value of real estate, is estimated at 40 per cent., or 812,000,000,000. The loss sustained by throwing at least 3,100,000 of working people out of employment Is not less than $7,000,000,000. And this cruel war waged by the Republican party upon the material prosperity of our country wcs checked by Democratic legislation. If we had looked exclusively to party considerations we would not have checkedit; but looking only to the interests of the country at large, we felt bound, as honorable men, to check up a policy that was ruining the country, although Republican demagogues may claim ttio credit for It. Mr. Schurz, even, claims that the prosperity of the country is due to Republican policy. I have shown what the Republican policy has led to. Mr. Porter is also loud in similar claims, and I presume the smaller lights in his party will follow, and set up the same claims. REISSUE OF GREENBACKS, INSTEAD OF THEIR RETIREMENT. Mr. Porter says the Republican party brought the old greenback to par. He says that was what you wanted. 1 admit that was what you wanted, but had it not been for the Democratic legislation which I have referred to, in passing a law for the reissue of greenbacks, what would you have had? You would have had the ashes the greenbacks would have made instead of the greenbacks themtelves. The Republican law provided for their redemption and their retirement, bub the Democratic law provided for their reissue, thus stopping the depreciation of property. Republicans will no doubt say bit few greenbacks have beer offered for redemption, and therefore but few of them would have went to ashes under their law. But suppose the policy of ! the Republican party had been carried out — the taking from greenbacks their legal tender

o x. I >«.« i amo <»r nanny, hiki j • e* i «»»*.* I«tH worn n<»t HiitlHtloa In cminglng our bonded debt Into a coin debt, but they set up a hue and cry that we must have but one standard of value. They Insisted that the double standard of value established by Washington and Hamilton was false and should not be maintained. I admit there have been many things false about this standard. 1 am of opinion that gold and silver have a more uniform value than any other commodity; but the claim that they have a fixed value 1 never did indorse since l have examined the question. The cause of their steady value consists principally in the fact of their being adopted as money by the various Governments of the world and the standard fixed by law for them. The fact of their being thus adopted as money by the various Governments of the world is the strongest reason why we should adopt them as money, because our exports are very large. I once tried to exposa this false theory of there beluga fixed value ior gold and silver. When 1 first brought forward the measure in Washington for the remonetization of the silver dollar it was violently opposed; and I found Dr. Linderman, the Manager of the Mint, was giving my measure all the opposition that could possibly be brought to bear against it. I studied out a proposition, which, as I thought, would expose the fallacy of the theory of fixed value. They were claiming that silver was an i article that fluctuated very much, although they once claimed It had as fixed a value as gold. After the Republican party demonetized It in 1873, ’t declined in value, and the argument was then lost. On one occasion 1 met the Doctor and said to him that J was very much annoyed with a question connected with coinage, and would be much pleased if he could explain it to me. He said he would do so with the greatest pleasure. I said, suppose you had two tape lines precisely of the same length made to measure space, and had nothing to compare your lines with but themselves; they would pass into use, but after some years you bring them together and find they differed in length. Now, said I, how would you determine which had changed its length, or whether one had contracted or the other expanded? After hanging his head for some minutes he replied: “By God, sir, there is no answer for such a question; there is no way to determine that?’ Well, sir, said 111. 1 want to knew why it is you and others claim that gold has this fixed value, and that sliver has depreciated. The Government the same year made 2b 8-10 grains of gold, or 412% grains of silver to bea dollar. The market value at that time was the same. Now they have got apart, and there is a difference probably of fifteen cents. Why, sir, do you say that sliver has depreciated and gold has retained its original value? Is there not as much argument to show that gold has increased in value as there is that silver has depreciated ? He said: “That Isa question we settle by comparing gold with the real estate of the coun - try.” Said I, sir, that will not do, for the real estate of this country has depreciated far more than you say silver has, and the value of silver to real estat e bears much nearer the same proportion than does gold to real estate. And, said 1, every acre of land in the West can be bought with the silver dotlar at the same price that once the owners could have sold it for gold dollars. The demonetizing of the silver dollar In 1873 was still further to aid the bondholders of the country in securing to themselves a dollar of more value. By demonetizing silver the