THE ISSUES OF THE CAMPAIGN. 
 
 ' ' SPEECH 
 
 OP 
 
 GOY. REUBEN E. FENTON, 
 
 At Jamestown, September 19th, 1868, 
 
 Fellow Citizens : I cannot conceal from you the embarrass¬ 
 ment I feel, on personal grounds, in coming from the Capital of 
 the State to speak to you on the political issues of this canvass. 
 The meeting of neighbors and friends brings up associations and 
 reflections that could best find expression in social intercourse 
 and visit with you, and which contend against the more rugged 
 duties relating to a political discussion. In a short time, however, 
 almost concurrent with the close of this canvass, I am to lay aside 
 the cares of public position and return to your midst, and then I 
 shall not hesitate to express the obligation I am under to you, 
 and the friendship and the gratitude I feel. 
 
 The principles involved in the political conflicts which are in¬ 
 cident to organized society, are few and not hard to be understood. 
 The enthusiasm, excitement and acrimony of party feeling are 
 carried to a greater extreme under a form of government like ours, 
 than in those where there is less freedom of public opinion and a 
 more restricted elective franchise. After all, this free popular , 
 outburst and discussion in which our people, indulge, ought to 
 tend to greater intelligence upon controverted questions, and 
 therefore to greater security for our rights and our liberties. In 
 the case before us, and upon which we are called to decide at the 
 ballot-box in November, it seems to me that no one, not misled 
 by prejudice, or ignorant of facts, need be in doubt as to what is 
 correct in principle, or due from him in the discharge of duty. I 
 do not mean by this that the acts of one party are all right, and of 
 the other all wrong, for there is, doubtless, something to condemn 
 
2 
 
 in both, but that the purpose and general effect of the conduct of 
 one party in a great trial period such as that through which we 
 are passing, are right and beneficial to the country, and of the 
 other wrong and dangerous. In other times the policies of par¬ 
 ties are not apt to result in civil disorder, whatever the varying 
 fortunes of political organizations. It is a struggle within the 
 forms of established government, and each party alike devoted to 
 the Union, and alike lovers of liberty. But in the present con¬ 
 test we are not free to indulge the hope that the safety of public 
 affairs would be equally protected and secured by the accession to 
 power of either of the contestants. I do not say that the patriotic 
 and eminent men connected with the Democratic party, nor gene¬ 
 rally the members of that party, meditate embarrassment and dis¬ 
 honor to the Government, but that the platform of the party, the 
 declarations of many of its representative men, and the spirit 
 which seems to control them and to animate the canvass on their 
 part, tend strongly to this result. 
 
 THE CONSTITUTIONAL POWER. 
 
 You do not expect me to undertake a review of parties with 
 reference to their adherence to or departure from the spirit and 
 power of the constitution. The events of our history, and the 
 views of leading statesmen indicate an interpretation which the 
 majority of the people willingly accept. Mr. Pendleton in his 
 Bangor speech, dwells upon what he is pleased to term the philoso¬ 
 phy of our system of government. He says it is a Union and 
 not a unity, and he refers to the danger from centralization of 
 power. He did not tell us that the natural deduction from his 
 theory was that upon which Secession was attempted to be justi¬ 
 fied. It is better to have declared that, while our Government is 
 built up, maintained, conducted, and defended by ourselves, there 
 is no power within ourselves less than a majority of all the peo¬ 
 ple, that can change it, and the attempt to do it, outside of the 
 forms prescribed, is treason and forfeiture of political privileges- 
 Of course, I do not touch the point of successful revolution. After 
 the fall of the Confederacy, the States which composed it were dis¬ 
 organized communities, and while they failed to escape from their 
 obligations by destroying the Union, they succeeded in renounc¬ 
 ing their political rights under the Constitution, and in destroying 
 
