The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1868-10-22

V
ltelligence and vOlition, and partly by
1.-THE logic of events, the Republican
party is based upon the dUctTine Of
the inherent right Of all men to life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness
! [Applause.] It is no empty pretense;
it is a living question spTinging from
vital principle. It sprang from our
history, from our philosophy, from the
I genius Of our people, as well as from
/ the struggle from which it came forth.
This, their faith, they have witnessed
on ali the battIe-Helds, It has gone
through fire, SaId been baptized in
blood. It is the faith of the Republic
can party-their faith in the liberty
of the whole common people. Now,
I I do not undertake say that the
+ Republican party has committed no
ierrors. 1t was made up Of men, and
+ that is to say that it did commit er-
irors. Political parties do not repre-
sent celestial things in this world.
/ [Laughter.] And to attempt to clear
a party from aspersion and blame, is
to misconceive ones interest as well
as the truth. All parties are but
clumsy machines, and are themselves
acted upon as well as actors; and am
far from saying that the Republican
party is a party without a blunder,
land without a mistake. No party
should lay,a claim to this But admit
that it has been both-On one side too
cautious, and on the other too rash (;
admit that the party lost a golden Op-
portunity during the first year follow
ing the war, if you please. Admit,
| if you choose, that it lacked that sub
tie art of couciliatiOn to manage men,
that is so much to be desired in par
ties. Admit that in its eagerness it
has been less tolerant of dissent o. free
speech in its own councils than WAS
to have been expected. Admit that
there have been men leading in it, or
seeking to lead, that were not at heart
in agreement with its purposes or its
principles. Admit all these things,
and then what? Is it therefore un-
worthy of the confidence of the Amer
! lean people, because it has stumbled or
\ because it has in many re-
spects had faults that may be proved
upon ft-does it follow that the
/ American people should no longer re-
pose the Government in its hands ?
They have not been errors of princi
pie. They have been faults on the
bark, and not on the heart-wOod. So
the party stands to-day, with all its
faults, on a platform built up Of the
doctrine of Impartial Justice, and Of
Equal Liberty to all, and it is an
American party. Applause What
have been its deedsS In the same
length of time it never was given to
any Party'tO perform so many illus
trious deeds-sO associated its name
with changes so profound, so wide
spread, and that are to be so illustri-
Gus a portion of history. 1t has re-
vived and reared again the original
doctrine of our fathers who were in
BabylOnish captivity, and has assert
ed the most Radical doctrine of lib
crty, and achieved an emancipation OF
bondnnen second only to the enamel
patton which Russia has given to, its
serfs. 1t has resisted the domination
of Southern men, and has carried fhe
country against them. In 1860, when
the South made war, it was the Re
publican party that raised the arms,
themeans, and carried forward that
war safely to victOry-a war in which
the whole world, the most friendly as
well as the most unfriendly, feared or
prophesied that there would be disas-
ter, that it would be turtle; but under
the direction of the Republican party
/ that vast continental war achieved
the liberty for which it was waged,
and saved the nation. The Republi-
can party has vindicated and establish
ed the doctrine of the essential unity
of this American people. 1t has re-
moved from further discussion wheth-
er the people are a great nation, or
only a temporary council of thirty
petty States. That question is settled,
and it was settled under the auspices
of the Republican party. That party
has made -itselfresponsible, .toOfOrthe
repayment, in the standard currency
of the world, of all the money that
was borrowed to feed the soldier and
aid the Government. TApplause]. 1t
has proved itself the party of patriot
ism, of unity, of liberty and of COM
mercial fidelity.
Now, shall the work which ten
years have seen thus developed be
consurnmated by the men who have
conducted it thus far, or shall'it be put
into other hands? That is the ques-
/ tiOn of to-day. Has the Republican
party been a failure? Have its efforts
beer. unsatisfactory? Are we to. re;
verse its policy, or if we pursue that
policy are we to select better leaders
and better workmen to carry it to f.
nal execution? That is the question.
! II a change is made it must be either
that the country is dissatisfied with the
policy of Iiberty-and no man will be-
lieve in that---Or that it chooses to put
the development OF. liberty into the
hands of men who will better perform
the task than the Republican. party
has. There is but one competitor for
the place of the Republican party, and
that is the Democratic party. 4 ask
you tonight, has that party earned
the right to administer the Govern
ment? Has it earned the right to
administrator the goods of the Re-
publican party? Has it been one OF
freedom2 Has it been. one that has
stood in the emergency, courageous
for right and for this land? Not as a
party. It's not to Be denied that it
was particeps crinpinis antecedent to
the war, in all those cOunsels which
! brought on the war The. Democratic
party were in sympathy with the
South and but for the assurances that
were given to them by the leaders, I
believe, and you believe that the South
never would have ventured into the
monstrous blunder of that great war.
When war came, such was the spirit
1 of the Democratic party that the truly
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