The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-09-29
THE AUTUMN CANVASS.
President Grants Administrator
SPEECH OF SECRETARY robson AT
PHILADELPHIA.

AT the Republican mass meeting in Ag-
ricultural Hall, Philadelphia, on Monday
evening, Secretary Robson delivered an
eloquent speech advocatory of Republican
principals, and endorsing the policy of Pre-
sidcnt Grant. The audience was large,
and the speaker was listened to with rapt
attention for about two hours, during
which time he was frequently interrupted by
loud applause from as intelligent an audience
as ever gathered in the hall. We make
room for an extract from the Secretary's
address:
| stand before you tonight, my friends,
as the advocate, and, in some sense, as the
representative of the great Republican par
ty Of the country, and have declared these
broad principles, which appeal not only to
the reason, but to the consciousness of man,
that you may try the great party for which
speak by these high standards, and reject
or sustain it as you find it, or its adversa-
ries, true in spirit and right in practice. |
declare and will maintain, and iappeal to
your memories, your judgment and your
consciences for the truth of my proposition
that the Republican party has been in the
past, and is to-day, the champion of our
countiy's cause; that without it that coun-
try would not have been saved; that with
out some party representing the principles
which it advocates, and the measures which
it practices, that country cannot be long
preserved, nor its power developed, nor its
mission carried out.
| assert, and challenge denial, that no
administration has ever been truer, through
all its members, to the great principles of
the party which elected it. 1t has not
sought, and does not seek, either through
its members or by its chief, to establish
any personal party outside Of the great Re-
publican organization, upon any narrow
basis of personal interest or ideas, or of
the influence or advancement of any man
or set of men.
$50 establish and preserve more per-
feet Union"-this was the primary purpose
of the great constitution as declared by its
trainers. Here is a party which came into
power in the capital of that Union, already
divided by what seemed to be eternal lines
Of division, with distinct sections swinging
and surging apart, with different interests,
with antagonstic ideas, with bitter feelings,
forbidding reunion; but which now holds
it as the capital of nation so reunited, re-
consolidated and restored by common in
terest, development and destiny, that di-
vision can be no more thought Of.
The second proposition of that great pre-
amble and the next declared purpose Of the
constitutions is ''to establish Justice"
What has the Republican party done to-
ward that end They have in the past,
and they mean in the future to be true to
national honor and faithful to national in
tegrity. They consider the future as well
as the present, and our mission, which is
to appeal to the higher natures of nations
and men. They have provided that the
principles of justice, which their fathers
declared, shall extend to every portion Of
our country and apply to every man who
lives beneath it.
They have engrafted the principle of JUS
tice and right, upon which the structure of
our government stands, upon the funda-
mental law they have enforced it by APP
propriate legislation, and they will carry it
out by all the power of the government.
They have executed that treaty Of amity
and peace which, appealing to reason in
stead of force, and relying on the principles
Of justice rather than armies, makes war
impossible between these people of kindred
blood, and reunltes them as allied cham
pons in the worlds great cause.
The next great purpose Of that constitu-
ton was declared to be 6 to insure domes-
tic tranquility" The Republican party
have secured this to the country by pre-
serving from destruction the Union which
was established to insure the object, for
there could he no peace between hostile and
separate governments. 10 insure domestic
tranquility we have given to every man POI