Terre Haute Weekly Gazette, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 18 September 1879 — Page 9

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BPBBO XX -OF-

HON. DANIEL W. VOORHEES

Delivered at Hamilton, Ohio, on 'Monday Evening, September 15, 1879.

FELLOW CITIZENS'OF OHIO—Political parties are necessary to the purity and freedom of government*.'?*They watch, detect and expose each others errors, and corruptions. They throw light Into dark and crooked places where each others secrets are kept, thus enabling the people to see, as Is their right, all that Is going on concerning their Interests. Parties also form Issues at times of the most momentus character for the people to decide Issues sometimes involving the principles of trade, finance, commerce and of political economy generally, while at other times Issues are made which Involve the most vital doctrines of free government Itself. No one party Is always right, nor Is any one party always wrong. It happens, too, very often, that which party Is nearest right on a given question becomes a matter for comparison. At this time, however, I venture to say that

THR REPUBLICAN PARTY,

on the political issues as they now stand before the public, Is further wrong, more absolutely In error, more deeply steeped In obstinate sin and Iniquity against the plain teaching of the American constitution than any o'her party ever known In our history, not even excepting the Federalists, who sustained the alien and sedition laws, and opposed the war of 1812. Whatever the faults and shortcomings of other parties have been In the past, the Republican party Is the first to Join

Issue against free elections It Is the first to Impeach the virtue and Intelligence of the American people, thereby pronouncing free government a failure It Is the first to clamor for an armv at the voting places of the people, for the fixed bayonet at the polls, for the bullet to regulate the ballot it is the first to ask for supervisors at elections, appropriately

KNOWN AS OVERSEERS

In the dictionaries it is the first to call in these overseers, together with marshals and United States commissioners, and other appliances of Federal force with which to coerce and dictate the results of elections. The leaders of the Republican party have enacted laws and ernbraoed a line of policy on the subject of popular elections, which show them better fitted for despotic countries and barbarous times than for the conduct of affairs for a free people. Their position Is one of violent aud revolutionary reaction, and if maintained it will leave the people lew of liberty and self-government than the colonists had as subjects of George the III., and will render the achievements of the revolution of 1770 worthless ai.d void. If their position Is maintained, and becomes the policy of this Government, then the cause of miman freedom will be set back at least a century and a half, and the principles of selfgovernment will be trampled to the earth by armed foroe.

THE EXTRA SESSION OK C/0NC1RES.H. You all heard the furious outcry of the Republican press on the subject of the recent extra session of Congress. There was a simultaneous, prolonged, agonized, hysterical scream from Republican sources ail over the country against the Democratic party because we asserted our faith In the capacity of the people to govern themselves, and our determination that thoy should do so without let or hlndrauce from military power. This was the head and trout of our offending, no more and no less. We were true, absolutely true, to the bed-rock principles of tho constitution, while the leaders ox the Republican party, as all the world knows, proclaimed on the floor of both branches of Congress doctrines so subversive of the very life of civil liberty that the Tories of the revolution would have been ashamed to own them. Does this sound to some of you like an exaggerated statement, a statement made merely for political effect? If so, let us examine for a few moments, the extent to which the Federal Government has already arrogated to itself the right by law to seize upon every species of local elections, control them by force, and manufacture majorities out of minorities. Are you aware that there Is now a law of Congress, enacted by the Republican party, In full force this hour, which assert* the control of the Federal Government and the Jurisdiction of the United States courtsover every election of every description that can possibly occur In any State or Territory, in any district, county, city parish, township, school district, municipality, or other territorial subdivision, If any other can be found? Such is the fact. Federal power has

CLUTCHED CONTROL

of every voting precinct in the States and Territories. In proof of tills, allow me to read In your hearing section i),508 of the revised statutes of the United States: "Every person who, by any unlawful means, hinders, delays, prevents or obstruots, or combines and confederates with others to hinder, delay, prevent or obstruct, any citizen from doing any act required to be doue to qualify him to vote, or from voting in any State, Territory, district, county, city, parish, township, school distrlot, municipality or other territorial subdivision, shall be fined not less thau $600, or be imprisoned not less than one mouth, nor more thau one year, or be punished by botii such fine and imprisonment."

What kind of P.U election escapes the provisions of this seotion It has been asserted over and over again in Congress and elsewhere, by the Republican leaders and newspapers, that the power of th Federal Government has been applied only at times and places where members and delegates In Congress were chosen. This Is all false, as the section Just read conclusively proves. If you were holding an election for mayor of this city, or for councilman In its various wards, aud one person should by any unlawful means, such, for instanoe, as a quarrel on the street, hinder or delay another in voting, the person so offending is, by tho express terms of this section, made liable to a fine of not less than $500, or to imprisonment not less than one month nor more than one year, or to both such fine and Imprisonment. If you were engaged In electing a clerk, an auditor, or sberio, or any other county officer of Butler county the same insolent interference by the Federal Government Is provided for by tills law. You are not free from Its aggressive and Inquisitive power, even in the humblest details of your local aflHlrs. In the language of the law Itself, an election in a township, or a school district, is subject to the domination of Federal rule, Federal marshals, Federal arrests, and the monstrous and disproportionate punishments of Federal courts. Are you In favor of this law? Are you so poor and contemptible in your own view ot yourselves that

you

feel the need of the restraining and

penal influences of suoh an enactment as this? Are you willing to admit that you can not trust vourselves that you are whouy incapable of self-government that you can not even elect the lustlces of the peace, or the trustees of your townships, or the offloers of your school districts unless the supervision and threatening authority of the Federal Government is extended over you? Have the American people, in fact, nank so low as this? Have the people of Ohio consented to this servile doctrine? The leaders of the Republican party say you have Charles Foster says you have John Sherman says you have. They say that this usurpation against local self-government shall stand that this legislative insult to you, this enactment of distrust of your .virtue and intelligence shall remain permanently in the statutes of your country. I say It ought to be repealed, expunged, torn from the pages of the law with every cirournstance of indignation and abhorrence. What do you say? Do you believe In yourselves, or do you want a master?

