c\XXx<^% en I 8 7 I , $*% Glass E fell Book -C 75 7f NATIONAL 110 STATE POLITICS OF 1871 REVIEWED, SPEECH — OF — HON. ROSCOE CONKLI a — AT — Twaddle Hall, Albany, Oct. 11, 1871. -o~ In the Capital of the State, where hospitality has ever been gen- erous and free, no citizen need feel himself a stranger. But the warmth of your greeting has a double meaning for me. I was born in Albany, and childhood's recollections have never faded. To visit your city, is not so much to go away, as to return home; and to speak to Albanians, is to converse with neighbors, rather than to address an audience assembled from afar. The topics you expect me to speak of to-night, lie in a wide field. Forty-five States and Territories are now gathered under our flag. All are self-governed, because public questions are solved by- public elections. All are free, because the right to vote, is the right of all. This group of communities, cemented in one great Repub- lic, stands alone in history. The centuries and the nations have not looked upon its like. It is the best product, thus far, of man's intel- ligence, enlightened by man's experience. It was not the work of one generation, but of all generations. Our fathers produced it, but the world was thousands of years in producing our fathers. Since cre.ition's dawn, government has been the greatest of human prob- lems. Lsarnin* wis lorn, science, philo3>p!iy, religion, hive in all ages toiled together in devising politics and systems. Every form has been set up, and every form has fallen down. Despotisms and democracies alike have perished. War an 1 corruption have been the two architects of ruin. These destroyers have strewn time's shores with wrecks. They polluted the earth as soon as nations possessed it — they desolated the ancient seats of civilization — they have unpeopled empires, and crippled , — l J 2 .CT5" progress since. The conflict still goes on, and still the question is, Can any system prevail against them? This problem perturbs both hemispheres every day. The old world, divided into contending nationalities, has perils of its own, with which no rival on this con- tinent can menace us ; but here and there, and everywhere, the puzzle of government baffles ultimate solution. Even now, Europe wails sons and cities freshly slain — and Paris, the world's fairest cap- ital, wounded and begrimmed, writhes between self-government and suicide. England, with a parliament eight hundred years' old, and a mon- archy scarred and altered by many revolutions, has survived, by constantly widening the foundations of her system so as to yield more and more to popular right. But England's system is such that, unlike ours, it does not place reforms within the people's reach — this may be painfully illustrated on a day now rapidly approaching, when the sceptre will fall from a hand already smitten with grief and wavering with infirmity. America, alone, has a government rooted in the people — a govern- ment with a base so broad, that the mightiest of wars has vainly dashed against it and been shivered into spray. Proof to the tem- pest shock, our nationality need no longer dread the storm — force can not uproot it. But the pestilence that wasteth at noon-day — what shall be said of that? Corruption, with its stealthy creep, its leprous touch, and its deadly breath — corruption which has rotted and wasted so many fair fabrics — will that mark us for destruction too, as the sea bird blasts the tree on which he builds his nest? The times are too murky to forecast this question ; it must be hammered out of the anvil of the future. It is not a question for the battle-field, it must be answered every day, and, most of all, election day. It concerns politics and political parties. Courts, Congresses, Legisla- tures, City governments — all these are the public agencies, but what they are, and what they do, depends at first and at last on elections. Everything in public affairs comes from the ballot box. Every reform must be upheld by the ballot box, or it is a tree without roots. Crying, flagrant, dangerous abuses, challenge attention in this great State, through all its length and breadth. Reforms, if attain- able at all, must come through one of the two political parties. For- tunately, or otherwise, we must make choice between the two great organizations, into which the whole country has long been divided. One, or the other, is to govern us; there is no alternative. Which is the safer to trust ? That is the question. ^ 3 ELECTIONS OF 1871— WHAT THEY PEOVE. Since March, this question has been answered in several widely- separated States, and in every one an impressive increase of voices has pronounced against the Democratic party. Connecticut, North Carolina, Kentucky, Maine, California, Mon- tana, Wyoming, Colorado, and now Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, all have voted within the last few months, and in every one the Re- publican party has been strengthened bj' great gains. Texas may or may not prove an exception. New Hampshire, given away last winter by Republicans, seemed like a Democratic victory, and relying upon defection among us in other States, our opponents told us a "tidal wave" had risen, which would lift their stranded ship, and bear it to triumph in the nation. Bat tides are mysterious things, and politicians are not mariners. Beguiled by a freshet, they were all unconscious that in the hearts and judgments of men a tide was rising, which would sweep westward from Maine over prairies and mountains, and drown out Democracy even on the golden fields of California. In recent elections, the canvass has turned sometimes wholly on National issues, and these alone have changed communities from Democracy to Republicanism. In California, for example, the two parties held the same position upon the two only leading local top- ics — railway grants and the Chinese — and the change in our favor was fifteen thousand. In all cases the elections this season have been a fair measure of the strength of parties, and the result proves that the nation confides more and more in the administration of General Grant. Other States have passed upon matters general and interesting to them — we have matters special to us. WHAT THIS ELECTION WILL DECIDE. Both Houses of our Legislature are to be chosen, and also memberi of the Canal and Prison Boards ; and these bodies, acting for nearly five million people, are to deal with affairs more grave than these bodies ever dealt with before. The incoming Legislature will create, for ten years, the districts from which Representatives in Congress will be chosen. The State may be fairly divided, or to change and pervert results it may be gerrymandered and zigzagged till a Tammany Indian would be puz- zled by the trail 4 The Senate to be chosen now, will participate in appointing a Sen- ator of the United States. These are matters of importance, but they are less grave than other things which the next Legislature will have in charge. VIOLATIONS OF THE BALLOT BOX. In front of all questions pending in the State of New York now, is the integrity of elections. This question underlies all others, be- cause it involves all others. If elections can not be real and honest, the majority can not rule, and then self-government and public lib- erty are gone. Are elections in this State real now? Have they been honest of late years ? When I say real and honest, I mean has every elector enjoyed the right to vote once and only once, and to have his vote and all others honestly counted and returned? No one, candid and informed, will deny that on Manhattan Island elections have long been worse than a sham. False voting and false counting decide every contest. This would be frightful if the usurpation subjugated only the million people in the city of New York. But the State is trampled down by pirates of the ballot box in the metropolis, and nearly five million people are subjugated to their sway. No matter what majorities roll up where the green grass grows, the Russ pavement overtops them with false majorities swollen to suit the occasion. The gigantic frauds which now convulse New York, disgrace the nation, and amaze the world, could never have been perpetrated without the villainy which counted John T. Hoff- man into the office of Governor, to which John A. Griswold was elected, and which seated men