Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1876-09-01
Address
To the Republican Voters of the Second
Congressional District.

To the KepuDttcan voters oil the second
Congressional District.
The citizen of this country occupies
position which no citizen or subject of
any other government on the face of the
earth occupies it is for him to say what
shall be the character of the laws under
which he lives, aud who shall admins
ter and execute those laws. He there
fore lives under government of his own
choice-under laws he makes himself
He is guaranteed the privilege of alter
ing those laws, and changing the officers
whose business it is to faithfully admin
lister and execute those laws. And it is
the duty of those in authority to hold
the shield of peace and protection over
each and every citizen while be discuss
es the propriety Of altering or changing
those laws, or of the propriety, even of
dispensing with the further services of
those officers who hold that shield over
them. All these questions are to be de-
termined at the ballot-box, and by the
ballots of the bad as well as by the bal
lots of the good. Therefore, it is not
enough that the good citizen should quiz
city deposit his ballot in the ballot-box
for in order to insure himself in the en-
ioyment of good officers and wholesome
laws, it is his duty to see that his neigh
Dor fully understands, and does his du-
ty, so that the ballots of the good shall
count in the ballot-box more than the
ballots of the bad
The record of the Democratic party
during these last sixteen years, is such
an one, that they beg of us to let it alone,
and ask us not to look at it. They ac-
knowledge that everything that they
have said, done or promised to do with
in these last sixteen years, if the people
would but place them in power and give
them control of the government, has
been unpatriotic and lie But they
ask you to trust them now, upon their
present professions, and they will deal
honesty and act in perfect good faith
towards all men. They promised you
as much in 1872, when in their platform
they agreed that the thirteenth, fourteenth
and fifteenth amendments of the consti-
tuition, were irrevocably part of our
great nlagnd-charta and they recogniz-
ed "the equality of all men before the
law, and hold it to be the duty of the
government in its dealings with the peo-
pie to mete out equal and exact justice
to all, of whatever nativity, race, color
or persuasion, religious or political"
How well did they keep that promise
How honest were they in their profes-
sions In the session of Congress, next
following the election in November,
1872, bill was introduced, providing
that colored men should have chris
tan burial like white men; that the
colored child should be educated like
the white child and that the colored
man should ride in the railroad car like
a white man, the Democratic party
through their representatives in Con-
gress, voted "no." When the record
shows that they didn't mean what they
professed, and that it would not have
been safe to have trusted them in 1872,
do you think it would be any more safe
to trust them now Let their represen-
tatives in Congress show by their works
that they are honest, and mean what
they profess before you dare to trust
them. Let the press, and the Demo-
Gratis at the South testify by their words
and deeds that call men are equal be-
fore the law without regard to race, coll
or or previous condition, and that 1t is
safe for "aH men" to think, talk and
peaceably assemble together, and freely
discuss the political issues of the times
without threats or intimidation, and
without being hunted down and shot
like dogs, before you commit the desti-
MES of the people of this great country
into the hands of the Democratic party.
The Republican party has been true
10 its professions it has endeavored
faithfully to give the people what ii
promised. Our record is one we are
not afraid to have inspected-imperfect,
, defective, full of Shortcomings as all
earthly effort is-but as whole, there
, it stands, and challenges the inspection
! of all men. So interlinked with all that
| has been accomplished, so inseperably
connected with every great effort and
achievement of the nation during the
last sixteen years that it will stand for
ever, the admiration of the world. Dur
ing the past ten years the Republican
party has reduced the burdens of taxa
ton nearly s2OO,OOO,0OO per year; and
so economically has the government been
administered during that time that we
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