\-L /% UBRARY OF CONGRESS 013 789 604 7 peanulife® pH8.5 E 680 ■ K19 Copy 2 GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURES. SPEECH OP HON. JOHN A. KASSON, OF IOWA, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Monday, August 14, 1876. as. a. 'WASHING-TON. 1876. o 80 SPEECH OF HON. JOHN A. KASSON. The House having nnder consideration the state of the Union- Mr I^ea S k°er : S If d all the parliamentary inquiries of gentlemen have been answered, I will once more endeavor to proceed with what I ha Mv t ho 3 nmahle friend from Pennsylvania [Mr. Randall] made an ?,-ip.ifl from Ohio TMr. Foster] with counter-tables ot correct, ngiues and letter ma henmtTcs. I do not propose to go into the mathematical you arrange your figures as to what they will make I think I may sav without doing any injustice to the gentleman, that one 2 wasput aftei the other 2, instead of under it, in many places by my honoia- Kto Ia ft £SS MSSfc-. — he^^ed^sire tW ere Ion* we might have an Executive who would be in narmony wifh hfs siaeTf the°House, and he promised great ; things mto .way of reform should such an Executive be elected Avaihng myselt ot the accustomed liberty of debate on a motion of £»^£g™?%. ' w as brierlv as I may, to inquire which ot the two P*™^. nav „ ", S a cai dilate for Chief Executive of the country who if elected, would be "most likely to gratify the people in their aspirations for an nTilffiiS whXrtt randhSt^upported by my honorable frieS from Pennr y lvaniaisthat Executive by whom the people may Spect their hones* aspirations to be realized? Who is SamuelJ. Tilden, and what is his record ? " THE CANDIDATE IS THE PLATFORM." Prior to his nomination at SaintLouiswe often heard Rephrase that « the candidate will be the platform." Is the democracy of th s Hote and of the country willing to accept that maxim and apply it '^'niYnofslfthat during the last few years, since 1860, this Gov- ernment has Seen partially°remodeled. The masses ot the northern people have become possessed of new desires and new principles ; and those principles yet remain deeply ingrained in their hearts, as deeply, I trust, as they were at the time Ohio gave 100,000 majority against a colleague of Mr. Tilden in the convention at Chicago in 1864— Mr. Vallandigham, of Ohio. What, then, has been the record of Mr. Tilden in respect to the issues which will be presented to the people of this country in the course of the pending canvass ? What was his position in 1860 touching the fundamental doctrine upon which the battles for the Union were fought, the perpetual unity of the nation, for which on our side so many hundred thousands of men shed their blood or laid down their lives ? Was Mr. Tilden in harmony with the Union sentiment of the country? Was he in harmony with the sentiment of the country which sustained the war ? Did he urge the people to sustain the Union ? Did he urge the rilling of our armies? Did he censure the secession movement out of which the war grew ? Is he anywhere or anyhow upon the record as the strong friend of the Union in its time of danger? MR. TILDEN AS A SECESSIONIST. In 1860 Mr. Tilden wrote a letter, under date of October 12, to Hon. William Kent, then a democratic elector for the State of New York, in which he said : The masters of political science who constructed our system preserved the State governments as bulwarks for the freedom of individuals and localities against op- pression from centralized power. They recognized no right of constitutional seces- sion ; but they left revolution organized when it should be demanded by the public opinio7i of a State ; left it with power 'to snap the tie of confederation as a nation might break a treaty, and to repel coercion as a nation might repel invasion. They caused us to depend in a great measure upon the public opinion of the States in order to maintain a confederated Union. Again he said : Especially is this true of a compact of confederation between the States, where there can be no common arbiter invested with authorities aud powers equally ca- pable with those which courts possess between individuals for determining and enforcing a just construction and execution of the instrument. Here, then, in 1860 we find upon the written record of Mr. Tilden a declaration that this was a confederation of States instead of a Union ; that the States by their own action could " snap the tie." After that, in 1860 and 1861, the South acted upon his declaration of doctrine and proceeded to "snap the tie," supported clearly by the doctrines then enunciated by Samuel J. Tilden, whom they now seek to make Pres- ident of the United States and of the restored Union. Calhoun was not stronger nor Buchanan weaker than this. It was the identical doctrine adopted by Buchanan when he denied the power to coerce the rebellious States, and left them to orgauize armies and batter down the walls of our forts. Nobody claimed the right to secede by the terms of the Constitution. They only claimed that the Constitu- tion " left " them with such a right. MK. TILDEN AS AN OPPONENT OF THE WAR FOR THE UNION IN 1863. Again, Mr. Speaker, in February, 1863, we once more hear from Mr. Tilden upon these doctrines that connect themselves with the question of the Union. There was a conference called at Delmonico's, in the city of New York, and of that conference Mr. Tilden was a member. The members of it were all known throughout the war as copperheads. In that conference in February, 1863, they organized a Society for the Diffusion of Political Knowledge. I myself re- ceived month after month the issues of that society, of which Mr. Tilden was one of the organizers and members. In their declarations 5 and the influence ^L"f^£Sw „rgSW in February, 1863, minds of gentlemen *•*«"■ ,T ter w»rd "their publication, was tol- SiS^SSttSSaftSySS In the P cit, of New York in a -lS=!oo^ "f^S^Sle gfnkemafl a,low me a tfU*. I 3? SSb"'^"^ I understand the gentleman to 8 ay perhead and all discouraging to the war. is trie gen 8W Mr e< lpRINGER. No, sir. Does the gentleman say that Governor SSffcJaS SJS or «?S£j S& r ^tntld [L Mv g ^PRINGER Pli 'The lentleman will not assert and does not assert auddare S assent that Governor Tilden was ever a secessionist or Cl Mr KASSON. I dare assert exactly what I have asserted, and let VSffiErl^iSi and every man will deny it who hn^ws^nySfaboutthJhfstory of the country. [Applause on the democratic side.] , acting. [Applause.] 