in the Legislature in defiance of the votes of their constituents. To break up this monstrous system, Congress last year passed an act which laid hold upon it. It was an impartial act. It pro- vided for a scrutiny of the registers to detect repeaters, and for safe- guards against false counts. It would have purged New York of much iniquity. Tweed and Hall could not repeal it — they do not "run" Congress yet — so they set themselves about out-witting and circumventing the law of the land. We had a State statute requir- ing registration in New York — the strongest barrier the State had raised against utter prostitution of the ballot. The act of Con- gress was based in part on this statute and the act would be palsied to some extent, should the statute be taken away. This, therefore, was one of the enormities perpetrated last winter by a legislative majority obtained by fraud, and recruited by bribery. Nothing, per- haps, more clearly exposes the dominion of the Tammany cabal, and the Tammany taint in the Democratic party, than the fact that the Convention at Rochester has just virtually endorsed this dishon- est overthrow of the Registry law, and declared against its re- enactment. The 18th of April, 1871, should be ever memora- ble in the calendar of party rascality. On this day the bandits whose firm name is Tammay Hall, carried through the Legislature, and a Democratic Governor afterwards signed, five bills, which, with a sixth, passed the day after, constitute a batch of laws to which no generation of Englishmen would have submitted since they cut off Charles 1 head. One of these enactments virtually struck down the Registry Law, and gave into the hands of Hall and his agents the whole machinery of elections and results. This wrong, just varnished by the Rochester Convention, must be undone — this repealing act must be repealed — the bulwarks round the ballot box must be made stouter than before. Unless this be done, you do not rule yourselves ; knaves and repeaters rale you. If elections can not be preserved in one city or State, they can not be preserved in another; and when elections fail, our whole system fails, and the government which a million bayonets could not destroy, and which a sea of blood has ransomed, will crumble in the presence of an inert and degenerate people. BRIBERY. Next in enormity to stuffing the ballot-box with illegal votes, and then stifling its voice by false counts, is bribery at the polls and in legislative bodies. This practice, too, we blush to know, has its great source and centre in New York. The Legislature of New York alone can uproot it. The tax levies for the city annually passed at Albany, furnish corruption funds to debauch elections not only on Manhattan Island, but throughout the State, and beyond the State. Connecticut, Penn- sylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and even more distant regions, are theatres whereon Tammany enacts its drama of profligacy. It bribes and seduces many presses and many men — not Democrats alone, far from it — not the needy and the despised a.lone, but the higlvheaded, the pretentious, and demure. All this broad-spreading iniquity, is to receive a death-blow, or a new lease of life at the hands of the next Senate and Assemblj'. Are not these grave and weighty matters? But they are not all. 6 RECENT VICIOUS LEGISLATION, AND ITS EFFECTS. The last two winters have inscribed on our statue book other en- actments full of vice. The charter of New York and other cognate acts, have enabled a horde of acute, bad men to grasp by the throat the greatest community in the western world. They have intrenched themselves on every side. They have muzzled and subsidized news- papers with useless corporation advertisements. They have main- tained multitudes of retainers in sinecures with lavish pay, and every avenue swarms with their open and secret agents. They have intimidated the rich with the fear of exorbitant assessments and taxes; they have allured the needy and rapacious with gold and with advantage. The indignant have been marvelousl/soothed and respectibility has been made to pay tribute to them, and even to whitewash their iniquities. They have made it safe and profitable to be with them, and dangerous and costly to be against them They have set up and pulled down men, not only in the Democratic party but a part.zan police, a licentious press, an army of hirelings and abbettors on both sides, and other instrumentalities viler still" have been employed to punish and destroy republicans they could not buy, to exalt republicans who were accomplices with them, and to debauch and control the committees and conventions of their politi- cal opponents. NEW YORK CITY. Look at the crimes of this great conspiracy against society. Look at the city of New York. In many respects it is the proudest city m the world. When we consider its geographical position, its colossal trade, its unequaled activities, its generous charities, its temples of learning and religion, its civilization and advancement, its unexampled growth, and its magnificent destiny, where shall we find compassed in the same space more to evoke the sympathy and admiration of mankind. Yet all this is a prey to remorseless spoilers. Its streets reek with filth, yet fabulous expense maintains and cleans them. Its high- ways and byways breed sin and crime, yet officials loiter on every crossing. Police commissioners, and captains, and courts, attended by retinues, which no man can number, are paid for guarding life and property, yet the most daring offences go unwhipt till public ven- geance demand an example. Justice has been made a commodity, and the Judiciary has sunk fo low, that a continent was electrified when Judge Barnard, pluck- ing the ermine from the dust, sent forth his injunction order to stay the most stupendous robbery of recorded time. Elections are an insulting mockery, and official returns of votes — records of the peoples' will — vouchers and warrants, the highest and most solemn known to us, next to the Constitution itself, are but forgeries of thimble-riggers, and the sport of those who jeer at de- cency. Commerce is driven from our wharves, because our harbor is a field for rapacious extortion carried on by State officials. In the nameof quarantine, wholesome traffic stands waiting at our gates, while in the name of health, contagion enters with tribute in its hand. The London Times cautions the world against the harbor of New York with its ruinous exactions, and the health office floats like a gilded buoy, warning the ships of all nations to keep aloof, and steer for ports in other States, or in the British Provinces. Liberties and rights respected in foreign cities, find no sanctuary here. In Catholic Dublin and Cork, men and women can parade on Protestant anniversary, but in New York they are officially ordered from the streets, in words inciting other sects to riot ; and then at the belated behest of a Governor, the military shoot down the deluded victims of religious zeal, whom an abject Police Board and a era van mayor have lured and bated to their fate. Monstrous taxes are laid on property, and rung from toil, to bribe legislators and electors, and to fatten the gluttony, and support the pomp and splendor of men who outshine kings in luxury. Is there in the book of time, such a picture as has been given to the world by the courage and genius of the New York Times? Was there ever theft so huge? It is the grandest of grand larcen- ies. It dizzies arithmetic and bankrupts figures. Warren Hast- ings in India — conquerors, proconsuls and satraps — cities sacked, and provinces wasted — these are dwarfish and petty now. The debt of the city is said to be about one hundred millions. More than sixty million has been created within less than three years. This mortgages every foot of land from Spuyten Duyvel to the Battery for more than one-tenth of its valuation. The same rate of expenditure continued for a while, would have bankrupted and evis- erated the county of New York. But better in the end than the money itself, would it be to know what has become of it. We know about a part of it, but not the worst part. Some of it has been appropriated by individuals to enrich themselves, and this is probably the least guilty use that has been made of it. 8' THE GREAT SACHEM, AND OTHERS. There is