THAT IS THE KXACT ISSUE.

It Is a very old one, and yet it sounds new in our times. Those of you who think you are not competent to manage your local affairs unless the club of the Federal Government is wielded over your heads by United States marshals, district attorneys and partisan Judges on the Federal bench, will, or course, and with entire consistency, vote the Republican ticket—vote for Foster, who has the same opinion of you that you have of yourselves. Who do you suppose would vote with you if they were here? JCvery Tory of the revolution. Not one of them believed in the natural rights of man to govern himself without a master. The odious Cord North, prime minister to George III., would be a Btalwart Republican in this contest and the old imbecile king himself, if alive and a citizen of Ohio, would, on the wellknown principles of his long and tyrannical reign, be for Foster, and a strong centralized government. If you could resurrect from their Infamous graves all those who sided with

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Great Britain against the principles of Jefferson In the days of the revolution, not one would fell to sustain the high prerogative of the Government in stamping out local and popular sovereignty. If every perfidious Stuart who ever sat upon the Scottish or English throne could b9 exhumed to-day they would, on this issue, zealously support the Republican party. All such, in all ages, as have disbelieved in human freedom, and individual responslbllty alt the blood-stained monsters who have cursed the earth with war to crush the aspirations of the people for home rule and civil llverty, would. If here, contribute to the campaign fund of the Republican party, subscribe for it* newspapers, and vote for its candidate^ All this and more would follow In the logical order of things. It was reported not long ago that a very rich man of New York, by the name of Jay Gould, blurted out his willingness and desirte to pay millions for a government of high centralized powers: a government not dependent upon tne popular will a government which would govern, coerce, and hold In subjection the people, Instead of allowing them, according to the constitution of their fathers, to govern themselves. This was simply a somewhat indiscreet but very accurate proclamation of the spirit and purposes of the Republican party. It has the sanction of all suet* leaders of that party as are without faith in man's capacity and right to govern himself of all such as are rich anu prosperous, and desire no possibility of a change of all retired capitalists, whose Investments are eating up tha mortgaged lands and labor of the people, like Incurable cancers wrecking the human body.

WHAT IS MEANT BY A STRONG GOVERNMENT. There was a hard struggle at the very begin* ning of our Government over this very question ThtSre was a party then very formidable in talents, and very considerable In numbers, which had no faith in the people, and boldly declared Its infidelity to popular institutions. The Republican party, with Its supervisors, its marshaft, its commls sloners, its spies, its Federal courts, and Its deep distrust of tho American people, everywhere, in township, county and State, Is the revival of the old despotic Federal party under a dlfierent name, out with similar ideas. The circle Is almost complete, and the enemies of free government in this country have almost reached the point at which they began their nefarious schemes nearly a hundred years ago. We more frequently see and hear Alexander Hamilton now quoted as an acceptable authority on the principles of government than ever before. If he could arise from hiis premature and bloody grave to-day he would have a following such as he never had in Ills life time. How refreshing his doctrines would now be to Jay Gould, Charles Foster and John 8herman! They are all afraid to trust the people. Hamilton was a delegate from the State of New York to tho Constitutional convention at Philadelphia in 17#7. He drew up the plan of a constitution in all its details and presented it to the convention. By Its provisions the chief executive of the United States, by whatever title known, was to hold office for life. How regal and permanent that sounds! Nine-tenths of the holders of interest-bearing Government securities, National bankers and capitalists, out of trade generally, will Indorse tnat position now—not all of them openly—rather than risk their investments to a change of administration. They are fixed comfortably, and what they want is permanency. They are on top, and they want to stay there. They have tiie advantage of the millions below them, and they want to keep it. By the plan presented by Hamilton the senators were also to hold office for life. This was intended to create an aristocracy in the management of the Government similar to the House of Lords in England. As to the States, and the people of the States, they were to be trusted with nothing. The National executive, say the president, was to appoint the governors of the various States the Legislatures of the States were to be permitted to enact laws, sublect, however, to revision and entire repeal by Congress and all the courts of the States, "for tho determination of all matters of general concern," were to be created by act of Con ress. And even this vast scheme of consoldatlon fell short of the wishes of Hamilton aud his followers, as It does now, perhaps, of the more advanced and stalwart leaders ol the Republican party. Hamilton boldly stated that It Dy no means came up to his conception of a model Government. In discussing the proper executive head of a Government, he said: "The English model is the omy good one on this subject. The hereditary interests of the king were so Interwoven with that of tho nation, and ills personal emoluments so great, that he was placed above the danger of being corrupted from abroad, and at the same time was sufficiently independent and sufficiently controlled to answer the purpose of the Institution at home." In presenting his draft of a constitution to the convention, he also said, speaking of the American Senate, that it should be on the same inodel as the House of Lords in England, and "that no temporary Senate would have firmness "to cajry out its proper functions."

