Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1872-04-21
SENATOR WILSON'S NEW YORK SPEECH


TrumbuII Answered and Grant Defended
At the great Grant meeting in New
York Wednesday night, Senator Wilson
made one of the best speeches of his life
He always makes good speeches, but in
this one he was unusually forcible and
convincing. We cannot give it in full,
but make the following extracts:
We were told as a reason why that Con-
vention was called at Cincinnati, that the
Republican party is under the control of
the office-holders. Great God, gentlemen,
a party of three and half million of men,
strong men, independent men, controlled
by few thousand beggarly of1ice-holders
| Why, gentlemen, you never saw the mo-
ment since you were born when the office
holders were so impOtent as they are now.
And why? Gentlemen, to be an office
| holder is to be a beggar. The offices of
this country hardly pay decent and re-
| spectacle living to NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. of
| the men holding them. You know it, and
I know it. And now what about these
office-holders ?Why, 81 900 out of about six
| ty thousand are poor, petty pOstmasters ;
| seven thousand more are pOStmasterS'
clerks, and fifteen thousand of the post
masters get salary of less than two hun
dred dollars per year These are the men
who govern us? Why, gentlemen, it is
not so. | want to say another thing.
They talk about this Convention in Phil
adelphia as being an Otfice-holders' con-
vention. Suppose we say the convention
| at Cincinnati is to be an Office-Seeker5'
| convention. | won't say it. You can
think what you will about it Tlaughterl
| but this much l do say, the National Con-
ventiOn that will meet this year at Phila-
delphia will have fewer Otfice-holders in it,
and fewer members of Congress, than any
| Convention that has met in thirty years of
| the party in power. The Otfice-hOlders
| have had little to do with it. In looking
over the listOf the delegates of eight States,
| find only five office-holders elected from
them all. l want you to remember this
and take it home with you.
THE EXPENSES OF THE GOVERNMENT.
Mr.. Trumbull tells us that we cannot re-
duce the expenses to any great extent, and
| the reason why we cannot do it is this
| that the Office-hOlders are so powerful.
Now, Mr.. Trumbull has been seventeen
years in the Senate of the United States
He knows how to do business. He is an
able man. [ want to say to you here to-
night that he has never yet proposed any
plan by which even one million of dollars
can be saved; and | say here, further, that
siXty-One per cent of all our expenditures
grew out of the war. Take them out, and
the expenses of this government, meas
ured by the gold standared, are less accord
ing to the property OF the country, or ac-
cOrding to population, than in the Adj
ministration of James Buchanan; less,
largely less, according to population, and
very largely less according to wealth, than
they were in 1853. / don't know where we
can cut off dollar to-day, and [ tell you
here we have reduced the expenses of the
Government nearly 100000, 900 under this
Administration less than they were under
johnson. Applause.
GEN. GRANTS RECORD.
And, gentlemen, [ tell you here how
these men make a mistake. They forget
that Gen, Grant was at the head of mil
lion of men that the fathers, mothers, and
brothers, and kindred of these millions of
heroes in the field look to Gen Grant as
the great leader in the war. They are
grateful to him for it. They remember
that he started without a name, a poor and
unknown man, and against the cOmpe-
titiOn of two millions of men who went
into the army, came to the head, and has
a great military record behind him. APP
plause.l And then they remember anoth-
er thing. They remember that he has
paid $3l5, 000,0 900 of the national debt in
thirty-seven months, and will pay from
ten million to fifteen million dollars more
in the present month. Applause. They
forget that he has made your paper money,
worth twenty per cent. more than when
he came into power. Applause. They
forget that he has reduced the eXpendi-
lures nearly S100,000,000 a year, They
forget that he has adopted humane and
Christian Indian policy, enough to immor-
tolizo onU administration I
They forget the proud, grand position of
the country. They forget that we have
raised the national credit so that we can
borrow money at five per cent, abroad.
They forget that we have made public
sentiment by his firmness, so that Dem
ocratic National Convention dare not go
into Tammany Hall, or anybody eIse's |
hall, and proclaim the wicked financial
theories they announced here four wears
ago. Applause These men forget these
things. Gentlemen, the masses of the |
people are somebody in this country. And !
they will not forget it.
A PREDICTION.
Now, gentlemen, Mr.. Schurz made
prediction the other night, and he closed |
with the declaration that their banners |
would float over the dome of the Capitol |
in twelve-mOnth. Now l will make a
prediction here tonight, and [ want you |
to remember it as long as you remember
Mr.. Schurz' prediction, and that predic-
ton is this: That if the nominees at Gin
cinnati are not supported by the Demo |
cratic party of the country, they will not
have an electoral vote in the Union, lap |
piause j that if they are supported by the
Democratic party, we will carry from
twenty-five to thirty States of the Union |
for Gen. Grant. [Applause.] And | want |
to say another thing. 1t may not be very |
modest to say, but will say it here. L
have looked into the faces of more men III |