one Tammany sacliem who makes Albany glorious in winter, and whose sumptuous apartments at the Delavan House have been the scene of events so rare and mixed and varied, as to show that party lines make no partitions or divisions there; save par- titions and divisions of the common benefits. This practical man, and patron of practical men irrespective of party, was, as the rec- ord shows, discharged under the two-third act as an insolvent debtor only ten years ago. His assignment for the benefit of his creditors bears date October 5, 1861. He was then worth not so much as his debts, and his creditors satisfied of his insolvency, consented that he make over such property as he owned, and have receipt in full. Since this discharge we are told he has been in no business, yet he is said now to be the largest owner of real estate on Man- hatten Island, except William B. Astor ; and personal property swells by millions his overrunning wealth. These fortunate accumulations show him to be saving, yet he is no miser ; may, he has been known to give, from charity, to the poor of a single ward, fifty thousand dollars. Beginning at home, as all true charity does, the bread he casts upon the waters returns to him even on wedding days. Diamonds for shoe buttons, and blazing gems which half a million would not buy, are said to be the reflex of the bounties he dispenses. Coesar's head was stamped upon a penny, but this ruler's face born on medalions of precious metal for the Metropolitan Hotel, is it seems, to adorn the table service from which the Democracy will feed, while they see before them in profile, "the very age and body of the time." This man, aided by a confederate of less energy, bat more reflec- tion than himself, has for two years, at least, been the master and power of the Democratic party — and he is so still. He may have received more money than others, but others have been fortunate. A transfer of half a million bonds to a son-in-law, does not sug- gest improvident paternal provision, because we read of three and a half million of like bonds remaining after the transfer has been made. All who came in on the "ground floor," seem to have se- cured more than a competence. MAYOR HALL. Poverty is said not to be surely among the uncounted graces even of the mayor. It is consoling to believe that he will still be able "to dazzle and dismay" in new suits of green, and to resume at 9 leisure those sabbath day contributions to the literature of the Re- publican party, which have been interrupted of late by other "min- isterial" duties, but which, now receive the acknowledgment of those he has decorated with his vituperation, and never aspersed by his praise. Should this world's goods ever prove scant, he will yet be rich in a more precious treasure. That matchless artist Nast, has rendered him immortal, and prepared for him a tabernacle "on fames eternal camping ground." There he may "steal awhile away." Dismissing the millions absorbed by officials, where are the other missing tens of millions? CITY ACCOUNTS. In form, fabulous sums are represented in false accounts, for plas- tering, carpets, curtains, furniture, repairs, armories, and other ficti- tious items. The Secretary of the Interior, a very competent au- thority, has taken the pains to analize and contrast some of these accounts. He says : Here was paid a larger sum for repairs, carpets, and furniture for county offices than the present Administration paid, in the same year, for mail transportation throughout the United States ; nearly three times as much as the entire diplomatic expenses for two years past ; as much as the yearly cost of collecting the customs revenue ; more than all the miscellaneous expenditures of the Interior Depart- ment for either year of the present Administration, and more than the entire annual expenses of the Indian Bureau. Here is a larger sum paid in eleven months for plastering than the entire expense of the United States for foreign In- tercourse during the present Administration ; and more for plumbing and gas- fitting, iu one year, than the expenses attending all the public buildings and grounds in Washington city. There was paid more money to three men for such expenditures, in one year, tiian was paid for the collection of the entire internal revenue of the country in any year of the present Administration; more than double the expense of the United States courts for two years, and more than all the expenses of the Forty-first Congress. The ace mnts he refers to have these items among others : Ingersoll & Co., for carpenter work and furniture in Court House and armories, during 1869 and 1S70, $5,63 1,114.26. Andrew J. Grarvey, for plastering in Court House, jail, and armo- ries, in two years, $2,905,401.06. Keyser & Co., for plumbing and gas-fitting in the Court House and armories, in less than three years, $1,231,817.72. The new Court House is not completed, and has cost already up- ward of $12,000,0)0. In Brooklyn, between 1861 and 1865 (when prices were higher) a Court House was erected nearly as large, and quite similar in char- 10 acter and material. The Brooklyn Court House cost $551,758.28, and repairs and furniture, up to the present added, the cost is $745,- 601.54. The unfinished New York Court House has cost already sixteen times as much. Woodwork charged at more than two million dollars, is not worth more than thirty thousand dollars. Furniture charged at a million and a half, is not worth seventy -five thousand dollars. " Carpets, shades, and curtains" are charged at $675,534.44 ; there is not a curtain in the building, and the carpets and shades can not have cost seventeen thousand dollars. Plastering charged at over a million, eight hundred thousand dollars, could not have cost thirty- five thousand dollars. Accounts for rent, stationery, printing, and other things are not less astounding. Such are the accounts audited by Tweed, Hall, and Connolly, sitting sometimes with and sometimes without others ; over six mil- lions having been passed at a single sitting. The money was paid on the signature of Mayor Hall. Does any man believe that those who presented these preposterous demands actually received the money, and were permitted to keep it ? WHAT HAS BECOME OF THE MONEY ? No one believes it. Then what became of these and other yet vaster sums ? See what the Albany Argus, the Democratic State paper, says. Here are its words : A Radical editor recently icent through the New York Court House, and asked, where is all this plastering, all this furniture ? We can tell him. The hands of Radical politicians at Albany had to be plastered annually before the New York tax-levy could become a lain. To one man, a saint of St. Lawrence, sixty thousand dollars had to be paid ; to another, a white nccl-clothxl scoundrel from Madison, a mm nearly as gnat. G army's plaster whitens walls and fertilizes farms in the west of the State. Ingersoll's furniture decks respectable mansions in the interior, and the neighbors tconder how the wealth and taste of the owner were so suddenly devel- oped. " Does any one suppose that the old Republican firm of plumbers, the Keysers, were let off with furnishing a New York Court House ? No ; their lead pipe ran into Herkimer, and tapped the politics of Montgomery. Indeed, the sewerage of Cayuga and Chatanqua, it is believed, found their machinery and equipment at this good old Radical establishment !" Is this true ? The Argus is the organ of a great party, and is con- ducted by men of judgment, who live at the capital, and seem to speak from personal knowledge. Shall it not be investigated ? Who shall investigate ? The' hon- est men on both sides in the city are moving, and never was there a 11 more righteous indignation since the money changers were scourged from the temple. But citizen committees alone can not go to the bottom of all this — the Legislature is needed, and hence I conjure you to ponder the gravity of this election. Will a Democratic legislature, with Democratic State officers re- elected, investigate and avenge these wrongs? Will the Democratic Attorney-General, who for two years has sat with these men, and who has just been renominated by them over Charles O'Conor, inves- tigate them? Will any man investigate who holds place from a party whose State Convention has just succumbed to Tweed, and recognized Tammany