bonds were afterward payable in gold, as there was no other cola. Seeing tnls great outrage upon the rights of the people, and seeing that it was . the only thing we could do to aid them in the pay ment of that debt— the Republican party , having declared by law tha* ft should be a coin debt— I brought forward a measure to remonetize the standard sliver dollar. Leading , Republicans fought that measure with more bitterness than any that ever was brought , before Congress, within my recollection. The bondholder’s advocates on the floor of Congress were exceedingly bitter, and to show their bitterness, and also to show that tills claim of the Republican party, and of Mr. Porter for the Republican party, that it brought the Pilyer dollar from its hiding place, ' is without a particle of foundation, and right in the face ot facts that every ten-year-old i school boy In the country will understand, i namely: That the Republican party is and has been the violent enemy of the silver dollar; ,

Icounlry! They must ttiluK liiat tlie recollectlon or man is very short. 1 tell you they will find, before they get through with this can- ; vass, that there is more intelligence among the masses than they thought for. The people will know who to give credit to for the ■ measures that revived the drooping Interests : of this country. And I now say to my com- “ petitor that 1 defy irim to point to any financial measure of his party which Is being carried out to-day— the first one of Republican ' origin I mean. The Democratic party has relieved the ooun- ’ try from some of the most odious legislation en- ■ acted by the Repubilcan party before we came ’ Into power in the halls of Congress. Repub- ; lican leaders are as bold In the.trclaims for the cerdlt of measures brought forward by the * Democracy ffoer e the betterment • ol , the condition ’ of the country, and opposed at every step by the Republican . party, as Satan was when he called Christ up on a high mountain, and claim! ng to own the whole world, proposed to give it to hita If He would fall down and worship him. The claim of Mr. Porter, and others of the Republican : party, to this financial policy lias as little 1 foundation in fact as the claim of Satan to the different kingdoms he proposed to give away; and If the great mass of the people only had a little of the wisdom that Christ had they would see through this fraudulent scheme and scout the claimant, and say as Christ said to the devil, “Get thee behind me, Satan.” THE LORD AND THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY HAVE REVIVED BUSINESS AND CHECKED BANKRUPTCY. •'J I trust that I have not only shown you, but that I have convinced you, so far as flnanc al measures have had anything to do with restoring confidence In commercial I* circles and reviving the par ' alyzed industries of the country', that the credit belongs to the Democratic party. But the fact is the good Lord has bad more to do with reviving the industries of this country, starting up the shops, and bringing our paper money up to par, than all the policies ot all the political parties combined. He has blessed us with abundant crops, and the crops across the water being blighted for several seasons, we have rec ived fair and reasonable prices for our products. The balance of trade has been in our favor, and the gold beg been brought to us because it belonged to us on balance. And inasmuch as we hope to have a continuance of His infinite favors, we must not forget to give Him the credit that belongs to Him, THE EBB AND FLOW OF GOLD ACCOUNTED FOR. Mr. Garfield said that, gold would leave the country as fast as It could be carried away if we remonetized silver. Mr. Porter said that gold had been banished by the cheapening of greenbacks, and found its hiding place beyond the sea, and came back when our money became par. As each of these gentlemen are at the head of a great party, one in the United States and the other in this State, it would bo information to the people of this count -y if either of them would show how gold cdn'.l "et out of this country while the balar ce of trade is in our favor, and what law could be passed to keep it hare if we owed it to others. This is information which I myself would be pleased to have, and. I know many others would be equally as well. Gold and silver form the basts of exchange between Governments, and when the citizens of one Government sell more to another than they buy, the gold belongs to the seller; and it goes in payment of the balance due; but when the people of one country buy more than they sell, then the gold must go to pay the debt due to the citizens of the country they t rade with. Let the people of this country banish the Idea, and not listen for one moment to any argument that may be brought up in regard to the accumulation of gold by law, or its banishment from the country by having a cheaper money. Every Government has a cheaper money, or have paper money; but the balance of trade is always payable in coin, ar.d it always goes Just where it belongs. The man who does not know that ought to be studying financial affairs. A few lessons on that point would not set him back any. A knowledge of the law does not necessarily give him a knowledge of business matters embraced in the law 61 trade and commerce. If he will study that he will