The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1875-09-23
Gp Sanb Gunug RanoraG Canton gAr Gmsdg. Sept a3, 1916

Guatag @eHiorat gam
their heads all too long, hat was loosen
ed in 1874, and that Is upon them now.
For my part, am here to hold the Re-
publican party to
-r 49,. ' THAT RECORD,
by which 1t must be judged of men. do
not stand before you to discuss abstruse
propositions with thieves. cannot en-
Ter into controversy upon the economic
principles of the science OF finance with
men whose practice in finance is simply
to transfer to their own pockets, by q
slight twist of the wrist, the finances of
Others. ! cannot discuss the question OF
the proper disposition ofthe School Fund
witii,men who have no use for any fund
except to steal it, and no use for any
question except to peryert itinto political
capital. In a word, | cannot recognize
as an honorable dycrsary, worthy OF re,
spectful warfare, the thinly disguised
Grantism which appears here in the
shape Of the X Hblican cause.
know ofrJ means of meeting the I'M
pudent Pre- llsions Of these men except
by hurlina ntheir faces their own shame.
| can conceive of NO method whereby to
countcgyi q The sublime mendacity of
ties mcn other than by overwhelming
Il. n with the damnatOry facts OF which
| t.eV have filled our hands full. Dut be-
.ole passing to Il review OF the record OF
he Republican party at large, le. me
briefly examine is record on the tinan-
ces, ind show you by what validity Of
title it lays claim TO the position OF IA hard
money party; TO show you how brazenly
impudent and how eXtravagantly mem
dacious ARE its pretensions IN that dlrec-
ton. The standard by which any Ma
tional party must be judged is the acts OF
its Representatives in the National Con-
gress. The most recent official data bv
which we may Judge the Republican par
ty are found in the legislation and in the
votes Of
THE REPUBLICAN MAJORITY
of the Forty-third Congress- 1t will not
do for men like the editor of the Cincin-
natl Commercial, who have been fighting
q Republican Administration foryears, to
turn now and tell Us that the Republican
party has so thoroughly renovated itself
by means Of three Cabinet changes that
il has become an entirely different or
ganization.
1t is the same old Republican party
now that it always was; the same old
voices hegd in its conclaves, and the
same old fingers
FELT IN IT'S STEALS,
only it has invented some new pretenses
to cover up its crimes. Among them is
this loud-trumpeted pretense; that it is
nard-money party. Let us see how
much Of a hard-money rarty tits, judged
| by the most recent acts of its most re-
Gently accredited Representatives. the
majority in the last Congress: In this
Forty-third Congress there were fifty Re-
p1bliCan Senators and one hundred and
ninety-eight Representatives, being tt
two-thigds majority of the body. From
the 9Th Of January to the 18th of June,
1874, this Congress was engaged almost
exclusively in discussion of the question
of finance and in legislation upon the
currency. There were during this period
six test votes in each body upon meas
ures that drew the line distinctly between
the policy of initiation and that of specie
resumption. And it must be remembered
that in these cases the initiation was Of
the worst kind, because it proposed to
still fur. her initiate the existing mon
strosity of the National Banking monopo-
w.. On these six test votes the fifty Re-
publican Senators cast altogether 23S
votes in favor of initiation and l49 against
it, leaving in the Republican party in the
Senate an aggregate initiation majority of
80 votes, or
sIXTY-Two PER CENT
Of the party vote. That is to say, out of
fifty Republican Senators thirty-one were
inhationists and only nineteen were hard
money men. Among these your own
John Sherman. now the hardest kind of
hard money man, as he himself tells it.,
voted three times for initiation and three
times for resumptiOn-probably with the
design of constructing record suitable
for any emergency that might arise.
Turning to the House of Representatives
we find that the one hundred and ninety
eight Republican members cast regularly
an average of 1876 votes for initiation and
72 for resumption, beingan initiation ma
jority Of 40. Thus We find that the Re-
publican party, according to the last Off
Cial record we have any account of, was
an initiation party by something over
three-ffths OF its entire strength. Com
ing down more specifically we find that
the Republican party Of the State ofOhio
had in the Forty-third Congress thirteen
Representatives, of whom nine were for
initiation and three for resumption, first,
last and all the time, while the odd one
of the thirteen, Hon. VIM. Lawrence, of
Agricultural Report celebrity, was what
you might call "ramming around" all
over the middleground between the two.
Taking it altogether, this makes pretty
good show for hard.money party,
doesn't it? ,...t. ...
Turning from the personal record of
the Republicans on the finance question
let us examine the bill which they now
put forward as their warranty of title to
the position they occupy, That bill re-
Ceived the votes of several Republican
Senators who had been inflationists, and
who represented Western and Southern
States; that is to say, it received the
votes ofthese Senators ia the Republican
caucus. And l have evidence that these
Senators were induced to vote for this
bill upon representations that it was de-
signed as
A POLITICAL MEASURE
to harmonige the Republican party, to
dispose Of the financial question till after
the campaign of 1875, and that it was
agreed and understood that it should not
be enforced by the Secretary of the Treas
ury. have. further evidence that an
intimation to this effect was conveyed to
| the Spcretary nv two mpmhara of tho