Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 September 1870 — Party Records. [ARTICLE]

Party Records.

Im his recent speech at South Bend, lai, Vtoe President Colfax spoke as follows touching party records: j Frankly and fully I have thus reviewed the results of thia administration, and replied without a word of bitterness to the charges of its enemies. Why, let me ask, In conclusion, thonld the administration or the Republican Congress be driven from power? What do you desire above all things from your govern* mint ? Is it not the fkilhful execution of the laws, the maintenance of peace, economy tn administration, honesty in officials, the preservation of the national honor, ano all possible relief from public burdens? And have I not shown that, ever since the Executive and Legislative Departments were brought Into harmony and political accord by the inauguration of President Grant, these essentials of a good Government have been realized? The scandals which previously dishoncred the administration have ceased. The texes have been frdthftally collected. The debt has been steadily reduced. The National expenses have been retrenched. The National credit has improved. The burdens of the people have been largely reduced. And those priceless words, honesty and economy, are written cn the portals of the White House.

But I have noticed recently, as a last card of our opponents, the preparation, by their National Democratic Committee of sample cards of goods, with the amount of their cost in gold in European nations, under their cheap wages of labor and their price here in currency, under our American wages of labor It is hard to see what they expect 40 gain by this. If they mean that, this disparity could be remedied by cheaper wages for labor here, it might explain why, when Senator Stewart, of Nevada, and other distinguished Republicans, sought to pass a bill at the last session prohibiting the importation, under contract, of servile labor, and strengthening the law passed by the Republican Congress cf 1862 which was in tended to prevent the coolie system of slavery in this country, prominent Democratic Senators talked against time day after day, condemning its details, and finding fault with its provisions, as not satisfactory to them, until at last the great pressure of the annual appropriation bills caused it to be postponed till the next session. I will not assume that their object was to seek to manufacture p lrticsl capital for the canvass tut of it; but Ido say that their unwillingness to co operate in a reasonable bill that could have been passed, and tbeir prolonged and- antagonizing speeches, when time was so valuable, and in a body where no previous question existed to stop an interminable debate, caused the postponement for.the session of the bit! I have referred to. As to the value to the country of adequately remunerated labor I have already rpoken; and need not repeat the argument. Whatever the object of this election device may be, I have one comprehensive answer to make to it. That for every dollar the nation has to pay for interest on the public debt, for every dollar of taxation, internal and externa), over the ordinary and economical expenses cf the government, a Democratic rebellion is responsible. Ido not deny piat there are, and were, many patriotic men inside of the Democratic party. It is not my habit to arraign them, sweepingly and enmasee, as their last National Democratic Platform arrainged all of us as guilty of “corruption and extravagance exceeding anything known in history,” and “unparalleled oppression and tyranny;” and that if we won in that national contest, they would have to “ meet a subjugated and conquered people, amid the :uins of. lib erty and the scattered fragments of the constitution!” But no matter what good men may still remain in its ranks, I speak of the Democratic party, its organization, its inspiration, its leadership, and its his lory. That is kr own of al) meh and cannot be denied.. Three points in illustra tion of its responsibility, as a party, for the rebellion, and the prolonged conflict to suppress it, can never die argued away: 1. Every State which rebelled had a Democratic Governor. Every Executive officer ofthe Confederacy was a Dimocrat—its President, Vice President, Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treatury, Secretary of the Navy and Postmaster General, without an exception. Every leading commander of its armies was a Democrat. Lee, Beauregard, Wade Hampton, Stonewall Jackson", Pemberton, Ex-Democratic Vice President Breckinridge, Hood, Sidney Johnston, and all. Of only the Republican party can it be eaid, that not a single one ever signed an ordinance of secession, or fired on our flag, or shot down its defenders. 2. The administration in power, which could have crushed it in its inception, but did not, was Democratic. Its President, Buchanan, gave it aid and comfort by proclaiming in his message of December, 1860, that “the Constitution has not delegated to Congress, or any other department of the government, the power to coerce a State into submission, which is attempting to withdraw or has actually withdrawn from the Confit-racy," as he called the United States: ’ and that “the Sword was not placed in their hands to preserve it (the Union) by force.” ft was a Democratic Secretary of Wsr who emptied the Nonhcrn arsenals of guns and filled Southern arsenals with them, thus arming the South, and also disarming the North. It was a Democratic Secretary of the Navy* who scattered our navy to the ends of the earth. It was a Democrat c Secretary of the Treasury who stabbed our national credit in that dark hour, as he hoped to its death. 8. Every man who in the North shouted “No coercion”—every One who. predicted that the rebellion could not be suppressed, every one who denounced all measures devised for its overthrow, every one who stigmatized the brave soldiers as Lincoln hirelings, every one who demanded at the very crisis of the war an immediate cessation of hostilities and insisted that the war was a failure, as resolved on in the National Democratic platform of 18G1, every one who branded the faithful Lincoln as a Nero or Caligula, was a Democrat in good and regular standing with his party. Nor can it be forgotten that when Jeff. Davis denounced Congressional confiscation, while the Confederacy were confiscating Union men’s property, they were Democrats who echoed that denunciation; when Jeff Davis indulged his wrathful expletives at the employment of colored soldiers to help put down his treason, they were Democra's. who echoed his invective; when Jefl. Da via anathematized the