3 
 
 their local State organizations. It is plain that on the dissolution 
 of the armies, in 1865, there was no lawful local government in 
 any of the insurgent States; nor was there then any authority 
 in the people of those States to regain their lost power. Having 
 thus lost the functions of government in the States, what power 
 was competent to restore their lost condition ? It was not in the 
 States themselves independent of Congressional action and recog¬ 
 nition. There was no lawful local Executive to call an election, 
 and there was no lawful local authority to evolve an Executive. 
 The President was competent to proclaim peace, and he doubtless 
 had authority to hold these States under military rule until pro¬ 
 vision could be made for their reorganization under the authority 
 of public law; but he could not institute civil governments, for, 
 under the Constitution, Congress alone could guarantee a republi¬ 
 can form of government to the States. He had no power to enact 
 or to repeal an act of Congress. Clearly these were questions for 
 the law-making power of the Government; and to be determined 
 not by his will, but by the will of the nation, expressed in the 
 form prescribed by the Constitution. The policy of President 
 Johuson, as disclosed, was to assume the prerogative of Congress, 
 and to exercise in those States the powers relinquished by the 
 Confederate leaders. He not only proposed his own terms to 
 them, but also to the nation, and by reinstating the Rebel author¬ 
 ity with increased political power, to confer upon them the fruits 
 of victory. His plan embraced no less than immediate represen¬ 
 tation at Washington. It was proposed by him to restore those 
 who had been defeated in war to the position of a governing class; 
 ruling those whom they had recently held in bonds, and making 
 laws for the nation which they had tried and failed to destroy. 
 Instead of a u Union and not a unitj^,” their doctrine plainly leads 
 to a Union and a unity, under the direction of the President, and 
 a centralization of power in the Executive, not authorized by the 
 Constitution, and dangerous to the rightful authority of the law¬ 
 making department of the Government. It is a policy revolting 
 to the general sense of national justice and manhood, and hostile 
 to the genius and practical requirements of our institutions. The 
 manner in which the authority of reconstructing or restoring these 
 States should be exercised by Congress is another thing, and to 
 that I shall have occasion to refer before I conclude my remarks 
 
4 
 
 TENDENCY OF PARTIES, 
 
 I have said that the tendency of the Democratic party was dan¬ 
 gerous to the quiet of the country, and that the continued power 
 of the Republican party would strengthen social order and civil 
 liberty. I hardly need say that the candidates of the two parties 
 embody views of our present condition, and the true mode of 
 settlement under the Constitution, and of future progress, almost 
 as opposite as peace and war—as irreconcilable as prosperity and 
 adversitv. It is fortunate at least, to a correct understand!n£ of 
 
 I J w- 
 
 the matter that each party in this respect is faithful to the leading 
 ideas which marked its career from the first gun fired at Sumter 
 to the close of the late session of Congress. It will not be found 
 easy to divert the attention of the people from the true state of 
 the question. Our party strove to maintain'the nationality, to 
 assert the integrity, of the Union, and to supply the means ade¬ 
 quate to this end; the other seemed willing to impair it by 
 unworthy concessions, disheartening the people by magnifying its 
 difficulties, multiplying its dangers, belittling its successes, destroy¬ 
 ing its necessary regulations, and by repeated declarations of the 
 utter impossibility of attaining the end sought, and the wicked¬ 
 ness of the means employed. The one had faith and courage 
 throughout the long dark night of war; the other deemed the 
 war wrong and a failure. These will be recognized as some of 
 the well known views of the parties which lived through the war, 
 and that continue with positions very little changed by the lessons 
 ■which it taught, or by the entreaties of peace. 
 
 OPPOSING CANDIDATES. 
 
 The nomination of Gen. Grant by the Republicans was alike the 
 natural expression of their principles, and a signal mark of honor 
 and gratitude to the great captain who led our cause through the 
 difficulties and perils of war to a glorious triumph. It should be 
 remarked, too, that his course throughout the war was hardly 
 more gallant and faithful than it has since been true to the prin¬ 
 ciples involved in the struggle and wise in their application. 
 Equal to great emergencies, and exhibiting a singleness of purpose 
 and devotion to principle rarely equalled, his ability to administer 
 
