The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1872-09-19
n&
GEORGE w. CURTISS.
HIS FIRST CAMPAIGN SPEECH AT AsHFrELD,
MASS, AUGUST 90, 1879. THE
CENTRAL ISSUE CAN THE,
DEMOCRATS BE
TRUSTED
From the Springfield Repub lican.
CONCLUDED FROM FIRST PAGE.]

/
But when ask you these questions some
OF you may reply by saying, "Yes, but we
hink Horace Greeley will m axe an excellent
President Well, now, if, when the first
Administration of the Union had been put
into operation, General Washington had been
waited upon by the Tories of the Revolution,
still fully organized, and just on the eve Of
The first election they had said to Washing
ton: 1--WE have decided we were in the
wrong. We have decided we are Just as good
as the Wings, and we wish you to be our can
didate"-I have read history in vain if Gen
eral Washington would not have said to
those men: "Gentlem en-. if these are your
opinions. why are you thus armed? If you
are repentant, why are you still organized {?
If you agree that the Wings are right, why
do you not join the Whigs?" This, l believe,
would have been General Washington's re-
spouse. But if am wrong; if instead he
had accepted the nomination of those men,
George Washington though he was, the sons
of liberty would have defeated him, as the
ons of liberty will defeat Horace Greeley in
November.
You will ask me another question: Are par
ties eternal: Are we to always go on fight
ing How are we to make any political
progress if we refuse to take the hand of
those we have sometimes opposed Saint
Paul repented; and why not the Democratic
party? If the whole Jewish people had sud
denly declared that they also had received
great light, and had all avowea their con-
version, and set up to be the original print
tive Christians. | think, had we lived in that
day, we would have waited for some signs of
conversion before giving them ..r.s
THE HAND OF FELLOWSHIP.
Will any man tell me what are the signs OF
conversion In the Democratic party! The
last opportunity that was offered was in
Washington, at the last session o. Congress-.
The Supplementary Civil Rights Bill was iu-
troduced, and in the de bate upon that sub
ject, the party spoke as one man. They took
the same old Democratic ground, the same
spirit of hatred to the colored man. All the
same old slavery virus came frothing out in
The speeches OF the best men of that party,
seventeen times. Monday after Monday
they STAYED off and voted against the bill,
which was simply the completion of equal
rights. They voted against it two or three
times after the Cincinnati Convention, and
with their lips still red with saying "No,''
hurried Of to Baltimore and cried, equal
rights to all men," Mr. Curtis here quoted
from the speeches of number OF Democrats
and from several Southern newspapers to
show the spirit of the Democratic party was
the same that it ever had been. He then
continued j Ef .u.U
1 can conceive no reason why man
having the true interests of his country at
heart should vote for that party except this
that, bad as the Democratic party may be,
the Republican party is worse. Is that true
Is the Republican party, which has done
more to maintain free government than any
otEer party in the world, so bad as that
You will agree with me that those who at
tack the Administration have always the ad-
vantage OF position. It is easy to sketch \
model Administration without blunder or
weakness. Tried by such standard, any
merely human Administration will fail But
every honest man win try to be just. 1.-The
details of our Government, administered by
0,0C0 or $4,000 officers, scattered over ter
ritory from the Lake TO the Gulf, there will
be constantlysiacts occurring which are inter-.
preted to the disadvantage Of the Govern
ment and not fault or error can be com
mitted by postmaster or collector, but
what we shall instantly be told that the en-
tire Administration is huge fraud. On the
ether hand, they will tell us what they will
do. Had they been in power, this or that
would not have taken place, and instead we
should have purity, honesty and reform.
They will be as lavish of their promises as
the maple Is of red leaves in October What
are the probabilities that they will be kept
They wish to pass the sponge over what they
have done, and only wish us to listen to
what they say. ,i"1 +.
! What is the record of this Administration
Taking the fret great point which any Gov
eminent is bound TO observe, has he Repub-, |
lican party guarded the equal rights of the
citizens? 1t is the very glory of,the Admin
istration that it has done so. 1t found q, OOO,
/ 900, slaves, 1t has made them men and wo-
men; it has united them in holy marriage
and they sit with us in our Legislative halls.
Doolitte and others talk of negro supremacy
upheld by the bayonet. The negro has his
vote; that is all his supremacy. How is it
upheld by the bayonet? When it was found
there was an organized terrorism at the
South 70 trample the black man under foot,
the Government simply kept its word Fred
erick Doug lass, who has known what slavery
. was and what it has been to his race, heard
those words of Doolittle, and cried with
trumpet tongue. to his fellows: 'To the ne
gro the Republican party is the deck !; all