The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1872-08-23
DAWES.
The Leader of the House on the
Political Situation.
Importance OF Sustaining the Republi.
can Party.

speech delivered at the Grant and Wilson rat
iication meeting in New Haven by Hon.
Henry l.. Dawes, of Massachusetts,, the Chair
man of the House Committee of Ways and
| Means
Mr.. Dawes said that he had not come to
| utter single word to defense Of the personal
character OF Gen. Grant, or in disparagement
of that OF Mr.. Greeley. The one had too re-
| Gently filled the hearts of his own countrymen
with gratitude, and the eyes of mankind with
admiration for his great military service in
the salvation of the nation, TO need it, and
the other had too long toiled before tine world
in building up name as chief in one of the
noblest and most influential of professions in
| civil life to permit it. Each, chief in his own
sphere, commanded therein the respect Of
mankind, before which personal detraetion
should be dumb. But they stand before the
! public, to-day, in no personal character but
as representative men; each the exponent
and instrument through which a great politi-
cal organization IL seeking to win the public
| confidence, and through it take possession of
the Government of the United States. Every
thing personal, therefore, sinks out OF sight
| in the greater considerations which press
upon the mind of him who seeks the path of
duty amid the contrasts with which he is con-
rfonted 10y these two opposing organizations
| Assuming that these two men are honest
and true men, they can be nothing in power
other than what the organization behind
them shall make them. They can do nothing
| to which they are not pushed by the force
though which they live and move, and can
| accomplish nothing not undertaken by and
| for IT. To step outside the grooves il cuts is
to fall; to turn upon it is to be crushed by 1t.
To the claims of these two organizations,
represented to-day by Gen. Grant on one side
| and Horace Greeley on the other, the speaker
invoked the candid judgment of those pres
emit He spoke of two organizations simply,
| Tor he discarded the pretense that this is a
triangular contest. Whatever may be the
forms men struggle to maintain, and what
ever may be the motive which prompts men,
! there can be IN the nature of forms but sub
stantially two opposing organizations. He
SAID that 1t was more creditable TO the
| heart than to the head of the gentlemen
who associate themselves together under the
name and separate organization of Liberal
Republicans and yet lend themselves to the
| Democratic party IN the coming campaign. OF
the honesty of these men he entertained no
doubt. To their ability in public stations in
the field Of journalism and in private life he
paid tribute But the very effort they made,
while striving for the same end as the Demo-
cratic party, to keep out of its organization
| and embrace, Is a confession that actual
touch IL contamination. But the effort is
vain. How can two walk together except
| they be agreed! 1t is III morals as in physics
two bodies. except they draw against each
other, draw together and every hour approach
each other, till they as inevitably become one
as there is law which governs action. Equal
| ly certain Is 1t that the strongest determines
the point of the union and the direction of the
resultant force. History and reason alike
teach this. Two bodies with one head is more
of monstrosity than one body with two
heads, ard neither ever did live longer than to
draw wondering, gaping crowd after it.
The organizations represented by Mr.. Gree
ley are, therefore. substantially the Demo-
cratic party, and can only support their claims
to the public confidence by title which that
party shall be able to present. II is very
singular feature of this claim. that it is built
| entirely upon professions. Nothing in the
past record of the party is bought forward
to sustain il. Whatever is good in the Gin
cinnati platform upon which il stands has
| been borrowed from the Republican creed
and Ii IN direct conflict with the past record
of the party now for the first time embracing
1t. Turning its back upon the work of its
life, and taking new departure for the sake
OF success, 1t can give no other security for
the fultillment of Its promises than its own
naked word. uttered in the same breath that
confesses the falsity of its past life. This of
itself should bar its claim. Works meet for
repentance can only inspire confidence. But
as the Democratic party, stronger than the
| Liberal Republicans, will be sure, If they work
| together, to swallow them rather than be
| swallowed by them, so that party. in turn, is
sure to find its own course and character de-
| termined by the strongest of the many inco-
herent elements of which il is composed.
Mr.. Dawes then called attention TO the
fact that the Southern element OF that party
had determined its present course Resist
ance had come from the North and from its
strongest men here, but it had been IN vain.
He then asked what was to be expected from
a party whose controlling men are not only
! fresh IN professions not SIX weeks old, but
who come up to their support out of line Of
hospitality, not only 10 the principles they now
avow. but 10 the very life Of the republic itself.
! 1t Ii madness to intrust the destines of the
nation to such hands. He believed in the hon
esty of his old political associates, now desert
! ing TO these new leaders but he had a right
! to demand of them. before deserving with
| them, the grounds of their new-placed conf
dence. What right have they 10 look for truth
in men who had been false all their lives Mr..
! Greeley had yielded to their ostentatious offer
to =" clasp hands over the bloody chasm" Of
the past, without stopping to inquire who made
that chasm! What security has he taken from
these men that they will not be truer TO their
instincts than to their professions that they
| will not continue in the beaten paths of the
! past, rather than seek new ones Dose he
| propose to stake all upon the naked word Of
| these men5 They talk of their sufferings, but
who is the author of their sufferings; Their
! plea IL that OF the braZep youth IN court, who
| had murdered his parents, and when inquired
| of by the judge what he had to say in extenu-
alton of sentence, begged that the court would
not be too hard upon him, a poor orphan
! These men beg for peace. They themselves
| have but to keep the peace, and no one will
modest them. Did not Mr.. Greeley notice that
! those who held ont their hands TO him across
the bloody chasm " were the rebels alone
| That the poor Union men of the South were
not among them that the four millions of
freed slaves were not there 2 that the North
erner, who had gone down to make his home
there under the Constitution, was not of the
number! There is something calculated to
beget dstrust rather than confidence in the
very exclusiveness with which this party prof
fer their bloody hands
Mr.. Dawes said that he marveed that any
true Northern man could put confidence i'm
these empty professions backed up by no act,
and in conflict with all the past records of the
men who make them.
On the other hand the organization whose
representative was Gen. Grant appeal to it's
past, rich in proofs Of devotion to all that is
dear and true and neble in American institu-
tions. In making professions for the future il
turns with pride and confidence TO it's history
for assurance that they will he fulfilled Ii
conducted the nation through the perils of
civil war-i met its burdens It solved it's COM
plications, it wrought out it's triumphs. TAX
ing up the difficult questions inherited from
the war itself and after the four years of fail
ure under Johnson il has proved itself com