The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1868-07-15
anosrsolr gnt&lligelrter. 4.
Address of Hon. Horatio Seymour,
s ofoMew York.

On taking the chair as permanent Fes-
ident of the National Democratic Con-
ventlon, Gov. SEYMOUR delivered the fol-
lowing able and patriotic address. As
he was subsequently nominated as the
Democratic candidate for the Presidency,
mono Of our readers should fail to give
this speech careful lperusal:
Gentlemen of the Contention I thank
you Tor the honor you have done me in
making me your presiding officer. This
Convention is made up of a large number
of delegates from all parts of our broad
land TO great degree we are strangers
to each other, and view the subjects when
agitate our country from different STAND
points. We cannot ut once learn sach
others mode of thought, or grasp all the
facts which bear upon the minds OF others;
vet our session must be brief, and we are
forced to actwithout delay upon questions
of an exciting character, and OF deep
imnort to our country. To maintain or
der: to restrain all exhibition OF passion ;
TO drive out of our minds all unkind sus-
picions, is at this time a great duty. l
relv.uponi your sense of this duty, and
not upon my own ability to sustain me in
the station in which am placed by your
kind partially. Men. never met under
greater responsibilities than those which
now weigh upon us. 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
8 the perplexities and the shackles which
in the shape of bad laws and crushing
taxation now paralyze the business and
labor of our land. We hope, e,teo, 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.
trust actions will show that we are gov
erned by earnest purposes to help all
classes of our citizens. Avoiding harsh
invec,ive against men, we should keep
sthe nublic mind fixed upon the questions
which must now be met and solved. Let
us leave the past to the calm judgment of
the future, aud confront the perils OF the
day. S95
We are forced to meet the assertion in
che resolutions put forth by the late Re-
publican Convention. aver there is not
insthis body one man who has it in his
aheart to excite so much of angry feeling
against the Republican party, as must bc
etirred up in the minds Of those who read
these declarations in the light of recent
events in view of the condition OF
our country. In the first place, they con-
gratulate the perplexed man of business,
the burdened tax payer, the laborer,
whose hours Of toll are heightened out by
the growing casts Of the necessities OF
life. upon the success OF that reconstruc:
tion policy which has brought all these
evils.upon them by the cost Of its military
despotism;and the corruption ofits Bureau
agencies. In one resolution they denounce
ali forms of Reputation as national
crime. Then, why did they put upon the
statute books of the nation, the laws
which invite the citizens who borrow coin
to force their creditors to take debased
paper, and thus wrong him out ofa large
Share OF, his claim, in violation of the most
solemn compact. If Reputation is ma
tional crime, it is crime to invite all the
citizens of this country thus to repudiate
their individual promises. Was it not
crime to force the creditors of this and
other States to takea currency at times
worth no more than fifty cents on the
dollar. in repayment for the sterling coin
thew gave to build roads and canals, which
yield such ample returns of wealth and
prosperity? Again, they say, it is due to
the laporers of. the nation that taxation
should be sequalized, then why did they
make taxation unequal? Beyond the
injustice of making one class OF citizens
paw for another the shares OF the costs OF
schools, of roads and of the local laws
which protected their lives and property,
il was an. unwise and hurtfal thing. 1t
sunk the credit of the country, as unusu-
al terms always hurtful to the credit of
the borrowerlo do. They also declare the
best policy to diminish our burden of debt
is so TO improve our credit that capitalists
will seek TO loan Us money at lower rates
of interest than we now pay, and must
continue to pay SO long as repudiation-
partial, total, open or covert-ls threaten
cd or suspected: Then, why have they
used full S50O.00G.000 of the taxes drawn
from. the people of this country to uphold
a despotic military authority, and 10
crush out the life of the States, when if
this money had been used to pay our
debts, capitalists would now seek to lend
us money at lower rates of interest. But
for this covert reputation, our national
credit would not be tainted in the mar
Ke,s of the world. Again, they declare
OF all who were faithful in the trials OF
the late war, there were none entitled to
more especial honor than the brave SOL
diers and seamen who endured the hard
ships of campaign and cruise, and imper-
lied their lives in the service of the coun-
try. The bounties and pensions provided
by the laws are obligations never to be
farrnltnn The widows and orphans of