6 T The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair cannot consent to the con- tinuance of these demonstrations of applause or dissent upon the floor of the House. They are unparliamentary; and the Chair hopes they will not be repeated. A Member. They came from the galleries. The SPEAKER pro tempore. If repeated in the galleries, the gal- leries will be cleared. The gentleman from Iowa will proceed in order ; and gentlemen upon the floor will not interrupt him without his consent. Mr. K ASSON. And at another time I was taking care of the records of this Government, which were threatened by men coming over from Virginia to take possession of the city of Washington and haul down the Union flag and trample it under their feet, as they recently did in the State of Virginia and in one or two other States of this Union on the 4th of July last. That is the work which some of us were engaged in ; while others, more fortunate perhaps in obtaining honors, were gallantly fighting the enemy at the front with Rutherford B. Hayes. MR. TILDEN IN 1864 DECLARING THE WAR A FAILURE. Now where was Governor Tilden in 1864 when the convention met that nominated McClellan? He was at the convention at Chicago with Vallandigham, representing the State of New York upon the committee on resolutions, a member of the committee on the plat- form which declared this war to have been a failure. Let me give the exact words. I send them to the Clerk's desk and ask to have read the resolution then adopted and it will show where Governor Tilden was in 1864, following out the theory upon which he acted in 1860 and 1863. The Clerk read as follows : Resolved, That this convention does explicitly declare, as the sense of the Amer- ican people, that, after four years of failure to restore the Union by the experiment of war, during which, under the pretense of a military necessity or war power higher than the Constitution, the Constitution itself has been disregarded in every part, and public liberty and private right alike trodden down, and the material prosperity of the country essentially impaired, justice, humanity, liberty, and the public welfare demand that immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities, with a view to an ultimate convention of the States, or other peaceable means, to the end that, at the earliest practicable moment, peace may be restored on the basis of the Federal States. Mr. KASSON. Thus, Mr. Speaker, you find him uniting in report- ing from the committee on the platform that resolution declaring the war a failure, assailing the government of Mr. Lincoln, denouncing the administration for the manner in which they were carrying on the war, and asking the American people to condemn it, as they are going to ask them again in November next, but with a result in the former case well known in the history of this country. The people put their foot upon the platform. They put their foot upon the men who stood upon the platform ; and they will put their foot, as long as loyalty to the Union and Constitution is respected, upon the men who have not changed their faith, but still dare to come before them and ask their suffrages. Mr. HEREFORD. Let me ask the gentleman from Iowa whether the people put their foot upon General McClellan who headed their Army ? Mr. HEWITT, of New York. Let me ask the gentleman from Iowa a question. Mr. KASSON. If the gentleman from New York says any fact I have stated is not correct I will yield to him. Mr. HEWITT, of New York. I ask whether the gentleman from Iowa does not know as a matter of fact that Governor Tilden as a member of that committee voted against that resolution. Mr. KASSON. I will answer the gentleman that as far as the record goes I know the contrary. Mr. Guthrie, who was on that committee, stated, in speaking of their not being ready, that it was in the hands of a subcommittee for revision, but the general committee were unani- mous in their views. Mr. Tilden followed Mr. Guthrie in the declara- tion, "I wish to add that upon the adjournment of the general com- mittee there was no dissent among the members." That is my answer to the gentleman from New York. Mr. HEWITT, of New York. Governor Tilden voted against that esolution. Mr. KASSON. Further evidence publicly given of Mr. Tilden's concurrence appears in the published reports of that convention: Mr. Brown, of Delaware, one of the committee, said : There is not the slightest dissension among us. "We have heen a unit from the first. Mr. Weller, of California, said : The subcommittee have agreed upon the only portion of the platform which by any possibility can divide this party. We are all in favor of peace, and the only difference of opinion is as to the phraseology to be used in making that declaration. Mr. Smith, of Wisconsin, added to the general testimony upon this point, as follows : There is no difference in the committee except upon mere matters of expression. Mr. McKeon, of New York, explained the cause of delay as origi- nating with Mr. Vallandigham, who wanted the language of the reso- lution changed, not because it was too strong, but because it was not strong enough to suit him. Finally the