 9 
 
5 
 
 the affairs of the Government with usefulness and honor seemed 
 to be generally conceded, and long before the Convention he 
 became the almost unanimous choice of our party. No one can 
 doubt his honesty, but few even of the opposite party question 
 his ability, and none should hesitate to give him their confidence 
 and support who prefer the peaceful consummation of the great 
 work, which the war, in the mysterious ways of Providence, has 
 placed before us. In like manner and with equal consistency with 
 their history and objects, the Democratic party, after a full com¬ 
 parison of views and mature deliberation, gave the nomination for 
 President to Horatio Seymour. It is hardly worth while to 
 amplify; in a word, it is sufficient to state that from the begin¬ 
 ning the Democratic party was opposed to the war, opposed to the 
 means of sustaining it, and opposed to the measures which have 
 been deemed necessary to restore the country since the war. 
 With these party characteristics, which they have not had the 
 patriotism or courage to shake off, Gov. Seymour has been through¬ 
 out in entire and hearty accord. And so it is that no man could 
 represent them in the canvass for the Presidency with more gene¬ 
 ral acceptance, as both true to them in the past, and fully approv¬ 
 ing their most dangerous tendencies for the future. With no 
 purpose to question the motives of men, it is not too much to say 
 that but few other men could have been placed at the head of their 
 ticket whose acts and opinions, in public and political affairs, 
 would have kindled the spirit of rebellion in the South, and 
 repudiation both North and South, more successfully. 
 
 • THE ISSUE. 
 
 The issue then is plain. The Republican party accepts the 
 Southern States with their present governments as members of 
 the Union, and in good faith would give them all the benefits of 
 the Constitution, and it faithfully maintains the sacred character 
 of the public debt created in defense of the Union. The Democratic 
 party denounce these governments, and is committed to their 
 overthrow, and as a logical result the substitution of the old, or 
 other, though new, governments, to be under rebel control. They 
 do not declare in favor of the payment in good faith ot every obli. 
 gation of the Government, and we are led to believe that if they 
 had the authority the terms of payment, if not the payment itself 
 
6 
 
 would be jeopardized. In other words, we are confronted by a 
 party whose spirit and teachings lead us to apprehend from their 
 accession to power, a growing disrespect to the fundamental prin¬ 
 ciples of our institutions, and a disregard of the good faith of the 
 nation. It will be in vain that our opponents attempt to divert 
 the discussion by charging us with debt, which their present allies 
 made necessary, and which their own course has done so much to 
 augment; with extravagance, in which they have equally partici¬ 
 pated ; and with excesses which they have helped to swell, and to 
 which all parties in power are subject. If it was true that our 
 party could be justly arraigned in the manner and to the extent 
 they would have the people believe, it is still of trifling importance 
 compared with the great principles on which the canvass rests, and 
 which are essential to uninterrupted restoration and peace. That 
 we have done some things which we ought not to have done, is 
 probable, but after all, to the everlasting honor of the Republican 
 party, they have shown unwearied fidelity to human freedom, to 
 justice, to equal rights, and to the honor and perpetuity of the 
 Republic. 
 
 THE FINANCES. 
 
 Let me repeat that the question we pass upon is not mainly 
 one of taxation and debt, although grave considerations of finan¬ 
 cial policy will continue to form interesting and important themes 
 for discussion. We do not say that the debt is no larger than it 
 ought to be, that taxation is most equitably distributed, and that 
 the revenue is, in every respect, honestly and ecconomically 
 gathered. It may be asked, however, and the inquiry is signifi¬ 
 cant, which party and which policy will, at the earliest period, 
 reduce and discharge the debt and conduct the finances with the 
 least derangement to the industry, credit, and prosperity of the 
 country? The public debt has been created, and while the 
 causes which led to it must add largely to the weight of odium 
 resting upon the Democratic party, the question of immediate and 
 practical importance relates not so much to the responsibilities of 
 the past as to the disposition for the future. How shall we meet 
 the public debt? What temper shall we bring to the treatment 
 of the national expenses? These are the vital considerations 
 growing out of this subject. The maintenance of the public 
 