Tnese principles of Alexander Hamilton, and of the Federal party at the formation of our Government, show the fountain from which have descended the principles of the so-called Republican party of our times principles mouarchial.ln all their tendencies, repugnant to the self-respect ot the people, offensive to every sentiment, of mannood,and in opposition to the spirit and the letter of the constitution. I have heretofore foretold some things in the political world which have come to pass. I predict now that the coming issue in the near future is to be between tn« broad doctrines of Jefferson on the oue hand, and the monarchical doctrines of Hamilton on the other the latter supported by all the monopolies, banks, and hoarded interest-gathering wealth in the land. Jefferson announced that he who feared to trust the people was a Tory by nature. That was his moae of describing au enemy to free government, and we are rapidly finding out now who are Tories, or enemies of free government, by the same rule.

OTHER PROVISIONS, AND THE ARMT. But the section of the Revised Statutes of the United States which I have read in your hearing is only one of many whereby the Federal Government has seized upon every popular election in every State and Territory of this Union. In a single chapter Congress has enacted a penal code of 28 elaborate sections against the freedom of the people to conduct and control their own elections. This code, which is too long to produce here, Is filled from end to end with every contrivance known to the Ingenuity of man for the sup presslon of local self-government. The punishments provided for the infraction of many of its numerous provisions read like' the ravings of madmen dreaming of vengeance. By section 5,508 if two persons conspire to threaten any citizen in the enjoyment of any of his rights under the constitution and laws, although they may notactually threaten him at all, nor do him the slightest injury, yet they are liable to a fine of #5,000 and 10 years Imprisonment. Other sections are equally atrocious. Throughout them all we meet the United States marshal and his general, and his special deputies the chief supervisor and his insolent subordinates the United States commissioner and his deputy commissioners, all armed with the authority of the Federal Government to arrest, knock down and drag from the polls their feliow citizens at pleasure all clothed by this hideous and abominable legislation, with power to break into any room where ballots are being received, open the ballot-box, stop the election, and imprison the judges wherever party malice or ambition shall dictate such a course. .Not a word of this statement will be denied. It was not denied in the Senate when made there. Every man had the laws before him and knew what they were. Besides all this, however, and giving destructive force to all the vast Federal machinery for the suppression of free elections, was the entire military force of the Government. There have been placed in the laws of Congress, enacted by the leaders of the Republican party, at least three sections which specifically provide for the control of eleotions by the army and navy. Two of these sections provide that it shall be lawful for the president, or some one by him designated, "to employ such portion of the land or naval forces of the United States, or of the militia as may be necessary," in his opinion, to govern and coerce the people at the polls. The other remaining section on this subject inflicts even a still greater degradation on the people. Certain United States commissioners having been created In connection with the management of elections their duties are defined Dy law as follows: "The commissioners authorized to be appointed by the preceding section are empowered, within their respective counties, to appoint, in writing, under their hands, one or more suitable persons, from time to time, who shall execute sul such warrant* or other process as the commissioners may issue in the lawful performance ot their duties, and the persons so appointed shall have authority to summon and call to their aid the bystander* or posse oomitatus of the proper county, or such portion of the land or naval forces of the

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United States, or of the militia, as may b* ecessary to the performance of tne duty with which they are are charged, and such warrant* shall run and be executed anywhere In the Htate or Territory within which they are issued

WHO SHALL COMMAND THE ARMY?

The warrants or other process mentioned in this section, and which the commissioners may Issue are suoh a* are provided for the arrest and intimidation of voters before elections on election day, and afterward. They are such as are contemplated in chapter seven of the title "Crimes," on which I have already commented. We behold, therefore, by virtue of this most amazing section, the army and navy of the United States, not placed under the command of the president or such persons as he may empower, presumably an officer of high rank and character4 to regulate and control elections, but ordered to obey the "summon and call" of the lowest agents, and, naturally, the vilest Instruments oi this whole pernicious business. Let us pause and look for a moment at the scene which is here provided for. The circuit courts of the United States and the district courts of the Territories are authorized by section 1,988 to Increase the number of commissioners from time to time, so as to afford a speedy and convenient means for the arrest and examination of persons charged with crimes against the election laws, until the whole land shall swarm with commissioners bent on the success of their party. Then these commissioners, appointed for a political purpose, are empowered in every county in the United States to appoint one or more persons whom they may deem suitable to excute their process and carry out their edicts. And bow astounding and incredible It seems in this age of advanced civilization, that these Innumerable deputy commissioners, these irresponsible sublessees of unconstitutional power, 8boq0d have bv the express words of American law, the authority to summon and call to their aid not merely the bj standers and the posse oomitatus of the country, but such portion of the land or naval forces of the United States or of the militia as they may consider necessary to the performance of their duties!

Here are the plain words of the law, and no one will galnsay[my statement. Who are these people on whom the most tremendous powers known to human government* have been so lavishly bestowed? I have no word of disparagement for United States commissioners, appointed toperform the legitimate duties of that useful office, but for politioal instruments, thrust by partisan hate and ambition In tnat position, and for those still below them, lhave neither retpect nor forbearance.