resolution was reported from the subcommittee to the committee, and from the committee to the convention, and was adopted without the dissent of a single member of the committee openly expressed in convention. As to the platform adopted, there is no power unless they raise the dead, who are Guthrie and Vallandigham ; no power that^is able to prove the contrary of the unpatriotic record. The further proof I cite is this : that when it was presented to the convention not a syllable of dissent was expressed by Tilden, who was a member of that committee when it came before the conven- tion. And now shall gentlemen go into the secret operations of the committee, unknown to the public, against this evidence, and say he dissented from it in committee ? Why if he loved the Union did he not rise like a man who loved his country and dared to hold a pa- triotic opinion, why did he not rise when it came into the convention and say, " I cannot accept that insult to the Army and to this coun- try ? The gallant soldiers at the front are fighting in the hope that the people behind them will sustain them. I will not support that clause of the platform, and I will not support the man who stands upon it." Shall I answer why he did not do it ? Because of his doc- trines of I860 and 1863. Because he dared not oppose southern sym- pathizers. Because, as a politician, he inherits the compromising, evasive character of Martin Van Buren. I suppose 10,000 men in this country when they read his letter of acceptance said, "Martin Van Buren over again." Words to disguise thoughts, phrases to dis- guise principles, sentences with a double meaning, and he had not the courage to avow in the open convention the opinion, if he ever entertained it, which is attributed to him by my honorable friend from New York. 8 MB. TILDEN'S RECORD OF WHAT HE DID NOT DO FOR THE UNION. Here in 18(30, in 1863, and in 1864, we have the positive record of the position of Governor Tilden on these fundamental questions. The negative record is more convincing still. Where is the speech he made in the great city of New York to support the war ? Where is the speech he made to encourage the soldier ? Where is the speech he made to sustain the government of Mr. Lincoln in the days of its trials ? Where is the speech he made to denounce the attempt of foreign governments to aid in the breaking up of this Union ? Where is the voice, I ask gentlemen on both sides of the House, and I will ask the whole country through this House, where is the voice shown by any record that that gentleman ever uttered for his country in the time of its peril ? (A pause.) Nobody replies. Mr. HOUSE rose. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Does the gentleman from Iowa yield to the gentleman from Tennessee ? Mr. KASSON. If he rises to produce a public declaration of Gov- ernor Tilden in support of the w T ar for the Union, I yield to him. Mr. HOUSE. I want to ask the gentleman a question in regard to what he has just had read. Mr. KASSON. Do you propose to give me that information ? Mr. HOUSE. I am asking the gentleman to give me some infor- mation. Mr. KASSON. I have already given you a great deal, aud I will give you more if you will be seated. Mr. HOUSE. I only desire to say The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Iowa declines to be interrupted. Mr. KASSON. This is his record, positive and negative, during the war for the Union which closed in 1865. I might stop here and ask any soldier in the United States whom he urged to go to the war to vote for him. I might ask the relatives of any dead soldier whom he comforted for their loss and encouraged with the hope that the sac- rifice was for the preservation of the Union to vote for him. I might call upon the fund to answer for him to which he ever personally contributed for the like purposes. But, Mr. Speaker, the positive and negative evidence, considered separately or together, is ample to main- tain the proposition I have made, that his principles, his heart, and his action were not with the effort to save the Union ; that neither his judgment nor his heart was with the soldiers who fought for the Union, and that no man who ever wore the blue can come to the polls and cast his vote for him without reflecting upon the memory of the dead who died for that cause. Mr. Speaker, I search this question so particularly because I main- tain that deep down in the hearts of the people of the Union States, the war democrats as well as the republicans, there is a deep and affectionate regard for the men who helped them in the time of trou- ble and of peril ; and a deep and lasting censure for the men who withheld their hand, their voice, their heart, their vote from the good cause for which they fought and for which so many perished. It is a profound and honorable instinct of patriotism, which ought to be maintained for the security of the nation in the future as well as a grateful recognition of patriotic action in the past. MR. TILDEN AS A "REFORMER." Now, sir, I ask what is the record of this same gentleman as a " re- former" that should lead my honorable friend from Pennsylvania to 9 offer his prayer and .^ration that ^rfg*. hjf »*?«*»$£ work in harmony with him » ^^"J^Stain.