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Prof. H.L. Wilgus
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HON, JOHN
F—
f.1-
S PIE *E. C. H.
SHERMAN
Delivered at Cincinnati, Monday, August 30th, 1880.
FELLow-CITIZENS-The Democrat-
ic party desires to make a change in
the Executive branch of the Govern-
ment of the United States, and appeals
to the American people to bring about
such a change this fall. The Repub-
lican party, recognizing the right of
that party to make the appeal, will
hear patiently and kindly all it has to
say, and no word of insult, no act of
violence will be offered by any Repub-
lican in any part of the United States
to deter the Democrats from the ex-
ercise of their right freely to discuss
in their own way their political con-
victions and opinions. e Republi-
cans only regret that this privilege
cannot be exercised by us also.
The last great change in the Exec-
utive branch of the General Govern-
ment occurred in 1860, by the election
of Abraham Lincoln as President of
the United States. At that time the
open advocacy of his election could
not be made safely to life or limb in
thirteen States of the Union, where
the strength of the Democratic party
lay. But, in spite of this, the people
of the Northern States, firmly im-
pressed with the necessity for the
change, made it; and what man in
this broad land does not now feel that
&t was a happy change? And yet the
Democratic party of that time resist-
ed it. It not only resisted it during
the canvass, but the controlling seg-
ment of that party rebelled against it
by force of arms, and undertook to
disrupt the Government and to de-
stroy the Union.
The Democratic party desired a
change in 1864, when, in the midst of
war, the magnitude of which even
now in the distance staggers us with
amazement, it met in National Con-
vention and resolved that the war
was a failure and demanded peace on
any terms. That was when Grant
Was in the wilderness and Sherman
was on the road to Atlanta, when our
notes on demand were worth only
forty cents on the dollar, and when it
seemed almost as if Providence had
deserted us. If its desire for a change
had then been gratified, we would
have now no united country to boast
of, no land to love. The Amerićan
people, though Weeping over their
lost ones and feeling heavily the bur-
dens of war, said there should be no
change, and there was none; Abra-
ham Lincoln was elected again.
The Democratic party desired a
change in 1868. It was encouraged .
by the defection of Andrew Johnson
and by many divisions in the Repub-
lican party. The rebels had been re-
stored to their lost citizenship, and
had already Organized a system of
terror in several of the Southern
States. Tweed was in the ascendancy
in New York with his gigantic frauds;
he plundered the city, filled the crav-
ings of the army of his dependents
with the plunder of rich contracts,
issued tens of thousands of fraudulent
naturalization papers, stuffed the bal-
lot boxes, and thus reversed the vote
of the Empire State. Yet, after all,
the American people decided that
there should be no change; that the
Pepublican party, which saved the
country, should still be trusted with
its administration ; and Grant, the
great Soldier of the war, was made
President. :
So, again, the Democratic party de-
sired a change in 1876. It had pre-
viously organized the Solid South,
according to the Mississippi plan, with
terror and violence. It fondly thought
it had made good a fulcrum of 138
electors from States lately in rebellion,
and had carefully laid plans to secure
enough more to make the election
sure. Tilden, who as Governor of
New York, had become popular with
the business men of that State by
.” -
*

his aid in the overthrow of Tweed
and by his opposition to corrupt canal
rings, was nominated for President.
He had a barrel full of money, which
was spent without stint, and thus ºw
troduced for the first time in Ameri;
can politics the most shameless cor-
ruption in a Presidential election.
But, more than all, the country was
suffering under great financial dis-
tress. The wave of misfortune, which
came in 1873 to the whole commer-
cial world, had scattered its wrecks
over our great' cities. Every man
who had capital to lose, or debts to
pay, or ‘wanted labor or bread, felt dis-
Content for evils that he could not ex-
plain. It was natural, but not just,
that many of these clamored for a
change, who had no sympathy with
the principles of the Democratic
party; but still the fraud and intimi-
dation attempted in three of the
States failed in its object, and the Re-
publican party in the Northern States
stood by its principles, and Heyes
Was elected.
... And now, fellow-citizens, let us
Fº for a while to see what has
een the result during the last four
ears by the election of the present
publican President. Has he given
any cause for a change from Republi-
can to Democratic measures and men?
JRESUMPTION.
When President Hayes was inaug-
urated, the resumption act of 1875 was
an unexecuted mandate of the Re-
publican party. It had been voted
for only by Republicans, and had
from its introduction been assailed,
resisted, and ridiculed by the Demo-
cratic party. Many honest, sincere
men of both parties, who really
wished resumption, believed it im-
practicable for years to come. But
there was the law. I had aided in
its passage, and I believed in it, and I
was charged with its execution. I
was supported by the full faith of the
President. Gold was at a premium
of nearly six per cent. The national
revenues had been greatly impaired
as the result of the panic, so that
there was, in fact, no surplus revenue
to aid in the work of resumption. The
only means left was to increase the
volume of coin before the day of re-
sumption by the sale of bonds, to do
the utmost to strengthen the public
credit, and to produce confidence in
the ability to resume. This was done
in the eighteen months that followed
the inauguration of President Hayes,
and at the end of that period, the
credit of the country had been greatly
advanced ; surplus coin had been ac-
cumulated to the amount of $130,000,-
000, and the public mind, relieved
from imaginary terrors, had become
not only reconciled to resumption, but
was anxiously and hopefully awaiting
the event. During all this time the
Democratic party excelled itself in
active resistence to the successful ex-
ecution of this law. . They sought to
repeal, it ; they sought by investiga-
tions through committees of Congress
to discredit aii the proceeding hajº
under it; and it was boastfully said
that thousands of dollars would be
given to stand on the right of the line
at the Public Treasury on the day of
resumption. The examinations made
of myself alone by committees of
Congress upon this subject amounted
to over one hundred printed pages;
and the Speeches that were made
against What they denounced as a
Crazy, impracticable scheme would
fill volumes. Your ears rang with
their ridicule and denunciation of the
resumption act; but still, thanks to
the Republican party, resumption
Came, and Game so certainly and so
securely that at this day specie pay-
ments are more complete, in the true
sense of the term, than ever before in
this country, and as complete as in
any country in the world. There is
no longer any depreciation of the
notes of the United States, and, not
only in this country, but in all foreign
countries, they are received at par
with gold. -
The Democratic party, convicted of
false prophecy, could only shout out
that it was Providence that did it;
that the good crops, which came six
months after resumption was a com-
plete success, did it; and some of them
had the audacity to say that the way
to resumption was Fº by the
economies enforced by a Democratic
House of Representatives, which, as
I will show you hereafter, instead of
reducing the expenses, actually in-
creased them largely in all branches
of the public service subject to annual
appropriations. One thing is certain,
that if its desire for a change has
been gratified four years ago by the
American people, the resumption act
would not have been enforced, re-
sumption would not have come, and
the hopeful joy which gladdens the
homes of millions of laboring people
would still be repressed by the evils of
irredeemable paper money. Resump-
tion, then, with all the good that has
accompanied and followed it, is the
direct result of the wisdom of your
choice in the election of a Republican
President ſour years ago. -
* IREFUNIDING... .
