Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 May 1879 — Mr. Logan’s Speech. [ARTICLE]

Mr. Logan’s Speech.

The following is the Associated Press synopsis of the great speech recently delivered in the States Senate on the Army Appropriation bill by Senator Logan of Illinois: Mr. Logan spoke at length on the issues involved. He thought the question now before that body more important than any other that had arisen since 1861, when the same sentiments which prompted the present legislation wero expressed by many of the same men who are now uttering them, and led to war. He denounced the proposed legislation as bad in itself, and as being attempted by unparliamentary practices. There was no safety in the course the Democrats were now pursuing—no safety either to the North or South. They said that the President must approve their bills; otherwise the Government shall go to pieces. With the knife at his throat they demand that the President shall approve their bills or starve. Was it a new doctrine to those gentlemen that the President has as much right to approve or veto a bill as they had to vote against a bill? Mr. Logan quoted President Pierce’s message accompanying his veto of a bill in 1865 to show that Democratic doctrine had then regarded the independence of the Executive as a wholesome cheek on legislation. This legislation would not stand upon its merits, but its supporters felt obliged to resort to violent means to pass what was repugnant to all friends of good government. The people would hot be deceived by such methods. All the provisions now advocated to protect the ballot had been passed by the Republicans, together with another provision to keep the peace at the polls. The latter was now to be stricken out, making the whole law inoperative. What good citizen would object to having peace at the polls, and why Should not outrages be suppressed on election day as well as other days? Can it be, he asked, that the promoters of this bIH have an interest in disorder at the polls? He thought it looked so. An officer of the peace is not an object of terror or hate to good men. The Democrats say they want to place the power to keep the peace at the polls with the States. This was only another phase of State sovereignty. He assumed that ours is a Nation, per se; it could not be a mere aggregation of States with power to separate when they pleased. Men with sword in hand established the fact that this is a Nation, sovereign and supreme. What kind of Government was that that would not protect a free black man now when all its power was formerly employed to return him as a fugitive to bondage P The Democrats said that - the States would provide for protection at the polls. Had they done so? If this were true why were not the laws enforced? He held that the matter of protecting National interest should be provided for by National authority. Such an important duty should not for a moment be permitted to reside with the S tates. Sometimes a State may be in the interest of the men who commit violence, and therefore the State would not-bring the culprits to justice. Then whore was justice to come from? If the State courts failed to prosecute and the Governor declined to execute the law, where must the citizen turn his eye if not to the National Government? The Democrats want all the protective legislation repealed in order that they may perpetrate frauds and acquire all the votes they want. If the repeal be effected the popular tide would overwhelm them. They Were sowing the wind. Let them beware of the harvest. “I stand here,” Mr.’ Logan said, “to warn the men who are tempted to destroy this Government, that in peringwith it they must not go too far. Loyal men have not forgotten the perils they endured and the sacrifices they made to save the coun-’ try and protect free citizens. They are slow to believe what they do not wish to believe, but if the Democrats force the issue on the country, the people will be compelled to rise and save their rights from destruction. There will be no half-way work then. A spirit of kindness is passing into another feeling. I tell them they are. going too far and are troubling the-peo-ple. The sore once occasioned will be removed only by radical means. It will be cut beyond the wound to make the cure complete. In common with thousands of others, 1 sincerely hoped and expected that the ’Democracy of both North and South would interpret the desire of the country for peace, but I must confess I have been mistaken. The extreme conciliation extended to them has not been met in a similar spirit,' but with an aggressiveness which fills the country with alarm and apprehension. Duty demands that we should speak plainly. I make the open charge that the Democrats are tampering with the interests of the country, and to this end the people are awake. I charge the Democratic party, while expressing a desire for peace and harmony, with making attacks on principles purchased with blood and treasure. They are not sincere in their professions of protecting the Constitution while they are engaged in its I ■make the charge that eulogies are pronounced here,...upon the arch-traitor Davis as a patriot in the presence of representatives of the Amerioan people and the Government he undertook to destroy. I charge that the debt resting upon the country growing out of the late war is chargeable to the Democratic party. 1 arraign the Democratic party as responsible for whatever discord may exist. The Republican party want peace, and have always desired it They not only desired peace, but have shown it by every concession which honor and dignity would permit, and they would still'finake sacrifices to secure permanent peace; but the Democracy may as well learn now do nothing to give peace that is dishonor- , able to them or to the country. They : will not beg on their knees for reconciliation. They Will not relinquish the

principles whieh inured to the people, gained by theThirteenth,Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution. They will not permit the modification of the rights of four millions of people of the South who have been liberated from slavery and admitted to the rights of citizenship. They shall not be remanded to a condition of serfdom or penury. Lelwune invite them to a peace which is honorable and which will make us a model for all people for centuries to come—a peace which must be built in high respeot of citizens of a common country. It mast rest on the concession of equal rights to all citizens of the Republic, black or white, native or foreign-born —a peace that knows no State fines for abrogating the rights of American citizens; a peace which would enable all people to cluster around the Amerioan flag as on emblem of their sovereignty, patriotism and virtue; a people strong enough to defy the power of the world, and who will protect citizens in all their Constitutional rights on land and sea, at homo and abroad, elevating the great future of our country clear and full in the blazing sunlight of our hope.”