^Stioil asso- Clerk to read it. The Clerk read as follows ; [Private and strictly confidential.] BOOMS OF UEMOCKAT1C STATE g™E, g ^ Mv Deah Sm: Please at ^Sg*^£^^ttJ*^ or four principal towna and £^*1°J/^S$ Tweed, Tammany Hall, at skew ss tfpSJjsssa ** *■ — ** **« estimat * of the vote. Let the telegraph be aa follows : j. f (umnber :) or ^ T »^fe <« *■**•« "S^ourse y^P^^^ mission at the hour of ^f»>S ^1 n thV eh " -^ ^co^nuni^tio! '« ov,-r lines be- bc taken of the usual half -^^M "3be?ore the Associated Press absorb ^eleSr^th r^^s^inielfelc wUh individual messa.es , and gl ve orders to watch carefully the count. Very truly, yours, SAMUEL J. TILDEN, Chairman. Tvr,- irA^OTC "An important object is to he attained" - Mr. ClImM. fiX gentleman allow me to interrupt him a moment? , Sr^fS ^STlKTSilJ*. Does he not know that M %den hi pronounced this circular to be without hi. a u hon > And does he not know that he has said solemnly that he had ne>ei ri «^J^r?d?hSffl?t^owL facts about it which I stumtfafwiliing toTaS, and intended to state without a ciues- tl0 Mr b Si? ' Does ^gentleman not know that that is a forg- er^that Mr ?hden never authorized it to he issued, and never saw Xt if 1 ?! K 1S I understand that question distinctly, and I am glad alonw with that falsehood. __ • M KASSON. I do not yield for that purpose. 10 Mr. COX. Of course not. Mr. KASSON. I have learned how to appreciate all these private suggestions Mr. COX. I desire to have it in the Record. Mr. KASSON. That does not go into my speech till I know what it is. Mr. CLYMER. It ought to go into the gentleman's speech. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Iowa must not he interrupted except with his own permission. Mr. COX. Of course not ; I am not interrupting him. Mr. KASSON. The course pursued hy gentlemen on the other side of the House is exactly characteristic of their leader, Governor Til- den. They evade responsibility for action hy disclaiming words. There was no time prior to 1873 or prior to the exposure of Tweed, so far as I know, that Governor Tilden ever came out with this dis- claimer. Mr. CLYMER. In 18G8 he did it. Mr. KASSON. That was when the governorship had been already stolen from the people of the State by this gigantic fraud which startled two continents and put the democratic governor into the gubernatorial chair of New York, to the exclusion of Griswold and as successor of Governor Dix; a fraud perpetrated at least by some of the committee of which he was chairman : Now there is one witness whom I quote against all the private let- ters and all the private adherents of Mr. Tilden, because his character has been indorsed by the democrats of the whole country for the high office of the Presidency of the United States. Horace Greeley said this to Mr. Tilden on the very point we are now discussing : You hold a most responsible and influential position in the counsels of a great party- You could make that party content itself with polling legal votes if you only would. In our late constitutional convention I tried to erect some fresh barriers against election frauds. Did you ? The very little that I was enabled to effect in this direction I shall try to have ratified by the people at our ensuing election. Will you ? Mr. Tilden. you cannot escape responsibility by saying with the guilty Mac- beth: " Thou canst not say I did it : never shake Thy gory locks at me," for you were at least a passive accomplice in the giant frauds of last November. But, says the gentleman from New York, [Mr. Cox,] Mr. Tilden in 1868 did say, "Thou canst not say I did it," and shook his gory locks after the fact accomplished and the fruits realized ; but Mr. Greeley warns him against that very thing, and gives this reason for it : Tour name was used, without public protest on your part, in circulars sowed broadcast over the State, whereof the manifest intent was to "make assurance double sure " that the frauds here perpetrated should not be overborne by the honest vote of the rural districts. And you, not merely by silence, but by positive assumption, have covered those frauds with the mantle of your responsibility. On the principle that " the receiver is as bad as the thief," you are as deeply impli- cated in them to-day as though your name was Tweed, O'Brien, or Oakey MaU. Mr. Greeley's real opinion of Mr. Tilden's excuses and of his relation to the fraud appears further and very plainly in this additional ex- tract from that historical denunciation of election fraud : On one very important point, however, your bitterness as a partisan has impelled von to ignore and come short of your duties as a citizen and a professed upholder of government by the people, and for this dereliction I here arraign you. I allude to the preservation of the purity of the ballot-box. I can imagine how a man may shut bis eyes to many things which he deems it convenient not to know ; but I must speak of what you must know, however you may wish to seek to be ignorant of it. 11 Now I put the evidence of that great and honest man, for whom Mr. Tilden himself voted in the last presidential campaign, against any evidence that the gentleman from New York may produce. This was the testimony of a man npon the spot who had been nearly forty years side by side with Mr. Tilden, who knew his character and all the facts as well as any member from New York upon this floor, and ho pronounced that Mr. Tilden must have known the scheme of fraud, and that he was a " passive accomplice " in the frauds ; and further tells him he could have stopped them if he chose. Now is that the kind of reformer to place in the presidential chair ? A man who was one of the executive officers of that committee and sat on the committee with Mr. Tilden, and signed Mr. Tilden's name, as it is claimed, to this circular without his consent ; aud yet Governor Til- den did not denounce it, nor reject the benefits of it, and gave no light to disclose the frauds so that the perpetrators might be pun- ished, and the man who had been truly elected might be seated, a man who was as truly entitled to his seat as any member here is en- titled to a seat on this floor. Mr. CLYMER. Will the geutleman allow me to ask him a ques- tion ? Mr. KASSON. I cannot yield at this point. Mr. CLYMER. He declines to hear the truth. Mr. KASSON. I am repeating the truth, and that is what hurts. Whenever you touch his history