The Portland daily press., 1871-08-09

Offices, and Committee report from Conoraos
who wants all this? The Post Office no moro
requires to be self supporting than the Treas.
ury. Doubtless there are abuses. Correct
.uem. But don't tax knowledge. In fact, /
oeiieye that free mails throughout the length
n,u breadth of the land, free for letters, news
papers, pat;n, magazines and books, would be the
nations boOn"
nv. WOMAN SUFFRAGE.
,ba ,so, ou nave been good deal mixed up with
don,t cnnSi5N 5Sunrage question, Senator. You
publican platform p, pi'"N i' 'H0 A'e
no means. Woman's sufYraoe tbus far
,Ga mas peen the oete nOir of political Iaadars -
ihey oeileVe IN lat least manv of tho,, 40
put are afraid OF it. They remind o,aa u -,
kuius Cheate's remark when Chief Jns,ica
Shaw-"that homely cuss," as old No@arJ
used 10 can hlm-ordered him in Court to
take hls seat. II feel toward our Chief Jns.
tice, said ChOate, "as the Indian does tovUard
his idol, know he is ugly, and believe he
is great" So our foremost party men feel
toward woman's suffrage; it has an ugly look.
but the stuff is there. just now ii is under a
cloud, but l am not the one to falter because
indiscretions of friends have made the cause
unpopular. have advocated it from the be-
ginning. L advocate it still. 1t has in itself
the elements of success. The merits OF the
question lie in the duties and obligations of all
American citizens, who, under eur form of
amended law possess equal rights and equal
PrNneSes,a e., all made equal before the
Jaw. NOW the unavoidable logic of that
proposition leans to suffrage for women. but
its opponents will not follow it to its ineyita-
ble conclusion. They stop short in fear of
what Is before them and reason as inconse-
guehtialy as Mrs. Partington did upon the
"a chapter OF Genesis. These eight, read
Ike, 'did Micah bear-p Stop there nv
SOM inteIposed the good woman. 'Tbat;s
enough. Never do you complain again of
milking the cow, when you remember that in
the time OF the patrlarchs it took eight to
milk bear"
PUBLIC LANDS.
"And now OF the Public Lands, Mr.. Pome.
roy, what have been your relations TO the svs
tenn, once so heartily abused, now so poDu-
lar?" FOfN
l answer by saying, in the words of Mr..
benton, Solitary and alone put this ball in
motion. vi the system now adopted of ad-
ministering upon the public lands, NAV saw.
without vanity and in perfect truth, quorum
pdrs magma tui. Serving in the Senate for
ten years as member of the Committee of
Public Lands-for considerable part of the
game time its chairman-making the subject,
whether in committee or Senate, a speciality,
and informing myself thoroughly upon all its
details, nave never changed from my first
point of departure. ''The Public Lands for
the Poor has always been my motto. "The
Homestead Act of 1862" putting all the pub
lie domain before the actual settler for his
choice of 160 acres, the suspension of land
sales by the Government, the abandonment
of the idea OF raising revenue from these
sales, the virtual notification of the old land
scrip system, the grants Of public lands to
railroads, and all the legislation that has fol-
lowed, / claim as my doing. There is not
law the Homestead Question which have
not reported, and whose passage L have not
aided IN securing, and what has been the re-
suit? Ten years have made frui full garden
out of bowling wilderness, have stimulated
emigration beyond all precedent, have built
cities and created States, have linked together
in an indissoluble bond OF iron the Atlantic
and Pacific Oceans, have called out OF chaos
roads and bridges, farms and dwellings, barns
and orchards, school -honses and churches;
have given homesteads to hundreds of thou
sands OF the oppressed of other lands, and
have placed the Western States on a track
which, by the blessing of heaven, must lead
to unexampled prosperity | stand by this
whole land policy for settlers and for railroads.
Hand in hand they make the wilderness and
solitary places glad. Wait for the coming
years and then wiite my epitaph.