Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-09-20
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER IA, 1867.

SATURDAY, SEPFENBER14, 1867,
MY FRIENDS: / once had the pleasure OF
addressing an audience of the people OF
Marietta and Washington county from this
same stand. 1t was time of great politi-
cal excitement; nay, of great individual
and public passion. 1t was time when
scarcely any speaker was perfectly secure
of respectful attention from his political
opponents. Yet must say, as / have Of
ten said before. that never in my life was
listened to with more respectful attention
never did attend a meeting where there
was more order and decorCm than on the
occasion to which l refer, when spoke in
this same city in the memorable campaign
OF 1863. L come before you once more t.
speak, at a time when, fortunately for the
country, that reign of passion and terror
has passed by, when neighbor looks upon
neighbor no longer with the angry pas
sions and prejudices that too often then
marked their intercourse; when passion
and prejudice have so far subsidized that
there is no small reason to believe that we
are now at last on the eve of the day when
truth and reason shall once more prevail.
(Applause.)
1 congratulate you, my friends, that we
nave COtuC UdCh UO bidG TtdIlZdJlOu OI Uno
duties of American citizens; that we have
come back to the time of sober common
sense, when neighbor can reason with
neighbor without flying into passion ;
when the people can peaceably assemble
without being disturbed, and when a
speaker, who behaves himself as a speaker
should, and speaks in the language and with
the bearing of gentleman, is sure of re-
ceiving an attentive and respectful hearing
/ en- ,ba,.a
have found the political meetings that |
have addressed-and they have been very
numerous indeed-I have found them as
orderly as the meetings of congregation
in the church, and there is nothing that
has given me more encouragement to hope
that this country has the wisdom, the sense
aud the purpose to do right, and free itself
fro II the terrible dangers that tnow beset it,
than this very same cool, calm and collect
ed demeanor OF the people, everywhere
that L have been.
GENERAL HAYES SPEECH.
Now, my friends, without further pre-
face, purpose to speak to you, in the first
place to- day. in reference to a speech made
by General Hayes. the Radical candidate
tor Governor. at Sidney, in this State, on
the fourth day of this month, and which !
saw last night for the first time. I shall
refer to that speech simply because he, in
it, has referred to me, and because there
are some things in it that seem to me quite
significant. 1 dislike to occupy the atten-
ton of my audience with my own personal
affairs, but when any thing that 1 have
said, or any thing have done, is brought
to my attention in respectful and decent
language, as is the case with the speech of
General Hayes, l am perfectly willing to
notice 1t, in the same decent, respectful
language. However, it is not so much in
regard TO what concerns me personally in
that speech, as it is in regard to what con-
Germs our common countryside Generals
idea OF the campaign-that i desire to
speak on that subject. The General sets
out by saying that the Democratic speakers
this year, ignoring the past, opened the
campaign by starting a number of issues
which he claims are either unimportant
matters, or. are matters which are, in no
sense, party questions. use his very Ian
guage when read to you as follows:
"They told the people that the old issues
were settled, and that in this canvass in
particular there would be no propriety in
discussing the record made by men during
the war; that the war was over; that by
cones ought to be permitted to be by-gones,
and they started considerable number OF
subjects for discussion which l claim are
either unimpOrtant matters, or are matters
which are in no sense party questions" .
1 think he illustrates, by giving two out
OF the many of these questions, which he
says the Democratic speakers have started,
and these two are extraordinary charters
and grants conferred by Congress upon
three private corporations-the Pacific
Railroad mpanies-alluded to by Judge
Ranney, in his Mansfield speech, and my
ailuslon to the expenses of the War De-
partment, in a speech at Waverly, at the
opening of the campaign. He gives these
as illustrations, and says that these, as well
as others, are unimportant matters, or are
matters which are in no sense party ques-
tions.
DEBT AND TAXES.
Now, my friends, among the things to
which he alludes, and which he certainly
means to include in this statement of mat
tiers that are either unimportant, or, in no
sense. party questions, is that mighty uues-
tion of the public debt and the public tax
alton, which has been discussed by every
Democratic speaker, who has addressed the
people this year. l think that he intended
also TO include among those questions,
which are either unimportant, or are, in no
sense, party questions, this question of ne
gro suffrage. l may be mistaken about
that, however, but will tell you presently
the reasons why l think so. Now, 1 en-
tirely differ with my friend Hayes in res
PCS0 W OhCsO LAdtbClS, dIc IuuS us
cussed by Democratic speakers. say they
are neither unimportant, nor are they out
side of the proper issues between the par
ties this year.. But suppose they were not
party issues, l appeal to you, L appeal to
him, if he could render any better service
to the people and to his State, than to
discuss these great questions of the public
debt and the public taxation, and the i'm
portance of relieving ourselves from the
and rpNnnin Or tho hurdanc Of hn 9TH
1 appeal to you, if he could do any better
service to his fellOw-countrymen than to
discuss the questions of how this Govern
ment is conducted, or whether there ought
not to be change in order to secure the
welfare and the liberties of the people
Why, he never made a greater mistake i'm
his life, than when he said these are not
important questions, You owe three
thousand millions of dOllars-your General
Government alone owes that. No other
people on the face of Gods globe, OF equal
numbers, owes that much. Your General
Governmentspendsf five hundred and twen-
ty millions OF dollars every year without
counting the expenses of your State, coun-
ties, cities, townships or villages. Your
General Government, in one single year,
expended more than would support this
Government for twenty-five years at the
old Democratic rate of expenditure under
Andrew Jackson. Applause.l You are
taxed by your General Government more
than two hu 1dred millions beyond the tax
alton OF the British people, although Great
Britain has thlrty-six millions of people
within the British Isles and two hundred
millions more in India and her colonies
while we have but thirty-one millions ol
people in the United States-two hundred
and five millions less than she. She has
thirty-six thousand millions of property
in the British Isles alone and we have onIy
two-fifths of that-fourteen thousand mil.
two hundred millions more each year thar
the British people. While the tax.s oi
Great Britain are ninety-three cents i'm the
hundred dollars, the taxes of the General
Government alone in the United States
are 1888 on the hnndrod Iii