. When President Hayes was inaug-
urated, there was upon the statute
book the refunding act of 1870. It
was placed there by the Republican
party—a part of its policy for the
gradual reduction of the burden
of the public debt. It had been
partially executed by the sale of
five per cent. bonds; and when
President Hayes was inaugurated we
were selling four and one-half per
cent. bonds at par, slowly and With
difficulty. It then became my duty
to continue the refunding; and, tak-
ing a hopeful view of the future of
the country—its power, its wealth and
greatness—I determined to withdraw
from the market the four and one-
half per cent. bonds, and sell the four
per cents, at par. This was believed
at the time to be a doubtful experi-
ment; but, being firmly supported by
President Hayes, the Treasury De-
partment undertook the task. A sale
of every such bond was a saving of
one-third of the interest on that por-
tion of the debt; for every dollar re-
alized was applied to the payment of
an equal amount of bonds bearing six
per cent. interest. Bankers shrunk
from taking such a bond, but on an
appeal to the American people,
through popular subscription, within
sixty days after they were thus of
fered, $75,000,000 of these bonds were
taken and were absorbed, mostly in
small sums, all over the United States.
Thus, the success of the loan was es-
tablished.
Frequently, however, as the oppo-
sition of the Democratic party to re-
sumption was developed, and at times
appeared to be successful, credit
would become impaired, eonfidence
would be destroyed, and the sale of
these bonds would fall off. But as
events resulted, and the Democrats
failed to secure the repeal of the re-
sumption act, the bonds sold again,
but in comparatively less sums. The
credit of the Government advanced
precisely as resumption approached
success; and within one hundred
days after resumption there were sold
$510,347,800 of four per cent, bonds,
thus completing the work of refund-
ing, as far as the law allowed it to be
done, by the redemption of all the
bonds bearing five or six per cent.
interest, that were then redeemable.
The result of this Republican policy
was a saving to the people of the
United States of $14,290,453.50 interest.
per year. … "
But this was not the only benefit
derived by our people from refunding.
operations. The rate of interest be-
came permanently reduced on all in-
vestments throughout the country.
Low interest is the chief factor in our
prosperity. It became possible for
manufacturers and trades-people to
borrow money so as to conduct their
business profitably. This low rate of
interest produced a demand for new
investments, and new enterprises
were started into life. Thus, by the
policy of the resumption and the re-
funding acts, the way was paved for
the present era of prosperity. And
the whole of this was the work of the
Republican party. If the change
desired by our opponents four years
ago had occurred, no man can truly
say that such results as these would
have taken place; for, from Tilden
down, the Democratic party favored
the repeal of the resumption act.
That party, during these four years,
has been the slave of the most idle
and crazy popular delusions of fiat
money—their leaders even talking
about bloated bondholders and aris-
tocrats—and was ready to fan into
flame the passions of men to mobbish
violence and to fierce contensions be-
tween capital and labor.
HONEST PAYMENT OF THE PUBLIO
DEBT.
Again, the policy of the Republican
pas always been he honest and faith-
ful observance of public obligations.
From the time the public debt was
created as the result of the war, until
this hour, they have sought to adopt
a policy which would secure its slow
but sure and steady payment, accord-
ing to the letter and spirit of the pub-
lic obligations. No thought of repu-
diation, wholly or in part, has ever
entered into the Republican policy.
The gradual payment of the debt, and
the reduction of the rate of interest,
have been kindred measures of the
same policy, which have been pur-
sued without shadow of turning.
The principal of the debt had attain-
ed its maximum August 31, 1865,
when it reached $2,756,431,571.43. It
has been gradually paid off with the
surplus revenue, so that, on the first
day of July of this year it was $1,919,-
326,747.75. The principal of the debt
has.been reduced $837,104,823.68, but
the interest has been reduced in far
greater proportion. In 1865 the in-
terest-bearing debt was $2,381,530,-
294.96, and the rate of interest on
part of it was as high as seven and
three-tenths per cent. per annum, and
the interest charge was $150,977,697.87.
The interest charge had been reduced
to $79,633,981 on the first of July,
1880; and we only await the maturity
of $720,645,300, the balance of the five
and six per cent, bonds, to reduce the
interest charge to not exceeding $70,-
000,000. AIRepublican administration
is now paying the public debt at the
rate of ten millions a month, or two
and a half miliions a week. In all
human probability, before this ad-
ministration closes its term, the debt
will be further reduced seventy mill-
ions, making a saving in annual in-
terest of four millions of dollars.
This policy of debt-paying and in-
terest-reducing is the most striking in
the history of any country. Other
nations have had great debts; but no
nation ever before paid it so rapidly,
so justly, so honorably. This fact
alone is worth more in public credit
than all the gold and silver in the
country, because it is a capital frona
which we can draw whenever neces-
sity requires.
