The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1868-07-22
SPEECH OF GOV. SEYMOUR.
Before the Democratic National Con-
Vent1on.
GentIemen of the Convention: :

Gentlemen OF the COnCeHtion:
L thank you for the honor you have
done me in maki.g me your presi-
ding officer. ICheers.) This COnven-
tion is made up of large number of
delegates from all parts of our broad
land. To a great degree we are
strangers to each other, and view the
subjects which agitate our country |
from different stand points. We can
not at once learn each others mode of
thought, or gasp all the facts which
bear upon the minds of others; yet |
our session must be brief, and we are !
forced to act without delay upon |
questions ofan exciting character, and |
of deep import to our country. To !
maintain order, to restrain all exhi- |
bitiOn OF passion, to drive out of our
minds all unkind suspicious, is at this
time great duty. Cheers.l 1 rely
upon your sense of this duty, and not
upon my own ability, to sustain me
in the station in which I am placed
by your kind partiality. Men never
met under greater responsibilities
than those which now weigh upon US.
lApplause.l 1t is not mere party
triumph we seek. We are trying to
save our country from the dangers
which overhang it. We wish to lift
off the perplexities and the shackles
which in the shape of bad laws and of
crushing taxation, now paralyze the
business and Labor of our land. Loud
cheers. We hope, too, that we can
give order, prosperity and happiness
to those sections of our country which
suffer so deeply to day in their homes
and in all the fields of their industry,
from the unhappy events of the last
eight years.-I trust that our action
will show that we are governed by
earnest purposes to help all classes OF
our citizens. Avoiding harsh invec-
tive against men, we should keep the
public mind fixed upon the questions
which must now be met and solved.
| Cheers Let us leave the past to the
calm judgment Of the future, and con-
front the perils Of the day. Cheers
We are forced to meet the assertions
in the resolutions put forth by the
late Republican Convention. I aver
| there is not in this body one man who
has it in his heart to excite 50 much
OF angry feeling against the Republi
can party as must be stirred up in the
minds of those who read these decla-
rations in the light OF recent events
and in view OF the condition of oul
country. In the first place they con
gratulate the perplexed man of busi
ness, the burthened taxpayer, the ia
borer, whose hours of toll are length
/ ened out by the growing cost of thu
= necessaries of life, upon the success o
that reconstruction policy which ha!
brought all these tolls upon them, by
3 the cost of its military despOtism, anC
the corruption of its bureau agencies
In one resolution, they denounce al
: forms of repudiatiOn as a nationa
crime. Then why did they put upOI
: the statute books Of the nation tn
laws which invite the citizens wht
borrow coin, to force their creditor
to take debased paper, and thus wroni
them out Of large share of thei
claims, in violation of the most sol
4 enln compact? Loud cheers. fire
pudiation is a national crime, it is
crime TO invite all the citizens OF thi
country thus to repudiate their indi
vidual promi es. lApplause.l Wa
it not crime to force the creditors c
this and other States to take u cul
rency at times worth no more tina
forty cents on the dollar, in repay
ment for the sterling coin they gav
, to build roads and canals, which yiel
such ample returns of wealth an
/ prosperity? (Applause.) Agar
y they say it is due to the Iaborers {
t, the nation that taxation should L
II equalized. Then why did they max
le taxation unequal? Beyond the II
y justice of making one class Of citizeI
pay for another their shares OF I'll
cost OF schools, of roads, and of the L
cal laws which protected their nvt
A. and property, it was an unwise an
to hursfHl thing. (Cheers.) 1t tsHnk tt
n credit Of the eountry-as unusui
} terms, always hurtful to the credit
IT tho borrower, do. They also declal
that the policy to diminish our bu
den Of debt is so to improve our cred
that capitalists will seek 10 loan
money at lower rates of interest tbs
=, we now pay and must continue to Pi
so long As rspudiation, partial, tets
i open or covert, is threatened or 81
pected. Then why have they us
full $500, ,OO0, 900 of the taxes draw
- from the people of this country to u
- hold a despotic military authorit
-; and to crush out the life of the State
: when, if this money were used to p,
=. our debts, capitalists would now sc,
- to lend US money at lower rates of
- terests? ? But for this covert repudi
e ton, our national credit would not
tainted in the markets OF the wOrl
zen (ApplapSe.)
Again, they declare that 'fof all W
were faithful in the trials Of the IL
war, there were none entitled to INC
especial honor than the brave soldit
ntS and seamen who endured the hal
ind china of camnaio-, and eruise. and il
SIIk'o Vi Cdlil pdlSu d1AA SA GAoSy eAAiA II
periled their lives In the sci vice
re- the country. The bounties and pt
nj sions provided by the laws are oh
the cations never to be forgotten. T
in widows and Orphans or the gallf
M dead are the wards of the people
PiSS sacred trust bequeathed to tho natio
,es- care" How have these sacred tru
-- been pertormedS They pay to I
MANNED man, to the widow or tho
lair phan q currency which they h4
,ht- sunk .one-quarter below it's right
ON. value by their policy of hate, OF wa
,ble and OF military despOtism +; the /
on tsn0es paid to the Wounaed soldier
,au- pinched down 2S per cont. below
of value of that coin which he had
ore. right to expect. (LOHd cheering.
tter Is there no covert population in I'll