Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1874-10-01
The Opening Gun in the Third
District.
Hon. John @. smith at Hamilton.

Hon. John @. Smith at Hamilton
Although the first political meeting
of the season, an audiance of over a
thousand voters congregated in the
Court house Park to hear the Hon. |
John Quincy Smith speak on the IS
sues of the day. 1t was quiet, respect
able, intelligent audience, composed OF
some of the best citizens of Hamilton.
At quarter before O'Clock Mr.. q
L. Morey. of the Republican County
Central Committee, introduced Mr..
Smith to the audience. The speaker
commenced by showing that during
the past twenty years the attention OF
the people was absorbed first in the
question of slavery. The war followed
and the necessity to suppress the re-
bellion was so urgent that every loyal
heart in the country was given to the
work, and but little attention was Civ
en- to what were at the time minor
questions, yet questions Iaffecting ma
terially the fu.ure of the country. He
doubted if there were ten men in the
audience who knew how their repre-
sentatives voted on appropriation
to the Illinois Central RailrOad-the
first and most important of the acts
in aid of railroads: So that men voted
right on the slavery question and
on the war, the people never thought
of anything else. For six or eight
years after the war, people thought
only of how best to preserve the fruits
of the war. No doubt many things
were done which might not have been
done if people had time to consider
them. Within the past three or fsur
years we have all turned ourselves in
to a jury of inquest, to discover if any
thing improper had been done by the
party in power. In Ohio the LegisIa-
ture began investigation of the acts of
the State Government through the past
sixteen years, and the Democratic
to confess that in all that period no
stain of corruption could be attached
to any man connected with the gov
ernment of the State. It was some
thing over which Republicans might
feel proud, that of $1OO,OOO,OOO ex-
pended no dollar Of it had stained the
hands Of any man connected with its
control
The Congressional Investigations
next in order showed that of the two
or three hundred men in Congress
but three or four had been guilty OF
peculation. The investigation of the
; Freedmen's Bureau, conducted by the
highest Court ever held in this coun
try, proved Gen. Howard to be free
from any act of dishonesty.
For year or two a feeling, now
fortunately subsiding, had been grow
ing up in the country, that people in
office are somehow dishonest. ThI
feeling is reflection on the honesty
of the whole American people. He
repelled the idea that the people o.
Ohio, whether Democrats or Republi
cans, are in the habit of electing dis
honest men to office. To the demand
in some quarters that, because of q
few cases of individual corruption
the Republican party must be turned
out of office, he replied that since the
origin of Christianity great part o
the work had been to strip from i
: heresies in it's ranks, and it is not dom
, yet. Would you wipe out Christianity
because of the heresies that have crep
in?
No party ever came in power undel
such adverse circumstances as the Re
) publican party
Yet to day every State is back in tn
Union, and people have long since re
sumed their avocations of peace. Tht
little rebellion in Louisiana, the las
trace of the war, was crushed out b,
l the simple word of the President. Ou
e government bonds are favorably re
= ceived in all parts of the world, ant
command cheaper rates of interest il
the market than when the debt was 81
small at the beginning of the wal
: What assurance have we of any i'm
provement through change of pow
err? The Credit Mobilier, and the Sal
ary Grab, the speaker claimed belong
}. ed to neither party especially, and t
both alike. Indignation was common
=. to both. He eulogized the late 49,
Congress, which ''walked out withou
stain of job or corruption upon it..
! THE CURRENCY QUESTION.
e We were met last winter with clam
ors for an increase of the currency
Owing to the panic there was q con
J. traction of the amount of money i
! circulation. Gold and greenback
h were withdrawn from the banks, an
slowed away in tea pots and places Q
concealment at home Thousands O
/ people were out of employment, an
:, business of all kinds was greatly stag
II mated. Petitions for an increase q
e circulation were poured, but Congress
n after four months of deliberatiOn, de
termined that nothing could be don
but this: They established the 1882
600, 900 in circulation. They though
II the placing of $44, 100000 of reserv
:, in circulation was given to the Secre
: tary of the Treasury We therefore
l. took it away, and provided that tn
- 1882, 900, 600 be the fixed amount. T
: relieve those sections which we believ
y most needed it, we took S5O,OOO,OO
e from the East and placed it in tn
West and South. 1t was thought ths
an imitation of currency would stimu
J. late the business OF the country. Wit
It that idea did not concur. / coul
e not see how prices of products here i
d the Miami Valley could be increase
'e without a depreciation ofthe currency
b If by some magic tonight you coul
h create 5000, 100000 and distribute
At throughout the country, no man woul
i be paid more for his products thaI
v the prices in Liverpool and Chicag
le command. You can't pay any MOI
10 money for such staples as wheat, tc
j. bacco, cotton, sugar, or any of tn
a products we export, with depreeiate
l. currency. He admitted that it stimu
lated speculation in Wall street, bu
denied that it stimulated the gener.
ID business of the country. It was nc
D. so with some things. Articles MANI
= featured here might be encanced. n