prior to the disclosures in the New York Times of the Tweed ring and of their frauds, you touch that or- ganization of which Mr. Tilden was an active member on the execu- tive committee or as a member of the Tammany ring. Such is his history as a "reformer" in respect to the purity of elections. MR. TILDEX IX COXXECTIOX WITH RAILROADS. But that is not all. Sir, we have some further evidence touching his qualities as a " reformer." We have had many railroad questions before this House. We have investigated them, and we have been endeavoring to settle them on a principle that would protect the peo- ple and the Government of the United States. It will be claimed that if Mr. Tilden is elected he will reform the legislation of the country in respect to the railroad system. I am frank to admit that he has considerable knowledge of the disposition to be made of a bankrupt railroad, and a knowledge of the manipu- lation of railroads, which gives him a practical idea as to the things to be amended and reformed. But that history is such a one as will not give the people of the country confidence in his disposition to re- form them in the public interest. Among various railroad corpora- tions investigated in this House was one which was called the Credit Mobilier a corporation connected with the railroad which was charged with having defrauded the Government of the United States by im- proper contracts made with themselves under the name of the Credit Mobilier and with plundering the Government of the United States of many millions of money. We took evidence in that investigation before a committee of the House. I give the following questions and answers from the record of this House in the examination of Mr. Oakes Ames : Mr. Hoar. "Were you not informed by the counsel who drew the contract that this was a violation of law ? Mr. Ames. "We were informed by counsel whom we consulted that this issuing of stock (to the C. M.) as a payment upon the contract for building the road was in entire compliance with the law. Question. Who were the counsel that gave you that advice ? 12 Answer. Mr. Samuel J. Tildes, Mr. Charles Tracy, and Judge Allen.. Q. All of New York ? A. All of New York. Again, Mr. John B. Alley put upon the stand and examined. I quote from his testimony : Question. And farther, I understood you to say that you were instructed hy eminent counsel, upon whose adyice you relied, that the course you took was a compliance with the law ? Answer. Yes, sir. Q. Have you ever seen, or do you know whether that opinion of eminent counsel is in existence now in writing ? A. I do not know. I do not know whether it was given in writing. Q. Was it given to you by these eminent counsel > A. Mr. Tildes, I know, told me that he regarded it as a compliance with the law. There, sir, you have a record of this House proving that this "re- former" was one of the counsel who advised the very thing that has shocked the whole country with the enormities of the wrong and the extent of the rohbery involved in it. What would you not have said of him had he been the republican candidate for the Presidency? How you would have investigated him, what committee reports you would have supplied, and what inquiries into his stocks and bonds and bank account! And yet we are asked to believe, the country is asked to believe, that Mr. Tilden is to purify this Government and to restore it to the purity of our fathers. It is not necessary for me to proceed much further in this direc- tion, for the simple reason that Mr. Tilden is so well known, particu- larly to the people of the West, if not to the people of the whole country, in his relation to railroads, that I need not further detail the evidence. Mr. Tilden has spent nearly his whole life in the city of New York ; he has made nearly all his fortune in stock operations centered in that city and iu connection with railroads. I do not allude to the question of his fortune, said to be so very large, except as it is involved in this exhibition of his relation to railroads, of which the journals of the country have been full, and which has an inter- est for the public in view of possible legislation touching railroads and their subsidies of laud and money. This, however, I will say, that the farmers of the West, the people of our villages, the people who believe in the characteristic disregard of the people's interest by the speculative rings of Wall street, will not accept for their candidate for the high office of President a man whose education upon these subjects has been almost exclusively re- ceived in Wall street, and who has had no relation with the interests of the great masses of the people of this country and no sympathy with them. TAKING HONORS WHICH BELONG TO GOVERNOR DIX. One word upon his relation to the State government of New York as exhibited by himself. He claims to be a reformer in another re- spect, which I think is inconsistent with his honor as a public officer. Governor Dix, during his term of office, found that the sinking fund of the State of New York had been depleted by his democratic pred- ecessors to the extent of many millions of dollars in order to save themselves from the responsibility of taxing the people for their ex- travagant expenditure. Governor Dix replaced that entire sinking fund and paid off a large amount of public debt, as the fruit of the taxation and economies practiced during his term of office. Gover- nor Tilden has since made a speech in regard to the reduction of the public debt of that State and of the taxes — a reduction which his republican predecessor had brought about by the purity, economy, 13 ?est8 upon his movement against the canal ring, in whicn, nowevei, he has stopped with the conviction of a single offender. THE RESULT OF THIS INVESTIGATION. T have now shown