Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 November 1878 — GOV. HENDRICKS ON THE SITUATION. [ARTICLE]

GOV. HENDRICKS ON THE SITUATION.

[Extract from a Recent Speech at Indianapolis.J Wherever I spoke during this campaign I asked one question, and that question was not answered anywhere. That question was this: What single act (I asked but for one act) of the Republican party, since the close of the war.llias resulted to the benefit of the laboring and commercial classes of this country? No Republican leader in Indiana can point his finger to a single act of the Republican party since they I elected Grant, tin years affo, which has added to the prosperity of the farmer, the mechanic, the laboring man, or the I man of business, for the simple reason that the legislation which has charac- ! terized the judgment of that party has | been for classes, for lings, for parts of I the people, and against the great body of people. And, my fellow-citizens, I asked one other question, and I think that question going unanswered has contributed to this result. I said that the contract between the public creditors and the people was plain and simple ; that the bonds should be paid in gold, or silver, or paper money, according to the judgment and pleasure of the Government. That was the contract; Gov. Morton said that it was the coni' tract; the Judiciary Committee of the Senate said it was the contract. Before I left tlie*Senate I was asked to vote to change the contract—to change it not for the popular benefit, but for the benefit of the men who held the bonds, I said, no change, and nearly the last speech that I made in the Senate, nearly the last vote I gave in the Senate, was against any change of the contract. But the first act after Grant came in as President; almost the first act that my Republican successor supported and voted for, was to change the contract, and to provide that the bonds should no longer be payable in the paper money of the country, but only in coin, and Grant signed that law. Now, I asked the question, “Why do you Republicans do that?” It was worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the public creditors. What was it worth to you ? How much was it worth to tin? farmers of Indiana? How much to the laboring men of Indiana? How much to the mechanics that work in our shops and to the manufacturing establishments? Not one dollar, but hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars to the bondholders. And now I ask the question again at the close of this contest. Why was that, change made in the contract between the creditors and the people? It was not sought by you. No neighborhood in all the United States, from Maine to California; no man asked Congress to do it. It was against the popular judgment; it was against the popular interest. And that was not the only breach of contract, but when four years more rolled by they said that silver could not be money any longer, and then the purpose was that gold alone should be the lawful payment of our public securities. And I asked them why they did that. Who asked them to do it? Not you; not the people ; no portion of the people. It did not inure to your benefit.. It was against your interest. It was hard upon business. It was crushing upon enterprise, and yet it was done. Now, when any Republican shall dare to ask you to go with his party in the future, let him answer this question: “What did your party do for ten years that benefited the people? Why did you change the contract twice, in 1869 and again in 1873?” and, if they cannot answer the question, no man ought to think of going with their party any longer. My fellow-citizens, when the sun shall stand high in mid-lieaven on the 4th day of March next, the Democratic party will step into control of the United States Senate. We will have the House of Representatives, and in two years more a man will be elected President who knows that there is a common people and a common country. And then, after ten years more shall roll around, if any Republican should ask of you or me, after our party has been responsible for ten years, what it has done that has brought blessings to the people, if I have to stand dumb and cannot answer the question, then I shall pray God that my party shall be turned out. But I am not afraid of it. I know that the Democratic party sympathizes with the common interests of the country. I know that they desire that property shall be secure, ana that labor shall have remunerative employment, and the party that is animated by that sentiment cannot fail to serve the country well.

My fellow-citizens, I am glad to meet you to-night. lam glad to take you by the hand and feel that between us there is a common sentiment in favor of such legislation and policy of government as shall bring blessings to us all—not to the few but to the whole country. Did you know that already the Democratic party in Congress had caused a reduction of the public expenditures of $30,000,000 a year ? And when the Senate shall be under the control of Mr. McDonald and Mr. Voorhees, and men of that class; when the Senate shall be in sympathy with the House of Representatives, and the President and the departments at Washington are in sympathy with the two houses of Congress, then I believe the reduction may be made of more than $50,000,000 below what the Republicans expended. Now, my fellow-citizens, we do not stop here, The contest of 1876

has never stopped for a moment. The people of the United States, by the largest vote that was ever given on earth, declared Mr. Tilden to be the President of the United States, and by fraud, by corruption, by perjury, another man. not elected, was placed in the Presidential chair. That great crime against free government must be rebuked so emphatically that no audacious villainy shall ever dare to repeat it. So, my fellow-citizens, we have not stopped, and we are not going to stop. We will stand in solid line until the great victory is achieved in 1880. The 4,000,0(H) men who two years ago voted for Tilden and Hendricks stand in line to-day, and that great line of battle is not to be broken until the constitution is restored, until the people shall feel once more that the sympathies of the Government are with them, and not with the few.