Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1872-04-24
SENATOR WILSON'S NEW YORK SPEECH.
TrumbuII Answered aud Grnn, 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 ii in full.
but make the following extracts:
We were told as reason why that Con-
vention was called at Cincinnati that the
Republican party is under the control of
the oftice-holders. Great God, gentlemen,
party of three and half million of men
strong men, independent men, controlled
by a few thousand beggarly office-holders
Why, gentlemen, you never saw the mo-
ment since you were born when the office
holders were so impotent as they are now
Ana why? Gentlemen, to be an office
holder is to be beggar The offices of
this country hardly pay decent and re-
spectacle living to nineteen-twentieths of
the men holding them. You know it. and
know it. And now what about these
oflice-holders ?Why, 81 600 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. i want TO say another thing.
They talk about this Convention i'm Phil
adelphia as being an office-holders' con-
Vention. Suppose we say the convention
at Cincinnati is to be am oftiee-seekers
convention. / won't say it, You can
think what you will about it [laughter1
but this much / do say, the National Con
yention that will meet this year at Phila-
delphia will have fewer office-holders in IL.
and fewer members of Congress, than any
Convention that has met in thirty years of
the party in power. The office-holders
have had little to do with it. In looking
over the listof the delegates of eight States,
L find only five offlce-holders elected from
them all. want you to remember this
and take IL home with you.
THE EXPENSES or THE GovERNNENT.
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 of1ice-holders are so powerful.
Now, Mr.. Trumbull has been seventeen
years in the Senate of the United States.
lie knows how to do business. He is an
able man. l 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
nred by the gold standared, are less accord
ing to the property of the country, or ac-
cordlng 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 S100, 900, 900 under this
Administration less than they were under
Johnson. [Applause.l
GEN. GRANTS RECORD.
Ana, gentlemen, tell you here how
these men make a mistake. They forget
that Gen. Grant was at the head of a 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 q name, 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
great military record behind him. APP
plause.l And then they remember anoth-
er thing. They remember that he has
paid S3l5,O00,000 of the national debt in
thlrty-seven months, and will pay from
ten million to fifteen million dollars more
in the present month. [Applause.l 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 Sl00, 900 q year. They
forget that he has adopted humane and
Christian Indian policy, enough to immor-
talize any Administration. TApplause. I
They forget the proud, grand position Of
the country. They forget that we have
raised the national crodit so that we can
borrow money at five per cent, abroad
They forget that we have made public
sentiment by his firmness, so that a Dem
ocratic National Convention dare not go
into Tammany Hall, or anybody else's
hall, and proclaim the wicked financial
theories they announced here four years
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 a
prediction the other night, and he closed
with the declaration that their banners
would float over the dome of the Capitol
i'm n twelve month. Now / will make n
prediction here tonight, and / want you
to remember it as long as you remember
Mr. Schurz' prediction, and that predic-
tion 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
plause !; that IL they are supported by the
Democratic party, we will carry from
twenty five to thirty States of the Union
for Gen. Grant. IApplause.] And l want
to say another thing. 1t may not be very
modest to say, but / will say il here. i
have looked into the faces of more men in
public meetings than any pubic man in
America, IapDlaalse,1 aud In mora States