LTall as the regular and only Democratic organ- ization in the city of New York? Bemember the infamies of last winter — the repeal of the Registry, the two per cent, act, and the other acts of that cluster, wicked enough to load their authors with opprobrium which the waters of forgetful- ness will roll over in vain. Every Democrat voted for these bills ; but one Republican fell, and his fall would have injured no one but himself had not the Executive veto slumbered, when the Executive hand might have strangled the whole brood. Was it for this that the Tammany Convention at Rochester has just endorsed the Governor in the most swelling phrases, commending him especially for the way he has managed the veto power? TWO PER CENT. ACT. While Governor Hoffman meditated on the two per cent. Bill, America and England, presented strangely different spectacles. The two per cent. Bill, empowered Mr. Oakey Hall, Mr. Richard Connolly, Mr. William M. Tweed and Mr Peter B. Sweeny, to take tribute of the people of New York, not exceeding two per cent, of their property — that is to take upwards of twenty-one million dollars, upon their own ipse dixit, to do with it what they please, consulting no one, and accountable to no one. While this scheme was maturing, Mr. Lowe, the Chancellor of the British Exchequer, made up his budget. It was unusually large, almost as large as just after the battle of Waterloo. It was hard to find the requisite ways and means, and the expedient was hit upon of imposing a tax of one cent a box on friction matches. The spirit which sent the Barons to Runnymead, still makes Englishmen jealous of their rights, and the one cent tax on matches, met a protest so stubborn and vehement, that the Government was compelled promptly to withdraw it, and the withdrawal took place 12 almost simultaneously with the emission from the Executive Chamber at Albany, of a tax Bill more despotic than modern England ever knew. SECTARIAN APPROPRIATIONS. This same act, contains provisions touching sectarian appropria- tions, which display a genius, rare, if not solitary of its kind. The Democratic party had pledged itself that no more sectarian appro- priations should be made, and in this act is the redemption of the pledge. Section 6, provides that it shall not be lawful " to appropriate or appl} 7 any portion of the tax herein authorized to be raised, in aid of any private or sectarian school, or other institution or enterprise that is under the control of any religious denomination, or to bor- row any money on the faith or credit of the city to be applied to any such purpose, etc." This seems plain and straight forward so far, but later in the section, which is a long one, will be found these words, " nor shall said restriction prevent appropriations in aid of the following charites," and then follow by name, sixty-seven dif- ferent "institutions and enterprises," most of them of the kind in question. This seems like going up one step and falling down two, and it looked to me quite ingenious stopping here, and I thought I saw the whole of it. But reading on I found how little was my conception, of the versatility of our rulers. At the end of this windrow of sixty-seven beneficiaries, occur these quiet little words, " and the other institutions and societies now provided for by law, in regard to which said board (that is Hall, Connolly, Tweed, and Sweeny) may apportion such amounts respectively as they may, with refer- ence to other appropriations, deem practicable !" Lord Chesterfield said but one man ever saw through a millstone, and he saw through the hole. The hole here, is " not as wide as a church door, nor as deep as a well, but it is enough." TAMMANY AT THE ROCHESTER CONVENTION. These are some of the footprints of Tammany legislation, and in spite of all its crimes against honesty, in spite of all its shameless crimson iniquity, in spite of its detection and exposure, in spite of its having plundered the community and then laughed in its face, Tammany Hall yet rules the Democratic party. Tattooed from head to foot with accusations undenied, blistered and branded with 13 confessed betrayals of public trust, but unawed and unabashed, these astute managers went to Rochester, and met the State Conven- tion, and it was theirs. They demanded to be recognized not only as Democrats, but as the only regular Simon-pure Democratic organ- ization in the city of New York. Think of it, and think of the re- ception they met with. The State Committee voted three to one that they were the only apostles bearing the apostolic succession and thus annointed, the Tammany delegation next addressed the Convention itself. In a communication which will remain among the proudest archives of Democracy, after referring to their purity and regularity, they an- nounce that their course will be governed by solicitude for "the triumph of the cause of constitutional government!" Dickens would have said, " here's richness for you." They next refer to their demand that the charges made against them by the opposition press, shall be investigated, and then they waive participation in the Con- vention, thinking their so doing, may promote the success "of regu- lar Demcratic tickets, state and local." Mark that, there is meaning in it. Upon this, the Convention resolved that in the absence of Tam- many, no delegation from New York, could sit in the Convention, and the delegation headed by Charles O'Conor, was not allowed to go even before the committee on contested seats. Do you see the effect of all this? Tammany, clothed in fresh orthodoxy, embodies the whole party on Mahattan Island, where twenty-one members of Assembly, and six Senators are to be nominated, and these are the local tickets there. Tweed, is already renominated for the Senate, and he and his confederates are to nominate all the rest, under the imprimatur of the State Convention. In Kings county, and throughout the State, Tammany influence, so far from being shunned, is to be courted and deferred to. Add to this the nomination of the State ticket wanted by Tammany, and once counted in by Tamman} r , and no triumph could be more complete. The Convention did that which Mr. O'Conor, in his remarkable letter, warned them would inflict an incurable wound upon their party. It is well that it is so, for all men must see now that if re- form can be reached at all this year, it must be reached through the Republican party. So far I have spoken of work for the Legislature, but I referred to the State officers to be chosen to the Canal and Prison Boards. 14 DEMOCRATIC EXTRAVAGANCE IN THE STATE. Extravagance of expenditure is not confined to the municipal affairs of New York. You find it everywhere in Democratic manage- ment. EXECUTIVE OFFICES AT ALBANY. Take the expenses of the Executive Offices inAlbany, and com- pare a Republican with a Democratic year. In 1865 (Republican) these expenses were $476,893 65 In 1870 ^Democratic) same items were $823,473 53 Excess .-$346,579 88 CANALS. Take the expenses of the canals. Expenses 1868, Republican management, $1,516,566 75 Expenses 1870, Democratic management, $3,695,442 59 Excess $2, 1 78,875 84 The difference is not explained by the superior condition of the canals at one time over another. The official reports prove the con- trary. I say nothing now about the loss of revenue under Demo- cratic management. That raises the question of high tolls or low tolls, which is a wholly different matter. The canals can be honestly administrated whether the tolls be higher or lower, and the Republican party wages no war upon cheap and honest transportation, but is the advocate of it everywhere and always. PRISONS. Look at the management of the three prisons of the State, and see if you can escape the conclusion that extravagance goes with the Democracy even into prison. Here is a statement, dry in detail, but worth some study. Prison Management under the Republican Party, and under the Democratic Party Contrasted. Earnings and expenses of Auburn prison, for years ending September 30, 1863 and 1833. Republican Administration. (The years 1883 and 1863 are takenas fair average years.) 1863— Earnings $103,533 90 Expenditures of every description . . <. . 