Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1876-09-27
THE POLITICAL CAMPAIGN.
Speech Of Colonel Robert Ingers0I OF
Illinois, I'm New York City.
The Two Parties ConttaSted--. Republican
Party the Party OF Progress and Patriot
ism---Ths Democratic Party The Party
oil Reaction and Treason

in Cooper Institute, New York, on Mon
day evening, by Colonel Robert Inger
soil of Illinois. It will well repay per
usal:
My friends, two political parties are asking
the votes of this people; one wishes to retain
the power that it has held for sixteen years
the other wishes Office Laughter The
Democratic Party with the hungry, starving
eyes of q wolf, has been looking in at the ma
tional Capital, and scratching at the doors OF
the White House for sixteen years, laugh
teri Occasionally it has retired to some con
genial emnence and lugubriously howled
about the Constitution. [Cheers and laugh
ter. By George that is it exactly. Laugh,
ter The Republican party comes to you
with it's record open and aske every man, wo-
man and child in this broad country to read
its every word, and | say to you there il not a
line, paragraph, or page in that record that
is not only honor to the Republican Party
but to the human race. Cheers. On every
page OF that record is recorded some great and
glorious action done either for the liberty
Of man or the preservation of
our common country. [Applause.] We
ask everybody to resd its every word. The
Democratic party comes before you with it's
record closed, q record of blot and blur and
stain and treason, and Islander and malignitv.
and asks you not to read solitary word of
r what it has done, but be kind enough to take
its Infamous promise for what it VIII do AL
low me TO say hare that character-good char
acter, rests upon record and not upon a
prosf ectus. fApplausel A man has 8 good
Or bad character by what he has really done
by what he has really accomplished, and not by
what he promises to do. II promises would
make good reputation, Samuel J. Tilden and
the Democratic party would have one in "a
hours. Laughter propose to tell you this
evening, my friends. a little of the history of
the Republican party, little OF the history of
the Democratic party. and first the Republican
party.
The United States of Amercs la a free
country; it is the only free country upon this
earth; it Is the only Republic that was ever
established among men. We have read we
have heard of the Republic OF Greece. of
Egypt, of Venice; we have heard of the free
cities OF Europe There never was repub-
lie In Venice, there never was republic in
Rome, there never was a republic in Athens.
there never was free city in Europe there
never was government not cursed with caste:
there never was government not cursed with
slavery. there never was government not
cursed with almost every infany until the
4 Republican party Of the United States made
this free nation. (Cheers.) I want no
grander, no higher title of nobility than this,
that belong to the Republican party aud did
little toward making the Republican party a
fact. In order for you to ascertain what the
Republican party did for us-for us-I mean
it is well enough to say it now and then in Or
Ger to refresh ourselves. In order to under
stand what this great party has accomplished,
let us for a moment consider the
state Of the country when the Republican
party was born. When the Republican party
was born there was on the statute book of the
United States CT America. a law known as the
Fugitive Slave law of 1880 under the provi-
slons OF which every man IN the state of New
York was mada bv law a blood hound. and
nOTJlH he of could ha
who WAS simply attempting to attain his birth
right Of freedom. the same as you n Ould hiss
dog upon a wild beast That Was the Fugi-
tive law of 1850. 1t made every man. every
Northern man, dog; it put round his neck
collar and they did not have the decency to
put the mans name on the collar, but they
put the name Of ms master. I have said it ia
the state OF Maine several times, and / eX-
pect to say it several times again, although [
heard | outraged the religious sentiment of
the Democratic party and shocked the piety of
that organization by saying it laughter
did say there and I now say here that the
Fugitive law Of 1850 would have disgrsced
helm her palmiest days. Laughter At
the same time in nearly all of the western
states there was law by virtue of which hos
pitahty became indictable offense. There
was a law by virtue of which, charity
became a crime, and 8 man, simply
for an act of kindness exercised, could
be indicted, imprisoned, and fined. 1t was the
law VI 1ulNOiS. Ol sLdso, LuaE Il gave q
drop OF cold water or crust of bread to q
& poor fugitive from slavery, could be indicted,
fined and imprisoned. Under the infamous
slave law Of 1850. under the infamous black
laws of the Western States when the Repub-
Ican party was born if a woman. ninety-nne-
One-hundredtls white, had escaped from sia-
very carrying her child In her arms, had gone
through wilderness and tangle and swamp and
river, and finally got within one foot of free
soil, with the light OF the North star beckon-
ing her to freedom, it would have been an in
dictable offence to have given her drop Of
water and crust of bread. And under the
Fugitive Slave law it was the duty of the
Northern citizen claiming to be freedman TO
clutch that woman and hand her back to the
dominion Of the hound, the Democrat and
the lash. [Cheers.l What more? The in
stitution Of slavery had polluted and corrupted
the Church. not only in the SOUTH but large
proportion Of the Church IN the North, SO that
ministers stood up in their pulpits here
and in New England, and defended the
very laws that have mentioned. Not only so,
but the Presbyterian Church South in 1868 met
In General Synod and passed three resolutions,
two of which were, Resolved, That slavery
is a divine institution; Resolved, That God
raised up the Presbyterian Church South to
n protect and perpetuate that institution" All
I have to say is that il God did it he never
chose more Infamous instrument to carry out
more diabolical object. Laughter What
more had slavery done? Il had corrupted our
courts go that III nearly every STATE OF LnlS
Union if Democrat had gone to the hut of a
poor negro and shot down his wife and chill
dren before his very eyes and strangled the
babe in the cradle, his testimony was value
less, and he was not allowed to appear before
grand Jury and prosecute the wretch. JUS
tce to him was not only blind, but it was deaf,
and that was the idea of justice in the United
States when the Republican party was born.
BIRTH OF TIE REPUBLICAN PARTY.
When that party was born the bay of the
bloodhound was the music of the nation. The
dome of the Capitol at Washington cast its
shadow into slave pens IN which crouched and
shuddered mothers from whose breasts babies
had been torn by wretehes VINO are now for
honesty and reform. Then if poor negro
hsd titled ; farm and watered it with the sweat
of honest labor, and il a Democrat came along
and seized upon the result of his labor the
courts Of the United States did not know to
whom the corn belonged. [Cheersl And
when that question came to be tried the
learned Judges read all the books and all the
platforms of the Democratic party. ana
pushed their spectacles back on their noble
+ and expansive foreheads, and came to the con
clusion that the Democrats owned that corn
Laughter and applause.l At the time the
Republican party came into existence, slavery
Had vri4l harpr hut