7 
 
 credit is dependent upon the preservation of the public faith. In 
 these days when great emergencies frequently arise, sudden and 
 unavoidable, in the history of nations, and when rapid advance in 
 the science of warfare has made wars so formidable and expen¬ 
 sive, the public credit is the right arm of the national safety. It 
 is hardly less essential than a sturdy and patriotic population, for 
 while we have civil commotions and wars, the munitions and 
 means to support war are almost as indispensable as the stout and 
 willing arms to direct them. An irreproachable credit is also a 
 sure key to the relief of burdens. We borrow money during 
 a period of war at a higher rate of interest than we want to pay 
 in time of peace. But a sound credit would enable us to negoti¬ 
 ate new loans in exchange for the old, at a lower rate of interest. 
 England formerly paid six and eight per cent, for all the money 
 she borrowed, but now three or four per cent, will bring whatever 
 amount is desired to supply her wants. A scrupulous mainten¬ 
 ance of the public faith, making the public credit as good as the 
 purest gold, is the key to financial ease, security and stability. 
 We would put our credit on this firm foundation, and therefore 
 the Chicago platform declares in the highest spirit of statesman¬ 
 ship, for the payment of the public indebtednesss in the uttermost 
 good faith, not only according to the letter, but the spirit of the 
 laws. Nor does this involve any special hardship, even when 
 judged by the narrow standard of immediate interest. Much has 
 been said as to whether the debt should be paid in gold, or in 
 greenbacks. It seems to me, however, that this question need 
 not at any time assume a high degree of importance; or rather 
 that we may so conduct the finances as to equalize at no distant 
 day, these two classes of money, and thus to render the one 
 almost as desirable as the other for daily transactions. While we 
 insist upon the observance of the strictest good faith, we do not 
 propose to pay any considerable portion of the debt at once. In 
 the language of the Chicago platform, it is our policy to ex¬ 
 tend it over a fair period of redemption. Meanwhile it is to be 
 hoped we shall be gradually and steadily approaching to a sound 
 specie basis. Men recognize the truth that, as it was the exigency 
 of war which compelled us to depart from the accustomed chan¬ 
 nel, so with the return of peace we shall again seek that condition 
 which is indispensable to healthful prosperity. It should not be 
 so precipitate as to derange business, but by careful and prudent 
 
8 
 
 % 
 
 advances, consulting all interests and guarding all industries, and 
 thus gradually proceed toward the necessary end. And when we 
 have arrived at that point there will no longer be much question 
 as to the mode of paying the debt. Greenbacks will then be 
 equivalent to gold, and whether the creditor be paid in the one 
 or the other will be a matter of little practical consequence either 
 to him or the nation. Since the close of the war, two hundred 
 and sixty-seven millions have been paid on the principal of the 
 Public Debt. With the reduction of taxation, this rapid liqui¬ 
 dation cannot be continued, but the simple statement refutes the 
 charges of infidelity to its trust freely made against the party in 
 power. I need not say that the statements of expenditure which 
 have been made.in the high quarters of those who are advocating 
 the election of a Democratic administration are greatly overstated 
 and made to convey an erroneous and unjust impression. A care¬ 
 ful research into the report will show that, while the expenditures 
 incident to the unsettled period immediately following a great 
 war are necessarily large, the cost of the Government outside of 
 the interest on the public debt and the pensions and bounties 
 which a grateful nation has justly decreed, exceeds very little the 
 cost of the Government in the average eight years preceding 
 the war, under Democratic rule, if we consider the inflation in 
 prices and the increase of population. As we approach a more 
 settled period, this cost can and should be reduced. For the next 
 year the national appropriations are but a little over one hundred 
 millions. Taxes have been abated in the sum of more than one 
 hundred and fifty millions within the last three years ; so it is 
 apparent that the Republican party tends towards retrenchment 
 of expenses and reduction of burdens. To no one could the 
 cause of economy and rigid accountability be more safely intrusted 
 than to Gen. Grant, who, while temporarily in charge of the War 
 Department, as at the head of the army, has shown the firm pur. 
 pose to lighten the burdens of the people by systematic and 
 wise retrenchment. 
 
 RECONSTRUCTION MEASURES. 
 
