Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 June 1885 — HORR, OF MICHIGAN. [ARTICLE]

HORR, OF MICHIGAN.

He Makes a Battling Speech at the Banquet to Senator John A. Logan in Chicago, , And Gives Notice that “the Republican Party is Stjll on Its Feet Here < in the i'niteil States.” At a banquet and reception tendered to Senator John A. Logan by the Union League Club of Chicago, a number of excellent speeches were delivered by prominent Republicans. Hon. R. G. Horr, representing the State of Michigan, was introduced and spoko as follows: Mr. President and gentlemen of the Union League Club of Chicago: It’s hardly fair to summon a man as 1 have been from the woods of Northern Michigan by telegram and get him before such an audience as this and then com£el him to talk Extemporaneously after having stened to extemporaneous speeches all written out. I know there Is a haoit grown up in this country that if a man is called upon to say anything unadvisedly, as lam here to-night, and the morning papers show that he said the things that he ought not to have said and left unsaid the things he ought to have said—l say it is a common practice to relieve one's self by swearing at the reporters; but I wish to say here that I have suffered more by the reporters taking just what I did say. Now, there is nothinsfthat would possibly have given me more pleasure than to lie present here to-night to congratulate the people of Chicago and of Illinois upon the grand victory that had been won here in your State within the last few days, and I wish to say here that there isn’t in my judgment a single Republican in the State of Michigan that is not rejoicing as much as you are in Illinois, and even a good many—no, a few respectable Democrats, we have not a few—are also rejoicing with-yon. We like your citizen, Gen. Logan. XI e like his style. I can’t say why we like him, because the General is present, .but I will say this for him, we like him because be strikes out from the shoulder. Now, having served for several years in the branch of tho Legislature across the Capitol hallway from where the General has been serving, aye, more than that, I have the right to speak from a closer relation, for I had the good fortune to live under the same roof with the General for three years. I want to say to you to-night, I would rather have one suchtnan as John A. Logan than a ten-acrE lot of mugwumps and dudes. In the first place it arises from the fact that we always know where to find such a man as your newly elected Senator. Where you would find a mugwump God never knows. I like a man who is always on ope side or the other on every question, and who isn’t afraid to say so. He may be wrong once in a great while; it’s a fellow’s privilege to get wrong once in a while, but he will be wrong so you will understand it; he will mean what he says and.-try to be right, and when he finds that he is wrong he will get right just as quick as he can. But those fellows I’ve no use for who are always afraid of being on any side of any question; you can't do anything with them, finch a man as that never could have been elected in this contest down in Springfield—not now. Now I know that you Republicans of Illinois have a right to rejoice over this success. I didn't look for it. It looked to me as though you were at a standstill. aS though it was a tie, and I think after the first three months and twenty-nine days it began to look th-.t way to you, gentlemen; and I don’t know wheije we would be to-night if the Lord hadn’t removed Brother Shaw. That responsibility" having been taken by a higher power, who could blame the Republicans for stepping in and taking advantage of the opportunity? It was their duty to do it. Just how they did it I don’t know; it is too deep for me; it is enough for me to know it is done. We have learned one lesson from the fight of November last, out of which some of us went with our plumes a little bit drooped, you know, that even disaster sometimes is good tor a party that has been twenty-) our years in power. We had begun to find fault with everybody who didn’t run exactly according to our notion, Why, even this saint here before me [indicating Joseph Medlll] didn’t always praise us fellows as he ought to have done. The lesson was this, that any party to be successful wants to pull together, and this contest just, ended has shown that the old elements that used to run in such masculine manner through the Republican party still remain. You had but one majority, and. one man changed would have left you just as you were before that providential interference. And yet the party buried everything and struck out unitediv for the future. Now some people tell me that the present administration is being run in such a manner that it is going to lay every Republican out in the country. .1 know a-good many Democrats who think that they are being laid out. Now it is being run a little remaikable. If you notice that in the nominations thus far made, while some of them have been good ones, they have so far managed to hit every man who did the most he could to break up this government that they could find anywhere in the United States. It seems to me that if they had raked this country with a fine-toothed comb they couldn’t have found any more of that kind of men than they have found up. to date. But you shouldn’t be surprised at this, tome people say, “ Oh, why did he appoint such a man as that? He wasn’t loyal during the war.” You don’t expect them to appoint loyal men, do you? They cant doit; they have got to pick men who didn’t stand by their country in trial. It .is made up of them. So I don’t find any fault with the present administration for appointing men to office who were not true to their country; they .have got to do it. What Ido object to in this administration is their removal of men all over the United States on a false theory. They do it on the ground that the man is—what is that phrase? Oh, yes; offensive partisan; and then they put in a man whose offensiveness by way of partisanship is so much worse than the one they put out, that you can’t mention them the same day. Now, I don’t object to their turning ont Republicans if they will only say above board that they want the offices tor themselves. There is some truth in that. They are doing it simply because they want the Republicans out and the Democrats in, and that's all there is to it, and why don’t they say so? I know it is asking a good deal of them to tell the truth. 1 defy you to show * single instance where they have removed a man—suspended as they say in the papers -on account of being a partisan who hasn't been succeeded by a Democrat' as active a partisan, if not more active, than he was. jsowwhatis the gain? Yet I don’t find fault with the appointment of rabid Democrats. I want them appointed. I don’t Erant these milk and water fellows to get much on either side, but I want this administration run by men who believe in Democracy. I know it is selfish on my part, for I think that would cure the country as quick as any medicine you could give the people. Will they run the administration on Democratic principles? Some say it is doubtful, but I say to those who think this slow process of melting is going, |o get slower, you want to get ready to go. They haven’t intended to be any slower than they can help, sou have had removals in this town. Well, did they get some delicate man to put in your postoffice who never whispered on politics in his life? I don't know your Postmaster. I don’t suppose he is here—the new one —but is he a man who was never known politically? Did he never do anything? Did he never take sides? If he never showed his colors, he isn’t fit for Postmaster in Chicago. I say that the man who isn’t active and conscientious and believes in something, and then stands right up and fights for his views, if need be, isn't fit for any great office in this country. I want the offices to be filled always with live, energetic men. I know there is a theoiytfiat a capable man should be in office forever; that sounded well enough when I was in, but don't sound to well to the men who are out. Now, J hail this election as an announcement that the Republican party is still on its leet here in the United States, and 1 hail it as an omen that when three years, four years, more shall have rolled around they will find us once more with our armor on, and if they think they have got any stripling to deal with, they will find out before they get through that the Republicans of this country have still got the sinews in their bones, and that the struggles they have gone through and the one battle wi have lost have only given us more strength, more heart, and more victory in the future. I congratulate you, members of this club, and the General himself on the personal victory which must be to him moije gratifying than he can express, beckuse he was subjected to such a fight as no man has ever made within my memory in the United States for the office of Senator. He'"enters upon his duties with the experience of long years of service. I have no fears that he will do anything that will cause the people of Hlinois to regret the choice they have made. More than that, the Republicans of the United States feel assured that now they have still in the councils of the nation a man who is always right on all the great questions of the day. Thanking the dub for then: kind invitation, and thanking you for listening to my rambling remarks, I hope that in the future Illinois may be as successful in the election of her Senators as she has been in the chree months just passed. I bid you goodnight. ;