Yet ot such as these are made the commanders of the military and naval forces of this Government to these miserable, cringing camp fellows of any party in power, occupying as they do, the lowest and most disreputable plaoes in the rear rank of political warfare, the proudest plumed chieftain, the most peerless warlors on land and on sea, must bow their tall heads and obey their mandates. Will some one tell me how Sherman, bearing a higher rank than even Washington ever bore, is to escape obedienoe to a deputy United States commissioner? Will some one point out to me how, under the law as it now stands, Sheridan, Hancock, or the secretary ot war himself, is to refuse military subjection and co-operatfon to any offspring of the political sewer appointed by a United States commissioner and bearing a warrant or other process for the arrest of a citizen charged with an offense against the election laws?

These are the laws which caused the recent extra session of Congress. The Democratic representatives of the people in both branches of Congress determined they would not lay taxes on the voting population of the country to support laws which virtually disfranchised them. The Republican leaders, going somewhat beyond tne practices of highwaymen, demanded your money and your liberties beth. They demanded your money in ap proprlation bills, to be used in depriving you of your liberties. The Democratic members and senators joined Issue on this felonious demand. A more glorious issue on behalf of man's capacity tor self-government on the one hand, and a more Infamous Issue against freedom aud right on the other, has not been known in human history for over 300 years. Every assertion of principle, every tendency of thought and action, every impulse, every sentiment,every struggle put forth by the representatives of the Democratic party at the late extra session of Congress was on the side of man's natural right to govern himself—on the side of the absolute truths of the declaration of Independence in harmony with every aspiration of down-trodden men for abetter condition of things. On the contrary every thought, every purpose, and every effort of the leaders of the Republican party, not only during the extra session, but for many years before, has been to iutroduce foroe, compulsion, intimidation into the deliberations of the people In choosing public officers. The leaders of that party have clung to the bayonet witn which to rule a free people in time of peace. They lean upon military force, and not upon the consent of the governed. If there is a man here to-day who sincerely believes in that doctrine—in the doctrine that he and his countrymen ought to be managed, regulated and supervised on election day by soldiers—I pass him by. I have no argunent or appeal to make to him. He Is unfit to take part in the Government which our fathers made, He was born to be a slave, and ought to have lived in Rome when a depraved emperor bestowed upon his horse higher privileges than the citizens of Rome enjoyed. But to the free men of Ohio, men born free and fit to be freeto you I appeal In the deathless spirit of selfgovernment, the eternal spirit of liberty. Shall the army rule your elections, or will you rule them? That is the question. Shall the roll of the military drum call out the guards to the polls, .or will you guard them yourselves? There

Is not a monarohy in the world where even qualified suffrage prevails, in which the en forcement of the election laws of the Republican party would not create a revolution. Nearly a hundred and fifty years ago the people of England, although governed by a king, declared by act of Parliament that he should not under any circumstances, or by virtue of any pretense, place troops at or near a voting precinct on election day. From that hour to this no people speaking the English tongue, on either side of the ocean, have dared to invoke military interference at eleotions, until these evil and degenerate days—eyil and degenerate in the fact that they have produced a party miscalling itself Republican, which Is a foe to free institutions. IS THE NORTH TO SURRENDER ITS LIBERTIES IN

ORDER TO APPLY BAYONET RULE IN THE SOUTH?

But the leaders of the Republican party insist that you ought to surrender the principle of self-government, and ot free elections in the North, in order that the bayonet may be nsed, according to the forms of law, at the polls in the South. For every piece of wicked and villainous legislation, inspired by the hearts of designing men, who believe in despotism and not In the people, the South is held up and railed at as an all sufficient cause. If the people are to be shorn of their most sacred right* curtailed of their freedom, aud insulted in their homes, you are told that something in the South imperatively demands it. If Indeed it was true that to govern the South we had to give up the oonstitution, deprive ourselves and our posterity of its protection, our condition would be most deplorable but I Jeny that any such necessity exists. We can not, nor are we oalled on to govern one part of this country one way, and the other part another way. A Southern State Is in this Union exactly a* Ohio is. Whenever distinctions are made between States, or the people of States, the Union and the constitution are both destroyed. But you are told by the great political Pharisees of the times that the people of the different Southern States are not conducting themselves properly on certain subject*, and therefore you should cast away your own liberties in order to regulate by force their domestic affairs. You are also stimulated to this course by a constant stream of slander poured out on an entirely helpless and surr missive people a people who have submitted to every constitutional amendment,, and tt every other condition of reconstruction which the Government has imposed upon them, it is to the interest of the Republican party to slander them. Every fault they have is not only set down fn malice and conned by rote, bat it Is magnified and multiplied by all the lens power of party machinery. An actual offense against the laws In the South, suoh as have happened every day and every hour since the human race began, is a sweet morsel, a delicious item, a savory pairs graph, over which the RepuDiican editor rubs his nands in keen enjoyment. A thousand murders may and do occur in the Northern States, but how flat and insipid they appear when dished up in our morning papers at breakfast in comparison with any act of crime, how'* ever commonplace it* motive, that comes to us, hot and sensational, upon the breezes oi the South! Yon live In a law-abiding

