Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-08-17


of the Republican Party, etc.
SARATOGA, Aug. 16.-Speaker Blaine was
serenaded at the Grand Union hotel this even
ing, 10000 people being present. Enthusiastic
applause greeted Mr.. Blaine, who was intro
duced by William A. Sackett, of Saratoga, and
spoke as follows:
Gentlemen For so much of this ovation as
may be personal to myself, ! tender you my
most grateful thanks. | came hither, as you all
did to enjoy rest recreation and invigoraton
in this most delightful resort, and l am very sure
that the quiet of my stay is not broken by this
vast concourse of people for the mere purpose
of paying personal compliment to so humble
an individual as myself Holding as do, at
present, a position of responsibility in
connection with our national government,
l am forced to infer that the mere fact of your
assembling is an invitation for me 10 speak to
you, however briefly, upon the political ques-
tons and issues of the hour; and yet, at the
very outset, gentlemen, feel compelled to say
that there never seemed to me to be a time in
our history when there is less need of speech, or
when the facts of public record, patent to every
one, carried with them so fully their own argu-
ment and enforced so clearly their own conclu-
Sions.
The two great parties, between whom the
American people divide their sympathy and
their support, must be judged, not by their pro-
fessionS, but by their acts when each is in au-
thority. The republicans are in full power at
Washington; the democrats bear undiSputed
sway in New York. Need | draw the picture
which this brace of facts suggests to every ill.,
tellieent mind2 In Washington, every dollar
that can be saved above current expenses is
faithfully applied to the reduction of the ma
tiona debt. In New York every dollar that can
be raised orwrung from the groaning tax payers
above current expenses is faithfully applied to
the benefit of private ring of political speeu-
latOrs. In Washington, we have witnessed,
with amazement and admiration, the payment
of our national debt at the rare OF one hundred
millions per annum. In New York, we have
seen, with CONSERVATION and alarm, an increase
of municipal debt at such rate as would in
volve at no long period in bankruptcy and ruin
even that gigantic metropolis with its immense
resources and fabulous wealth.
1t seems but yesterday that Gen. Grant was
inaugurated, and yet, in the brief period that
has since elapsed, two hundred and fifty mil
lions of our debt have been paid, sum equal to
more than one-eighth our entire bonded debt as
it exists this hour; and this payment, be it re-
membered, has been made while the taxes were
repealed that were yielding eighty millions per
annum when Gen. Grant came into power
Look at New York city during the same period ;
its bonded debt has increased to such man.
moth extent that the authorities dare not con-
fess the actual amount of tax. LevieS are all
the while heaped up beyond the imagination of
honest men, and a scale OF corrupt expenditures
is maintained that challenges the credulity even
of those who are best acquainted with the
audacity of Tammany hall.
do not DESIRE gentlemen, to be understood
as making a random and reckless charge, incul-
pating every democrat in the land, and holding
him responsible for the cOrruptons in New York.
have too much respect for individual members
I I A.,
too many friends within the ranks of that party
to permit me to make so UNJUST an accusation.
But this do say, and address it especially to
honest democrats, that the source of power and
the controlling guidance of that party are in
just such hands as have been guilty OF the gross
frauds recently exposed in New York Without
the aid and leadership of Tammany it would
be impossible for the democrats to carry the state
of New York, and without the state of New
York their chance in the presidential contest Of
1872 not worth reckoning; and they well know
it.
| 90 further gentlemen, and aver that the
power of Tammany with its money in the north,
and power of terrorism in the south, are the
weapons relied upon by the democratic leaders
to carry the national contest next year, and if it
were not for this, we should have to-day absolute
peace throughout the length and breadth Of the
land. Why, | ask, is there not as much supre-
macy-of law, as much civil order, as thorough
day as is in the north? Why is there more dis
turbance between the Potomac and the Rio
Grande than is between the Potomac and the
St. Lawrence2 | answer, simply because it is
not the interest of the democratic party to have
it so. answer, simply because it is the interest
of the democratic party that such condition of
affairs shall be maintained in the south as shall
prevent fair, full unrestrained vote of the
whole people, and do not charge this RESPONSE
bilty upon the democratic party in the southern
states. They are the immediate actors, but the
responsible indorsers are in the north.
Ii the northern democratic party to-day sim
cerely, honestly and earnestly willed, il would
be the end at once Of kukluX outrages in every
southern state. Nay, gentlemen, as in the olden
time, ten righteous men might have turned the
wrath of God from the doomed city of the plain,
so this day and this hour believe could name
ten leading aspirantS for the presidential nOml-
nation of the democracy whose united and
righteous appeals for peace in the south would
produce peace in the SOUTH And this brings
to test the sincerity ofthe new departure. And
what is the new departure? Why, certain con-
stitutiOnal amendments being adiudged neces-
sary to secure the full fruits of our victory over
the rebellion, and these amendments having
been regularly adopted by the requisite two
thirds in both branches of congress and the rati-
fcation of three-fourths of the states, the democ-
racy refused to abide by them. In several in
stances, every democratic member of congress
voted against resolutions in the house declaring
these amendments to be of binding force, the
last vote of this kind being given SO lately, /
think, as April of the present year.
But the late Mr. Vallandigham and few
others, discovering that this attitude of the
democracy was incipient rebellion, called halt,
and the party in the north generally obeyed,
resolving that, upon the whole, they would
agree to submit to the constitution of the
United States and this law abiding spirit being
so unusual with that party, and the sensation
of constitutional obedience so novel with them,
that, with a keenness of wit and reactive sar
casm apparently not appreciated by themselves,
they, with one consent, called it new depart
ure" But we must be pardoned for a little in
credulity as to the full sincerity of the new de-
parture, until we see it bear fruit. When every
man in the United States enjoys his full right
to property, his full protection, and his undis-
turbed, unmenaced right of suffrage, and all
this by the cooperation of the democracy, we
will begin to have some faith in the purity and
sincerity of the sudden conversion of that
party. Until then, we will pray and hope for
the best and yet, all the while, be tortured with
distrust.
In illustration of my own feelings, you will
pardon me if | narrate homespun anecdote,
which came to my lips when the Maine democ-
racy made their new departure. A pious old
deacon of the Free VIII Baptist church had
scapegTace of a son who gave him vast deal of
trouble, and who, after years of misconduct
and bad morals, ran off and was unheard of for
several years. Finally, when the old gentleman
was well advanced in life, and his property had
to be disposed of, his son turned up, protesting
to be a thoroughly reformed man. and an eX-
emplary member of the church. The old man,
was Of course, delighted and eager to believe
in his sons sincerity, but, withal shade dis
trustful. In order to assure himself, he sub
jected his son to a personal examination, to as
certain evidences of his conversion, as the theo-
logians term it. When the examination was
concluded, the old man said: Joshua, you
answer well; your evidences seem good and
sincerely trust you have met with a change of
heart; but before God, | still have narrowing
doubts"
But the list of democratic offenses is not ex-
hausted. Responsible for continued disorder in
the south, their recent conduct in the city of
New York threatens that most dangerous of all
political excitements, war of clans and creeds
This government is based ON the absolute toler-
alton of all forms of religious beliefs, Protes-
tant and Catholic, Jew and gentle, and whoever
aims to strike blow at the rights of one i'm
perils thereby the rights of all. The same ar
ticle in the federal constitution which guarantees
freedom of religious belief guarantees
the right of the people peacefully to assemble;
and when the democratic government of the