Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 October 1872 — Speech by Senator Logan. [ARTICLE]

Speech by Senator Logan.

4 SiraATOKl<<>9AW_a<Jdreai»ed a.m»s»meeting of Republicans at Indianapolis, In<3., a few evenings ago. We copy from the Journal of that city.The Republican party has administered the affairs of this Government for the last twelve years; whether it has administered them wisely and successfully or not is a question that any thinking man can readily* answer. At no time, either immediately before the Republicans took control of .the. Government or at any former period of Demcratic rule, did the Democracy ever administer the affairs of the Government in so satisfactory a manner as the Republicans have done. Look at the great questions that have been before the country, and that have beeh satisfactorily solved and settled since it came Into power. The party itself was founded upon principle; it was held together by the great fundamental principle that every man,--woman and child in the country had a right to enjoy every right, privilege and immunity that was accorded to any other, and that no restriction could by law be made to bear upon one man that did not bear upon another. That theory they have carried out. They have gone before the people in defense of that principle, time and again, not only in the field of politics, but in a great war as a result of which that principle became a fixed fact; so that we may truly say to-day what was falsely said before, “ Thia is the free land, This Is my happy home;.” To-day, under Republican rule, and in consequence of the triumph of Republican principles, every black man, woman and child in America can stand and gaze upward toward the heavens, and there read: ‘'As God made me a man, free alike with others, though awhile deprived of that freedom, yet to day, by the exercise of the power of the Government by an honest Republican Administration, this is indeed the free land, and noman can gainsay it.” [Cheers.] In the carrying out of this great principle, the theory of the right of a State to leave the National Union at pleasure, and go wandering off liken shooting star, to fall somewhere, has been abandoned by those who held it, because by the legitimate exercise of the war power ofthe Government by the Republican Administration that theory was stamped with the infamy that it deserved, and to-day the people are united upon the principle that, come what may, the Federal Union must be maintained. The freedom of men, the integrity of the Union, the right of the National Government to exercise its powers for its own preservation, and the fight of every citizen in every State to be protected in his rights by the central Government—all these principles have been finally settled by the Republican party—and no such grand results have ever been achieved bv any other party since the organization, of this Government. An immense debt was incurred in the achievement of those great results, and the Republican party has made a wise provision for extinguishing; thia Democratic debt, While at the same time it has given us a system of national finances that no Government on earth can surpass. One of the great statesmen of England only a short time since announced to the people of that country that the. financial system of the United States of America, if it could be continued for a term of one other Administration, would be the theory that would be. adopted by all the nations of the earth as

the best (financial theory in the world. [Cheers ] At the same time that all this has j, been done, all the varied material interests of the country have prospered to an extent almost without a parallel. All the trades <and pursuits of the people are prosperous, while-our educational system and-every connected with civilization and Christian enlightenment have advanced more rapidly in America under Republican rule than under any other-civßized Government on the face of the globe. In the same length of time no people ever made the progress that we have made. AU this has been under Republican rule and as the result of a Republican Administration of the affairs of the Government, and every man, Republican or Democrat, must admit it. . But our Democratic friends want a'change of Administration. Four years ago they demanded a change on the ground that the Republicans were negro worshiperS'nndwanted to confer citizenship on the colored men and give them the right to vote. To that they were opposed. As it How stands, wg have given them that right, and they are today the peers of Democrats the land over. [Cheers.] New, .what say. these, gentlemen who denounced us four years ago because we intended to do these thingsf These very rebelsand Democrats meet in convention at Baltimore, and Hie first declaration they make, m-ihe first resolution, is: “We agree that all men are equal before the law.’’ [Laughter.] What is the next declaration they make? “We pledge otisrelves that the Thirteenth, . Fourteenth—and—FlfL- j>t.h Amendments to the Constitution of the United States shall be maintained inviolate.” [Renewed laughter.} In the next place: “The integrity ofthe Union must be preserved.” In the name of God, gentlemen, why didn’t you say that ten years ago? [Cheers.] - Well, you admit that you have been wrong all the timefor the last ten or twelve yeark. Aye, for the’last fortv years. You say, “The principle that the Republicans have been contending for is correct, and we pledge ourselves to maintain it,” and what then? “8ut,.4 won’t you let us run the. machine a little while?” [Laughter.] Why? ’lf these ! Democrats had been in power they would not have done what we did, 'not by any ! means; but after we have done it they say, I “Let us try." They do not tell us how they 1 propose to run the Government. How will I you manage the affairs of this nation, my] Democratic friend, if we let you have a , chance? If you are going to manage them as you did when you were in power, we do not want any more of that. [Laughter.and applause.] One would imagine after their confession that they had been wrong all this time, that they’would feel like saying to the Republican party: “Gentlemen, you' understand the machine and we don’t; won’t you just run it for us in the same way you have done?” But no, they want to run it ' themselves. However, being a little nervous | about taking bold, in order to get into the I traces and learn how the thing is done, they I go to work and steal a couple of gentlemen I from our party that we have no use for, and | put them for ward .-as their.'"candidates. Whether these gentlemen have joined the Democratic party or the Democratic party has joined them, I do not think it makes much difference. Whether ,the fly ’walks into the spider’s parlor, br the rpider c'omes ; out to see the fly, is of no consequence—the result in either ease will be precisely the same. [Applause.] [