as much no a* any other in the Union, and more so than tome of the lond-pretendlug States of New England, yet I doubt if there is a county in Ohio In which blood has not been unlawfully shed in the last 12 months. The same may be said of the great State of Indiana, and perhaps of every other Northern State Crime is Inherent in the heart of man, and It prevails everywhere. It is without quarantine. It penetrates every latitude, every longitude, and every olimate. I hold that the people of the North, and the people of the South, on the average of conduct and motive, are neither better nor worse than each other and in this opinion the statistics of crime in proportion to population will amply sustain me. The trouble, however, is that the leaders and newspapers of a powerful party in the North are deeply interested in making you believe the Southern people are worse than they are. When actual offenses do not occur frequently enough to answer the purposes of an approaching election, fictitious ones are manutaotured tor the occasion. Recently two prominent Democrats in Mississippi, both candidates for office, became involved in trouble, and Mr. Dixon was shot and killed by Mr. Barksdale. Tnls Is a deplorable event, and I sincerely hope the survivor will be punished, if he took the life of his adversary without cause. But is a homicide of this kind so great a novelty to the Northern mind that we are to be thrown Into convulsions on its account? About three-quarters of a century ago there was a very noted homicide In the streets of Boston It grew out of a political quarrel in which Mr. Sel fridge, a Federalist, killed Mr. Austin, a Democrat, and from that time to this more than twice 10,000 esses of killing have been occasioned in the Northern States alone by political feeling and animosity. There Is hardly a man in my presence who can not recall one In his own recollection. Yet suoh events have caused but brief comment, for the reason that heretofore no political party has been so debased as to thrive on crime, fatten on murder, and hence been interested in proclaiming its prevalence where It did exist, and in forging its calendar where it did not. But a few days since I saw in a leading Republican paper of your State the following jubilant announcement: "The best Republican speech of the campaign thus far—the shooting ol Dixon In Mississippi." That editor wants any number more such Republican speeches made In this and subsequent campaigns. He wants more killings to take place In the Southern States. It matters not on what provocation a man is killed south of the Potomac and the Ohio rivers, every such item will be so much party capital to that editor he will make suicide from financial embarrassment a political murder. And when actual murder runs short, he will supply the political market he will meet the demand he will kill them himself he will transform himself Into a monster of murder on paper, for the sake of party success at the approaching elections. I once heard It said that In whatever direction a man's interests lay there you ought to look for his tracks. This is certainly a safe rule by which to Judge a political party. The Republican party Is the only party on earth whose Interests are advanced by riot, violence, disorder, resistance to law, bloodshed, and murder in tfee 8outh and I therefore charge that now, as heretofore, in the supremacy of c*rpetbagism, every plan, scheme, prayer, hope and purpose of that party are on the side of lawlessness and crime In the South on the side of their own manifest gain if they can thus Inflame the Northern mind. Would you believe a witness under oath in one of your courts on a question of contract or damages, if he was as much interested on one side of the case as the Republican leaders and newspapers are in making you believe that the people of the South are a horde of savages, who need military force constantly at their throats? I do not think you would.

A SOLID SOUTH.

But there is another grievance alleged against the South as an excuse for usurpation, aud the overthrow of free elections, not only there but everywhere. It 1* said she is solid. We hear It clamored In our ears trom all quarters, that she votes solidly against the Republican party. Let us admit she does. New England votes about as solidly against the Democratic party, and yet I have never heard that therefore we ought to nullify the constitution and all the rights of the States in the matter of elections to get rid of that evil. It Is true that the policy of this country which has so bitterly cursed the producer in respect to revenue, and the finan ces generally has been the work of New England greed, sectionalism, and legalized robbery, but nobody has, on that account, strong as the provocation has been, demanded that her people should be deprived of a free ballot. People have aright to vote as they please, as long as our form of government remains, and whoever would deprive them of that right is a scoundrel who deserves death But are you astonished that the South is solid politically against the Republican party? Would It not be a marvel If she were otherwise? Did you ever hear of any branch of the AngloSaxon, Celtic, Teutonic or Sclavonic races, that fawned upon a master and whiningly licked tho hand that smote them in their helplessness. 1 have mingled extensively with representative men of the South since the war. They bear no resentments against those who conauered them in war. If they did they would be hoping for the defeat of Ewlng, and the triumph of .Foster In this contest in Ohio. The blows of battle, however, are only remembered and recalled by

Boldiers,

State

as I have often heard them, in

mutual recognition of valor and constancy. But do you ask the people of the Southern States to fraternize, and vote with a party which plundered them of their remaining valuables after they hsd fallen on the field of battle a party which, after the war was over, unleashed the jackals who lurk in the rear of armies, the human hyenas who prey upon the dead a party which turned loose and guided toward the desolated South all those human vultures, kites, carrion crows and scavenger birds, who, in the shape of Northern spoliators and adventurers, have filled the world with the disgrace of a reconstructed South? Do you ask the people of the South to divide their votes, and give part of them to such a party as that? If you do, you insult our common nature and the instincts of universal mankind. No honorable man would make sucn a request, and every just man would despise a people who would grant it. Out of their broken estates, their ruined plantations, their poverty and distress, hundreds ot millions of dollars were extorted by the shameless, brazen emissaries of the Republican party, and carried away to secure regions for qtuet enloyment,. On this point history will make no mistake, and record no uncertain verdict. The blackest pages in the history of the human race contain no acoount of such robberies under the forms of government. Warren Hastings, in his plunder of the East Indies, becomes a moderate and respectable character in comparison with many of those rapacious wretches who fastened their fangs upon the property of the South after the war was over. "Seventy years before tho birth of Christ, Sicily was ravaged and despoiled by a consul of Rome. Though more than 19 centuries have come and gone since then, yet the name of Verres retains all its freshness of immortal infamy. He was prosecuted by the authority of the Roman Senate, and fled for an asylum to

