Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1870-09-23
SPEECH OF Mr.. coLFAx.
Canflnnea - - =.

Continued JioOt First Page.
like all the rest, magnifcently redeem
ed in this trinity of measures giving
liberty to all, Justice to all, protection to
all And what a triple victory has thus
been won for liberal and just and hui
name principles, over the spirit of op-
preston and caste. 1t is avictorY where
really no one has been injured or van
/ quished, but where the whole nation
4 will reap the benefits. It IS the estab-
/ lishment of human rights for millions,
without depriving any one of his own
1t has settled the question, not only tor
our own nation, but for all countries and
! all time. As destruction OF slavery
| shook the foundations of Human Bond
age wherever it yet fingered in the
world, so our establishment of equal
rights. by constitutional amendment.
will be an incentive and an example to
all who found States hereafter or who
seek to rengerate nations, already ex-
isting, by the true principle of Popular
Sovereignty. And as the arm of Ma
tional power once, under Democratic
rule, stretched out potentially over a
whole continent to remand flying fug
tive TO the plantation or the auction
block from which he had escaped, so
now, under Republican rule, and under
regenerated Constitution, the same
National arm protects the humblest in
all his rights, civil and political, with the
ballot, the safeguard of the weak against
the strong.
We rejoice, too, that the work of Re
construction has ended. When the last
Congress opened its session, four States
were still unrestored to their full rela-
tions with the Government. When it
closed, every State had been declared
entitled to representation in Congress
Provisional Governments had ended
and every star upon our banner SYM
bolized State.
proceed now to a brief review of at
tacks upon us by our opponents, to
which have not heretofore alluded.
The first is in regard to land grants
the policy of granting alternate sections
of public lands for building railroads, |
and thus opening oar vast interior to set
tlement, doubling the price of the sec
tons reserved by the Government |
Whether this policy is wise or unwise, It |
is of Democratic birth, and its history, /
for many years, is a Democratic history. |
1t was inaugurated by a Democratic
Congress, under the lead of Stephen a. |
Douglas, then the acknowledged leader
of the Democratic party, in the famous
grant for the Illinois Central Railroad. /
And the records of the last Democratic
Administration buchanan 81 are full of
grants for Railroads in Florida, Alabama,
Louisiana, Mississippi, Wisconsin, Mich
igan, Iowa and Minnesota while the
same records show the veto by the same
Democratic President, and the killing,
for the time, of the Homestead bill,
when passed by the votes of Republi-
cans and Western Democrats, and the
strange denunciation of his Democratic
Secretary Of the Interior against it, as
Calculated to give an undue stimulus to
"
Strange as it may seem to those who
hear Democratic speeches of this year,
land grants for railroads were not re-
garded as heterodox by them up to July !
4, 1868. Their very last Democratic
National Platform, then made, spoke
unanimously upon this subject as fol-
ows;
when grants of public lands may be al
owed necessary for the encouragement OF
public improvements, the pro-
,eeds OF the sale. Of such lands, and notthe
ands themselves, should be 50 applied"
4 MS q 1QditKlCdElOl QQG5 not -dEEGCE the /.
principle Of aid by grants in encourage
nent Of building railroads, and instead
If any words of condemnation. such !.
was recognized by the
unanimous voice of the Democracy Of .
he United States when last assembled in :
Convention, to be necessary"
Until they amend that platform, / sub !
nit that they are bound by it.
For Railroad and Internal Improve :
nents, before the Republican party OBJ :
aimed power, over fifty millions Of acres
lad been granted under Democratic Ad-
illustrations, without any homestead
ights whatever on the alternate sections,
1hich were reserved by the Government.
Jor was this all Vast grants of lands.
ssumed to be swamp lands, though a
reat proportion were not, had been !,
iven under Democratic Administra- :
ons, not to actual settlers of course, :
ut to the State % millions of acres to
louisiana, 5 millions to Arkansas, ~ i,
billions to Michigan, 2} millions to Mis- Il
lssippi, millions to Missouri, ? NIL {
ons to limos, II millions to Indiana, n
million each to Florida and Alabama +
/ millions to Wisconsin, &c. HOW i
lese Democratic grants were used, let !
leir history in Indiana answer WIN ), Z
le incoming of Republican Admins = =
alton the Homestead principle at last :
rumphed, and was applied to our entire y