The Democratic party pursued an
exactly opposite policy. From 1857
to 1860, when Mr. Buchanan was
President, it steadily increased the
public debt from $9,998,621.76 to $59,-
964,402.01. At the close of that period
it paid as high as twelve per cent. on
one-year Treasury notes, and sold six
per cent, twenty-year bonds at eighty-
nine cents on the dollar. While the
debt was being reduced by the Re-
publican party, the Democratic party
impaired the public cºedit by propos-
ing schemes to cheat the public cred-
itor. Its influence was the Chief Ob-
struction to the debt-paying and in-
terest-reducing policy of the Republi-
can party. In the States where it has
the ascendancy, like Virginia, Lou-
isiana, Tennessee, Mississippi and
Arkansas, it has either repudiated the
State debts or threatens to do so. Its
success, in a National election, would,
in my judgment, greatly impair the
public credit and reduce the value of
public securities.
FAITEIFUL COLLECTION OF THE REVE-
NUE.
Then, again, under the administra-
tion of President Hayes, the revenues
of the Government have been honest-
ly and faithfully collected, and hon-
estly and faithfully disbursed. Tables
have been carefully made, showing
the losses that have occurred in the
receipts and disbursements of the
public money, and these exhibit the
fact that during this administration
the losses by defalcation have been
reduced to the smallest percentage
that has ever been shown in any ad-
ministration of this Government, or
of any other known to us.
During the three years of this ad-
ministration, ending June 30, 1880,
there was collected from all sources
$864,876,359.93. All this vast sum has
been paid into the Treasury, except-
ing about $15,000, and it is believed,
that even this sum will be recovered.
The internal revenue collected in
every part of the United States has
been paid into the Treasury, without
£he loss of a dollar. Besides the col-
lection of the revenue, the great trans-
actions of the Post Office Department,
extending all over the country, and
collecting and disbursing during the
last three years an amount of more
than $250,000,000, have thus far been ,
made with a loss of less than $1,300.
In the small defalcations that have
occurred, suits have been promptly
brought against the defaulting officers
or their sureties, and judgments en-
forced. A system of rigid accounta-
bility for public moneys has been ap-
plied, without fear or favor, with re-
sults that never before have been re-
alized by any administration.
The disbursement of this money by
public officers at home and abroad
has been made for the purposes for
which it was appropriated by Con-
gress, absolutely without loss or de-
falcation, so far as known to the Gov-
ernment.
During the administration of Jas.
Buchanan the loss by defalcations of
public officers in the collection and
disbursement of the public moneys
was $3.81 on every $1,000; during
Pierce's administration it was $3.56;
during Polk’s administration it was
$4.08; during Jackson's administra-
tion it was $7.52; during Van Buren's
administration it was $11.71. Mark
the contrast with Republican admin-
istrations:
In Lincoln's time, embracing the
recklessness caused by war, it was 76
cents. For six years of Grant's ad-
ministration it was 34 cents. In
Hayes's administration thus far—as-
Suming that all amounts in dispute
are lost—the loss on $1,000 would be
so small that the smallest coin of the
country would make it good three
times. It, has been but one-third of a
cent on $1,000 of the amount involved.
REDUCTION OF EXPENSES.
Again, this administration has ef-
fected a striking reduction of the ex-
penses of those branches of the pub-
lic service over which the Executive
has complete control. The appropri-
ation for the collection of the customs
revenue is a permanent one, entirely
dependent for the amount of its ex-
penditure upon the Treasury Depart-
ment. While the revenues of the
Government have enormously, in-
creased, the expenditures have been
largely diminished. The expense of
collecting over $188,000,000 customs
duties during the last fiscal year was
only three and one-tenth per cent.,
while the expense of collecting $53,-
000,000 in 1860, during President
Buchanan's time, was six and "two-
tenths per cent on the amount Gol-
lected—just double. On the 1st of
of July last there was returned to
the Treasury $2,000,000 of money that
had been saved out of the appropria-
tion for the collection of the customs
revenue; and in the expenses for re-
funding the loan, for which an appro-
priation of one-half of one per cent.
is made, the Treasury Department re-
turned to the Treasury, on the 1st of
July last, $1,000,000 saved. The Sec-
retary of the Navy has returned to
the Treasury very large sums, saved
by a careful and honest administra-
tion of that Department. There was
carried to the surplus fund, on the
30th of June, 1880, $8,434,416, money
appropriated for the different Depart-
ments for that year, and remaining
unexpended. Does any one believe
that a Democratic administration
could have attained these results?
RESULT UPON BUSINESS PROSPERITY.
And what has been the result of Re-
publican administration under Presi-
dent Hayes upon the general business
interests of the country? We have
witnessed, and are now enjoying, the
greatest revival of business of mod-
ern times. We have leaped forward
from a period of extreme distress to
5
one of great prosperity. Our exports
during the last fiscal year reached the
enormous sum of $835,000,000, being
an increase since 1875 of over $320,-
000,000. Our imports during the last
fiscal year were $668,000,000, being an
increase since 1875 of $135,000,000, and
making an aggregate foreign com-
merce of the last year of over $1,500,-
000,000. Every nation contributes to
our comfort. From every land and
from every sea, and from every part
of our country, we gather the produc-
, tions of their labor to supply our daily
wants. Our manufactures in all
branches have increased, soºthat not
only do we supply the domestic mar-
kets with nearly all the articles es-
sential to human life, but we export
in great quantities the productions of
the workshop and the farm.
We now feed Europe not only with
grain, but with meat, butter, lard, can-
ned fruits, and an infinite variety of
other productions. We are gradually
gaining trade iu other countries, north
and south, and may hope in a short
me to supply them with nearly all
he articles of foreign production they
desire. In the great branghes of in-
dustry — agriculture, manufactures,
and mining—we are now taking our
rank as the leading nation. With
pleaty of money as good as gold, with
'plenty of work for all who are willing
to work, with cheap capital, we have
now superadded the most bounteous
crops that ever blessed any portion of
the world. Think of wheat crops of
450,000,000 bushels a year, and corn
Crops of about 1,800,000,000 a year, and
every thing else in proportion. For
these, high prices have been realized.
