The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1877-08-18
SENATOR CONKLING.
HIS ARRIVAL AT HOME-wELCOME BY HIS
FRIENDS AND NfIGHBORS "A HIGHLY
PATRIOTIC SPEECH.

FRIENDS AND NEIGHBoRs HIGHLY
PATRIOTIC SPEECH.
Senator Conkling arrived at his home,
at Utica. N. V, on Tuesday evening.
The Utica Citizens Corps escorted him to
Boggs Square, where the militia and civic
organizations of Utica and the country
line. The route through Genessee, Hop
per and Rutger streets to Senator Conk-
hng's residence was brilliantly illuminated
and fireworks were displayed at all points.
The grounds around the residence were
handsomely decorated with Chinese Ian
terms and lighted with locomotive lamps
Senator Herman, in behalf of Utica and
Oneida counties, welcomed Mr.. Conkling
in brief but most friendly speech Sena-
tor Conkling responded, as follows:
SPEECH OF SENATOR CoNKLING.
If any man could fifty acknowledge and
respond to all this, am not he. Such a
welcome, such a magnificent manifestation
of goodness, of generosity, would be men,
orable in a life of usefulness and worth to
which | can lay no claim. Its most agree
able feature is the absence of party lines
Among those from whom it comes are
many who have differed with me in the
sharp political collisions of the past. For
more than twenty years we have engaged
in contests, often waged with heat and
ardor which have not always stopped,
fear with mere difference O. political
opinion. Tonight the bugles of party
sound truce, and you come as neighbour
and friend.
Twenty years is a great while. Since it
began, time, with his frosty fingers. has
cooled and silvered many brow, and can
say truly that no word, harsh or stinging,
toward political opponent ever passed
my lips which | would not to night gladly
recall. Speaking to Democrats no less
than to Republicans, speaking to the Or
ganization and to the individuals who have
bestowed all the trouble which this
demonstration attests, speaking to my
honest colleague in the Senate who has
come here to say eloquent and undeserved
words, speaking to all my voice can reach,
l render you the acknowledgment of IL
grateful heart, and return in measure
heaped up every sentiment of friendship
you can feel for me or mine. Di>claiming
the credit generally ascribed to me by Sen
ator Herman, | am glad of a public occasion
to refer to one of the most pleasing Incl
dents of my public service. During the
brief time that we have been colleagues in
the Senate we have been called to act on
questions of deep concern to the State of
New York, to every State in the Union.
In
ONE MEMORABLE INSTANCE
the country was in more imminent per
than you at home could fully realize; IN
danger of being disgraced before the world
and involved in connections, and in con
sequences which no citizen possessed of pro
perty, saying nothing of patriotism or
pride of country, could ever have ceas
ed to deplore. On this occasion and on all
occasions when the interest of our country
or our State were involved no political an
tagonism kept us apart. He will confirm
me in saving that there has never been an
hour wy we could not confer as freely
upon p Sneasures as if we had been
memb the same political party. If
city US havs entered the Senate belev-
ing men could be ardent party men
and jthe same time be patriots our as
soc ions would have undeceived US if we
ha mot undeceived ourselves. He is a
p tJty stauuch Democrat, but he never
seemed to be Democrat enough to believe
it would hurt his party to do right. trust
[ have never been Rupblcan enough to be.
lieve it a part of the Republican creed to
do wrong.
You may expect me to say someth ng of
my journey abroad. The truth is, was
homesick downright homesick. The farth-
er | went the more it seemed there was no
country like America, no State like New
York. No American can realize the pro
gress America has made till he goes and
compares it with other lands. Without
seeing other countries it is hard to realize
how bounteous nature and Providence have
been to us. We suffer uSt now from hard
times and depressed industries. You see
all this and more abroad. We think Eng
land rich in the ocean carrying trade. So
she is, but many of her best ships are idle.
Steamship lines, in some instances, alter
nate with each other. running only half the
time. Manufactures are depressed every
where. Workingmen here are dissatisfied
with wages, and unwise and lamentable
counsels have recently
LED TO LAwLEss ACTS
from which in the end no one will suffer SO
much as their authors abettors and those
they assume to represent. | wish they
could all go to France and England and
see the workmen and women there and
hear of the wages they receive. England,
excluding the twelve counties of Wales, is
not larger then the State of New York
1t contains "a, 900, 900 people. One or two
hundred men owns half of England
Their estates are princely reservations for
game and pleasure and opulence. One
man may ride thirteen miles in one direc-
ton and nearly as far in the other direction
on his own estate, and when be dies his
eldest son takes it all. The State of New
York has less than 5000, 600 people. Sup
pose there were five times as many, and
hay hot ha1 of ha Stnfn
up to the monopoly and pleasure of one
hundred and fifty noblemen. Suppose in
addition men and women labored in fields
and mines, and that the wages were only
those paid in England. Suppose only one
man in three had Il vote or voice in public
affairs, or in making laws, and that the
great body of workingmen were wholly ex-
cluded from oil part in choosing members
of the old house of Parliament in which
seats are not hereditary.
Then, suppose taxation to maintain a
standing army, in which commissions are
sold for money or given to sons or relatives,
and tithes taken to maintain au established
church in which livings are sold to the
highest bidder or bestowed as patronage,
what would the wnrkingmen of Pennsyl-
vania and Ohio think Of such conditions .
We arc all workinsmen in America. No
class has monopoly OF the right to call
itself the working class here. l have
always worked, and always been compelled
to work, and my sympathies are all with
honest labor. believe in it's dignity and
in its rights. But when tidngs of the
strike reached me in Paris under my eyes
was spectacle which seemed to heighten
the madness of what men in American
were doing.
THE GOVERNMENT OF FRANCE
was borrowing money, and on the curb
stone in the street set men all night to get
each his turn in the morning to invest in
the loan. They were workmen who, living
as workmen do not and need not live here
and working for wages which American
workmen would soorn, had, by hook or by
crook, saved fifty francs each. Fifty francs
make ten American dollars, and these all
night watches were there to buy ten
dollar bond, on which they were to get four
per cent interest. There set the working
men of France amid the luxury of the
fortunate, Gontepted with what fate had
sent him.
Can it be that liberty and prosperity have
spoiled any portion Of the American people
till thnv poppot an1ura thpir char in n