Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1876-10-18

had the name Of peace, At no time
have you had the substance of peace
In lieu thereof you have had the
grinding taxation and wasteful expend.
iture of war inst before every cleo
ton every year you have had the
preaching of a new crusade against Il
section utterly defeated in war, and
anxious only to be completely recon-
ciled in peace. For eleven years the
power Of the men who have seized
the control of their party from the
hands of the statesmen and founders
has been supreme in almost every de-
partment Of the Federal Government.
Dis carding the hope of prolonging
their domination by benefcent public
measures, they have created and traf-
licked upon public. ealamiles The
policy they adopted has been worked
ont. Its failure has been absolute.
In place Of past pertorma' ,es these
same corrupt and selfish leaders now
profer promises already hroken as
their titles to further tus'. Having
prostrated our manifold industries by
the vast aggregates and the worst
methods of Federal taxation, they
now again solicit your confidence as
the instruments of re,renchment and
reform. Having debauched the pub
lie service, and having just now, in
the face Of open day, assessed their
army of a hundred thousand Office
holders-the peoples servants, paid
by the peoples taXes--in order to
create immense corruption funds to
Illustrate the peoples will, they now
profess to be the champions Of civil
service reform. Having imposed up
on the Southern States the rapacity,
fraud and plumber of the carpet-bag
Governments, having almost ruined
the prosperity of the North, by de
stroying the prosperity Of the South,
having created terror, uncertainty,
and confusion in all the productive in
dnstrieS Of the South, which furnish
most Of the exports Of our whole
country, keep in motion the commerce
and manufactures of the North and
East, and furnish market for the
agricultural products of the West,
they now propose, by renewal of the
same fatal policy, to prolong their own
power in the hope Of coneealing their
misdeeds, and for this purpose they do
not hesitate to renew the cry of intol-
erepce, to revive the dying memories
of iraternal strife, and to appeal to
the fears and p'ejudices Of the timid
and the ignorant.
Fellow citizens: These men and
their measures have been completely
lried and have completely failed.
An oppressive taxation, an ex-
hausted South, an impoverished
North, a tluctuatlng currency, the ell
terprise of an industrious people
locked fast in the paralysis of hard
il the outcome of their
political policy, such are the achieve
ments of their long supremacy. Your
ballots in November can alone dictate
a change OF measures and change of
men. Shall not the uprising of pat
riotism along the valley Of the Ohio
60 on to complete and beneficial
revolution in the administration of the
Of the United States
Will you not, by the voice Of over
majorities at the polls, pro.
claim your invincible faith, after all
these years of corruption and passion,
in the high immortal principles of
government by the people for the PEG,
pie, in simple honesty and strict econ
omy, as the supreme wisdom of pub
lie policy, in justice as the mother Of
power, and in civil freedom as the
be,all and the cnd-all of true Repub-
ican nationality? Will you not build
up new prosperity for all the people |
on the old foundations of American
self-government, Oh peace, reconcilia.
ton and fraternity between all sec
lions, all classes and all races embraced
within our system of American Com
monwealths on frugality and econo-
my in all Governments; on honesty
and purity Of administration, and,
having lost your prosperity through
government misrule, regain that pros,
perity through governmental reform ?
We commit this great issue to the in.
.elligence and conscience of the Amer
can people, with an unfalterlhg trust
in the wisdom and Justice of their de.