straDge

and foreign

lands. He died miserably in exile, and his dishonored dust was not permitted to mingle with the soli of the Roman republic. We find, however, in Middleton's life of Cicero that all the peculations, extortions, bribes, and larcenies charged upon Verres during hla entire administration of the affairs of 8ioTly did not exceed 12,000,000, equal to only one-third of the amount for whioh, according to the admission of the New York Tribune made at the time. Governor Scott fraudulently issued the bonds of South Carolina In a single transaction. And yet you are expected to be shocked and horrified because the people of the South do not vote the Republican ticket! Men go about in yohr midst lamenting with pious horror a solid South who have indorsed every criminal transaction which has made her solid. You hear the voices of canting hypocrites on every hand pretending to bewail a united South, and invoking a united North, and the army and the navy wsalnst her. Can anyone be so blind as not to see the objeot of all this? The leaders of the Republican party desire to unite the North in solid hate against the South. They also desire a pretext for the use of military force by which to subvert our system of States, and to erect upon their ruins what they style a Nation, a centralized consolidated Government, monarchical in spirit, and destined soon to be so in form and name.

STATE RIGHTS.

It is in this connection also that the dofttrine of State rights Is constantly denounced in your hearing. Sherman and Foster pretend to believe that the Southern people still claim the right of secession. They know better, but the statement ha* a tendency to unite the North, and henoe they make it. There is not a representative man in either branch of Congress from the

Southern State* who has not renounced the doctrine of secession and declared it forever buried by the results of the war. Every newspaper lu the South has done the same, with the exception perhaps of one or two which are paid by the Republican party to publish pretended Southern sentiment* for Northern use. Every State in the South ha* legally and officially ratified all the constitutional amendment. thereby making a solemn agreement with the States of the North on every constitutional issue raised by the war, and on every result which followed the overthrow of the rebellion. What more can they do? What more can be demanded of them? Are we to understand that this hue and cry on the subject of State right* means the abolition of afcl the rights reserved to the States under the constitution? It sounds that way. There is no discrimination in favor of any rights belonging to the States. Republican speeches consist of wholesale denunciation of all rights known as State rights. To destroy free, local elections It is necessary first to overthrow every vestige ot right which a Htate has to regulate its own domestlo institutions, in the rage against the right of a State to secede, now wholly abandoned everywhere, you are asked to repudiate the right of Ohio to elect her own governor and all her State and county offloers to establish her courts, and to enact all laws for her local government without let or hlndrauce, or any kind oi interference on the part of the Federal Government. You are asked to demolish those Stale governments which Jefferson in his first inaugural Implored you to support "in all their right* as the most competent administration for our domestlo concerns, and the snrest bulwarks against antl-Repnbli can tendencies." This Is a new and monstrous doctrine. Listen to thefollowlng resolution: "That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the states, and especially of each State, to order and control its own domestic institutions, according to Its own Judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on whioh the perfection and endurance of our political fabrlo depends and we denounce the lawless Invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter under what pretext, a* one of the gravest of crimes."

Where do you suppose this bold proclamation of State right* is to be found You doubtless imagine it emanated from some Democratic convention in South Carolina or Mississippi. On the contrary, it is the fourth resolution in the Republican platform of I860, on which Abraiiam Uincoln was elected president. So strong, in fact, was the doctrine of State right* in the Republican party at that time that many of its leading men, and especially its leading newspapers In New York, Ohio and Indiana were in favor of allowing the Southern States to secede It they wished to do so. All is changed now, and the other extreme is reached. Not only the States, but the counties, the townships, the towns, the wards ot towns, and the school districts are expressly required to surrender all their rights of local selfgovernment to Federal domination. it remains to be seen whether this demand will be sanctioned by the people. If it is, the end of this Government, as our fathersmude it, has come.

THE FINANCIAL 18810.

There is another issue, however, before the public which claims our attention at this time, and I must pas to its consldttatlon. After Inflicting in the last BIX years, more bankruptcy, more repudiation of honest debt*, more want, more misery, more enforced idleness, more mental and physical distress on the American people than have ever been known before in all the years put together since the foundation of tho Government, the Republican leaders now come before you, bowing and smiling, and claiming great credit for the fact that the business condition of the country having been made as bad as possible, therefore, if there is any change it must be for the better. After making the last six years a vast continuous grave-yard in which are burled the homes and the happiness of millions of their countrymen the secretary of the treasury aud his followers are now asking for your indorsement on the ground that the daily death rate in business, the daily roll of bankruptcies is not quite so great as it has been at the worst periods heretofore. The fact is that the deadly flnaucial policy of this Government has destroyed nearly all the active business men who were in debt a few years ago, and its fatal effects are decreasing for the want of natural subjects on which to operate. The scourge of the yellow fever has to abate when It, has killed off pretty much everybody who is susceptible to its attack in the community where it prevails. But that would hardly be a sufficient reason for Indorsing yellow fever, yet It would be as good a one as is now urged for the indorsement of the financial policy of the Republican party. That policy has forced the people a* between themselves to repudiate their private debt* to the amount of perhaps $10,000,000,000, and hence tho business of paying debts by enforced repudiation Is necessarily less now than when the epidemic of bankruptcy first broke out. But do the people, therefore, who were driven by that acoursed policy through the bankrupt courts thank its authors? Do those who were compelled to receive a bankrupt certificate in full payment of what was comlnv to them feel aniutense gratitude toward the men who are responsible for such a mode of payment? No, not so. There is a guilty responsibility on this subject which will loug remain in the memories of the people. "The servile castes of the East Indies, with a blind and Ignorant faith, worship the Juggernaut, and feel no resentment when mangled and crushed by their hideous deity. Itis not so, nor will ltever be. with the American people. They will not worship at a cruel ana heartless shrine. They will rather teach their children, and their children's children, to execrate the authors of their misfortunes."

