The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1874-09-11

the country; the steps taken to provide
cheaper transportation between the pro
| ducing regions of the great West anc
the centers of commerce at the East
aud more than all, a reduction of the
National expenditures by some S25,,
100000 or $50, 900, 900, these are proofs
that the present Congress has kept its
ear close to the heart beat of the people
and is willing to obey the peoples be-
hests and to consult their interests by
practical measures and prompt and eff
cient legislation.
These measures, with whatever amount
of resources and influence l have been
able to command, it has been my aim to
promote, because they have appeared to
me alike prompted by my highest sense
of public duty and demanded by the
great body of the people of Michigan.
In the approval of my constituents,
coupled as that approval is with the sim
cerest dictate of my own conscience, l
find most ample reward-a reward i'm
measurably greater than the meager eff.
fort which it cost to cast vote or other
wise give my advocacy to principles of
administration and doctrines of govern
ment, which have learned, in common
with the people among whom l have re-
ceived all my knowledge and sentiments
upon questions of public policy, and who
have enjoyed with me tho common at.
mosphere of patriotic inspiration, a love
for sound and safe financial and political
ideas, and devotion to the present and
future welfare Of our great country
the fondest hope of liberty, and the most
complete theater Of human activity, en-
terprise and social prosperity upon this
broad earth.
The immediate future presents ques
tions for popular consideration of no lit
tic magnitude and Importance. The
problem of attaining more perfect sys-
TEN of civil service in the several dc.
partments of the Government, than has
hitherto existed, still remains without
full solution. The President has in.
augurated and continues method of re
form which, however imperfect in all the
details of it's practical application, gives
encouragement that it may remove many
present evils, and when further i'm.
proved by experiment, may pave the
way for more efficient and economical
accomplishment of clerical work in the
several bureaus. With this view, as
member of the Committee on the Reform
of the Civil Service, l have steadily ad.
hered to what believed to be the doc.
trine enunciated in the National Repub.
lican platform in 1872, and to the poll.
cy which, if not abandoned before its
results are fairly tried, must ia the end
give us better and purer administra.
ton.
Among the great topics of National
concern are those which are closely al
lied to industrial thrift, National pros.
perity and business enterprise. AS these
topics present questions in which the
highest welfare of the Republic is in.
volved; no craftsmanship can afford for
a moment to lose sight of them, and no
party can ignore them and retain its
hold upon the public confidence. Just
at present, the questions of this charac.
ter which claim especial attention are
those of the currency and cheap trans
portation. They are not wholly dis.
posed of, but the present Congress, in
its final action of the last session, gives
most hopeful augury that they will be
met in way to satisfy public expecta.
ton and to advance the welfare of our
agricultural and other industrial in.
terests We of this section of the coun-
try are specially interested in the devel.
opment of the most practicable methods
of providing proper and permanent
financial basis for our industries, and of
the lesat expensive routes that can be
attained for the removal of the yearly
products of our fertile plains to the sea.
board In this latter policy our State
has always been toremost and with Sen
ator Chandler in the Senate, and Mr..
Conger in the House, the one as chair.
man and the other as the leading mem.
Der of the Committee on Commerce, in
their respective Houses, an improvement
has been given to the harbors and other
commercial facilities in the Great Lakes
which demonstrate clearer than all mere
theoretical profession that the work of
improving the great highways of COM
merce and trade, and of securing cheaper
and safer transit for the products of the
West, is steadily going forward under
Republican rule and by the aid and in.
strumentality of a Republican Congress.
Indeed, Michigan Republicanism has
been for years committed to the policy
of promoting all those great projects Of
internal improvement which will inva.
riably lessen the rates of transportation,
and thus give better remuneration to
the products of the farmer and the labor
of the workingman.
GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION In
these brief remarks | shall not attempt
to enlarge upon the history, the charac.
ter and the purposes of the great party
which you represent, and to which, |
trust, we are proud to own ourselves the
steady and firm adherents. It's banners
still triumphantly wave before us, and