Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 September 1884 — SENATOR SHERMAN. [ARTICLE]

SENATOR SHERMAN.

The Past and the Present—The Democratic Policy In the South. Senator Sherman recently delivered a speech at Ashland, Ohio. The Senator began by stating that the older he became the freer he was from partisan pride. He then briefly reviewed the history ot the Republican and Democratic parties, and said: “Those of us who have lived through the period of this struggle and growth can realize by a single glance ot memory from the present to the past the great and beneficial change which has been produced in the United States since the Democratic party was in power, but those of yon who are about to assume the reins ot government will appreciate this change more ►by reference to some figures taken by me from the statistics of the last census. From 1860 to 1880 our population increased from 31,400,000 to to 51,000,000, more than 58 yer cent. The number of manufacturing establishments increased from 140,000 to 253,000. The capital employed in manufactures increased irom 81,000,000,000 to $2,709,000,000, or nearly three-fold. The number of hands employed In manufacture. Increased from 1,311,000 to 2,738,000, or more than double. The wages paid to laborers increased from $379,000,000 ,to $948,000,000, or nearly three-fold. The value of material used in manufactures increased from $1,031,000,000 to $3,396,000,000, or more than three-fold, and the value of products from $1,855,000,000 to $>,369,000,000, or about three-fold. . _ "But this enormous improvement in our condition is not confined to manufactures only.—ftextends to agriculture and other pursuits as well. The number of farms in 1860 was 2,044,000, while in 1880 it was 4,008,d00. The number of acres in farms increased during that time from 407,000,000 to 536,u0u,000, and their value Increased from $6,600,000,000 to $10,197,000,000, while the products of farming increased from $246,000,0tt0 to 1406,600,C00. “In 1860 we had 30,685 miles of railway. In 1880 we had 84.393 miles, and now we have 127,000 miles. Our exports of domestic products during the last year amounted to $«04,000,000, while in 1860 they amounted to $373,000,000. “Our national debt, once an object of profound alarm, is being paid off at the rate of $100,000,000 a year, the excess of taxes being so lightly borne tnat no considerable portion of the people complain of them, and no general demand is made for the repeal of any of them. Indeed, it is-a marvelous feature of our condition that to repeal taxes is more unpopular than to retain them, and some of these taxes are themselves a means of prosperity, and not a burden complained of by any.” The Senator then spoke of the triumphs of the Republican party in the past, and declared the Democratic party totally unfit i o govern the country. Concerning the Democratic policy in the South he said: “The Democratic party is in complete control of all the Southern States. In this way they claim to be secure of 153 electoral votes, needing only forty-eight from the North to give them power to elect a President of their choice. And yet we know that in perhaps a majority of the Southern States, if there was a legal, fair election. without fraud or violence, the Republican party would be in the majority. We also know that they gained power in those States by crimes bo revolting that when described in the mildest terms, good, quiet, honest people in the North doubt the truth of such statements because they are not capable of believing it possible that such crimes would be resorted to. It has got to be somewhat out of fashion to talk about Southern outrages, but no correct view can be had of, the condition of this country unless we are willing to look at the exact situation of the rebel States.— . - -. . . —— “By tne policy adopted In 1875 in Mississippi the Republicans, white and black, were either not allowed to vote, or, if they voted, the count was so made as to reject their votes, and, in many cases, to count them on the other side. This fraud and violence was open, palpable, and scarcely denied. It was proved by witnesses by the hundred, whose testimony is recorded in public documents, now open to the Inspection of any citizen. That fraud and violence was continued in 1876, and would have defeated President Hayes but for the power conferred by State Legislatures upon returning boards, a device of their own contrivance,which enabled the returning boards in Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina to return the electoral votes of those States for President Hayes. Sometimes this has been a matter of complaint, and it has been denounced as a fraud. Yet I happen to know, from the most careful examination of these cases, that in each of these States, if there had been a fair election, the majority would have been overwhelming for the Hayes electors, and that the rt turning Iwards were not able to repair all the wrong done, but did lawfully and properly reject the returns of counties and parishes where the fraud was most palpable and gross, and thus secured the election of President Hayes. You all remember that even then bribery and fraud in Oregon and other States was attempted, and the cipher dispatches, a disgrace to the history of our elections, showed that bribery was attempted in several of the Southern States. I affirm without fear of contradiction that In every one <♦ the cotton States a fair and honest vote, free from frand and intimidation, would place all these States on the side of the Republican party. "The occurrences at the recent elections in Mississippi and Virginia, known as the Copiah and Danville outrages, show that this policy is continued now, and the newspapers inform you that it is the openly announced and avowed purpose of the Democratic leaders to resort to the same frauds in Louisiana and Mississippi, and, perhaps, other States. The success of the Democratic party is only possible by crimes that in former times would have so shocked public opinion as to have led to the punishment and disgrace of every one who participated in them, and yet this is the way, and the only way, by which there is a possibility of the Democratic party succeeding at the present election. * ♦ ♦ I have often thought and believed that if the honest, good Democrats of Ohio could appreciate, as I do, the nature of these offen-es, and thr danger to our institutions growing out ot election trends, they would revolt against all affiliations with the Democratic party. I concede that, as citizens and neighbors here, they are as peaceable, as orderly, and in the main as patriotic as we are, but I cannot but think that they are so blinded and misled by party zeal that they will condone and take advantage of crime and fraud to secure party ends, or a still more charitable view, that they cannot be persuaded, even by evidence, of the truth of charges so disgraceful to their party and their associates in the South.” The Senator then considered the tariff question, the duty on wool, and urged liberal pensions for soldiers, closing with a eulogy of the Republican national candidate.