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?

Those who are responsible for the business calamities of the country are so oonBCious of It themselves that they have been and still are persistently laboring toshlftthe responsibility and fix it where it does not belong. They hay you are to blame, and In saying so slander you to your faces. Tnousands of times over John Sherman, Carl Shurz, Charles Foster and tne other leaders of the Republican party have charged that the people were themselves responsible for the oyolone of business rum which ha* swept the country. They charge that commercial disasters, mortgaged lands, impoverished homes, sheriff sales, Idle men and women and begglug tramps have come upon you a* punishments for your own sins for your sins of extravagance, wasteful expenses and high living. They say you have been drunk with speculation and luxury beyond your means, and that you had to suffer the consequences or

Siour

debauch. And all this insnlting calumny poured out on your heads from the mouths of those who, commencing with the war, and staying away from its dangers, have become enormously rich who live in palaces, and fare sumptuously every day, while they have made you poorer every hour, and caused your farms to shi ink in value until you are now worth in property but little more than oneha'f what you were seven years ago. What a sublime spectacle 1* here presented! Behold the millionaires of recent and rapid growth, the masters of gilded mansions and goldlaced servants engaged in lecturing the hard handed, toil-stained millions on the virtue* of tconomy! It Is enough to raise the gorge of every larmer and mechanic and every other honest man in*the land. In what way have you sunburned laborers been so extravagant that you deserve censure from the lips of those who have waxed fat upon the misfortunes of the country? On a former occasion I used the following language on this subject: "Go to the homes of those who eat their bread In the sweat of their faces and ascertain If you can the extravagancies in which they Indulge. Do they maintain costly equipages, splendid carriages,and richly caparisoned horses? Are their humble dwellings adorned with valuable paintings, or fitted up wuL expensive furniture? Do you see pier gla ses on their walls and feel velvet carpets beneath your feet on their floors? Take a seat with them at their frugal but hospitable tables. Do you flnd extravagance there? Where is the solid silverware, the long succession of delicate dishes, the various brands of high-priced wines? None of these things are found to tempt the epicurean tastes of those who, while preaching economy to the industrial classes, sit down each day to banquets such as Dive* presided over when Lazarus lay at his gates begging bread. Have the farmers and mechanics of the couutry brought calamity oa themselves by extravagance In dress? Where one indulges In broadcloth, a hundred are glad to be comfortable and appear decent in homespun. Do their wives and daughters wear velvets and expensive silks? Must they too economize, and put on plainer attire, in order that the votaries of fashion and wealth may Increase their demands? The fact is that the laboring men and women of this country have not been extravagant In their lives, nor do their embarrassment* and sufferings arise from that cause.

They constitute the only economizing, self-denying class of citizens in all this broad

land. With what force and justice turn uoon their accusers and fasten the crimes of oroflUracy and shame travagance! The Federal Govern men has been administered for many years a scale ot the most stupendous expen It has

Tloted

with the public money an

evil example. States, counties, cities porations have too generally defied principles of economy in their man But or ail wi commit extravagan practice self indulgence, the most cons is that class whicn lds the bonds Government and the mortgages of the and loudly urges Its oppressed debtors most rigid economy for ityi own bene those who compose this favored ol" luxuries of every laud and accessible. To them nothing can be which money will command. As they over oceans and continents in quest enjoyments they are assailed by no a fears in regard to their pecuniary rt They know that the plowman in the the mechanic in his shop, the Am laborer of every kind, and wherever be, pays daily tribute and makes their secure.1,

RESUMPTION.