Mr.Tilden's relation to the doctrines of secession, mmmmm ^S Candidate represent the aspirations of the Union-loving and reform-loving people of the United States? RUTHERFORD B. HAYES, THE REPRESENTATIVE REPUBLICAN. Whom have the republicans presented to oppose him 1 Aoca law- • %°etaSulttr whom we »*k the vote, of the men who fooght bCdim? froseTn his pain and rushed forward to save his command S noblest Spartan whoever tonght in ,Aa ani-a let e ^ated m to be scalped," and signed and sent it. 14 No man doubts his position in respect to the war ; no man doubts his courage, his discretion, his devotion to his country. No widow mourning for the loss of her husband can hesitate to ask her son to vote for the man who fought on the same field, for the same cause, and endured the same deprivations and dangers. No orphan now grown up and old enough to cast his vote for the Union his father helped to save, can hesitate as to the man he should vote for to secure the great rights preserved by the war and the perpetuity of the Union. And, sir, he is equally acceptable to the country in its aspirations for reform. I have known him and served with him on this floor. Show me, if you can, where ever a corrupt thing was done by him or encouraged by him. Show me his advice to a Credit Mobilier job at the expense of the Government. Show me the William M. Tweed of whom he ever solicited $5,000 for a corrupt election fund. Show me the William M. Tweed with whom he ever associated on a campaign committee. Show me the Vallandigham with whom he ever pat in council to draw up the platform of principles upon which a political campaign was to be fought and a nation saved. Show me the man, enemy of his country or corruptionist in his country, with whom Rutherford B. Hayes was ever an intimate associate ! THE VICE-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES. And if you look at those associated with these candidates on the same ticket, you will see how inconsistent the nominee of the demo- cratic party is with the platform which they have adopted. For instance, they denounce the republican party for granting the public lands to aid in the building of railroads, a " waste " they call it of the public domain and demand reform in it, and then they nominate Mr. Hendricks as their candidate for Vice-President, who turns around and accepts the situation confidingly. Our own republican conven- tion had already denounced the system, and had put a stop to it by legislation in the interest of actual settlers. Yet when Mr. Hendricks was a Senator of the United States he rose in his place in 1864 to ad- vocate the land grant (one of the most enormous ever made, I think 37,000,000 acres) for the Northern Pacific Railroad. He said : The bill before the Senate proposes to encourage the construction of a very im- portant railroad to connect the waters of Lake Superior with the waters of the Pa- cific Ocean. Everybody can see at a glance that it is a work of national importance. It proposes to grant lands in a northern latitude, where without the construction of a work like that the lands are comparatively without value to the Government. Xo person acquainted with the condition of that section of the country supposes that there can be very extensive settlements until the Government shall encourage those settlements by the construction of some work like this. I do not think that a work of such national importance ought to be embarrassed in its passage through this body and through the House of Representatives by amendments proposing works that are comparatively local. Again, in 1868, he said : !Now, sir, this is a great work. It can be accomplished with the aid of the laud giant ; it is one of the greatest achievements this country has ever contemplated. * * * But all that is proposed to this road is to give it lands that are to-day not worth one cent per acre to the Government. There is not a Senator here who would give for that vast region of country, unaided by some work of this sort, one cent per acre. Senators forget what it is' that gives value to the public lands. Again, in respect to the Hannibal and Saint Joseph Railroad grant he said in debate : It was constructed in part by the Government of the United States. As a mem- ber of the House of Representatives, a number of years ago, I felt it to be my duty to vote in favor of a land giant to enable the State of Missouri to build that very important road. I also refer to the Senate debates of 1864 for his liberality in land grants, and especially to the Bayfield and Saint Croix Railroad. 15 Tf vou look to the democratic candidate for the Vice-Presidency in reference to his loyalty to the Union and his relatione j to secession, von find him in 1864, after his election to the Senate making-a speech irsevmou™ in Indiana, in which he so mildly spoke of the errors of ?LsErs who deserted that he was cheered by the men around Sm who had sheltered the deserters in their midst, and spoke so Sv^relv of the men who should come to arrest them and take them hack to the Smy that the whole audience burst out into a roar of aP That S meetin2 was called by a remarkable paper, which probably nJst of you K seen, which invited « all who favored peace who desired to be free from the death-grip of this infamously wicked, im- becile and tyrannical administration, its arbitrary and illegal arrests Hs drafts and conscription laws, by which peaceful citizens are taS from tS homes and all the endearments of domestic life to butcher a^d be butchered "-inviting all these to "come out and heitto advocate of peace and reunion;" and that advocacy was mnflp in the manner I have stated. . , So Mr Speaker, in respect to the constitutional amendments which the natmn secured at such cost and holds so dear, he always voted m the nWtiv * We are asked