Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1874-08-13
AN ADDRESS
By the Republican Congress
sional Committee
To the Voters of the United
States.
II the peoDle If the limited States

grebs. ne OCCaSlOu IHVlGeb US u
submit for your inspection the rec.
ord of Republican achievements
since that party was called to tht
administration of national affairs
We seize the opportunity to avOw
that record, not to apologize for it.
We challenge your approval, moi
your pardon.
The obligations of government and
people, like the obligations of ser.
want and master, are mutual
The government, like the servant
owes faithful service But the PEG
pie, like the master, owe honest rec.
ognition of faithful service. Every
thoughtful employer knows that be
can not with impunity decry faithful
labor. He who does so habitually
will soon have no faithful laborers
The faithful servant will not submit
to be treated as q faithless one. II
SO treated, he himself will become
faithless, or be will give place to one
who is faithless.
1t is thirteen years since the Re-
publican party was first called to the
administration of the National Gov.
eminent. For more than thirty
years previously the Government
had been almost uninterruptedly un-
der Democratic control OF that
control there is hardly memory left
at which the nation should not blush.
Seemingly, it was inspired by but
one am bition-the bad ambition to
mako our foreign policy as ignoble
as our home policy was shameless.
Our intercourse with Powers weaker
than ourselves was spirited enough.
We bullied Austria out of q Hunga-
Ran refugee. We despoiled Mexico
of a portion of her territory. We
demolished Greytown. We jingled
millions in the ears of Spain as lure
for Cuba and the bribe was spurned
In 1854 three of our Ministers
abroad assembled at Ostend and is-
sued a manifesto in which they de-
clared, "After we shall have offered
Spain price for Cuba far beyond it's
present value, and this shall have
been refused, then it will be time to
consider the question Does Cuba in
the possession of Spain seriously en-.
danger our internal peace and the ex.
istence of our cherished Union!
Should this question be answered in
the affirmative, then by every law
human and divine we shall be justi-
fed in wrestling it from Spain if we
possess the power"
1t adds piquancy to that extract
to know that two Of the ambassa-
doris who in 1854 could think Of no
way of saving our cherished Union"
but to wrest Cuba from Spain were
Pierre Soule and John Y. Mason.
The third was James Buchanan.
But during all that time, and in
spite Of all that gasconade, there was
not single naturalized citizen who
could safely revisit his birthplace,
for there was not one whose citizen
ship was not absolutely denied by
the sovereign under whose dominion
he was born.
No American, native or natural
lied, could send q letter abroad ex-
cept upon onerous conditions. We
had then formed postal conventions
with but seven foreign countries.
The lowest rate of postage stipu-
lated in those conventions was ten
cents for letter weighing not more
than one half ounce. The highest
rate OF postage on the same letter
was thirty cents.
We tamely relinquished to Great
Britain a portion of our territory in
the northeast ; another and larger
portion in the northwest. We de-
scribed the line agreed upon in the
northwest so loosely that Great Brit
ain Immediately laid claim to large
islands on our side OF it. That insul-
ting claim was neither resisted nor
admitted. 1t was compromised by
permitting the claimant to hold arm
ed possession of one end of San Juan.
the most valuable of those islands,
while we quietly squatted on the
other end. And while, by successive
concessions, we were constantly ad-
ding to the area of the Canadas, we
stupidity reinquished to their prod.
ucts free access to our markets, as
the equivalent of being allowed to
send similar products from the
Northwest, through Canadian chan
nels, to such precarious markets as
they could find on the other side of
the Atlantic.
Such were the achievements of
our diplomacy, during those years of
Democratic supremacy.
CHEAP GOVERNMENT.
The story of our home rule would
be sadder still, if anything sadder
could be.
1t has been loudly Wanted that
those were cheap administrations
Compared with the expenditures OF
these times they were cheap, very
cheap. Compared with their worth
to the country they were probably
the most profigate the world ever
saw. They cost the people from nj
ty to seventy-fve millions per an
mum. Those millions maintained foi
us the empty pageant we called Gov
ernment 1t was the most worth.
less pageant that could be contrived
1t was not even snowy; it was vul
gar. 1t had all the features of 9
government, but without it's facul
ties. There were the three regular
organs-legislative, executive, judi
ciel. There was constant success
ion q. Congresses, Presidents, and
courts. The courts of course were
useful in hearing and determining
private controversies. But what ID
there to show from the labors of the
political departments 1t seemed
to be the sole end, if not the SOLE
aim, of Government to collect mon
az anourh vaarlv tn nan itself III