But we are now saluted on all hands Republican leaders with a noi»y and a glee over what they call a resumption of payments, and an imaginary revival neso. After driviug prosperity outcountry and blighting the homes of the secretary of the treasury announ speole payments of debts area fixed have come to stay. Do you think that Do you think the debts of this country, and private, are being paid in speole demanded Can you pay your debts 1 way? You owe your neighbor a dollars, and on the day it falls have a hundred dollars In the ot a National bank Just the street. Your neighbor has to hear Sherman or Foster, and be be specie payments are here, and he de specie. You have also heard that ev~ has resumed speole payment*, and yon once to the bank, present Its notes, anl specie across the counter. Withasllgh of contempt for your ignorance, the will hand you a hundred dollars in backs in redemption of the bank no tender him. That is all you will get You commence then seriously Inq where you can get the specie with wh make a speoie payment to your neighbo is still waiting. 1 will tell you howyo get it. There is a place in the city of York where, if you piesent the right ar of greenbacks, you can lawfully demand If you will, therefore, take the cars here somebody to show you the place whe reach there, and a policeman to prots? from being robbed in the vicinity of street, you will be in a fair way to eojo luxury of making oue speole payment' live to get home. What a precious boon to you! How devoutly thankful you to be that the currency nns been so cont that your property has shrunk nearly on in value, ana the very vitals of all the industries have been torn out in ord reach such a glorious consummation. this priceless blessing will compe vhe country for all Its losses and suffei Sherman and Foster and their kind of say it will. Seriously, do you agree' them Does not tiie whole thing Tork like a "barren ideality," as the old chle has gone to his rest expressed it, tha reality of specie payment*? And yet, state of facts, a triumphant shout is that specie payments have been resnmed a secretary of the treasury Is running presidency on that assertion. A more aud perfectly transparent lalsehood in my judgment, been proclaimed in the teeuth oi-utuiy. There Is simply no res tlon at all, ana no such thing speoie ments in existence in this oountry. The a bold and audacious attempt to deceh people on this point, but it will fail.

AN EQUALIZATION OF CURRENCY. I will tell you what has been nccomp and all that ha* been accomplished. For years the greenback was quoted below value, solely from the fact that the Go ment refused to receive it for a us torn s, authorized the bondholder to refuse it In ment of interest, and, after the act of 180U, in payment also of the principal of bonds.

It was thus a currency stigmatized fro: beginning by the Government itself Inferior ourrenoy, and Its total destru was demanded and constantly threaten a very powerful cans. In this way it was below par, Judged by the coin standard, within the last two years au aroused an dlgnant public opinion has secured fo dliferent treatment at the hands of it* inies. Congress has, by law, put a stop further destruction, and thus declared shall remain the money the country. ave it a place in the estimation ot the had not before possessed, and the gold biers and Jobbers in New began to abate tbelr sneers, and wonder if what they had so long and so fe~ ously styled a "rag baby had not reall come a giant in strength, and made hi permanently at home in the United S The polite mention of "dishonest money" "greenback lunatics" became less fr?que~ certain quarters when the representatl the people declared that the greenback should not be driven out but should re with the people. And when In addlti this the agitation of the subjcct in Cun drove the secretary of the treasury to anno tnat at a given time he would receive greenback for custom duties, Its value

rr

the equal of any other money ifl the worl did so because the Government whioh ltgavelt fuil credit. An equalization of different kinds of currency has been e£ and this fact, brought about mainly Democratic Congress, and In spite of Be lioan opposition, is now seized npon, an clared to be speoie resumption aeeompl' by John Sherman I Wendell Phllim, ought to be an authority with Republic* a letter from Boston on the 12th or last me speaking of the present condition of the publican party, says: "I have watched politics for 00 yean, my Judgment is that the fault of this part one-third Ignorance and two-tblrds knave

I do not by any means quote this remar" the great New England orator a* applicable the masses of the Republican party, but n~ lng could be moie falhfully descriptive those party leaders who boast of having tablished a resumption of specie payme because the Democratic and National vote, the country have forced the greenback to equality with gold over their most determl opposition. If It should be claimed for secretary of the treasury that he gave oountry its splendid wheat crops this year, claim would hardly be more absurdly than that be has restored specie payments.

It is well known, too, that the greent: could Just as well have been plaeed at par coin at the start, and kept there as It can now, if it had only been made a full 1' tender. That was alt that was wanting Thaddens Stevens so clearly pointed out 1862. In the Franco-German war of 1870 1871. the paper circulation of France declared a legal tender for all debt*, although its coin reserve was le»s *24 per cent, for its redemption, ts largest depreciation was 2% cent, as compared with gold in Novezo 1871. According to Spodord's America A1 nac for 1878, a most valuable work, the no of the Bank of France "remain still In vertible, but are at par with gold." This also have been the history of the green In this country dnring and since the war, for the fact that unpatriotic and avarlct capatalists determined to create a depreclat currency .worth say HO or 70 cents on tne doll with which to purcnase Government bon dollar for dollar, now to be paid by you coin at tbelr face. It was a vast scheme plunder, »s was shown in Congress, when creation of our bonded debt began.

But the equalization of our currency havi at last taken place, and greenbacks be 4qual in value to gold and silver, and far -jbr for the transaction oi business, I see sometimes asked whether 1 would now vote repeal the so-called resumption act. I braced every opportunity to vote lor its peal in Congress, and know no reason wh should not do so again. It is true I attach importance to the act now than heretof It* power for evil ha* been very great, but the course of event* it has become almost, not quite, a nullity. It never had any pow for good, and ha* produced not a single ben flcent result.

SHERMAN'S RECORD.

Bntas I am arraigned for not lmpltol following Mr. Secretary Sherman a* a financial guide, let us examine for moment the former position of the Republi" party of Ohio under his leadership on the question of the just payment ol our Nat debt. Eleven years ago, in 1868, the Republic* of Ohio declared In their State platfo that the 5-20 bonds were legally payable legal tender notes. If Mr. Sherman did write that platform with his own hand cordially indorsed it,and all the Republican* this State Ud the same. But he wa* not cont with merely standing on the platform of.