 Nor is it even a question whether the reconstruction measures 
 are wholly right in every provision, but whether in their scope 
 and general character they were not necessary and wise acts, to 
 
9 
 
 the end that loyal men should be protected and loyal govern¬ 
 ments established. It is to be regretted that Congress has at any 
 time been compelled to exercise unusual powers, even in the 
 work of binding up and endeavoring to heal the bruises of our 
 assaulted Union. But so it was during the war, because the 
 exigency had not been anticipated and amply provided for in our 
 Constitution and laws, and so it has been since, because the mild 
 measures which the loyal nation proffered, were again and again 
 rejected, and thus, driven from point to point, resort was had to 
 the military acts as the least that could be done to compel peace 
 and prevent violence and anarchy. You can all bring to mind 
 the conciliatory character of the proposed amendment which was 
 tendered in good spirit as a basis of settlement, and how the rebel 
 element of the South and the Democratic party North denounced 
 it and spurned it. Moderate yet firm in our purpose, consistent 
 and uniform in the work of restoring the Union, we had urged 
 this measure for their acceptance. To our disappointment, the 
 ruling element in the South continued not only to manifest a 
 spirit of hostility, but also a purpose to oppress those who in 
 honor and justice we were bound to protect. We warned them, 
 as a result, that it would be the duty of Congress, by more strin¬ 
 gent measures, to give effect to the popular will. Thus it was 
 that the advance movement was in some measure owing to the 
 obstinacy of our opponents, and a real necessity to repress the 
 defiant spirit and cruel purpose of the Kebel portion of the South¬ 
 ern population. Has not this scheme of reconstruction made good 
 progress ? Under it a majority of the late insurgent States have 
 reorganized and resumed practical relations to the Union, and 
 why now attempt to destroy or disturb it ? Is it the easiest and 
 quickest way out of our troubles, and is it just ? It is well known 
 that the opposition of the President to the Congress has encour¬ 
 aged the Pro-Slavery class, and emboldened them in more and 
 more extreme, and more and more unreasonable, if not revolution¬ 
 ary, doctrines. Can this state of things be remedied by the elec¬ 
 tion of a President who will continue the course Mr. Johnson has 
 pursued ? It seems to me that on this ground alone it is clearly 
 our duty and our interest to elect a President who will be in 
 entire accord with the Congress. Who can doubt the hearty 
 acquiescence of the Southern people long before this, in the pro¬ 
 positions of Congress if the President had not delayed, and finally 
 2 
 
10 
 
 tried to prevent their execution or their acceptance. The next 
 House of Representatives will be like the present one, and it 
 comes to me with the force of conviction, that the difficulty which 
 now hangs over us, threatening our repose and impeding our pros¬ 
 perity, will be cleared away by the election of Gen. Grant. If we 
 should fail in this, it is probable we may have continued trouble ; 
 but if we succeed, as I firmly believe we shall, I look upon the 
 future of our country as presenting no hiatus in the course toward 
 increasing quiet, prosperity and renown. Intelligent suffrage in 
 the South will then soon be as general as it is equal with all 
 classes, and a common interest in the welfare of the Government 
 will spring up, and finally embrace those who to-day are hostile, 
 as well as those who are friendly. 
 
 GROWTH OF PUBLIC SENTIMENT, 
 
 I do not mean to express a doubt as to the result of this election. 
 Those who have taken careful note of the events of our history, 
 and our progress in passing from one to another, cannot fail to 
 have observed the steady growth of public sentiment upon all 
 great fundamental questions of government and of man. Let no 
 one think that the current will turn backward. It is true there is 
 danger at intervals, that the people, weary of the strain of active 
 political warfare, surfeited with success, and losing sight, for the 
 hour, of the value of immediate enforcement of the principles which 
 underlie the contest, may give way or seem indifferent to the result 
 of the battle. Even if this was our case, we should soon recover 
 the lost position, and our cause would only suffer by the delay in 
 its triumph. The foundations of Republican government would 
 indeed be shaken when we can no longer rely upon the patriotism 
 of the people. Let us look back for a moment and review this 
 solid advance of public sentiment in demanding in our govern¬ 
 ment a more perfect embodiment of the immortal principles enun¬ 
 ciated in our Declaration of Independence. The lessons of a 
 century are significant, and no one can read those this country has 
 given without feeling the firmest reliance in the wisdom and 
 patriotism of the great body of the people. Note the step by step, 
 often slowly, sometimes for a time to the right, sometimes to the 
 left, yet at last, always in the direction of human freedom. Thus 
 the country emerged from its condition of incompleteness, so as to 
 
