The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1876-09-07
DEMOCRACY UNVAILED.
An Eloquent Presentation Of
the Issues Of 1876.
Speech Of Gen. James A. Garfield,
Delivered at Warren, Ohio.

/
The time is not now when can address you at
length upon the great contest we are about
entering upon, but I will detain you a few
moments to map out, as best / may, what
seems to me to be the great points Of discus
sion in the great fight we have just commenced :;
and want to say in the first place that so far
as [ am to Judge, from my readings of Ameri-
can political history, there is now being made
the most formidable assault upon the Presi-
Dental Office that has ever been made by any
man since the United States was Govern-
ment measure my words when I say assault
by man backed by great party, to achieve
the Office of President of the United States-I
mean the assault that is being made upon that
Office by Samuel j.. Tilden, of New York. We
shall never go wisely into the contest unless
we give full force and value to the strength of
our antagonist. MIR. TIlden is perhaps the
most consummate living master of ma
chine politics; the disciple Of Martin
Van Buren,, trained for forty wears
in the political management we call
New York city politics knowing all its ups and
downs, it's heights and it's depths, having been
the master of the party in that great State, as
well as in that city, for many many years; hay
ing been for d long time hand and glove with
the management of William M. Tweed and as
sociates; knowing all that belongs to the ma
nipulation Of politics in that great State; and
he showed, when he achieved the Governorship
of his State, how much could be accomplished
by running the government machine. Proba-
I, bly, no State campaign was ever organized with
more consummate skill than that which
achieved the Governorship of New York for
| Tlden, through the agency OF tremendous
widespread advertising, which appeared to be
| the spontaneous expression of the people
| sending out q quarter of a million OF photo
graphs or engravings of his own face as gift
to the voters, accompanying the blasts Of praise
| poured from the advertising mediums and,
with the help of his great wealth, he carried his
de- ~ of that Aa&a
into power and because of his great skill in
that, he has been chosen to carry the greatest
assault upon the Presidential office in the pres
emit Centennial year Of our history.
Now, gentlemen, such an antagonist is not
| to be despised, at least not to be under-valued
in his power. Look for moment at the other
elements that gather their strength around it.
| With Mr. Tilden the practical problem is just
ttis One hundred and five electoral votes
| from the South are counted as solid for him
| by the Democratic party, and we haven't any
right now to claim more than perhaps one
small State in the South, under the present
order of things and if no can carry the two
| leading Democratic States of Indiana and New
| York, the problem is settled, and he has
/ achieved the success which he seeks In secuI-
! ing the Presidency. Now, there was this
| trouble between those two States-they were
both Democratic at the last election the one
was overwh elrningy and outspoken in favor of
| what we call soft money initiation in it's widest
and EXTREMIST forms. That was Indiana, and
Mr.. Hendricks was its symbolical embodiment
and representative. New York, on the con-
! trary was a hard-mOney State, and Mr.. Iilden,
by numerous and repeated declarations, stood
| forth as the foremost Democratic champion
! of hard money in the State of New York. How
| they could harmonic those two States, and by
that means drag themselves up to the Presl-
dency, the problem. To do that there
probably has never been on this continent a
! National Convention managed with such con-
sumate skill as the st. Louis Convention was
managed. The same advertising appliances
chat carried him into the GOyernorship of New
York carried him also through the st. Louis
| Convention. A prominent Democrat who was
present told me Of his own experience there
that it was really laughabl9 for any man to
! look on that convention and suppose it to be
deliberative body. Every motion was prepared
| beforehand man was selected to make each
| motion every resolution was cut and dried
/ long before the programme was definitely
| laid down in New York before the conven-
| ton met, as it was laid down In the newspapers
after the convention had adjourned. And so
! the machine ran on and ground out
it's results double-faced platform,
| that promised to New York speedy
resumption, that asked that we
should remove the date of resumption in order
! that New York might get at it quicker, and that
! in Indiana meant to repeal the date Of resump
ton SO that they might not be troubled with
resumption at all. [Laughterl And so the
| hard-moneY man of New York and the soft
money man of Indiana clasp handsin agreeing
to strike down the one brave, certain work Of
the Republican party, and asking that it be
done for the one reason in Indiana and for the
other in New York And then they met at
Saratoga and joined their letters together 80
| that they might read one way to one man and
another to another, 40 that each man rnay inS
in the letter just what they want; and thus
they have bridged the chasm between these
two great States, and moved forward to secure
the Presidency. Now, to call our minds away
from the real great issues of the campaign,
after these evasions they shout g Reform"
Honest Administration" Purity" Civil
Service Reform, g All Kinds Of Reform, and,
under the banner OF Iilden, Hendricks and
Reform they propose to drag through these
two States with the bulk of their votes in
the South, and give victory to that party.
Now gentlemen, this formidable move
ment upon the Presidential Office is not
to be underestlrnated by us. We are to face
it; we are to debate it, we are TO dlssect it; we
are to disclose all it's baseness, all its eyasions,
! and go down into the depths of its discussion
and meet them at every point-everywhe
and reach the consciences and hearts and be-
| liefs Of the American people, aud ask them to
rise up and vindicate themselves and the
Nation against this assault. Applause That
is the work you are invited to do this fall.
! Now, gentlemen, let us step one or two steps
| only in the direction of examination. For the
pretended work of reform the Democratic
| party is totally unfit instrument. I say pre-
! tended work of reform, for when people tell
you the Democratic party is purer than the
Republican party, you can answer by looking
around you. Are the Democrats of Warren
more pure than the Republicans of Warren?
What Democrat in this town will say that?
Extend your view to the district, to the State
! Dare any man assert that the macs OF the
Democratic people of Ohio are any purer any
| truer, any more vlrtuous than the mass of the
Republican party? OF all the States, dare any
man assert it {? Tt is the merest fiction when
men address you thus.
But, gentlemen, your first answer to this
combination is this, that you are engaged in
great work in this nation, and THAI t is not
yet completed. There has been a 6 igantic rev.
oution, and to put out of existence ii e great
oblig alton that this Democratic party brought
] nnnn VOL and Won haven't got il done vet and