The Democracy ask for the control of the Government; without any theorv upon which they promise to conduct it. I challenge any Democrat to show me one single proposition contained in the platform upon which atiy Government can be run. They demand “uiii- I .versa! amnesty.” Is that a principle upon which a Government tan be administered ? We have given universal amnesty already to every rebel that asked for it.—There are to, _ day perhaps 250 men not amnestied. Thev were officers of the Government of the United States at the time the rebellion broke out, and, having sworn to support the Constitution of the United States, violated that oath, left their positions and went into therebelli'bn. To them we say: “Gentlemen, we are not in any great hurry to give you amnesty, but if you will ask for it and promise -to support the Constitution of Hie United States, —ta M ha-t..ia.their.xe-sponse* They say: “We ask nothing from the Government, and we never will.’,’ Now, gentlemen, if you want to run after those inen to give them amnesty, when they defy yonr Government, you may do so. I will not. Our Democratic friends would have us go tor them and get down on our knees and say: “O, you. great men; we humbly beg pardon of you; we have done you great wrong, and now: we propose to give you .amnesty without your asking for it.” If you want to do that, go ahead; but as for me, while I am in tli.e Senate of the United States, I never will-vote for amnesty to those rebel leaders until thev ask for it. [Loud applause.] Our old friend Greeley says, “Let us be , reconciled.” We Republicans do not need any reconciliation; we are already reconciled. The man who says that the loyal people of this Government are hot reconciled is a slan ’ derer. We support the Constitution. the flag and the Union; we are reconciled terthefiagof our fathers, to the Constitution of our country, to the laws and the just execu-l tlon of them, and we say to these rebels: Gentlemen, come forward yourselves and be reconciled; love the flag; revere the Const!tntton; eupportthe laws and obevthem, and then yoq will be recpnctlpd. Until that is flout, I lay ta Mr, (heeler snfl hi! Mends, ' W rwoflcllM, ire wt. -fCbwri.)

But if these unrepentant rebels cannot be reconciled without our chiseling the names of our dead soldiers from their monuments and the list of their- victories from our battle-flags, let them forever remain where they stand to-day... [Prolonged cheering.] My friends, the warfare that is being waged against the Republican party by some men who claim to be Republicans, is the result of a conspiracy formed in the Senate of the CmtedStatea T hy a. set . oL ambitious men, who became offended because they could not control General Grant. They charge him with all kinds of corruption, yet the things they charge him with existed, nearly all of them, before he was elected, and they well know it. Their charges are all false, except as to his receiving presents before his election to the Presidency, and of that matter they were well aware at the time, and had nothing to say against it; -it was all right then; but when Grant came to organize his Cabinet ho Went down, among the people, and selected his constitutional advisers from among them, and that offended Schurz, and Sumner, and Trumbull, and Fent-h. They took it sadly to heart that that little unostentatious man from Galena did not come to them and say: “Please instruct me what I ought to do.” Grant let them know that he was a kind of Jackson man, and that when he wanted advice lie would let them kuow it, and until he did they need not give it. Then they conspired against the Republican party because they foresaw that he would certainly be again its nominee, and the whole campaign so far has been conducted ou their part by means of slander of the vilest and most malignant character against the Republican party and Grant, its bead, "What has come of their charges? . .They have- investigated the Administration of General Grant, more thoroughly than any other Administration was ever investigated from the foundation of the - Government until the present hour, and yet without disclosing anything to cast the slightest ,sits-, picion of corruption upon Grant or any member of his Cabinet, and so utterly groundless did the accusation prove to be that Spinner voted against bis.own resolution when it came up in the Senate. [Applause.] The speaker commented will) great logical force upon the course of Sumner and' Schurz in their onslaught upon the AdmiiP Istration, and then turned his attention to J IL G., following that traveler in his late 'Presidential peregrinations, and' analyzing I the 'Shallowtrickery of his celebrated utterLan.ces.at. Pittsburgh, Louisville and Indianapolis.'The proposition contained in the Chamber of Commerce speech, that the Indianians should fAip Meir blink coid tci Cake Superior fy make iron, was irresistibly ludicrous in General Logan’s hands. It wquld be difficult to say whether the philosopher’s egotism or the wildness 'of his economic views were most admirably portrayed.