11 
 
 require modifications, both numerous and radical, and finally the 
 adoption into the Constitution of the equal liberty and citizenship 
 of all those born on or duly naturalized to American soil. Nor is 
 it the less significant that every marked advance has been a recoil 
 from-some blow struck by the advocates of despotism against the 
 fundamental idea that our government is for the governed. A 
 little more than one hundred years ago the friends of self-govern¬ 
 ment met at Albany and attempted'a general American Union in 
 opposition to the exactions and aggressions of a foreign despotic 
 power.* In 1787, the work being consummated, the public domain 
 of the new Republic was consecrated to freedom. In 1820 the 
 same great process was repeated, in the enactment of the Missouri 
 Compromise, and about a third of a century after, following the 
 rude assaults upon this national principle, the American people 
 again proclaimed to the world, speaking through the triumph of 
 free labor in California and Kansas, their unalterable devotion to 
 free popular government. Should I not say that from the territorial 
 aggrandizement sought by the slave power came the free States 
 of the West, and from a Rebellion against the government, of those 
 who would have made an iniquitous system of labor the corner¬ 
 stone of the Republic, has come the emancipation of 4,000,000 
 slaves, and the enfranchisement of a race. • No better illustration 
 of the growth of public sentiment on these points can be afforded 
 than that of our more recent history. Again and again the nation 
 paused that the insurgent States might return. The emancipation 
 proclamation, the Constitutional amendment, the Civil Rights 
 bill; while the intervals between these measures reveal a high 
 sense of consideration, they also show the direction and the firm¬ 
 ness of the growth of public sentiment when stimulated by oppo¬ 
 sition to the application of those truths which underlie our 
 political fabric. Against this rising tide the Democratic party has 
 striven. Its present appeals to the worst passions and the worst 
 prejudices, will be as unavailing, I doubt not, as its previous 
 efforts at any time during the last period of the nation’s trial. 
 
 I do not share in the apprehension some profess to feel, that the 
 vital conditions of our national life give evidence of premature 
 dissolution. Neither our political nor our civil strifes partake of 
 the character of those which blacken the page of the history of 
 former Republics. Theirs was a contest for territorial aggrandize¬ 
 ment, for governmental splendor; for expansion of power; and 
 
12 
 
 personal ambition and religious fanaticism, eacli in turn offered 
 an excuse for the aggression of power upon weakness; it was a 
 tripple index, pointing to a bloody past, a fitful present, and an 
 unhallowed future. Ours has been, in the main, a steady pull 
 for the broader rights of man, for still more liberal sentiments to 
 be faithfully embodied in the Constitution and laws. With us it 
 has been a conflict between the great truths upon which our politi¬ 
 cal system rests, and a misled opposition, sometimes allied to an 
 odious and discarded despotism. The fierce struggles of our ances¬ 
 tors with the Indians for a foothold on this continent, their colo¬ 
 nial wars with the French, their great contest for independence, 
 the war of 1812, and the recent gigantic struggle with rebellion, 
 illustrate the popular and tenacious idea of liberty and union. 
 Following well the doctrine of the fathers, we have reason to 
 congratulate ourselves, my friends, upon the progress and stability 
 of the principles we have sought to maintain. 
 
 DUTY OF YOUNG MEN. 
 
