Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1876-08-25

| President Gov Hendricks was in the Senate six
years. and during the period when of the public
lands we're granted to railroads. and was distinguished
for the general hearty support he gave such grants
and particularly for his earnest and repeated advocacy
and the large share he had in the grant of about
81 900 acres TO the Northern Pacific Railroad the
most siupendous gift ever made to corporation But
It NAV be said in sxtenuatiOn of this thar II GOV.
Hendricks has had much 10 do with giving public
property railroad corporations that Gov. Tilden
has shown great ability in relieving such corporations
of their property, and that taking both tosaher they
make q safe pair the railroad question As fur-
ther commentary upon this resolution may add the
single remark that 1t was the Republican party that
granted homestead actual settlers upon The pub
| lie lands boon which had been haughtily denied
through every Democratic administration.
COMPOSITION OF THE ST. LOUIS CONVENTION.
Let US consider briefly the composition of the St.
Louis Convention that passed this remarkable plat-
form and placed in nomination those distinguished re
formers, Tilden and Hendricks.
There was the old STAKEHOLDER, with heart fun Of
| bitter memories, believing that emancipation was
robbery, and his only hope of indemnity in the Dem
There vas the old agtator and seeessionist who had
hurried States into rebellion and drafted ordinances of
J seersSiOn-
There we're the officers and soldiers who had borne
/ the Confederate flag upon many bloody field. and
who proudly pointed to their rebel record their
little deed 10 office and glory.
There were the. mem bers of the rebel Congress at
Richmond who debated with closed doors the
| question OF the black flag.
There the architects and defenders Of Belle Isle
Libby AndersonVille. and Salisbury, of horror
|
There were the Northern sympathizers and dough-
faces, who had waited and watched over the border,
whose hearts and hopes in the South while thei
| bodies we're in the North.
/ There were a few Union soldiers who had carried
their scanty laurels to Confederate Market where
decoy signals were scarce and 10 large demand.
There was the sore-headed Republican, whose neg
lected claims for office had shaken his faith in eE-
zatOn and convinced him Of the necessity for REFORM
In short, there were assembled the mOuTners for
slavery the organizers Of rebellion, the Ku-Klux and
| White TfnAr the Northprn SVtnDathiZer and dough-
face the advocate Of State sovereignty, and the repre-
sentaVes of every element that had torn the country
with civil war, drenched 1t with blood and Watered it
| with the tears of the widows and orphans.
GOV. HENDRICKS.
OF Mr.. Hendricks, the Democratic candidate for
VcePresdent, It is not very important to speak in
| this community. You have known him as member OF
Congress- of the legislature OF the Constitutional Con-
Fentiou as Commissioner of the General Land Othce,
as Senator OF the United States as Governor oi tne
State, for nearly thirty years, and during all that
time be has suggested policy, produced no measure
started no idea which any human being can remem-
Der, and except one, which we are all asked 10
forget His place of general retirement and relaxation
has been upon the fence, and he has never gotten
down upon the one side or the other until his party
had taken such decided ground left doubt about
their position Like Tiden, he will be the last Of his
line, and will leave no idea measure or policy as a
political contribution to those coming after him. His
Official life in small things has been resDectable aad
successful in lodging larger responsibilities.
UNEoUALED CAREER.
Perhaps no political career of equal extent in this
country be referred 70 which has been barren
of good important results. In the winter OF 1S6O-6
be stood with Buchanan and the leaders Of his party
in denying all right Of coercion III juStifYing the
South and throwing all blame for the then threatened
1ebsiIion nnon the Repnbiieans of me North After
the breaking Of the war be sunk from sight for
time, and his position was wholly unknown. Toward
the conclusion of 1861 when the country depressed
| by misfortune, he again TO the surface along
with the leaders Of his party, and was bitter in his
demonstrations against the war and the government.
HIS GREAT SPEECH.
On the sth of January, 1862, at the State Conven-
ton of the Democratic party, he made the most eele-
brated speech Of his life in which he attempted to
show by lAbored argument that the interest Of the
Northwestern States was wholly with the South and
mot with the East; thai the New England States had
been oppressors that the inference of all was
| that the States Of the Northwest should form 2
Northwestern COnfedeTacy for the time being, 10 be
afterward united with the South, and cut loose from
the States of the East.
