Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1874-09-03

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able for them and they may likewies
have the credit for them. As to this
system of subsidizing railroad corpora
tions, it is not principle or measure
that grew up with the Republican par
ty, by any means. As far back as the
days of John Co Calhoun and Franklin
Pierce this very doctrine of subsidizing
railroad corporations by parcelling out
the public domain to them was prin-
eiple of the Democratic party. In 1915,
John G. Calhoun, in report made to
the Senate of the United States, a strict
constructionist of the old school, gave
it as his opinion that Congress repre-
senting the General Government hav-
ing the right of eminent domain in the
public lands, had the right and power
over that public domain to give it to
aid the building of great lines of public
travel or trade, railroads or water
routes. Franklin Pierce enunciated the
doctrine in 1853 in his first annual mes
sage; and the Democratic convention
of 1856, and both the Breckenridge and
Douglas conventions in 1860 announced
themselves in favor of Government aid
in the building of great line of COM
munication between the Mississippi
and the Pacific. Why, there had been
more than thirty million acres of the
public domain given away before the
Republican party ever came into pow
er. 1t is true that, following these old
precedents that had been set by Demo-
cratic Congresses, the Republican par
ty have carried out this policy and
L hcf rNlnQSn a
MANY railroads in the West. The poll
CIV is condemned now by all parties,
vet at the time it was no party matter,
no party measure, and men OF all par
ties, especially from the West, were in
favor of granting lands to build rail-
roads from the Mississippi to the Pacif-
ic. Both the Republican and Demo-
cratic conventions of 1860 declared spe-
officially in favor of that policy. But,
gentlemen, the time has come when
both the Democratic and Republican
parties are denouacing this idea OF
| further granting lands to aid in the
building of railroads, when it seems
that these great corporations that have
grown into power and become strong
need some restrictive legislation.
RAILROAD MONOPOLY-D EMOCR ATS
OPPOSED TO GOVERNMENT REGULA-
| TIoNS.
Last winter there was bill intredu-
ced into the House of Representatives
by Mr.. George w. McCreery, from the
State of Iowa, Chairman of the Com
mittee on Railways and Canals; ahd l
would call the attention of my Demo-
cratic friends who cry out against the
power of corporations to the action of
the Democratic party in Congress upon
that bill. 1t was bill that in many OF
its details / did not approve OF, and
several among the members who voted
for it would have preferred bill In
some other shape; but when the bill
was brought before the House for dis
cussion, the debate on the Democratic
side of the House was led off by Mr.
Arthur, of Kentucky,a lawyer, a schol-
ar, and a gentleman, of the old school,
and he at once took a position in oppo-
sition to the bill upon the old doctrine
of State rights, that it was an interfe-
renee by the General Government with
rights of the States, and that the Gen.
eral Government had no power to leg
islate upon the subject OF inter Stale
commerce, as it Was carried on upon
our railways, Notwithstanding the tact
that our railways in continuous lines
spanped the continent from the Atlan-
tic to the Pacific; Notwithstanding the
fact that you have a railroad here span
ming the Ohio River, running over our
heads to-day, from one State to anoth-
er. The argument was made there,
and continued for nearly one month on
the Democratic side of the House, in
opposition to this bill, that there was
no power in the General Government
to interfere. They put their opposition
distinctly on that ground; and | did
not hear single speech from the DEM
ocratic side of the House, attacking the
details of the bill, or in any way lind
| ing fault with it, save and except the
want of power in the General Govern
ment. And when the vote came, there
were but four Democrats for the bill,
out of the one hundred and twenty
one votes cast in its favor. One of them
was a leading Democrat from the State
of Indiana, VIM. S. Holman; another
was Mr.. Robbins, of North Carolina;
another was Mr.. Kendall, Of Nevada;
and the fourth was Mr.. Luttrell, OF
California. And aside from these four
gentlemen, the entire Democratic vote
of the House was recorded against NC
Creery's bill, after having made the
record in the debate they did make.
And yet, gentlemen, they denounce
their growing power, and they de-
nounce the Republican party as the
friend of these corporations. And yet
when they come face to face with the
question, as they did in the days of
James Buchanan, when the Confedera-
CIV was growing in strength and power
in the Southern States, they would like
to do something with these great cor
porations, but they cannot find the
bower in the Constitution to do any
] thing, so far as Congress is concerned.
The question Of Transportation 1 speak o
| for the reason that it is made prominent IN eve
ry Democratic platform L take up Tne he
| publican party, gentlemen, put itself on th
| record on this question as it has on every ques
ton it has been called upon to meet in the las
thirteen years
PARTY OF PEACE AND GOOD WILL TO MEN
The Republican party gentlemen is part,
of peace. When the questions growing out o
the "a labama claims came upon the county,
for settlement, there was no hasty appeal tt
arms but arbitration; and the nations of tn
earth were taught new lesson by the tw,
great Powers that met at Geneva and settled
peaceably by arbitration the national quarrel
The Republican, party is not only party o
peace. but it is party of kindness and of mer
cy. When the Forty-Third Congress WAS or
ganized there were near half Il hundred men il
House, who, after the oath had been admins
tered to the body of the members, came dowI
in front of the Speakers stand and took th
modified oath Among them was the old ant
trembling Ex- president of the Confe,lera
cy. These men that gathered in that grouI
; about taking their seats in the House of Rep
resentatives to make laws for you and me, tel
years ago were in hostility tn this Government
and dong everything in their power to destroy
it from off the face of the earth. The history o
the Republican party in its treatment of th,
people of the South is one of kindness and o
mercy Applause And the Republican party
my fellow -citizens, claim your s6tfrages for thu
reason that in all these years of reconstruction
they have kept steadily in view the interest @
the whole country, North as WELL as South. zap
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