to elect to administer the Constitution as amended the very man who voted against and opposed every one of ftoTamendments Ind who is still bitterly hostile to them m pnn- d Mr LANDERS, of Indiana. Has the gentleman before him the sneech of Governor Hendricks to which he has referred? P Mr KASSON. Yes, sir, I have that speech ; not at full length, but vefy interesting parts, in which in a manner not precisely peaceful he Smmended that the men who came to arrest dese rters s Uonldmeet an un welcome reception. I cannot stop to read it. I will refer tne gent?emaS to aimo!t any of the newspapers, particularly the Chicago Tribune and other papers in which I have seen it. This is the record of Governor Hendricks in respect to these ques- tions. Onthe other hand, we have nominated for Vice-President Wiixiam A Wheeler of New York, a man with whom many of us have stood here tor year's side by side against whom a corrupt thing was never charged to whom a disloyal sentiment was never attributed ; a man atvlrVoachandfearleLfortheright, and who has been one of the most admirable presiding officers we have everhadin the chair, either P6 i r ^aTa^a'eSaidatee particularly and their -cords be- cause I earnestly believe that there is great import m the declaration which we heard before the nominations, that this year the candidate W Mr d CLYM£R a ' f T would like to ask the gentleman a question. How'does Mr. Wheeler's record in reference to railroad grants com- pare with that of Mr. Hendricks ? , . P Mr KASSON. I have not examined it, and remember no speech of hifaboiit it I think that in some cases he may have voted tor grants but generally Mr. Wheeler was more prudent and careful than Mi. H Mr dr CLYMER. Mr. Wheeler voted for everything of that kind Mr KASSON. I have no doubt that in the old times, before the evil of tWs system bad developed, Mr. Wheeler, like Douglas, may hive voted for some of the land grants. ^^TZlTioZevK the democrats have ; we have not denounced the men who formerly 16 voted for laud grants and then nominated one of thein on that plat- form. Mr. CEYMER. You are for them all the time. Mr. KASSON. The gentleman knows that I am not. Mr. CLYMEE. I mean your party. Mr. KASSON. Our party has long since declared against them, as the gentleman and every one else knows, and the grants are stopped. Now, Mr. Speaker, if the candidates are the platform, for which of these should the votes of Union men and reformers be cast ? Mr. SPRINGER. For Tilden and Hendricks. Mr. KASSON. I think a weak voice said, "For Tilden and Hen- dricks ;" a weak voice, and but a single voice. The question is to be put to the country ; and there we are perfectly content to leave it. Mr. SPRINGER. So are we. Mr. KASSON. The time has not come when the people of the United States have forgotten the experience of the last fifteen years and the fruits of the war, which even the southern gentlemen on this floor say they do not desire to disturb. We have not forgotten the records of public men during that war ; and until the waters of Lethe flow over our minds we shall not forget to sustain the men who have been true to their country and oppose the men who in the time of peril have faltered or gone back from their duty to their country. When these questions of fidelity to cause and country are put to the people you may attempt to rally them under party cries ; you may sound the bugle-call and promise the rewards of office ; but gen- tlemen must not forget that there is deep down in the hearts of the North and of the patriotic men of the border States a feeling that they must intrust the Constitution as it now exists and the Union as now restored to the men who have maintained it and stood by it from the beginning to the end. THE SOUTHERN QUESTION. I should perhaps neglect my duty if, for a single moment, I did not speak of another political difference. I have taken no part hith- erto in the debates upon the so-called southern question. Let me, before I sit down, say a few frank words to the democrats of the Southern States. We are not, as they charge, desirous to control the Southern States in their domestic affairs. We are not desirous to have incompetent or dishonest men elected to office because they call themselves re- publicans. If, when you speak of " carpet-baggers," you speak of men who have no interest in the South, who own no land there, who were not born there and have gone there not to exercise any lawful calling or profession, but to speculate upon office, we condemn them as heartily as you condemn them. We have every possible desire to see the men who really have a stake in the country, who have interests there, who belong there, and who are heartily for the Union, take the control of the southern State governments, if they have not already done so. We wish as a nation, if possible, to have nothing to do with them outside of their Federal relations; and only one thing has led even to the moral interference which is heard from this side upon the floor of this House. That is, that you give us no assurance of repose in respect to your observance of the constitutional amendments. The National Government has taken its hands off as far as practicable. We desire to leave elections free and to leave you exempt from inter- ference on this floor, or by the Executive ; but then comes up to u» 17 suddenly a great cry from the neighbors and families of murdered black or murdered white republicans, shocking the entire sentiment of the North once more, until we are led to believe you do not intend to observe in good faith the constitutional amendments and rights of citizens. Here is precisely our trouble. We have the power to enforce those amendments by the Constitution itself. We wish not to have it to do, but you will not enforce them yourselves. You say these out- breaks