Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1871-07-27
SPEECH OF
SPEECH OF
GENERAL GARFIELD
At the Ratification Meeting, In Co
Iumbus, Wednesday Night,
June 21, 1S71s


not room around this State House, and
there is hardly room in this State for
the Republican party, and the work it
has to do this fall. There are so many
of you, fear you will overdo it, and
any that expects to speak to you to-
night must be able to speak to the
State. / have never seen time in the
recent history of the Republican party
so full of hope, so full of reason for
congratulatiOn, as this night. What a
spectacle do you here present; look
above you, look around you, and think
on the stability and glory of our insti-
tutions, resembling the very glory and
stability in the heavens above us. To
night the whole universe sweeps on in
it's calm peace, every star keeping its
appointed round, every light cleaning
in the eternal armament, and yet all
regulated and governed by law, and
all sphered and perfect in its ordtr =
So it is with this glorious republic of
ours. These stars, these States, this
glorious constellation of States, that
our fathers hurled ont into the worlds
history to shine forever and evermore,
each one perfect sphere. all bound
together as one grand, universal, all
beautiful and glorious form of govern
ment.
And we here, in the great State of
Ohio, one of the nOblest, brightest and
highest luminaries of the system, here
are met by our representative people,
o-mght, to rejoice together that we
are great, and glorious, and free peo-
pie, loving our State, and loving the
Union above all else. And who has
brought us this glory, who has pre-
served this wonderful balance of our
system, who has held together all the
planetary worlds that go to make up
our glorious system It is that party
that has given its firstlove to the Union,
and its second love to the State, and
which has said that the Union shall he
| perpetual, and the State shall be free
There is a better thought than that in
| it, my friends We are able now, al
most for the first time in the history
| of mankind, to say that in all this in
Vulnerable company that stand around
these pillars, tonight, there are no
classes We are all one class, OF class
is not the word There is not under
the shining heavens, another country
| where such an audience as this can be
assembled where you can say there is
only one class. There is no horizon
tai stratifcation of society here, like
the rocks of the earth, that hold one
class down below. forevermore, and let
another come up to the surface to stay
there forever. Our stratifcation OF
society is not like that, but we. are
rather like the great ocean, where ev-
cry individual drop is free to move
and where from the sternest depths OF
the mighty deep any drop may come
up to glitter on the highest wave thai
rolls. TCries of good, sgoOd,
and cheers Not one man so humble
not one man 80 poor, not one little
boy born to such poverty but tha
with true heart, and a clear brain, anC
stout arm, he may rise to the very
top; and where else on the whole fact
of the habitable globe can you fnC
another spot, save in our own favored
land, where that thing can be said tC
be true? Why. sir, few months age
distinguished Englishman said II
me, that after twenty five years OF oh
servation, he was compelled to sa,
that he had never known, in all Eng
: land, mere farm laborer to rise -abov,
= his class. What a tremendous state
ment that was to make! He had new
er known one; and to such q m; n
when he saw the instance of Abraham
: Line oln. coming up out of the yer.
depths, and rising to be the polar sta
of the peoples party, the center of th
3 worlds desire, he looked upon it wit
Interest amazement. And yet. fellow
citizens, such product is possible il
this country of ours. And to WHOM
= do we owe that country this night; =
to whom do we owe that magnif
cent system. if it be not to the pal
ty who have this day put in nomina
ton one of their noble and truste
sons? If there be a man in this vas
, audience to- night that can tell me on
act that the great Democratic party c
this country has done in the last 1
wears, to maintain, and hold in it
place and glorify this Republic ofour'
't that man knows a chapter of our histC
ry that have never read. Laughte
and applause.
But, fellow citizens, l can't look uI
on this scene without feeling the prid
u and qualification at the great wOr
that has been accomplished that SUI
passes all my powers to describe. A
low me to digress, for q moment, o
what may not be the politics, but whic
is nevertheless part of our country
pride. / recollect, in 1867, when
stood in the city of Paris and saw til
great work of that one man. powt
that tore down the dirty, tumbledow
houses of Paris, and built up beautifi
avenues and magnificent palaces; th
after all there was something splend
in the power that could thus recrea
city, and perhaps there was a goo
ng side to the thing called despotism.-
nd But when landed in New York, al
On on saw that magnificent marble palac
wherein the merchant prince holds b
81. court, and when saw, on one side
it, little dingy house, butting rig
into the side of the marble palace, al
learned that little plucky widow W
man owned that house, and that the
was not money enough in New Yo
to buy it of her, and not power enou
in the Republic to take it away fro
her. l praised God for the pluck
the little widow and the beauty of o
city, and said to the world let her
tie brick tenement stand for evermo
unless she wills to tear it down A
] 9 we have seen, in the terrible bloc
I ! days of Paris, what became of the oil