The addition to the wealth of the
country for the last three or four years
Can Scarcely be estimated. We know
that our Government debt, formerly
largely held abroad, is now almost ex-
clusively held at home; that the
mortgages upon our lands and farms
have been reduced to one-third their
amount in 1875; that the balance of
trade is so largely in our favor that
foreign countries, no longer able to
send back our securities, are compell-
ed to ship gold. The building of rail-
roads keeps pace with our general
prosperity. They are crossing the
plains and exploring every valley,
and year by year we hear of new set-
tlements of fertile territory hitherto
unavailable for tillage, whose surplus
products increase our resources. The
number and amount of business ſail-
ures have been reduced more than
one-half. In a word, all the circum-
stances and elements that indicate
increased wealth and prosperity to
our whole country, seem to combine
to make its immediate future exceed-
ingly bright. The rough road has
been traveled, and the smooth one is
now before us.
Our National prosperity has excited
the attention of all European Nations
and has set in motion again the stream of
immigrants, whose labor has added so
greatly to our growth and productions.
The number who arrived during the last
fiscal year was 455,495, against 177,826 in
1879. During the month of June last,
72,567 immigrants reached our shore, and
since March 1, to the latest date of which
we have reports, the number is about
328,000, or more than enough to form a
State.
"HE CAUSE OF OUR PROSPERITY.
We can fairly claim that the renewal
of business is the natural result of the
policy of the Republican party. Evēry
public measure that has contributed to it
was a Republican measure. An honest
and faithful administration of the Gov-
ernment; a firm adherence to the resump-
tion and refunding act; the maintenance
of the public faith as against fiat money;
and, the protection policy embodied in our
tariff laws, are the human agencies, the
work of the Republican party, that have
contributed to our prosperity. It is true
hat Providence gave us bounteous crops,
but these came after resumption was se-
pure, and after we had laid the founda.”
tion of honest money and diversified in-
flustry, which enabled us to improve the
blessings of Providence. Certain it is,
that we owe no part of our prosperity to
the Democratic party. :
DEMOCRATIC PRETENSES,
That party, for more than five years,
has had control of one branch of Congress,
and for nearly two years of both branch-
es. What has it done, or proposed to do,
to benefit the public, or to evince any
disposition to bring about reforms? It set
out with a great pretense of reducing the
expenditures of the Government. It
clipped here and there the salaries of
clerks, or reduced their number, and, in
some cases, seriously obstructed the pub-
lic business. It withheld necessary ap.
propriations for a time to show a reduc-
tion of expenses, but was compelled to
make them good by deficiency bills.
I have. before me a table showing the
appropriations that have been made by
Congress each year' for each branch of
the service since 1873. In 1875, the last
year in which the Republicans had a
majority in both Houses, the appropria-
tions made for the fiscal year 1876 were
$147,714,940. At the next session the
Democrats controlled the House, and, by
refusing to appropriate for some of the
most necessary expenses of the Govern-
ment, reduced the appropriations to
$124,122,010, and the following year, in
order to coerce the President by a failure
to pass the Army bill and to provide for
other necessary expenses, they reduced
the appropriations to $88,356,983; but at
the following session, to make good these
deficiencies and to repair the faults com-
mitted, they appropriated $172,016,809,
being $25,000,000 more than was appro-
priated in 1876; and in 1880 they appro-
priated $162,404,647; and for 1881 they
have appropriated $154,118,212, or $7,-
000,000 more than the appropriatiºns
made the last year the Republicans con-
trolled the House. The appropriations
Inade for the current fiscal year by a
Democratic Congress, in a time when the
currency is upon the specie standard, are
as large as in the year 1873, made by a
Republican Congress when our currency
was at a discount of twelve per cent, and,
when the Government was paying large
war claims.
Thus, it appears that the boasted econo-
my of a Democratic House, in a time of
profound peace, in spite of the large re-
ductions made by a Republican admin-
istration, has resulted in an increase of
appropriations from year to year.
PROPOSED No MEASURE OF RELIEF.
During all this time the Democrats
have proposed no reduction of taxes and
no measure of relief to the industrial in-
terests of the country. Paralyzed by their
responsibility, they did not even dare to
propose a modification of the tariff laws,
or bring about any financial reform,
which they had promised so often and so
long. They neglected the most necessary
changes in our tax laws, such as a modi-
fication of the tax on sugar, leaving the
department to struggle with litigation
and controversy without legislative aid.
They can point to no law passed during
their time which even purports to bring
relief to the people, to lessen the burdens
of taxation, or to advance the public in-
terests. Their whole effort for years was
to repeal the resumption law, to continue
in some form a depreciated currency, or
to cripple and impair the public credit.
During the last year or two it has been
expended in a futile attempt to repeal the
election laws, intended to protect the
elective franchise from fraud and violence.
This they attempted in a revolutionary
mode. They attached the conditions of
repeal to appropriation bills necessary to
the support of the Government; and
when the President disapproved such re-
peal they left important branches of the
service without any appropriation, and
compelled our soldiers on the frontier
and our army officers to borrow money to
meet their current expenses, while the
Treasury was overflowing with money
due to them.
THEY wanT A CHANGE—ITs EFFECTs.
And now, in 1880, they want a change;
not a change in the Democratic House or
Senate, but a change in the Executive
branch of the Government, so that all
branches of the Government will be prac-
tically under their power and control. It
is known very well that within a period
of four years the election of a Demo-
cratic President would probably, by the
chances of life, convert the Supreme Court
into a citidel of the principles and policy
of the Democratic party, and change the
national tendencies of that great tribunal
into a machine to cripple the Govern- &
ment in Tis power to protect the rights of
the freedmen by the 3doption of the nar-
row notions of State rights, which gov-
erned the Democratic party before the
Wär. -
And who are they who propose this
radical change in our Government? It is
the same Democratic party that, in 1860,
sought to overthrow the Government,
governed by the self-same men or their
lineal descendents, and the same elements
which controlled the policy of the adminis-
tration of James Buchanan. Who control
that party now? The basis, the governing
power, of that party is in the Solid South.
That segment of the party will furnish one
hundred and six members of Congress and
thirty-two Senators, and, by their numeri-
cal majority over their Democratic associ-
ates, will dictate the policy and laws of our
Government. Next in importance would
be the influence of New York City, whose
vote is so potent in wielding the political
power of the great State of New York—
a city that for many years has been
governed by corruption, that practiced the
frauds in the election of 1868, and is con-
fessedly under the domination of the most
dangerous elements of American sogety.
