Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 November 1859 — A Political Stump Speech. [ARTICLE]

A Political Stump Speech.

The Sim Francisco the following conclusion of a speech delivered at a precinct in El Dorado ccniniy, not long ago, at a Lecompton gathering After a number of speakers had addressed the meeting, one of the auditory, shouting “Clear the. track!” mounted the platform, and delivered to his convulsed hearers one of the most unique ; speeches of the campaign. He concluded as follows: “Ami now, fellow-citizens, having proven ; from the testimony of ail parties that there lis not a candidate either way worthy your suffrages—that they are till, without any exception, either hc.gthieves, pickpockets or assassins—l, John Spooks, respectfully offer j myself as an independent candidate for Gov- ; ernor of California,'and with the unanimous vote of this precinct, sixteen barrels of i whisky and a liberal share of IL aven’s i grace, I will fight my way into office—you I bet! “Plenty of men have managed to crowd themselves into fat positions with less capi--1 tai. Elect me. fellow-citizens, and 1 will give San Francisco and Sacramento up t<> the plunder of miners, who have made them i what they are; I will enlarge the State Prison, and find a home within it. for every ex-official on the Pacific coast'; 1 will tear down mountains tl'i.it you may gather tiie treasure buried beneath them, and dry up the fountains of the rivers, that you may j work the channels without pu-mps; I will: abolish taxation among the miners, and sell the Chinamen to the highest bidders, and you may all keep dead drunk for the next two years on the proceeds of the sale; I will reduce the price of whisky and increase the ipiality of free lunches, under penalty of 1 death; I will divide the contents of the State i Treasury equally among you; I will annex Pike county to the State, and make Possy a i depeudenev; I will wear butternut pants the year round, ami fine every man found with a black coat or a starched shirt upon his person; the Pacific and Atlantic railroad shall I be-built within two years, ami I will make j this spot the Western terminus or dissolve the Union; I will make you all rich, of keep you so drunk during my entire term that you will think so, and give you a dozen of soda apiece to sober off <m: and, finally, fellowcitizens, I pledge my word, if I am elected, to light a tboth-and-toe-nail set-to with every man, woman and child in the State, and re- 1 sign my office to the first one who draws blood; and now, as an earnest ol liberality, I will permit every man here to treat himself, and will drink with the first white man that, will invite me. [Snooks is borne tri-, umohantly from the platiorm on the shoul ders of the crowd, and a motion is put to tar-nnd-feather, the speakers who proceeded him.” 1