88,403 35 Average number of convicts in prison 860 Average number on contract 744 Average contract price per day 47 8-9 cts. 15 Auburn prison, year ending September 30, 18G3 : 1803— Earnings $99,926 06 Expenditures of all kinds 80,291 64 Average nu mber in prison 772 Average number on contract 671 Average contract price 49 cts. Most of the shops were built or repaired and charged to the expenses of the prison, during the above two years. Auburn prison under Democratic management for the years 18G9 and 1870. 1869— Earnings $128,681 89 Expenditures 169,599 88 Average number of convicts 950 Average number of convicts on contract 755 Average price on contract per day 53 1870— Earnings $118,545 20 Expsnditures 166,979 10 Average number of convicts 935 Average nnmber of convicts on contract 744 Average price on contract per day 53 Results at Auburn under Republican management for the years 1863 and 1863, compared with results for the years 1869 and 1870, under Democratic manage- ment : Republican, 1863 and 1863. Earnings for the above two years $202,447 96 Expenditures of all kinds 174,698 99 Profits $27,750 97 Democratic, 1869 and 1870. Earnings for the above two years $247,227 09 Expenses aside from appropriations 336,578 68 Loss aside from appropriations $89,351 59 Earnings and expenses of Sing Sing prison for yeara ending September 30, 1803 and 1803 under Republican Administration : 1863— Earnings $84,808 73 Expenditures 130,022 31 Average number of convicts iu prison 1,147 Average number of convicts on contract 593 Average price per day on contract 37 2-10 cts. 1863— Earnings $86,637 35 Expenditures 128,191 58 Average number of convicts in prison 904 Average number of convicts on contract 625 Average price per day on contract 38 2-11 cts. Sing Sing prison for year ending 30th September, 1869, under Democratic Ad- ministration : 1869— Earnings $225,614 75 Expenditures 376,938 83 16 1 270 Average number convicts in pnson *"»«» Average number on contract Average p>ice per day on contract °° "■' CL& - Remaining convicts work on stone, &c, for State. Sing Sing prison for year ending September 30, 1870, under Democratic Manage- ment : 187 0_Earnings, deposited ^8,571 27 Expenditures 384,45o 43 Average number convicts in prison i* 180 Average number on contract 5 ^ 8 Average price per day on contract 42 78 cts - Remainder of convicts at marble works and State work. Results shown above for 1S62 and 1863, at Sing Sing prison, Republican; also years 1869 and 1870, under Democratic Management : Republican, for years 1863 and 1863. Earnings for above two jears $171,446 08 Expenditures for same 258,213 82 Loss in two years $87,767 74 Democratic, for years 1869 and 1870. Earnings for above two year?, including amounts due earnings $394,186 02 Expenditures 761,394 26 Loss in two years $267,208 24 This statement includes as earnings the amounts deposited, together with amounts claimed to be due at the end of the years. This is favorable to those re- sponsible, and the reports so blend items arising under contracts, with those per- taining to manufacturing for the State, that the accounts can not be correctly given otherwise. These losses are in truth much larger than they appear because of special and direct appropriations by the State for prison expenses of which no note is made in the accounts. Earnings and expenses of Clinton prison for the years ending September 30, 1832 and 1863 under Republican Administration : 1832— Earnings $41,146 88 Expenditures 63,535 90 Average number of convicts in prison 497 Average number on contract 364 Average price per day on contract 35 3 10 cts. 1833— Earnings $41,767 33 Expenditures 64,694 51 Average number of convicts in prison 434 Average number on contract 328 Average price per day on contract. 41 9-10 cts. Clinton prison for the years ending September 30. 1869 and 1870 under "Demo- cratic Management," the State carrying on the manufacture of iron and nails. 1869— Earnings deposited $158,807 56 Expenditures 317,309 70 17 Average number of convicts 503 1870— Earnings deposited $214,769 45 Expenditures 305,905 08 Average number of convicts in prison 487 Results as given for 1862 and 1803, at Clinton prison, Republican, compared with results for 1869 and 1870, under Democratic, Management : Republican, for the years 1862 and 1863. Earnings for the above two years $82,914 21 Expenditures for the same time 128,280 40 Loss in two years $45,366 19 Democratic, for the years 1809 and 1870. Earnings as deposited for the above two years $373,577 01 Expenditures for the same lime 623,214 78 Loss in two years $219,037 77 In addition to these losses, large appropriations for this prison have been made by the State. In producing the " earnings," the convicts use iron ore raised from the'_State's grounds, and wood for charcoal and fuel, for which latter article the State appropriated $80,000, in the year 1868. No account is taken of these things in the expenses given. Gains and losses of the prisons for the years 1862 and 1863, under Republican Administration, together with losses, under Democratic Administration in the years 1869 and 1870 : Years 1862 and 1363. Prisons. Gains. Losses. Auburn $27,750 97 $ SingSing 86,767 74 Clinton, including all buildings and repairs 45,366 19 $132,133 93 Deduct Auburn gains 27,750 97 Losses of the the three prisons during two years $104,382 96 This was during two years of the war, with consumption at war prices. The number of convicts was small, and their labor contracted at prices less than those appearing in the following statement : The same prisons, for the years 1869 and 1870, under Democratic Administra- tion : Gains. Losses. Auburn % $89,351 59 SingSing 367,208 24 Clinton 249,637 77 $706,197 60 Most of the buildings and repairs are now made by appropriation by the Legis- lature, not taken into the account nor charged on prison books as expenses. Tat' 2 18 contracts were let at higher prices during the last years. If appropriations for repairs, &c. were added for the years 1869 and 1870, the losses would appear much larger. (See appropriations appended.) PP Appropriations made by the Legislature to the Auburn prison for the years 1862 and 1863 $26,850 00 Before these special appropriations began, repairs were made out of earn mgB as part of current expenses. In 1860, for example, at Auburn new roofs were put on several buildings, a shoe shop was erected, and additions aftlrw^d made, and all without appropriations. wara Appropriations made by the Legislature for the Sing Sing prison for the years 1862 and 1863... b P ' Appropriations for Sing Sing prison for thenars 1869 and i 8 70." WW S Appropriations made by the Legislature to the Clinton prison dur ' ' ing tne years 1862 and 1863 Clinton prison for the years 1869 and 1870 oi M!™ °? -slo,500 00 In addition to this, the Legislature/in 1868, appropriated $80,000 for woodlands ^ZZZ™:^r™ Uaa thG ° refr0m —- d^eithJ NATIONAL REPUBLICAN ADMINISTRATION. Having gone over the record of the Democrats, till we have come to prisons let us leave them there, while we go abroad in the land and see what account a Eepublican administration can give of its stewardship. s In his Inaugural, President Grant gave this pledge to the Ameri- SthT ii 7\r ]l bem ^ ende — to execute 111 laws in good taitn, to collect all revenues assessed, and to have them promptly accounted for and economically disbursed." I begin by inquiring how this gage has been kept, and we must compare the work with the work which preceded it, COLLECTION OF INTERNAL REVENUE. In 1868 under Andrew Johnson, the internal revenue accounted for was $191,180,564.28. Then the tax on spirits was $2 per gal was 9 and'/V " T '° ^ *** P ° Und ' the ta * on co "on was 2 2 and o cents per pound ; and iron, furniture, clothing, and nearly every visible object, was taxed. Y With the present administration, a new tax bill came in. The tax on spirits was reduced from $2 to 50 cents per gallon ; the tax on tobacco from 40 cents to 32 cents and 16 cents ; and cotton, lo" 19 boots and shoes, clothing, furniture, leather, machinery, soap, sugar, and more than one hundred other articles were made wholly free. This reduction amounted to $78,000,000. On the reducted basis, the internal revenue ac- counted for during the first twelve months of President Grant was $177,457,738 29 During his first fiscal year, it was 185,285,867 97 In 1868 spirits at $2 per gallon }'ielded, for the fis- cal year, 1S,000,000 00 In Grant's first fiscal year, at 50 cents, it yielded 55,000,000 00 Increase, despite reduction, $37,000,000 00 Tobacco under Johnson, at 40 cents, yielded annu- ally, .' 