They can claim no Northern States except
what they derive from the shadow of the
influence which centers around New
York, and, perhaps, the State of Indiana;
but we dispute with them in their ascend-
ancy in that gallant State. And thus
these elements, embracing the worst fea-
tures of American politics and society,
would rule this National Government in
all its branches, and restore again all the
ideas, principles and acts from which we
escaped by the election of Abraham
Lincoln.
The bone and sinew, the heart and brain
of the North, are now, as then, with the
Republican party. That section which
furnishes the capital, the commerce, the
trade, the enterprise, the vital energy to
our system, is to be subordinated to a sec-
tion which still clings to the idea that this
is not a Nation, but a confederacy, that
its powers are dependent for enforcement
upon the narrow and provincial ideas of
insignificant States. This is the change
they propose. This is the revolution they
would bring about. -
What reasons do they give, what mo-
tive do they assign, as the basis of such
a revolution ?
Senator Pendleton says they want a
chance to examine the books of the Treas-
ury Department. The books of the Treas-
ury are now, and have been for years,
under the surveillance of the Democratic
majority of the House. Committees of
both houses have explored the recesses of
that Department, examined its books,
compared the figures, and what have they
found? They claim that in 1870 great dis-
crepancies were shown in the statement
of the public account; but these discrep-
ancies, after a full and fair examination,
have been fully explained as the necessary
result of keeping two sets of books in
different offices of the Government, which,
embracing different items, from their
nature, must differ on a given day, in
some cases, to the amount of millions of
dollars; but when these discrepancies
are examined, and the elements which
enter into the one and do not enter into
the other, are explained and compared,
the books are found to be correct in every
particular. -
Thus, the Register's books still show as
money in the Treasury about $28,000,000
deposited by the several States, under an
act of Congress in 1836. These books
also treat as money in the Treasury all the
great defalcations that occurred in Demo-
cratic times, many years ago, with pet
banks, and other public depositaries, and
other defaulters, although the bills of the
pet banks are worth no more in the hands
of the Treasurer than Confederate notes,
and the defaulters and their generation
have crumbled into dust years ago. The
Treasurer's books, however, treat these
items as unavailable, and not as money on
hand, and thus there is a difference be-
tween these two accounts of many mil-
lions of dollars. Secretary Boutwell, not
being satisfied with this mode of, stating
the public accounts, and in pursuance of
an act of Congress, did eliminate from
the cash statement these unavailable
items. Formerly the statement of the
public debt only included the principal
of the debt, and not the interest. He
changed the form of the monthly debt
statement so as to include not only the
principal but the interest accruing on the
outstanding bonds not yet due, and de-
ducting from the aggregate the cash in
the Treasury. . -
This was a decided, improvement in
book-keeping, and exhibited the exact
state of the public debt. This has both-
ered my friend Senator Davis, of West
Virginia, ever since. He talks of changes
and discrepancies, but he does not pre-
tend that there has been any misapplica-
tion of public moneys. As one of a
Senate committee, of which Mr. Bayard
was a member, I examined thoroughly
these charges when first made, five or six
years ago, and the most careful and
searching scrutiny showed that they in-
volved no misstatement, no inaccuracy,
no peculation, no wrong. The change in
book-keeping was made ten years ago,
and since that time it is not claimed that
there has been any discrepancy, or error,
or fault. While I have had charge of
the Treasury Department I have invited
the utmost scrutiny, furnished com-
mittees of Congress with rooms in the
Treasury, given them access to all the
books, given them the aid of skilled ex-
perts to assist them, and they report that
everything is now entirely satisfactory,
and that the discrepancies which they
refuse to understand, though amply ex-
plained, do not now occur.
THE CRY or FRAUD.
Mr. Tilden says they want a change in
order to condemn what he alleges was the
fraud of 1877. But this pretended fraud
consists simply in the fact that the Elec-
toral Commission, a tribunal which they
aided to organize, and whose 3.
they agreed to abide, decided differently
from what they expected. I did not be-
lieve in that tribunal. I believed the
Constitution and the law already fur-
mished ample means to ascertain and de-
termine the result of the vote of the elec-
tors; but they forced the adoption of this
Commission as a means to exclude votes
duly returned from some of the Southern
States.
that time they have cried out “fraud,
fraud.” The fraud that existed in the
election of 1876 was the fraud, violence,
and intimidation practiced by the Dem-
ocratic party in at least five of the
Southern States, but in such a bungling
way in Louisiana that it was promptly
corrected by the returning officers of that
State. In South Carolina and Florida the
actual vote cast, as well as the legal vote,
was in favor of the Republican electors.
They attempted in Oregon, where the
people had without question voted for the
Hayes electors, by narrow technicalities
to exclude the Republican electors and
to recognize the Democratic electors, and
large sums of money were confessedly
paid to accomplish this fraud.
THE REAL FRAUIDS.
The two great frauds attempted in that
election by the Democratic party were,
first, the completion of the conspiracy of
the rebel element of the South to deprive
the Republicans of the South of their
rights and privileges as American citi-
zens; and the second was the attempt to
bribe electors for President to vote for
Tilden instead of Hayes. It is to divert
public attention from these admitted
frauds that this cry of fraud is raised.
Let us look for a moment at these ad-
mitted frauds. Shortly after the war
there were organized in nearly all the
Southern States secret political bands,
composed entirely of Democrats, and
mostly of rebel soldiers, whose object was
to overawe the freedmen of the South, to
deter them from enjoying the civil and
political rights conferred by the constitu-
tional amendments; and whose methods
were terror, whipping wounding and
murder, committed by armed bands of
disciplined and disguised men, at night,
upon poor, ignorant and undisciplined ne-
groes. There is nothing recorded in his-
tory more cruel and cowardly than the
organization, objects and work of these
Klans; you can read it in great volumes
of testimony, taken year after year by
committees of Congress. There you will
find the pathetic stories of the victims of
these atrocities, and the number of the
dead who perished by them. There you
will find the confessions of the guilty.
