Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1871-05-04
power, or they must hold different

ones.
Now, does the Democratic party
hold the same principles with the Re
publicans ? If they really do, then the
proper course is to disband. and, as
in the time of Monroe, there will be
an ''era of good feeling" and they
will get their full share Of offices. But,
Notwithstanding the Democratic ad
dress implies total dissolution of
princiles, yet the Democratic press.
their legislative representatives pro-
fess to have different principles. If
they have they are certainly none
other than what they have held in the
past, and they have utterly failed in.
Now we ask every candid man if
there can be any stronger evidence
of the absolute unfitness of the Demo-
cratic party for power than their
total failures on all the principles and
ideas they have asserted and profess
ed in times past. Is It not an ire
versible Judgment on their fitness for
political power? The whole history
of the country for fifteen years has
been a history of successive judg-
ments against the Democratic party
Look at it: State sovereignty On
this the war was made. Slavery, as
they said. defended by the Constitu-
ton For this the war was made
National Banks This they overthrew
to set up ruinous, dismembered and
local patches of State and corporate
banks, every step of which denoted
commercial wrecks. Tariff! They
wanted free trade and ended with q
horizontal tariff, and 1854 and 1857
followed 1886 and 1910. The Re
publicans destroyed State sovereign
ty in war; abolished slavery; struck
it out the Constitution by amend
nents; established negro suffrage;
established National Banks and Ma
tional currency, and enacted a tariff,
which now produces two hundred
million per annum. The Democratic
party undertook to set up ideas and
principles. They have been knocked
on the head with as little mercy as
butcher kills pigs. This has been
done by the American people, who
found themselves likely to be ruined
by party whose ideas were as wild
as impracticable, and as ru,nous as
those OF the red Republicans ofParis.
Now, on what one or all of its ideas
will the Democratic party take issue
with the Republicans We dare them
to make an issue of any one of the
whole series. Shall it be State sover-
eighty, slavery, amendments TO the
Constitution, negro suffrage, Nation
al Banks, tariffs, ku- KluX? Anything
you please, gentlemen, which has an
idea in it. You claim to be a party
of principles? What are they, and
where are they? Now is the time to
bring them forth-now or never
Your feeble, miserable, contemplate
Democratic address gives the whole
ground up. Do you mean to give it
up so :? Is it true you meant some
thing? Tell us what you do mean,
gentlemen. Somebody whispers in
our ear a ''new departure" Well, if
there is anything we have contempt
for it is ''new departure" 1t means
simply one of two things, either you
never had any principles, OF that you
mean to desert them now. "Reform"
Referred to the gentlemen who have
been engaged in the county of Ham
ilton reform. If there is a word
which in these days has been made
Utterly contemplate, it is "reform" :"
Now, we come to the gist of this
matter In 1865 the war ended. Six
years have passed, and-we challenge
all contradiction-those six years have
been unprecedented in prosperity.
Nothing like it was ever known. On
the 4th of March, 1869, Ulysses
Grant was inaugurated President OF
the United States. He made some
mistakes in his first appointments !.
He was inexperienced in the knowl-
edge of men, and of affairs. He had
to learn his business. He has learnt
it, and to-day there is no man whose
administration promises more of
practical good to the people of this
country. What were the problems
presented to his administration !?
First, the public debt. 1t was a til ing
of great magnitude, and of great diff
ficulty. What has happened The
public debt has been reduced two
hundred and fifty millions during the
short administration OF Grant; not
certainly by his means only, but by
the acts of'the Republicans in Con
gress. The next problem was to re-
duce the burden Of the taxes. This
was done. Congress has reduced the
internal revenue eighty millions of
dollars since Grants administration
begun. The Treasury Department
has kept firm hand on the money
market, and what is the consequence !?
The market price Of gold has fallen
from 55 to 10 per cent; and nearly
every article of consumption has fal-
len in price, This makes it rather
difficult for merchants, but the coun.
try has unquesionably gained by it;
and in the end merchants will gain
by it also.
What was the next problem Our
foreign relations, especially the ques-
ton of the Alabama claims. 1t was
an irritating and difficult subject 1t
was dangerous subject. What has
happened? The High Commission
has sat, and we have good reason to
believe it will be successful in settling
the difficulties. If so, what a tri-
umph for the administration of Grant!
And now how triumphant is the
country itself! We bad four years
of war. The timid, short sighted,
unthinking people thought the coun-
s try was going to ruin; that more
men would be killed than could be
supplied in half century; that the
negroes would be reduced to hope
less condition, and that it would take
another generation to get out of our
troubles! Look at the result. The