18,000,000 00 Under Grant, at 22 cents, (average,) 31,000,000 00 Increase, despite reduction, $13,000,000 00 EXPENSES OF COLLECTING INTERNAL REVENUE. 1868, under Johnson, expenses of Internal Revenue Bureau, $8,387,793 17 First fiscal year of Grant, _ 5,916,410 22 Saving, $2,471,382 95 COLLECTION OF CUSTOMS' REVENUE. Since Gen. Grant came in, the reduction of the Tariff duties has been (for a year) $29,526,409 09 From March 1st, 1867 to March 1st, 1869, two years under Johnson, Customs accounted for, were.. 298,452,940 07 From March 1st, 1869, to March 1st, 1871, two years under Grant, they were 353,855,167 74 Net increase, despite reduction, $55,402,227 67 If we add the amounts dismissed by the new tariff, which took effect January 1, '71 — 1-4 of a year, (Jan. 1, '71, to March 1.) we have, beside the above, say, 8,000,000 00 Making an increase of $63,402,227 67 20 REDUCTION OF TAXES. Since 1865, Congress (usually against a solid vote of the Democratic members) has reduced taxes in all, $251,848,827 33 Reduction, during administration of Gen. Grant, is, Internal taxes, (annually), 55,212,000 00 Tariff, (annually,) . 29,526,409 09 $84,738,409 09 Despite these reductions, the increase of revenue accounted for under Gen. Grant, over the same period preceding is, $84,994,049 74 ALLEGED DEFALCATIONS OF INTERNAL REVENUE COLLECTORS. I am reminded at this point of an allegation which needs to be set right. The Democratic Congressional address, issued in March last, asserts that twenty-five million dollars has been lost to the Government by defaulting collectors of Internal Revenue, and this charge has resounded through every recent canvass east and west. Now for the facts. Here is an official statement from the Secre- tary of the Treasury and the Controller of the Treasury, dated Aug. 15, 1871, giving the full particulars. From this it appears, that, on the 15th of August last, the account of debits against Internal Rev- enue Collectors, beginning with 1861, the commencement of Inter- nal taxes, was as follows : Amounts due from collectors, $2,750,126 39 Amounts unadjusted, 424,112 36 Arrearages of every kind, $3,174,238 78 Three million is not twenty-five million ; but the three million is an apparent and not a real default, only a small part of it is a blamable deficit. You are aware that the law requires Collectors to receipt each month to the Assessor, the full amount of the tax roll, and these full amounts are at once charged against the Collector at the Treasury, and remains so charged till collected, or expunged, as uncollectable. The Assessors' tax rolls continually contain taxes which can not be collected, and thus each Collector has always more 21 or less of items charged against him, which he is not to pay, or be held responsible for, after he has done his duty in striving to collect them. When a Collector dies, resigns, or goes out of office, large apparent balances stand against him, and linger along on the books, when in truth he owes nothing, and has rendered up every cent. So much for the amount due from defaulting collectors ; but who are these alleged defaulters ? Who appointed them, that they should be laid at the door of General Grant ? The total number of collectors against whom balances appear is 174. ' Of these Mr. Lincoln appointed 83, Mr. Johnson appointed 83, and Gen. Grant appointed 8. The ballance appearing against them are as follows : Against Collectors appointed by Mr. Lincoln $890,058 95 Against Collectors appointed by Mr. Johnson 1,813,756 12 Against Collectors appointed by Gen. Grant 61,581 76 This statement requires one qualification to make it exact and just. Joshua F. Bailey was appointed by Mr. Lincoln, but he was re-appointed by General Grant, and placed in the thirty-second dis- trict of New York, and his default related as well to his term of office under Mr. Lincoln as to that under, ^General Grant — the line between them can not be drawn. Does this exhibit reflect discredit on'the present administration ? It shows a thoroughness and rigor of omcial^accountability, without a parellel in American history. I have SDoken of the integrity with which the revenue has been collected, may I ask your attention to the honesty and frugality with which it has been applied. Here again we must judge by com- parisons. EXPENSES OF THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT CON- TRASTED. From March 1st., 1867, to March 1st., 1869, two years, under Johnson, total expense account was $150,013,759 17 From March 1st, 1869, to March 1st,, 1871, two years, under Grant, same account was 323,312,809 96 Decrease of expense $126,700,919 21 22 REDUCTION OF DEBT CONTRASTED. During the two last years of Mr. Johnson, with a much greater basis of taxation, the debt was re- duced only $26,441,986 00 Under General Grant, on reduced basis of taxation, up to Oct. 1st., 1871, two years and seven months, amount of debt paid 254,799,319 68 Some one curious in arithmetic, has been at the pains of working out the following results of figures as they stood some time ago. National Debt — Republican Management. Debt, December, 1869, \ 2,453,569,735 23 Debt, May, 1871, 2,303,575,543 00 Decrease in 28 months, 149,984,192 23 Decrease per month, 4,335,578 79 Decrease per week, 1,234,437 79 Decrease per day, 176,457 99 Decrease per hour, 7,352 1 7 Decrease per minute, 121 54 Decrease per second, 2 04-| Debt per head, 1869, 64 57 Debt per head, 1871, 54 00 Decrease per head, $10 00 New York City Debt — Tammany Management. Debt, December, 1869, $29,324,949 82 Debt, May, 1871, 81,843,515 00 Increase in 28 months, 52,518,565 18 Increase per month, 1,875,663 08 Increase per week, 432,251 55 Increase per day, 61,786 55 Increase per hour, 2,574 44 Increase per minute, 42 81 Increase per second, 7 00, Debt per head, 1869, 32 58 Debt per head, 1871, 86 15 Increase per head, $53 57 23 Since General Grant came in, month by month, ascertain as the footfalls of time, so many millions have been lopped off from the debt the rebellion brought upon us. More than a million a month of interest, has been wiped out for ever, and the same administration continued, would pay the last farthing of principal in eighteen years. This is the debt which only two years ago the Democrats said could never be paid, and which their national convention proposed to dishonor, and virtually repudiate. STANDING OF OUR SECURITIES. In March, 1869, United States 6 per cent, gold bonds were thir- teen per cent, below par in gold ; in July, 1868, they were twenty per cent, below par. In March, 1871, they commanded a premium above par in gold. In March, 1869, gold stood at 132. In March, 1871, and since, gold ranges from 112 to 116, and bonds range higher. The capitalists of Europe eagerly seek our five per cents, now, so eagerly, that we will not sell them as many as they want, and this with France in the market borrowing at great rates all she can lay hands on, and other borrowers competing with us. $200,000,000 six per cent, bonds have been called in by placing the amount in five per cent, bonds, and this one transaction saves $21,000,000 net, even supposing these five per cents, are to be paid in ten years — if they run twenty years the saving will be $18,000,000. Compare all this with Tammany financial management. Nay, compare it with Democratic management wherever you can find it. DEMOCRATIC MANAGEMENT ELSEWHERE. Go to Kentucky — there supreme Democracy still holds high car- nival. In the city of Louisville taxes have risen in eight years from. $373,557 to $1,386,013, and in the State generally the increase is striking. Increase of population does not explain it, because taxa- ton has risen per capita ; in Louisville, for example/it has risen in ten years from $8.50 per capita to $17. FURTHER REDUCTION OF TAXES. So satisfactory is the balance sheet of the nation, that at the next session of Congress, taxes and tariff, will be still farther largely re- duced ; forty million at least can be dismissed, and if our opponents 24 think we have not gone fast enough in striking off taxes, it may quiet them to remember that had the Democratic party submitted to the election of Mr. Lincoln in 1860, there would be no taxes to re- duce or to pay now. But one-half of the