The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1872-03-30

Todu, tuey SlOle Ine SCate Oh new OH
from General Grant in 1868; they have
stolen their millions from the city; they
have stolen judges and stolen juries, and
they get elected to the Legislature; they
do not get sent to the State prison. And the
men who denied this stealing, who denied
that they stole the State of New York when
they knew that they did it, who denied the
stealing of these Tammany Hall men, until
it was finally brought out and established
so clearly that nobody could longer deny
it, these very men are accusing the Admin
istration of stealing. 1 have heard before
of Satan's rebuking sin, but never saw
anything so brazen as this. loud ap-
plause.]
There has been collected, under General
Grants administration, in three years,
nearly twelve hundred million dollars
nearly four hundred millions year; there
has been paid out nearly a thousand mil
lion dollars; making about twenty-on hun
bred million dollars. We have lost, out OF
this immense sum, in all the departments
of the Government, a million and quarter
less than fifth part of one per cent!
We have paid out, during these three
years, ninety million dollars, in pensions,
and we have had five defalcations, all of
them soldiers, and four of them shed their
blood for the country. But the Govern.
ment has not lost dollar, for agents made
good their accounts, or their bondsmen did
it for them.
Everybody knows that the Indians have
been cheated and wronged for years and
that many of our Indian wars have grown
out of our violations of treaty obligations,
our bad conduct, and the stealing from the
appropriations for the Indians. General
Grant, knowing the Indians and their
wrongs, two years before he came into the
Presidency tried to devise plan by which
the Indians should receive what tho Gov
eminent appropriated for them. When he
came into power he invited the Christian
denominations of the country to select
some good men whom he could send out to
see that the Indians were not cheated, and
they selected men like George II. Stuart;
like Friend Lang, in Maine; like Friend
lIoag of Iowa; like William E. Dodge of
New York; and like Edward S. Tobey, of
Massachusetts,, some of the noblest, best,
and purest men that tread the earth. These
noble men have worked these three years
to save these poor Indians from being
wronged. The Indian policy of General
Grant, were there nothing else, is enough
to immortalize any Administration that
ever existed in the country, from the fonn-
dalton Of the country. [Applause. 1t
has more of justice in it, more Of humanity
more of the spirit of the divine Master,
than can be found in any other deed Of the
Government, except the emancipation OF
the slaves. 1t stands by the side Of that
grand act among the great achievements Of
the nation. 1t will be acknowledged here
after, it will 60 into history, and men will
applaud it, when many of the men who are
assailing the present Administration sleep
in forgotten graves.
This Administration came into power
with the pledge to maintain the faith
and honor of the country, then weakly
or wickedly assailed. During these last
thirty five months there has been paid
$2s7, 600, 900, of the national public debt,
saving nearly eighteen million dollars
year in interest. This money has been
mostly saved, on the one hand, by an hon
est collection of the revenues, for we COL
lected the first fifteen months of General
Grants administration $67, OOo,0 900 more
than was collected under the same laws in
the last fifteen months of Johnson's admin
istration; and on the other hand, by re-
daction of the expenses of the Government.
From these two sources we have paid this
$9s7, 900, 900. Throughout the financial
world it is matter of wonder and amaze
ment that the financial policy of the United
States should be so successful. We elect
ed General Grant pledged to maintain the
faith of the nation, to make our debt
sacred, and what is the result? Why, the
800, 100000 of currency is worth to-day
$40, 100000 twenty per cent. more than
it was three years ago. The laboring man
who has earned two dollars to-day has re-
ceived forty cents, in real gold value, more
than he would have received three years
ago this day. There has been added twen-
ty per cent. to every dollar the laboring
men of this country have earned this day
these many months; and it has been added
because of the signal fidelity and ability
with which that pledge has been kept to
maintain the faith of the nation, honestly
collect the revenues, reduce expenses, and
extinguish the national debt as fast as we
could.
We have class of men who are always
looking behind them. They have never
been satisfied. They have taken their posi-
ton on the great issues of the last forty
years and been wrong every time. They
linger behind their age. All their predic-
lions have failed. They are the instru-
ments of defeats and failures. Still these
men continue to believe that all the states
manship of the country is gone. They
once looked up at the slave-masters Of the
South, who were their masters, too, when
they stood on the heads Of their negroes
They looked pretty tall then. A great con-
vulsion came, and it shook them from their
high position, and they look quite as small
now as other people. But our Democratic
friends do not see it; the old illusion still
haunts them. To hear these men talk you
would suppose General Grant was vastly
inferior to such great, magnificent states
man as Polk, Pierce, and Buchanan. Who
is General Grant-this man so denounced?
When the war opened he was earning few
hundred dollars year tanning leather in
Galena. He offered his services to the
nation, and they were not accepted. He
went down to Springfield and served there
for some weeks, helping to enroll and Or
ganize the regiments they were raising in
Illinois. Finally, they gave him regiment.
He had not money enough to buy sword
with which to fight the battles of his coun-
try, nor horse to ride. You did not know
anything about him; tie nation knew moth