The daily gazette., 1878-07-09
Gen, B. F. Buffers Fourth ,
Words of ReprOach Hurled nj
the Lovers of Freedom.
THE MEN WHO ARE CALLED COMMUNISTS
IN OUR DAYS DEMANDING ONLY
WHAT WAS DEMANDED BY THE
ABOLITION OF THIRTY

LEANS AtO.
NNwBURYPoRT, July 4.-The demon
stration OF the Greenbackers here TO-DAY
was attended by fully two thousand
persons, who We're enthusiastic. Gen
Is. f. Butler delivered the PRINCIPAL ad.
dress. He said: "More than one hun.
dred years ago our fathers found it nee
essary to unite to protect against wrong
and oppression, to disenthrall themselye es
from the measures of one King anu his
Ministers. Their children meet on the
same anniversary to see whether they
may not disenthrall themselves from
the expressions of a thousand kings and
their minlsters-the money klngs-Uhe
most powerful monarchs in the world to.
day. Their hands Iare heavier
upon us than those of King
George were upon our forefathers
Why is il that in a land where, in the
East, the storehouses are bursting with
the products of manufacturing industry
and in the West the granaries are over.
moving with the necessaries of life, there
Deing perfect communication between
those sections, there are many hungry
IN the East for the food that is in the
West, and men naked in the West for
want OF the clothes and shoes of tn.
East? The evil that causes this cannot
De reached by sporadic riots and vio-
ience. The starving men who made the
riots of last summer effected no allevia-
ton OF the public misery. Strikes are
below the dignity of American working
men. They belong to another country
and TO other institutions than ours. Our
remedy is the ballot. 'Communist'is is the
word of reproach applied to working.
men who see wrong in existing affairs
and believe in remedying them, as sAbo
huonists' was the word of reproach hurl-
ed at the men who struck for freedom in
N
same men who called the reformers OF
other days Abolitionists are calling the
reformers of to-day Communists. Com
munlsm in Europe is the desperate pro-
test of the downtrodden and oppressed,
and finds its vent in violent demonstra-
tions and vain endeavors. Here such a
course is unnatural. Our people have in
their own hands the power to mould
their condition. All they need is unity
and organization, and they will control
The legislation of our land has for many
years been exclusively in the interest OF
the rich and the few. Because those few
were rich, consequently powerful and
united IN purpose, they send their rep
resentatives to make the laws by the aid
of the votes of the betrayed people. Sew
en- years ago | introduced bill to have
the money of the country in the hands of
the Government and not in the hands of
corporations, and | was beaten by eight
votes, if remember Alright in the House.
But in the majority that beat me there
were more than siXty-tiVe bank dire ctors
and presidents, each of them voting in
his own interest, all sent there by work
ingmen's votes. You workingInen do
not send men to represent YOU"
Mr.. Butler then reviewed at length the
circumstances under which, in the hour
of national necessity, the greenback
came into being, and the means by which
capitalists, when it was at its lowest
value, were enabled TO convert il into
and non-taxable bonds,
together with other special legislation
for the benefit of the capitalists since
that time, the formation of national
banks, &c, all tending to undue ntiation
OF the wealth of the rich, and the shift
ing of all the burdens of taxation upon
the poor. He protested against being
called repudiator, saying that although
the bargain with the capitalists was an
infamous one, we were fools enough to
send men TO Congress who would make
it, and we should pay the penalty BY
making good their agreement.
From this he proceeded to consider the
peculiar course of legislation in Massa--
chusetts affecting her savings banks.
Then he said; 81 hold that every man
who has an honest employment, in which
he gives the best thoughts of his mind
VI thb bCot ihDOi Vi Ills 10 6dTu
support for his children and himself, is a
laboring man, working man. The man
who, by the eXertions of his father, or
some other relative, has inherited
wealth, and who does no work beyond
clipping coupons from bonds to be paid
by taxes levied on workingmen, call a
capitalist. Do you say there are no such
men? There are plenty of them. Let
me give you an Illustration OF them :
There is in New York a club called the
Tally-ho Club. 1t is composed of, l can
hardly guess how many members, be-
cause they never invited ne to any of
their entertainments, but l think they
have ten, four and six horse teams,
coaches, and they drive them on the high
road between two palatial horels, with a
hne-looklng man set up behind the
coach with a tin horn, or, IN this case |
believe it is brass bugle for what? And
who are they? They are all young men
of great wealth,of great literary culture,
all graduatss of colleges-all men who
have no other employment on earth but
to spend the income of their inherited
wealth. And all they can find to do is to
play coachman day by day for the fun of
the thing. They toll not, neither do they
spin; they are men of class that is
growing in this country, and they are, in
my jud- ment, class that ought to be
squelched. Applause
1ney are men tnat nave nothing TO do
on earth and do it every day Every
man in this country should have some
regular steady employment, for the good
of his fellowmen, and the more money a
man has, the greatest is his responsi bill
ty for the proper employment of that
money in some industrial or other enter
prise for the good of his race, and for the
men who do not do that the workingman
ought to vote to bring about a law to
make them do it, If L had my way, if l
had the power in the city of New York,
as L once had for short time, L would
set that class of meu to doing exactly
what they have shown they are tit for
driving broadway omnibuses from six in
the morning to nine at night, so that
they should have enough of playing
coachmen."
The General also reviewed at length
the history of the continental money If
this country, tracing the causes of its de-
cline in value. He repudiated the term
of inhationist, and said of the opponents
of the Greenback party; 'They are will
ling to sell all the bonds and subsidize all
the railroads, and do everything else that
can be done with money obtained on in
re rest hearing bonds of the TTuited States