 In the pending contest the national character is more deeply 
 involved than in any previous one; all' classes are implicated, and 
 I suppose in the presence of so many young men, I may be 
 pardoned for saying that no portion have a greater interest in the 
 result than they have. The men at the head of affairs must, in 
 the nature of things, soon give up the places they occupy to those 
 who now in early manhood enter upon the duties of our busy 
 national career. To them will be committed the duty to promote 
 the future common welfare, to develop with fostering care the vast 
 and diversified, but, to a great extent, the still latent resources of 
 the continent; to spread cultivation and civilization over its unoc¬ 
 cupied districts; to give higher development to every form of 
 industry, and to prevail in the benefits to be derived from the 
 commerce of the world. It is all-important to us and to them, to 
 their future prospects and our common fame, that they become 
 identified at once with the party of equal rights, feeling that 
 duties are constant, and that justice is born of heaven, and must 
 prevail. Beginning right, men grow strong as they grow old. 
 The value of government consists in the freedom it affords, and 
 the protection it gives to civil rights and civil order; but it can 
 
13 
 
 have only what the people who compose the Government give to 
 it. It requires constant vigilance, as well as constant fidelity. 
 The young /nen have more of the spirit and enterprise that liberty 
 inspires, as well as more years, and their reward for having 
 engaged in this cause of ours will be correspondingly great. 
 There is no hope, in my opinion, for a long and successful career 
 to the Democratic party. In defiance of the lessons that a genuine 
 progress has written on every leaf of our history, they have 
 become the party of reaction. Herodotus tells us of a gramini¬ 
 vorous animal that had long projecting horns, which when it 
 would graze struck into the ground and prevented it from moving 
 forward, so that it was compelled to move backward. Laying 
 aside the comparison, which, however, will not be regarded as 
 wholly inapplicable, it may be well said that the Democratic party 
 is opposed to facts, to the logic of events, and must become 
 unenviable in the distinction which history will give to it, for its 
 course during the past few eventful years ; no less for opposition 
 to just and necessary legislation for peace than to rapid triumphs 
 in war. 
 
 STATE AFFAIRS. 
 
 I hope I do not weary you, but you will expect me to say some¬ 
 thing about the affairs of our State. There is, indeed, occasion for 
 solicitude here. The debt is large; our system of internal im* 
 provements requires the most careful supervision and manage¬ 
 ment; the scheme of education, prison discipline, and our numer¬ 
 ous charitable and public institutions, should receive thoughtful 
 consideration, and such generous support as our already heavy 
 burdens will permit. Have we anything to gain in this respect 
 from a change ? I know something of the difficulties attending 
 the administration of our State affairs. I know how difficult it is 
 to satisfy all the members, even of our own party, but I have 
 learned also, that a firm endeavor to protect the public interests 
 will in the end always meet the approval of the people. My 
 observation does not lead me to believe that the interests of the 
 State and the welfare of the people would be enhanced by being 
 placed in Democratic keeping. The party which controls in the 
 city of Hew York, and which has grossly mismanaged its affairs, 
 and fearfully increased its burdens, would rule triumphant in the 
 
14 
 
 State. A review of the journals of the Legislature alone will 
 satisfy any one, it seems to me, that we take a large risk in giving 
 over to the Tammany Democracy the seal of State. I am person¬ 
 ally well acquainted with our candidate for Governor' and I may 
 assure you that but few better men can be found for the trust. 
 John A. Griswold is a man of large views, honest and fearless, 
 and under his administration your treasury and your statute-books 
 will be safe from the excess of appropriations, local schemes, and 
 special privileges, and the credit and honor of the State fairly 
 maintained. I did not intend to say much about other candidates, 
 and simply refer to those on the ticket with him, and to the emi¬ 
 nent citizen associated with Gen. Grant with unconcealed satisfac¬ 
 tion, as being worthy of our confidence and hearty support. Your 
 local candidates have been selected with care; I know Col. Cam¬ 
 eron to be a faithful and deserving public servant; and I mention 
 our candidate for Congress with the most sincere approval. I will 
 not complain if you do better for him in this District than you 
 ever did for me. I hope you will give him eight thousand majority. 
 You will thus strengthen him for your work at Washington, and 
 give him increased influence in the affairs of our District, our 
 State and our nation. 
 
