Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1872-10-24
Speech by Speaker Blaine.

"a \
THE Hon. James G.. Blaine, of
in Chicago a few evenings ago. The
.EoenSaag Post, of that city, furnished the
following synopsis of his eloquent re-
Mr.. Blaine commenced by alluding to
the illogical opposition instituted by per
sons calling themselves Liberal Re-
publicans against the Administration of
General Grant. He spoke in compli-
terms of the three great Consti-
futional Amendments, supplemented to
the original document by the Republican
party, and asked if their adoption had
not benefited the country and wiped
away a damning stain from the national
flag.
He dissected, with great ability, the re-
suits of each amendment, and proved the
wisdom of the party that moved boldly
into the danger and overthrow an odious
oligarchy by restoring prosecuted race
to the full enjoyment of political equal.
ity.
-,Ir. Blaine then entered on the Ku.Klux
matter, and referred to Mr.. Greeley's
former opinion upon the same in the fol-
lowing terms: ..-5
Now, gentlemen, while that law was pend
passage in the great name and the potential
pen of Mr. Horace Greeley He said: 81
hold our Government bound by its duty of
potecting our citizens in their fundamental
rights to pass and enforce laws for the ex
tirpation of the Ku- Klux. conspiracy and L
say (this is Horace talking) say if our Gov
ernment hasn't the power to do it that then it
is no Government at all, but sham" That
was Horace Greeley before getting Presi-
dency on the brain. Laughter That de-
bate was long one; one of the longest de-
bates that any measure has given rise to in
the last ten years, longer than any debate 1
recollect In ten years, except possibly the de-
bate on the legal-tender question in theThir-
ty-sixth Congress. think there were more
than fifty speeches made against that bill on
the Democratic side of the chamber, and
every one of these speeches, embodying the
views of the ablest men of the Democratic
party, every one of these speeches had one
common burden, and one common cry. and
that was: If you attempt to legislate as
was proposed in the Ku-Klux law, you
tramplc upon the great doctrine of local
selfgovernment, and we are going to central
ize all power in the hands of the Federal
Government.
Now, gentlemen, the Ku-Klux law covers
several pages of our law books, and has the
verbiage that belongs to legal enactments
but when boiled down and the quintessence
extracted, it is just this and no more: That
wherever your rights as American citizens
are interfered with, your person or your
property outraged, and the local authorities
within whose Jurisdiction the outrage is com
mitted are unable or incompetent or unwill.
ing to protect your rights, that you shall
have the right to apply to to the Federal au
thorities, and have the protection of the
Federal Judiciary, and be tried before Fed
eral jury summoned by Federal Marshal
That is precisely it. [Cheers.]
And it is not law, mark you, as you
y0rr16 fynfa fro, r
Democratic orators, it is not law simply ap.
plying to the Southern States. 1t applies in
Maine and Illinois; but why not enforced
here? Because, gentlemen, your local au-
thority under the broad @gis Of liberty
loving State like Illinois protects its citizens
in all their rights [cheersl; and the United
States is not called upon to interfere in youl
State or mine. And, therefore, it is pre-.
cisely the old question of the boy in the
orchard: "Beware of the dog; if you keer
on your side of the fence the dog won't
bite"
Mr.. Blaine briefly reviewed the Fedora
relations with the divers States, and re
ferred to Greeley's Cincinnati nomination
last May, saying:
He knew, and you knew, and knew, and
we all knew that the nomination was moi
worth a row of pins unless it was followed
by the Democratic nomination at Baltimore,
and therefore Mr.. Greeley set himself al
work industriously from the hour he received
his nomination to secure the popular ap
proVal OF the Democratic Convention that
was to assembly at Baltimore; and the letter
that he wrote accepting the Cincinnati nom
lnation was nothing in the world but a cum
ningly-framed bid for the Democratic nomi-
nation at Baltimore, and cunningly-framed
bid for the support of the very worst wing
OF tne democratic party, because it was un-
derstood in Washington last winter-where
political rumors do congregate-as it has
since been stated in the New York Tribune,
that the hope of success in this years cam
paign was united South to start with-123
Electoral votes-and therefore Greeley put
himself in the way of bidding for and re-
ceiv1ng the support of the Southern wing,
the rebel wing, of the Democratic party
the unrepentant wing; and his letter of ac.
ceptance of the Cincinnati nomination was
made to tickle and please the Democrats
who it was understood were to be placed in
the vanguard at Baltimore, and maintain
that he deliberately agreed to surrender the
entire doctrine and protection of the Four.
teenth Amendment if they would agree to
give him their votes for the Presidency,
Don't take my word for it. I want to con
yict him out of his own mouth. Now here
is the first paragraph in Greeley's letter ac-
cepting the Cincinnati nomination; and I
take that it is a legitimate edition for cut
1t myself from Theodore Tilton- -WoodhuITs
Golden Age. Now here is what Greeley saws:
"That, subject to our Constitutional obliga-
tions to maintain the equal rights of all
citizens, our policy is to aim at local self
government, and not at Capitalization" In
deed, Horace! The very catch-word of the
Ku-kluX-Klan; the very identical words that
had been nailed at the mastheads of all the
rebel sheets in the Southern States: but lest
that might lot be sufficiently plain and per-
spicuous, hear what he says further: "And
there shall be no Federal subversion of the
internal policy of the several States,n etc.
Now. observe, he is talking about personal
rights, and there shall be no Federal subver-
sion OF what any State may deem and pre-
scribe as the best modes of enforcing those
rights. n
Thus, if you go down to South Carolina.
and they take fancy to hack, main and
quarter you, you must not think of appeal
ing to the Federal courts to protect YOU for
that would be trampling on the sacred doc.
trine of local government. And that is
precisely the same ground and precisely the
same remedy for personal rights in the
Southern States that Horace Greeley, in the
Cincinnati letter, agrees to hand you and me
over to, and therefore charge Horace Gree
ley, and charge him upon the words that
are out of his own mouth, that he agreed
and offered, for Democratic support, to aban
don and sacrifice the great guarantee of the
Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution
and to throw citizenship under it to the
Southern dogs to be eaten. Why, gentlemen
let bnls country stand hack on the Four
teenth Amendment, and we take retrogra
dation such as has not been known in cen.
tury.. 1t was the Fourteenth Amendment
that has put American citizenship above
what it has ever been before, and worse than
II ever was before. 81 sI. RI! /
Mr.. Blaine then amusingly reviewed the
Cincinnati Convention, its platform,
and the peculiar manner in which Horace
Greeley got around his little difficulty in
the way of high tariff principles. That
patriot was, in fact. prepared to do any.
thing, to sign anything, so long as he
could have the honor of executive posi-.
tion in the United States.
He reviewed the philosophers recent
tour, and some of his extraordinary ora.
ttorical efforts at some length, and, speak.
ing of mild policy toward those lately
in rebellion against the Federal Govern.
ment, he contrasted the extraordinary
and admirable clemeney of the United
States Executive with the feroeious and
bloody policy of temporary government
of the French "Republic" as pursued to-
ward the unfortunate Paris Communists
The speaker continued by saying so.'