The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1859-09-01
SPEECH OF HON. THOS. CORWIN
At IrOntOn, Ohio.
Ny FELLOW CITIZENS

1t it were part of my design in visiting th
portion of the State to exhibit myself ore
tor, should feel my venerable friend woui
feel for me, after what you have heard. / hav
no ambition in addressing my felio~-citizens a
all events, in popular assemblies TO discharge an
other duty to myself or them, than that if it ma
be possible. of communicating some information
which shall be useful to them in the discharge o
their duties voters.
Ny fellow citizens you who entrusted will
the exercise OF that great Office which you hav
80 shamefully and so strangely neglected in al
your life-time-you who come here to understand
it may be- your duties from men that come from
distance of two or three hundred miles do well
but you who come, some of you, to listen to smar
speeches or fine oratons, it you come for any pur
pose of that kind, aliow to say to you n cam
dor interested in the manner in which thi:
duty is to be discharged that you had have better
siaid at home If you have an honorable calling
in the world, honest occupation in life you
could have endeavoTed to attend to it to-day in
stead of coming to hear me.
You have heIrd in the glowing language oil
my friend, in the ardor and sincerity of his own
spirit, that big roll of offences-God knows il
was melancholy catalogue of crime which he
has exhibited against the people of the State oil
Ohio, Qaughterl and the United States, for when.
ever any public man in speaking of the affairs oil
your republic, shall be able in truth and candor
TO pronounce the officers of the Government un-
worthy the trust reposed in them; to have viola
ted their pledges, if it be 50, the duties of the
various posts to which they have been assigned (;
if ever any man, at home abroad 10 tne old
world can say that of your public men, with truth,
then he has pronounced a condemnation upon
the whole system of the American RepaSlic, for
he has said that men entrusted with the duty of
appointing officers do not know how to go about
the dischorge of their duty, or 10 not care in
what manner they do discharge it. If there be
any man whose heart is panied when he hears
these aoi n Sh m nd ono INV
friend says : if there be any man who feels this,
l bold it is impossible. in the nature of things,
that he will not doubt the propriety OF giving
universal suffrage to any people.
{ Now some of my Democratic brethen will go
away and say that am Federalist on account
of that l have said to-day, but | have felt it my
duty to say this much everywhere. ! have no
doubt of the intelligence of the people | have
no doubt of the general integrity and Of the hon
esty, perhaps, of the hearts of the mass of all the
parties that ever existed in this Republic, but
, assert that have doubts whether the people of
this country worthy Of being entrusted with
the power of electing their officers, they do
now, in this country. Why do say this Be
cause if you will believe what is said by either of
the prevailing parties, for the past thirty years
at any time, the public men that you have had in
office have been unworthy of the places which
they filed Whose fault is it that yout State of
o 10 is inflicted with heavy debt of $3.50 600
money wrung from the pockets of the people, by
ulttct laXatlOn; IL Is gone anu you KNOW not
where it is 1t your fault You elected the
men to office.
Let me suppose that some monarch by the form
i of government under which We live, at w ashing
ton City, Invested with the power of appoint
ing and elevating the q MS of STATES to Office TO
do he pleased with the government of tn e
States and that monarch appointed servants as
unfaithful 10 their duties as yours have been
W hat would you do with him My life upon it
if there drop of the blood that coursed
6 s. IL.
hearts, there would be found some patriotic man
to drive the dagger to the heart OF that deSpot.-
What then is to be done with you, who vote and
| elect all these men
| 1 believe it is now generally conceded every
| where, that the present Chief Magistrate has la
mentally disappointed even the men that elected
him He has not disappinted those opposed to
| him. FOR they predicted that everything would go
wrong under his administration. There is scarce
ly man to be found over the land, who is an
aspirant for Office, that dare avow himself friend
of the President. He cant get any votes from
his own party. How cane you to elect snch a
man as that Had you no. sense ard sagacity
enough to know a man whose life had been before
you on your public records for thirty or forty
years; Were you SO ineffably stupid that you
did not investigate that mans life, to know him
before you appointed him to that high Office p
You could have done il, bat yoa did not do it
The great off, e of elec,irg President and Cover
eruor and legislatures, State and Federal, the
great Office which you hold you sadly neglect l
have said already, and will venture to affirm and
will appeal to your own experience whether
the Office Of President has not beea discharged
with less elity than any public officer has ever
exhibited after you elected him The reason of
il was not that you not intelligent, the
son not that you were bad men, bat because
every man had the same interest aud power that
! you had and that you haze said, Let somebody
else do it, You say. 1 will not interest myself in
| this, or will be called politician, the brethren
/ of my church will not like it, why should l dis
| turb myself about this thing. | have my own af,
fairs to attend to, and | will attend TO them, and
us for this business Of regulating the affairs of
the republic, | will leave that to those fellows
| that want Office. That is how you think about
I it, that is how you have acted with it. Ii you had
| not acted in that wa9 | tell you that none OF
these calamites which you have now to deplore
| would have occurred noCe of these great instan-
ces of laundering would have happened. What
is the reason You have not done this ? | say
yoa will not attend to that business; f you did,
if you had done SO, then thiak it must follow
as legitimate conclusion, that you don't know
how That is so much for the consideration of my
brethren in this private little classmeeting of our;
[laughte where we are considering the state o.
religion in the American Church and lighting ul
candle and putting it into every mans hand that
be may search his own bosom.
WORD TO THE DECENT MEN.
/ Let those gentlemen who feel thenSelveS quite
too respectable and decent 10 mingle in elec
tious.remeulber that God Almighty will hold then
responsible for the manner in which they dis
charge their duty voters That right anC
privilege is not given TO them for their benefit oil
to be used q. their pleasure bat for my benefit
for ycur benefit. aud for the beneit OF the thirt,
millions of people in the United States If ont
sees unworthy man go to the polls and taks
possession of the government. and he will no
prevent it If there be such thing as future re
sponsieities-as all beiieFe-that man vii
have something TO answer for upon that hnal da,
when all OF gs must account for cur acts.
Do you suppose it is well pleasing to God Al
mighty Do you suppose that the Old men WIS
published that Declaration OF Independence
which gave birth to your national existence, 70
the manienaac of which they appealed to III
God Of nations, approve of this neglect The
fe,, their own weakness, they. reasoning upon th
commonly accepted principles of human reason.
felt that they would perish in the ccnaics 10 which