He arraigned the war party as the most intolerant
ever known, corrupt, the author Of hard times
and desolation wholly responsible for the and
said thFs if the should be prosecuted to abo-
ish market in the South by destroying the peculiar
system OF labor in thaI section he would advise the
Northwest look out for ITSELF His favorite phrase
was The restoration OF the Union upon the basis Of
the Coustitution - bv which he meant the preserva-
ton Of slavery. and giving 10 it equal rights in all the
territories; and IN referring to this in subsequent
speech in the campaign he said:
'if this is rendered impossible by the folly wick
edness Of the party in power then the mighty North
west must take of herself and her interests
and not allow the arts and nesse of New England and
the Eastern lust of power, commerce. and gain TO de-
spoil her of her richest commerce and trade"
| Mr.. Hendricks fully believed at the time that he
| had struck the current Of Democratic thought and
action but afervard feared that he had gotten OF the
fence prematurey. 1t was, in my opinion the worst
speech made in any Northern State during the war,
and exerted the most deleterious influence. 1t was
the fruitful parent of that crop OF conspraces ana
reasonable schemes which afterward disturbed the
peace of the State, and so nearly compromised her
position in the Unlon The Sons of Liberty and other
dislnyal organizations and the reasonable schemes
that were formed but the ofshOots Of that
tral idea of his speech-that the interests OF Indiana
were not with the East but were with the South, and
that the Rastern States should be left out IN the cold
Mr.. Hendricks did not belong to any Of these organ-
cations, believe, but that he knew all about them,
that he condemned them and that their leaders
and contrvers were all his friends never doubted
for moment, and that his position this: that if
they succeeded in their purpose be would reap the
| for their action.
HATRED OF THE NEGRO.
He has always exhibited an uncomfortable hatred
Of the negro and in this represented the lowest and
most vulgar elements OF his party In the Senate he
opposed the freedom OF the slaves escaping into our
lines during the He bitterly opposed the repeal
Of the fugitive slave law long after the issue Of the
emancipation proclamation, and, speaking against the
resolution of repeal, said:
SIT was plain to him as the multiplication table
| that it should not be repealed"
On the 10th of February, 1854 on the resolution to
allow negroes to ride in the street cars in Washington
| he said:
ait seems tc be considered great outrage that the
negroes in the District of ColumDis not allowed
take their seats in the cars with the white
allowed TO express opinion this subject,
should say the outrage would be the other way"
On the 9Th OF December, 1867, in speaking on the
District of Columbia bill, he said he opposed to
allowing negroes to sit juries hold Office, and
that it was poliey which sub jugates the white to
the eolored race"
OPPOSITION TO AMENDMENTS.
| Mr.. Hendricks was in the Senate when the
18th Amendment to the Constitution was adopted
| abolishing slavery; when the 14th Amendment
was adopted securing equal rights, protection, and
immunites in all the States, and prohibiting the pay
ment for slaves aud the rebel war debt; when the
18th Amendment was adopted, providing that no
person should be denied the right Of suffrage on ae-
| tude, and he spoke and voted against all.
| He not only voted against the 18th Amendment
aboshlng slavery, but In excited speech declared
astonished Senate that the people OF the United
States had power TO abolish slavery by amend
meut TO the Constitution.
sit is enough 10 know" says he, 'ihat this Consti
tuition existed before the Revolution in the Colonies;
that 1t continued during the Revolution; that it
with the Colonies into their state of Independence and
separate Sovereignty and when the Colonies came ino
the Federal compact they did not submit that insitu
ton, the other domestic institutions TO the con-
troll Of the Federal Government. The Federal Gov
ernment has had nothing do with the institution Of
slavery except far by compromise 1t protect
ed and respected and a fugitive escaping from one
State another shall be returned without respect to
the law of the State into which he escapes"
This was spoken Of slavery in April, 1864, in the
last year of the war, when slaVsry was in fact al
kflled hry fha Efno obcFr