Democratic party, with the sympathy of the leaders of the other half, disputed that election by force, and involved us in a cruel war, which burdened the land with taxes and covered it with mourning. No statement of even the financial results of the national admin- istration would be complete without referring to its Indian policy. In place of the Indian wars, better described as contractors' wars, which have heretofore reddened our frontier, we have had two years of peace on the borders, and a policy commendable alike for its humanity and its frugality. THE SOUTH. In the south prosperity prevails, in so far as the Executive Gov- ernment can confer it. The blacks are prospering, and their agricul- tural societies and other indications show them rapidly emerging from the degradation to which generations of servitude had reduced them. That much disquiet and demoralization should prevail at the close of a great rebellion which prostrated all civil government, is a thing of course. Disturbing elements are at work there. The old Democratic State rights element is as busy as a Saint Vitus' danca " The resolutions of '98 " won't be still. Jefferson Davis is loose, owing partly to his not being hanged. He, and the rest like him, all vote ; but he and a few others who cheated the gallows, can not hold office until their disabilities are removed. Great wrath is poured out by Democrats, and by some not calling themselves Democrats, upon carpet-baggers. There are a great many carpet-baggers, and they are not all in the south ; but the south- ern carpet-baggers have one thing in their favor. Most of them went there with knapsacks on their backs— all but rebels were glad to have them go, and most all but rebels are disposed to let them do as they please about coming back again. If improper men are elected to office in Southern States, it is the fault of the people — they all vote, rebels and all. Their case isn't as hard as ours by half. Improper men hold elective positions here, too, and the worst of it is they were not even elected — fraud counted them in, and yet we submit to it. A certain class of educators in the south are trying the efficacy of shooting, burning, and whipping their former slaves, and others 25 whose politics do not suit them, and our opponents are sorely exer- cised because at the last session, Congress passed an act authorizing the President to chastise the murderous Ku Klux bands unless they subside. It is hardly to be feared, however, that many people in the north can be mystified by this attempt to enlist sympathy for men who are walking monuments of the mercy of the American people. We are told the act is unconstitutional. Most acts of late years have been unconstitutional in the estimation of our critics. If this act violates the Constituion, we may safely trust the Courts to find it out FOREIGN AFFAIRS. Turning from affairs at home, how are our affairs with foreign nations ? With Canada and Cuba both at our doors, and with exciting complications touching both, peace and dignity have been firmly maintained. With Great Britain, a treaty has been concluded, which, in some respects, is the very best example of civilized and Christian interna- tionally. The adminstration found pending between the two countries, a groupe of large and dangerous questions. Some of them, the San Juan boundary, for example, had baffled the diplomacy of several administrations, and had more than once gone almost to the point of war. The Johnson-Clarendon Convention had undertaken to compose the so-called Alabama claims, and the nation had rejected the pro- posed terms with the indignation of a people who remembered that mid-ocean had been lighted up by the flames of our unarmed ships burned by British pirates. This left the affair in a critical and feverish predicament on both sides. The Fisheries, Trade with the British provinces, and the Navigation of the St, Lawrence, had all given rise to open and hazardous controversies. All of these subjects were carefully considered by commissioners from the two countries sitting in our own capital, and all were dis- posed of in our treaty, by being removed into the domain of truth and reason, there to be settled upon principles of right and justice. Upon this transcendent act of peace, the American, and the Eng- lish people, after hearing the objectors in both countries, have set the seal of their hearty approbation. Tf the event stood alone, it 26 would be sufficient to render any administration illustrious, compos- ing, as it does, a great matter, and adding to the estimation in which we are held by the nations of the earth. Looking then far and near, we see our country stronger at home and abroad ; far stronger than ever before. Survey the whole hori- zon, and say who that advocated the Eepublican cause two years ago dared predict all this. With a land covering the temperate zone from sea to sea, with inestimable agricultural and mineral resources, with a people whose inventive genius and progress have outstripped competition, with military power which the world has witnessed, with commanding credit in all the capitals and money centres of the earth, with freedom and equal rights for all men and all religions, and with institutions which have proved their power to crush rebellion, if America be but true to herself, her manifest destiny is absolute primacy in Christendom. "What more could political action do, than has been done ? What is there that would please every politician, and insure every candi- date for the Presidency, ultimate success ? Whoever discovers this philosophers stone may be able to temper the pernicious practice of rancorous and truthless assault upon public men, which now denies the American press, and deserves to rank among the most baneful brutalities of progress. DEMOCRATIC CAVILINGS. Our opponents have counter plans, or at least criticisms. What are they ? They complain because the moment we struck the arms from their hands, we did not and could not give complete repose and prosperity to the communities of the South. This is no better than a wail against destiny. No people scourged by a lasting war, was ever made whole the day or the year after. But the ringleaders of Rebellion, who having sworn to uphold their Government, committed perjury as well as treason, were not all at once allowed to hold office, and this is constantly laid at our door. So be it, the question is chiefly one of time, and the Re- publican party has been possessed by an idea, perhaps I should say a sentiment that one little badge of blame should be worn for a while by those who caused the greatest funeral in history. Now the graves have grown green, and the cripples have limped to their homes, but the inky cloak has not vanished, and if a political party 27 has waited so long before summoning Jefferson Davis back to take part in the Government he betrayed, that party is fortunate indeed, when this is counted among its chief offenses. Again, we are arraigned for the financial policy we have pursued. The Democracy scoffed at our plans for refunding the debt at lower interest, and pronounced the attempt an absurdity. Events have answered these opinions ; and lower interest is already a fact accomplished. Standing in the way of financial success, the Democracy has at the most critical junctures, held up the spectre of repudiation in its most specious and dangerous guises. In 1868, in National Conven- tion, the whole organization pronounced for dishonest evasion of the nation's obligations. Since 1868, State conventions, leading presses and leading men have alarmed the capitalists of Europe and of this country, by renewed threats of repudiation. In Oregon, recently, a Democratic legislature indignantly rejected a resolution which simply declared against repudiating the public debt. In Ohio, the canvass this year has been conducted upon avowals of the wildest schemes of expansion by the issue of irredeemable paper for the whole bonded indebtedness of the country, and the Secretary of the Treasury is forced to the public statement that his greatest obstacle in making cheaper terms, has been the action and utterances of the Democratic party. The tariff is denounced, and the public ear is stunned by cries of revenue reform, by which Democrats , profess to mean free trade. Yet in Pennsylvania, the Democratic Stoic Convention