You can read the story in “The Fool's
Errand, by one of the Fools,” a narrative
written by a Union officer, and who pre-
sents with the atrocities committed all
the §: circumstances as claimed
by the Klans. You may read it in the
They failed in this, and from .
eloquent denunciations of Reverdy John-
son and Henry Stanbery, sent South to
defend members of the Klans. No man
can honestly deny that this conspiracy,
its existence, its aims, and its crimes,
have been F." and are true, and yet
the strength and power of the Democratic
party in the South this day rests upon the .
success of this crime, or culmination of
crimes. It is this that gives them the
solid South. These crimes entered into
the title by which Tilden claimed to be
elected President. It was in 1875 that
the Mississippi plan of terror was en-
forced in that State with savage barbari-
ty; and in 1876, Mississippi, with a
known, Republican majority of 25,000,
was helplessly in the power of rifle clubs,
who cast its vote for Tilden. In Louisi-
ana and South Carolina the same plan
was attempted, but only in a comparative-
ly few counties, and in these the same
terrible agencies of murder, burning, .
whipping and terror, were inflicted by
disguised Democrats, and solely with a
view to prevent Republican votes. Don’t
tell me you don’t believe these things, for
the man who would not believe upon
such testimony as has been furnished
would not believe his own mother who
testified to his birth. It is fortunate that
this conspiracy was defeated by the faith-
ful and loyal performance of public duty
under the law by the election officers of
Louisiana and South Carolina, in spite of
efforts to bribe them. But for their hon-
esty and courage, a President would have
been installed whose title rested, upon
murder and bribery, and the blessing of
God never could have rested upon such
an Administration.
Do you want me to prove to you the
second crime connected with the election
of 1876–7, namely, the attempt made by
the-agents of Mr. Tilden to bribe electors
from the discharge of their duties? The
cipher telegrams which were deciphered
and published to the world, written and
signed by leading members of the Demo-
cratic party, speak for themselves. They
show the most regkless and shameful at-
tempts at bribery of the officers of the
Government charged with important
duties in connection with the returns of
electors, Great bribes were offered to
electors to violate the honorable duty in-
trusted to them, and returning officers
were tempted with promises of money and
office, if they would make false returns.
It is to the honor of our country that this
movement utterly failed. Not a single
officer accepted a bribe, and, to use the
language of Mr. Tilden, the whole result-
ed in a “futile dalliance.” So much for
the great cry of fraud.
But, fellow-citizens, this c
sheerest hypocrisy. If the
is now the
emocratic
party believed in it, why was not Mr.
fe
Tilden renominated? Then the people
could have tried the alleged fraud. But
the fraud practiced by the Democratic
party in the South is a continuing fraud
—two years ago, last. year, and this year
—continued openly with grim humor, and
justified by the dominant opinion South,
and by the acquiescence of the Democra-
cy of the North. It is only by this fraud
that that party hopes for success. If now
there is a change in the Executive branch
of the Government, it will be caused by
the grave and startling fact that the rebels
of the South have, by bloody means, suc-
eeeded in overthrowing the constitutional
rights of five millions of freedmen, and
the Democratic party of the North, eager
for power and place, co-operate with the
rebels of the South in this crime, by
sharing in the power and places secured
by it.
STATE RIGHTS VERSUS NATIONAL RIGHTS.
Senator Thurman says they want to
bring about a change, so as to restore the
old time-honored doctrine of the Demo-
cratic party in respect to State rights.
This, I believe, is an honest statement of
the chief desire of the party. They wish,
under the forms of a party contest, to
turn back the dial of time for twenty
years from the national principles that
have guided the Republican party to the
sectionalism that prevailed before the
war. We accept the issue.
The dividing line between the two par-
ties is a difference of opinion as to the
powers and duties of the National Gov-
ernment. We believe that this is a gov-
ernment of the people, with #: limit-
ed and defined by a written º stitution,
but embracing all the great and essential
functions of a National Government,
with ample authority to make, execute
and construe laws, and to enforce them
upon and execute them against every citi-
zen of the United States, without respect
to State lines. We believe it to be the
duty of the National Government to pro-
tect all citizens in equal civil and political
rights, and to maintain national existence
and authority against all who resist it,
whether they muster under a foreign flag
or under State or local authority. We
believe that the States are also mere
agents of the people, intrusted by them
with limited powers, set out in written
constitutions. Their powers and duties
are highly important. They affect the
local and domestic relations of life and
the protection of property. No Republi-
can would impair, in the least, the digni-
ty, importance, or rights of the States;
but, after all, they are subordinate to the
United States in all the great powers of
the Government defined by the Constitu-
tion.
to prevent the National Government from
protecting all the citizens of every State
The State cannot be made a shield -
in the rights conferred upon them by the
Constitution of the United States; and in
case of a dispute as to the limit and ex-
tent of these rights, the Supreme Court of
the United States is the final judge and
arbiter. • , •
Bere the Democratic party takes issue
with us in principle and detail. Under
the dogma of State rights, that party
gradually subordinated the rights and
powers of the National Government to
those of the several States until it finally
claimed that any State might nullify the
laws of the United States and secede -
from the Union. -
You will always find the Democratic
party opposed to our view of national
authority. It seeks to belittle, to degrade,
and cripple the National Government; to
subordinate the rights of the citizen and
the Nation to the law or public opinion
of the State; to treat the National Gov-
ernment as a Confederacy of States, with-
out power to enforce personal rights or
national interests within the limits of the
State without the consent of the State.
You will find this radical difference crop-
ping out in every contest on every ques-
tion, great or small, that enters into
American politics. It was this that led
to the civil war. Under the lead of the
Republican party the Union was pre-
served, the Constitution was maintained
in its full vigor, and strengthened by
amendments so as to declare the equal
civil and political rights of all men, with-
out distinction of race, color, or condition,
and that Congress should enforce these
rights by appropriate legislation. Upon
these terms the rebels were restored to
their rights and privileges as American
citizens, and now, with their Northern as-
sociates, under the name of the Demo-
cratic party, they revive the old contest,
and deny to American citizens the pro-
tection of national rights by national
authority.
This doctrine of State rights is the basis .
of opposition to National banks, to the
protection of American industry, to the
National election laws, and protection of
the ballot-box, and to the navigation
laws. Whenever the question arises in
national politics, you will always find the
Republican party in favor of the enforce-
ment of all the rights, civil and political,
conferred by the Constitution of the
United States, while the Democratic par-
ty oppose the enforcement of these rights
and leave the citizen to the tender mercy
of local or State law.