 Perhaps no State in the Union has a deeper interest in the result 
 of the national canvass than ours—the canvass for President, 
 Vice-President, and members of Congress—and we will not fail 
 in united and earnest effort, which ought to give us the victory. 
 The wealth of New York is large beyond that of any other State, 
 and in an equal ratio the people are concerned in the credit of the 
 State, and the certain and honest payment of the national debt. 
 Our immense industries are involved; the daily laborer, the capi¬ 
 talist, the men in the various trades and the professions, are all 
 alike interested. Who of these men do not feel a conscious pride 
 in the credit of New York, and who would not blush with indig¬ 
 nation to tarnish the honor of their growing nation by wronging 
 its creditors? We have alike labored to keep down the debt of 
 the State and pay off the debt of the nation. In less than three 
 years since the war we have paid off one-tenth of the principal of 
 what we owed, beside the extraordinary demands upon us in the 
 way of bounties, pensions, increase of expense of our Indian ser¬ 
 vice, the high prices resulting from the depreciation of paper 
 money, and the ordinary expenses of the Government. Every 
 
15 
 
 widow who has a small sum deposited in the savings bank; every 
 laborer who works by the day, month or year; the soldier who 
 receives a small allowance from the Government in recognition of 
 his valor and his sacrifices on the battle-field, and the property 
 of all is equally concerned in the maintenance of the policy^ of 
 our party, upon the debt and currency question. The stability 
 of the latter is almost a necessity to the faithful discharge of the 
 former, and in every aspect it is an object of vital importance. It 
 is the representative of produce and of industry, and every act 
 which discredits it, or impairs the national ability to support it, is 
 a crime against the people. With prudence in all matters per¬ 
 taining to the administration of government, we need not shrug 
 our shoulders at the weight of our burdens. In this respect we 
 have nothing to gain, but much to fear, in allowing the Democratic 
 party to attain the ascendancy. Our debt is less, upon population, 
 than that of Great Britain, and hardly more than that of several 
 countries of the Old World which have far less ability for pay¬ 
 ment than our own. We have vast material wealth, resources, 
 and varied industry, that surpass any other country. Our popu¬ 
 lation is estimated at one hundred millions in 1900. So if we 
 should only support the ordinary expenses of Government and 
 pay the interest on the public debt during the intervening period, 
 the amount to each person would be less than half what it is now ; 
 yet the Republican party, acting upon the principle that each gen¬ 
 eration, as far as it is possible, should reduce the general burdens, 
 has entered upon a moderate course for the extinguishment of the 
 debt, which will result in entire payment within a third of a cen¬ 
 tury. The great future of our country is beyond the most san¬ 
 guine hopes, if we are faithful in the discharge of the trusts 
 committed to our hands. Never with any other people were 
 privileges so great or responsibilities so sacred. 
 
 i 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 It is a waste of time to recur at length to the conduct of the 4 
 
 Democratic ^jarty, running back through the last twenty years ; ^ 
 
 conduct which has brought all our troubles upon us. It is pre- 
 sumed that a collection, of events so essential to be known by 
 every American citizen*, has not been neglected by you. I can- V 
 
not, however, forbear to mention the so called compromise meas¬ 
 ures of 1850, and hbw the Democratic party told us, at the 
 Baltimore convention, in 1852, that they would thereafter resist 
 all attempts at renewing, in Congress or out of it, the agitation of 
 the slavery question, under whatever shape or color the attempt 
 be made. And 3 ^et how, in 1854, they destroyed the Missouri re¬ 
 striction in the interest of Slavery; the violence they instigated 
 and the blood they shed in Kansas for its establishment, and how 
 they attempted to enforce the Lecompton Constitution with its 
 sanction of human bondage, up in that young and liberty-devoted 
 State, It is no time for passion ; I make no attempt at exaggera¬ 
 tion, and, therefore, speak calmly of the past, and appeal to you 
 in sober seriousness of the future. In the nature of things, there 
 can be no disfranchised class in this country. Even the late 
 Rebels, as a class, are not excluded from the ballot-box. Those 
 who are disqualified by the Fourteenth Amendment will ere long 
 be restored by the generosity of Congress; but I warn you, my 
 friends, ( against placing power very soon in the hands of men who 
 have so recently assailed the Government they had sworn to sup¬ 
 port, and those, who, because they did not then denounce them as 
 rebels, now have their almost undivided support; against placing 
 power in the hands of men who undervalue the financial good 
 faith and honor of the nation,