The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1868-09-05
The Grand Logan Fizzle.

| some TWO weeks ago 1t was announced that
on Wednesday of the present week the ''trooly
loir' of Ottawa were to be addressed by the
celebrated Alta Vela impeacher, John a. Le-
gan, called "Dirty Work" for short and from
that day forth the faithful had been drum
ming through the county to get crowd out
| to hear him. No day ever dawned on Ottawa
more lovely than Wednesday morning. and
the RAIDS were jubilant in anticipation of a mon
ster demonstration. But O'Clock. 10 and 70
came, yet with them no people. Except the
NOISE OF drum and fife, and the parade back
and forth about the court house of few doz-
en- OF black and tanners in their sheepskin
aprons, the city persisted in bearing its ordi-
nary every day appearance. Finally about
noon, few stray squads Of black and tanners
from the country came struggling in, and
when, at train time, the grand procession was
organized to proceed to the depot to meet
Gen. Logan and escort him to the hotel, Just
81 tanners from Ottawa and 142, officers, mu-
sic and all, from the country, formed into line
and marched to the depot There, however,
a disappointment awaited them, for it was as
certained that Gen Logan had come to town
in private carriage, and had already been
for an hour or two at the Clifton.
AT about two o'clock the meeting was Or
gained in front of the court house, the elm
mense concourse numbering from 1000 to
to 1900! J! and at no time reaching 1000 The
great impeacher took the stand Immediately,
His speech, which was nearly three hours IN
length, was disappointing one. Logan's
forte is blackguardism, while, with exception
OF little filth he attempted to cast at Gov
Seymour, he made an effort to be decent. and
deal in argument, facts and figures, the result
OF course being a failure. His defence of the
reconstruction policy of congress was simnlv
ludicrous. 1t was the old song, that loval
states could only be governed by LOYAL men.
and nobody at the south but the Garnet bao.
gers and negroes were loyal But this was
nothing to the inextrcabe muddle into which
he got himselfwhen he undertook to talk f.
nance. Logan quoted figures. The national
debt, in August 1865, he said was 80. u, :. GS9.-
81 ,43, while on the 1st oflast August il was
but 1888, 5oS, 146-$124 ,0OO,0 900 less. show.
ing that the republicans had reduced the ma.
tional debt since 1865 at the rate ofSlOO, OOO-
600 year. Logan overlooked the fact that
these figures showed a reduction ofbut about
$40,OOO,OO year that this reduction took
place during 1866 and 1867: that if was
brought about by the sale of government prom.
erty; and that since these sales have ceased.
with revenue of over 100000 900, the debt
has been increasing, and for the last five
months has been increasing at the rate of So
600, 900 Il month
He YVES equally unfortunate in his attack on
the democratic plan of paying the national
debt in greenbacks, saying that. to do 50, the
democrats proposed Immediately to flood the
country with $500, 100000 greenbac:s. thus
fatty contradictng John VI. Palmer. who. in
a recent speech said, he had no idea the dem
ocrats meant to issue dollar of new green
backs to pay the $50 bonds. John was in no
hurry to pay the debt, and went into a most
amusing CalculdtOn 10 snow that 1t would be
better for the people to pay some SIS 900. 600
600 strung over space of 40 years. than, on
the democratic plan, to pay about 81 $40. OoO.-
600 in the next fifteen years.
But the funniest part of Johns speech was
that in which he undertook to demonstrate
that only rich people now paid taxes, and that
the poor paid no taxes at all. To the
question OF an Irishman at this point
"And who the divil pays the poll tax ~
John deigned no reply. Neither did John
delgn to tell who paid the tax on matches. on
tobacco, on tea, coffee, sugars, common shirt
ing and sheeting, and about every other art-
Gle that the poor man wears, eats or handles.
John closed about o'clock, when Burt
Cook took the stand his object being appar- |
emily to ease up the rush towards the streets
that now took place. 1t took about fifteen
minutes before the crowd was entirely scat |
tered, upon which Cook, of course, dried up. |
In the evening that eminent BLACKBOARD
John Pope IIodnott made one of his ridic-
uluous talks, but as he said nothing. nothing |
can be said of his speech.
The torch light procession of the tanners
cityand country 29O strong, looked very pretty, |
and helped to give decent finale to what |
throughout had been a very palpable fizzle.