It is for the patriotic people of this
country to say whether they want a
change back from the national tendencies
of the Republican party to the principles
that brought our Government to the
verge of dissolution in the days of Buch-
anan. The principles of the Southern
1O
States, with their bloody violence, are the
fruit of Judge Thurman's doctrine, while
those of the Northern States are the out-
growth of Republican ideas.
Senatºr Hampton, in a recent speech
at Staunton, Virginia, stated the issue
fairly:
“Consider what Lee and Jackson would
do were they alive. These are the same
principles for which they fought for four
years. Remember the men who poured
forth their life blood on Virginia's soil,
and do not abandon them now.”
The South did fight for the rights of
the States as they understood them; and
this contest has already cost the Nation
half a million of lives and over six
thousand millions of dollars. It is for
the people of the North, who took the
burden of this contest upon themselves,
to say whether, within twenty years after
our heroes were sacrificed in the war, and
while the debt still bears heavily, they
are willing, for the sake of gratifying the
Democratic party, to windicate the prin-
cipies against which we fought. Nor does
it help the matter any that this party,
with such aims and ends, baits its hook
with a soldier who did honorable service
in our cause. We are intelligent enough
to look beyond this tempting bait to the
animating principles which lie behind
this demand for a change. They say they
want Hancock, a Major General in the
regular army. We had for several years,
while General Grant was President,
Democratic declamation, without limit,
against military , rule. We have been
warned by the lessons of history that free
institutions are only endangered by ambi-
tions men, who may seek, under military
forms, to enslave the people. And yet
this party, forgetting their declamation,
propose to take a soldier who has had no
civil experience, whose mind was devel-
oped in a military school, and whose life
has been spent under military laws; but
they take him to carry out and maintain
the principles for which they fought, and
not those for which he fought under Re-
publican auspices. Excepting the adoption
of the old doctrine of State rights, I know
no distinctive principle of the Democratic
party, which can be named by an intelli-
gent citizen, no other measure which they
seek to accomplish, no other policy which
they seek to develop, and yet we are asked
to make this great change.
And now, fellow-citizens, suppose a
change is made; suppose the restraint of
a Republican President is withdrawn,
what will the Democratic party do under
the doctrine for which Judge Thurman
and General Hampton plead On the
day of the inauguration a horde of greedy
office-seekers, hungry in search of office,
will come down upon the heads of Depart.
Inents with their claims for reward for
party services, and inexperienced men
will be thrust in to discharge the most
difficult functions of official life. Trained
and experienced officers, whose capacity
and fidelity are recognized everywhere,
will be turned out, and the great opera-
tions of the Government be placed at
once in inexperienced hands.
A still more dangerous horde of claim
agents, now haunting Washington,
already keen for plunder, and versed in
all the tricks of the trade, will seek to
open the doors of the Treasury to the
brood of Southern claims, which, despite
our overflowing revenues, will bankrupt
the Treasury in a year. Thus far, dur-
ing this administration, the gate has
been put down and barred against all
these claims. The statute of limitations
and the decisions of the Department
have cut them off; but, under, a Demo-
cratic administration of the Treasury
Department, how easy it would be to
break down this barrier. I khow from
my personal knowledge a number of
claim agents, influential men, who, will
vote fog Hancock on the ground that his
election will enable them to recover
claims now barred. All that is needed
to cause the refunding of the cotton tax,
amounting to $68,000,000, is an appro-
priation. Most of the members of the
South, through their constituents, are
interested in these claims.
A slight extension of the period of
limitation, as to claims for captured
and abandoned cotton, will open up tens
of millions of this class of claims. An
enlargement by half a dozen words of the
law for the payment of quartermaster's
stores will bring upon the Treasury de-
mands for more than one hundred mil-
lion dollars for food consumed by our
army in the war of the rebellion, taken
from disloyal people, and for damage
done to them as a natural result or con-
sequence of the war. Experience has
shown that to swell these claims, tenfold
or even a hundred-fold, testimony can be
manufactured with the greatest facility
and apparently of the clearest character.
Should this be acted upon by an officer
friendly to the object, no man can esti-
mate the demands that in this way, un-
der cover of right, may be foisted upon
the people of the United States. And
why should not this be done? If the
principles of the Democratic party are to
be again adopted by the votes of the
people, and the very men who fought for
them are to be placed in power, why
should they not be indemnified for their
losses? Why should they not be paid for
their slaves? Why should not the brave
rebels who fought for their principles be
placed on the pension roll ? Even a
change in decisions by the Secretaries of
War and Treasury would bring upon the
^
Government tens of millions of dollars of
Southern claims.
But again, if the principles of the
Democratic party twenty years ago, and
the men who fought for them, are re-
stored to power, you will find the same
slavish, acquiescence of the Democratic
fragments of the North to the Democrats
of the South as before the war. The
election laws, of which I have spoken,
will be the first to be repealed, and thus
will be legalized all the atrocious crimes
and frauds of the South, and even the
great fraud of New York will be con-
doned forever. Amnesty and forgive-
mess will be proclaimed for the meanest
crimes that have ever been committed
against free government. What protec-
tion will there then be for the freedmen
of the South 2 What guard will there
be against ballot box stuffers and the
like criminals in the North ?
What further is likely to happen?
The Democratic party has opposed from
the beginning, as unconstitutional, our
whole system of National banks, and
11
so intimately identified with political
events, will feel the staggering b}. -
Are the probable results of a Demo-
cratic administration too strongly stated?
If so, it is only because it may be de-
terred by public opinion from going to
the extreme logic of their position. But
I know these men well, and I believe
that the result of the full ascendency of
the Democratic party will be to shock
the public credit; to open the Treasury
wide to rebel claims; to wipe out all that
was achieved by the war; to turn our
Government back from its National ten-
dencies to what it was in fact before the
war—a mere confederacy of States—and
to cripple the power of the General Gov-
ernment in the enforcement and execu-
tion of its laws.