Emancipation, they were Democrats who echoed the anathema; and when Jeff. Davis slandered Lincoln as a monster, they were Democrats who repeated his invectives. Thus, instead of a thoroughly united North, which could have crushed the conspiracy in a year, we had a divided North; and for th s prolonged ■war, irith its terrible losses in blood and treasure, those who acted as I have' stated were responsible. For our debt, therefore, and for our taxes, they have a solemn responsibility, and cannot escape it, No show cards, no sophistry, can relieve them from it And while taxes remain, every stamp you put on a deed or a mortgage is a stickingplaster to remind you of a Democratic rebellion—Democratic in its origin and officers—Democratic in all the aid and sympathy it received in the North—and sorrowed over, when it was crushed by our gdtal by Mrol. * f , I turn from this record to the record o;

the Republican party, which has been written upon the brightest pages of our nation’s history. Amid every possible embarrassment and stumbling block, it has gone on in its noble work of liberty and humanity, of justice and reform, of advancing progress and national development. Three years of the ten since It won its first national victory, a recreant President so shameftilly wielded the Executive power, that mistaken cor fide nee and a sad assssslflation had given him, against the party which had. honored him by its bestoWai, as to win 6.5 votes for renomination, and an endorsing resolution, from the National Convention of the Democratic party that four years before had so bitterly .opposed his election. War, for which it was not responsible, had filled the land with graves, loaded it with debt, rendered unpopular taxation a necessity, and checked the national growth and its stately steppings towards its magnificent future. But, in spite of all these drawbacks, what has it done for the republic ? Look at the contrast I Ten years ago meh were mobbed and hung for saying they preferred freedom to slavery. Today, liberty enthroned in our land. Ten years ago, the overseer; the lash, the coffin, and the auction block, To-day, a race lifted from bondage into self-reliant manhood and womanhoed. Ten years ago, an arrogant oligarchy breathing threatenings against all who resisted their purposes. To day, none so poor as to do them reverence. Ten years ago, a nation divided by conspiracy and treason, and a hostile government inaugurated upon our soil To-day, a nation united, and more powerful because more free. Ten years ago, a constitution recognizing property in man. To-day, a regenerated constitution guaranteeing equal rights and national protection to the poorest.

Look, too, at the position our land occupies among the nations of the earth. With all the croakiugs of our enemies as to the burdens of taxation, the legacy of the rebellion in which our last National Democratic administration ended—with all the false charges that the poor are unjustly oppressed—there is no nation in all inc world to which the hearts and hopes ofthe poor in every country turn, as they do toward our .Republic. Go to the banks of or the Rhine, to the .Baltic or the Adriatic, upon the Alps or the Appenines, and to what land does the poor man look, with longing in his heart, hoping that he may there make for himself, and the family that God has given him, a home, and enjoy civil and religious liberty ? All around the world, from nation to nation, and continent to continent, you may ask this question, and the eager, earnest answer is always “America.” ■Whenever the poor or the oppressed seek to better their condition, their thoughts, their hopes, their eyes, their hearts are all turned toward this republic of ours. Who can dispute or misunderstand this testimony of the toiling millions of every nation and language and ereed ? And is it not an irrefutable answer to every charge that the republic has been injured under the government ofthe Republican party? And for all who come with their household goods, to become of us and with us, to share our destiny, to endure our trials, or to participate in ouw prosperity, to secure by their toil a home, to live and rear their children in the true spirit of devotion to our free institutions, there is room and to spare. Our mountains welcome them to their mineral wealth; without fee or reward. Our Western plains beckon them to the free farms and free homes Republican legislation proffers to all who will come and possess and cultivate the land. Or, if they prefer to live in the older States, in the workshop and factory they will find faithful labor remunerated far beyond the rates it commands in the Old World.

The future history of the Republican party can be judged by'tls past; and its pledges and its acts show what that future will be .- 1. It will surely and resolutely maintain its work of enfranchisement, of reconstruction, of making all citizens equal under the protection of our supremo law, against all hostile attempts—so that, by tuc final settlement of these questions, so happily ended and so faithfully to be maintained, the nation shall have stability and peace, and this once exciting issue be regarded as decided for all time. 2. The work of retrenchment of our national exnenses—of the abolition of all needless cffices—of the elevation and improvement of the civil service—and of the saving of every possible amount to the people—will go on as faithfully as during the past eighteen months. 3. The pledge of the last National Republican platform that “taxation shall be equalized and reduced as rapidly as the national faith will pemit," will be faithfully carried out, as already inaugurated undivided Republican vote of the recent Congress ; and, as the national obligations diminish, the burdens of taxation, increased as they were during the war expressly to meet these obligations, will be justly reduced. 4. The debt will be funded at a lower rate of interest, and “having been con tracted for the preservation of the Union for all time to come, will be extended over a fair period for redemption," lessening largely, without doubt, the present, monthly amount of its reduction, so that the same generation shall not l-e required to fight the battles of the Union, and also to pay eff the entire cost of its preservation, by bearing heavy and oppressive burdens needlessly. 5. The revival of our American commerce—the development of our vast resources—the completion of the work of amnesty to the fullest limits of the liberal proffer of the National Republican platform—are all sul jects worthy of, and that will doubtless receive, the fullest consideration and the wisest legislation. Thus acting—faithful to the country and all its interests—faithful to the Union and its integrity—faithful to the people whose confidence and support has sustained it in. all its trials—faithful to its brilliant record for the right—snd faithful to eterv pledge on which it power, a Republican administration and Republican Congress will go forward in the work entrusted to them, and the nation, under their legislation, will go on, prospering and to prosper.