declared spe- cifically in favor of protection for coal and iron, and when the House of Eepresentatives repealed the duty on coal and salt last winter, the Democratic Senators from Maryland defeated the bill in the Senate, by talking against time. Senator Williams, of Oregon, well said, that Democrats on the tariff were like the school teacher who was asked the shape of the the earth, and said some thought it round, and some flat, and he was willing to teach round or flat, just as the parents preferred. The present tariff is not satisfactory in all things, we know ; it will be revised at the next session, and then it will not suit every one. Changing the tariff is like removing the Capital. You put to vote in Congress the question shall the Capital be removed, and you may easily get a majority to say yes, but when you propose the place it shall be moved to, no matter where that place is, your ma- jority will say no. 28 So all will agree to a change of the tariff, but when you come to the question how, and wherein, each interest and section has its own views, and all can not be accommodated. The result is, that while our interest account, pension roll, and other expenses inflicted by the Eebellion continue, reform of the tariff must consist in the best adjustment of details to be deduced from the average judgment of the countrv. Civil service reform is urged upon us, and all agree that we need the best measures in this regard which wisdom can devise. It is a very difficult and complex subject, but by what right do our oppo- nents clamor about it ? From the Democratic party comes the exam- ple, and the chronic practice, of using and abusing political patronage for party ends. To this day our opponents have done nothing to diminish these evils. When Andrew Johnson attempted to change the whole body of office holders for personal ends, avowing by the lips of a member of his Cabinent, that no man should "eat his bread and butter" unless he stood by him through thick and thin, the Democracy justified and applauded him; and when on the thresh- hold of General Grant's administration, Congress upheld the tenure of office act, as a check upon executive power, the Democratic votes in both Houses came forward to strike it down. Democrats railing about giving office to partizans, is of a piece with their railing about railway grants; both practices were invented and fastened upon the country by the Democratic party. The late amendments of the Constitution have been the incessant theme of denunciation, and now, after branding them as wrong and wicked in themselves, and brought about by fraud and usurpation, the managers of the democracy come forward with a "new depart- ure," and profess themselves in favor of these amendments after all. Does not this shock reason and conscience? We know it does, because since the new departure was announced, democracy has lost in every State, — unless Texas be the exception. Was such a spectacle ever witnessed before ? How can men adopt a thing bad in itself, and procurred by fraud? A great au- thority in a past century tells us that "Covin suffocates the right," and all reason teaches that fraud violates every compact. Do they mean to adopt the late amendments? If so, they mean to confess themselves beaten, and wrong on the great issue of the country — then why not go with us? But these amendments require legislation by Congress, or they will become dead, and who believes that our opponents mean am'thing by their new departure except to palter in double sense, to gain power, and then to unsettle and uproot ? 29 Head the sayings of Thurman in Ohio, of the democratic Governor of Kentucky, and of the other oracles, and doubt if you can that the new departure is a sham. The resolution adopted by the Tam- many Convention at Rochester the other day, reads like nothing but an evasion — if it meant that the New York democracy indorses, and will stand bj* the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amend- ments, why didn't they say so? But let me proceed with the faults found by our adversaries. The President goes to Long Branch — for weeks he is eight hours' travel away from Washington, with two mails daily, and a telegraph every moment. No emergency can be so sudden that he can not meet it at once, and yet what a noise the matter makes. Long Branch is not so far removed from the Capital as Mount Vernon was when Wash- ington sojourned there. Long Branch is close by, compared with the Rip Raps in Hampton Roads, when President Jackson was iso- lated there for long periods of time. Long Branch is within sight and sound, compared with New England in the days of stage coaches, without telegraphs or railways, when President Adams passed vacations there. In this country, and in other counties, it has been thought that men in authority gained much useful knowledge by going from place to place ; but we are told now, whatever the example of the earlier Presidents, that the present Executive does wrong in jour- neying or tarrying away from Washington. This is not a very large matter, but I may say that the denunciations in regard to it, will be more forcible when anything shall suffer in consequence of the Pres- ident's keeping, during the hot weeks, out of the fever and ague of the Potomac. Perhaps I need pardon for referring to this, and to another matter of which I would speak. A sufficient apology may be found, in the extraordinary remarks to which Mr. Tilden, the Chairman of the Democratic State Committee, descended the other day, at the Tammany State Convention. He said the Democrotic party "has never elected to the Presidency any man of as low a standard of official life as either of the three Republican Presidents." By what reasoning propriety can be claimed for such language, I do not know. Because one Democrat murdered Lincoln, I can not see that it be- hooves another to tread thus rudely on his grave. Following this assault upon the dead, is an assault upon the living, to which I ask attention. Mr. Tilden alludes to President Grant, as one "who has been en- riched by costly presents while exercising the immense power of the Presidency." This is an unqualified assertion, made as if upon ab- 30 solute knowledge, and yet speaking upon all the information I have, I believe it utterly unfounded. The allegation is that since his election to the Presidency, General Grant has been the recipient of costly gifts. Returning from the war, a victorious general, and hold- ing no civil office whatever, he did receive gifts showered upon him by a grateful people, but he received them as the hero of many bat- tles, and before he was even nominated for the Presidency. His case was not solitary. General Sherman also received munifi- cent testimonials ; so did other Generals. General McClellan ran for the Presidency four years before General Grant ran ; he, too, was "enriched by costly presents," given him doubtless in consider- ation of his military services, and his political opponents never cast foul aspersions on him for it. Wellington,'|after Waterloo, received presents amounting to|more than two million dollars. Whether heroes, in former or in recentjtimes, have done well or ill in accepting tributes from their countrymen, is not, however, the point here — be that one way or the other, tne right or wrong is the same in all cases alike, and since Gen. Grant'sjaccession to the Pres- idency, as far as I can learn, he has never accepted a " costly pres- ent " from any one. Such are the railings leveled against us, and from them we may learn how deep the foundations of one party are laid, and how far its work is from completion. Having freed millions and made them men, having established equal rights for a continent, having conducted victoriously the great- est of wars, having in the administration of finances "trampled up- on impossibilities," having solved with foreign powers the greatest diplomatic problems of the age, having rescued and re-created the republic, it remains for the Republican party to keep our country in the forefront of nations. Such a record and such a destiny will outride the surges we hear beating now. Let us redeem New York, and let Republicans be honored as they are steadfast and earnest in the work. [Roberts, Book and Job Printer, 60 Genesee Street, Utica, N. Y.] LB S '12 WS wmm 001 1429 647 8 % llllllS