Why encounter these risks? Is there
anything in our present condition that
should lead the people of the North,
those who fought for the Union, who
love the glories won by our heroes of the
favored a system of State banks as a mat-
ter of constitutional right. By the
passage of a law of two lines they can
repeal the tax of ten per cent., now
levied upon the notes of State banks, and
thus, without a formal repeal of the
National Bank system, they can revive
the whole State Bank system, and flood
us with wild-cat and red-dog money.
That this will be done I have no earthly
doubt whatever. I know that the lead-
ing Southern Senators and Members are
especially anxious to" revive the system
of State Banks with a view to have irre-
deemable paper money again, and some
of the Western Congressmen will follow
in the same direction. All this will lead
directly to the repeal or disuse of the
National Bank system, because it is a
principle of financial law that the poorer
currency will supersede the better, and
in a short time every person will be try-
ing to shove off upon his neighbor unse-
cured notes of State Banks which will go
down with the first wave of financial
panic. All war legislation, ... or that
which has grown out of the preservation
of the Union and the maintenance of the
Government, will be gradually swept
war, to make this shameful surrender to
our foes? No, my countrymen. The
change proposed is repugnant to our
manhood, injurious to our interests, and
fatal to the national policy that has so
greatly advanced our country among the
nations of the world.
The Republican party may sometimes g
have failed to meet your expectations in
all things, may sometimes have neglected
to do that which ought to have been
done, but, on the whole, it has rendered
such service to this country that it may
fairly claim to be intrusted with the
administration of the Government until
at least some party appears with better
principles and a better record. The Re-
publican party conducted the war with
success. It has emancipated a whole
race. It has done its utmost to secure
civil and religious liberty to all citizens.
It has developed the homestead policy.
It has unified and nationalized all parts
of our common country into one grand
away, the army and navy will be opened
to rebels, and the men whom we fought
against will again wield the military and
naval arm of the Government.
still proud of their achievements in the
rebellion, bitter in their hearts, and full
of rage against the defenders of the
Union; will ride rough shod in their new
authority over men who have sacrificed
Rebels,
their all in defense of the country. The
public credit can not long escape from
the strange and unnatural restoration,
and the business interests of the country,
whole, without invading in the least the
rights and duties of the several States,
which during this time have securely
managed their local affairs without let
or hindrance from the National Govern-
ment. It proposes further to develope
this policy. It proposes to maintain the
resumption of specie payments, so that
we may continue to have good money of
gold and silver and paper, all equal to
each other, and all of universal credit
wherever water runs and our flags floats.
It proposes to complete the plan of re-
funding the debt by the substitution of
bonds i: from three to four per
cent. interest for those still outstanding
bearing a higher rate. It proposes, while
steadily pursuing the principle of pro-
tecting American industry, to reduce as
rapidly as nossible the burden of taxa-
12
tion, and at no distant time to confine all
National taxes to moderate duties on im-
ported goods and a tax on liquors, tobac-
co and beer. Regarding education as the
strongest foundation. for republican gov-
ernment, it proposes to foster schools and
colleges and academies of learning, and
to make the way open in the South as
well as in the North to every child, black
or white, to receive the rudiments of ed-
ucation. It has given you, as an evi-
dence of its purposes, an honest, faithful
and successful administration of the Na-
tional Government under the Presidency
of Rutherford B. Hayes, one that will be
pointed to as an honored example long
after we are gathered to our fathers. He
has not had the support of Congress dur-
ing his term, and has been crippled greatly
in the development of his policy; #.
has prevented great evils from being ac-
complished by the Democratic party.
More than all, he has wisely executed
Republican laws upon the statute books,
and has by his veto prevented the repeal
of other laws equally important. He
has done this country no evil, but has
done it great good.
We want a change. We want to change
this Democratic Congress into a Repub-
lican Congress, in harmony with the spirit
of the age and with the general policy of
the Republican party; a Congress that
will, while closely scrutinizing the public
expenses, be just and liberal for all nec-
essary purposes, and economical, careful,
and prudent in the appropriation of pub-
lic money. We want to uphold the Na-
tional authority, so that the time will
soon come when neither a mob nor a
State, nor local public opinion, will be
strong enough to deprive any American
citizen of his civil and political rights.
We want to continue activity and indus-
try and good times. We want to foster
our industry, extend our trade, and fill
our vast area with thriving, industrious
people, native and naturalized. While
maintaining American principles, we offer
the industrial classes of all nations who
are willing to share in our lot and con-
form, to our policy, the liberal and equal
benefit of our laws. We wish to see the
ut he -ents. He entered the volunteer arm
United States.
rights of labor protected without disturb-
ing the rights of property. We wish,
above all, to maintain the national credit
and the national name, so that, both in
our foreign and domestic policy it may
be understood that this Republic will be
just to the weak as well as to the strong
will ask nothing but what is right, and
submit to nothing that is wrong in our
dealings with foreign nations.
To secure these great objects, we have
placed in nomination General Garfield, a
citizen of Ohio, who was trained in the
school of adversity, which has produced
nearly all the great men in American
politics. He is self-educated. He has
been tried in both civil and military life,
and in every position occupied by him
has rendered satisfaction to his constitu-
at
the beginning of the war as a soldier,
performed brilliant services, rose rapidly,
until he was called by the people of his
district to represent them in Congress.
|He is thoroughly informed and trained
in all the questions of the day, and in
all of them is in ful, Yarmony with the
Republican party. He is admirably
prepared to discharge the civil duties of
the high office for which he has been
nominated, and, compared to General
Hancock, by any test that may be ap-
plied to him, is his superior in ability,
capacity and fitness for President of the
General Hancock relies
solely upon his service in the army, and
upon the issuing of an order, which, in
my judgment, under the circumstances,
was a concession to rebels that ought not
to have been made, while General Gar-
field can point to a varied civil and mili-
tary life, combining the heroism of the
soldier and trained experience in the
highest civil duties. Let no personal dis-
appointment enter into or color our zeal
in the good cause, but with the courage
and hope that animated the Union army
during the war, let us press forward our
Republican principles until all that we
have guaranteed by the Constitution of
the laws shall be fully secured to the
humblest as well as the loftiest citizen of .
this Republic.
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