and massacres are simply the demonstrations of the bad por- tion of your population. That may be true, but what troubles us is that while the bad organize to commit wrongs and outrages the good have no counter-organization to protect victims against wrong. They accept its fruits. Your society as a society does not organize to sup- press them ; you do not bring the perpetrators to punishment ; you do not bring your moral influence at home to suppress them. All these things lead us to believe it is not yet safe to intrust your candidate with the administration of the amendments to the Consti- tution or with the protection of the liberties and the rights of citizens under them. Mr. Speaker, it is certain that these violations of life, of liberty, and of right have been frequent, that these crimes are per- petually repeated ; and I say in all candor that the only cause why we insist upon the whole power of legislation under those amend- ments and demand an Executive who believes in them is because the occasion for enforcing them is perpetually presented to us. I know the northern people feel that the greatest boon which can be given to them in this relation, the greatest demand we present on this side of the House, is simply that every man who by the Consti- tution is secured in his rights and is authorized to vote shall be per- mitted to speak, to work, and to vote without intimidation and without doing it at the peril of his life. When that day shall come we have done with all protective interference in elections in the Southern States and the Union will be really restored. The North looks with hope to the old whig element in the South, which did not originally advocate secession doctrines or accept the resolutions of '98, to return to its prominence in political affairs as an organization for the maintenance of the Constitution and the Union, and with a following of all voters who ask their constitutional rights only. I venture further to say that when that old Union-lov- ing element shall declare itself the protector of the rights of all men, white and black, under the amended Constitution, it will be recog- nized in its relations to the Federal Government as fully as it ever was before the war ; for that is all that republicanism demands. It is to secure such results and the restoration of an era of good feeling that we earnestly advocate the election of Governor Hayes. Here, then, without detaining the House longer, are the views which I present at this late period of the session in reply to the ex- pressed hope of the gentleman from Pennsylvania for the election of his candidate for President of the United States. I do not share his aspirations. I do not recognize them as justified either by the con- dition of the country or by the interests of the Union, of the Con- stitution, or of reform, nor by the record his candidate has made. Note. — Mr. Hewitt, of New York, having inserted in the Record, as a note to his speech, an article never read nor alluded to in the debate, nor shown to me, although supposed to contradict my statements, it only remains to me to speak of it in a like note. The certificate of Mr. Marble, like the certificate of Mr. Hewitt, to Mr. Tilden's loyalty, is simply the partisan's declaration of his private recollections, and both 2kn LIBRARY OF CONGRESS '■'IILiM I 18 0"013 7Q9 604 7 involve the color of their own opinions as to what constituted umouisui m icuu auu 1864. As I understand Mr. Marble's only quotation from Mr. Tilden's language- all the rest being a general affirmation of political good character, without produc- tion of evidence furnished l>v Mr. Tilden— this only quotation is made from a ' ' manuscript'' which I do not understand Mr. Marble to certify was ever published over Mr. Tilden's signature. So far as this certificate is concerned it would only prove a facing two ways by Mr. Tilden. Certain it is that he wrote the public letter to Mr. Kent which I read from, and which is a secession letter in its doctrines ; certain it is that he belonged to that copperhead society for the diffusion of political knowledge in 1863 ; certain it is that he was a member of the anti-war convention at Chicago which nominated McClellan, and that he. served with Vallandigham on the platform committee ; cer- tain it is that he did not oppose nor dissent from the peace resolution openly in the convention, where he ought to have done it. These things are certain, and are not denied by Mr. Marble nor by Mr. Hewitt ; certain it is that Mr. Tilden did not publicly "repudiate the election frauds of 1868 perpetrated under color of his name, nor make a single effort to punish the criminals who were on the same committee with him for their alleged forgery of his name and their consequent frauds. These things I charged, and" these things Mr. Marble does not deny. Now when I make charges resting on a public record in part, like the Kent letter, and the or- ganization of the copperhead society in February, 1863, and in part on the want of a good public record for the Union, it is no sufficient answer to tell me of individ- ual instances resting in private knowledge, and which made no record committing Mv Tilden openly and publicly to the support of the Union cause and Govern- ment. He may have attended meetings, but also have carefully kept his name from papers and speeches committing himself to our cause. He may have sent private messages of advice, but carefully kept them from public knowledge till the Union cause had won. It was the public record I demanded, and Mr. Hewitt uow alleges private knowledge of individuals, revived as twelve-year-old recollec- tions from the willing memories of his partisans. It utterly fails to meet the issue presented by me. L1BRA RY OF CONGBEf i Hill Bill i" 1 013 789 604 7 penm&life* pH8.5