The daily gazette., 1878-09-10
PENNSYLVANIA. .
Gen. Speer's Speech
AT McoNNELLsBURG, PA, ON FRIDAY.

10 listen 10 speeches from Senator Dill,
Chairman Speer, and Congressman Stem
ger. The crowd was an enthusiastic one
and eheered Justify as the three gentlemen
named appeared, while the entire place
was lively with flags and transparencies
bearing notices more or less significant.
Mr.. Dill in closing ms speech touched
upon the financial issue, charging the
origin of the greenback heresy upon the
and claiming that the Dem
ocratic party'is distinctively the party Sof
gold and silver.
The speech Of General Speer was the
event Of the occasion, and was evidently
intended to be the Keynote of the cam
paign in behalf Of Dill. He spoke sub
stantially as follows -
s...-... SPEECH OF MR.. sPEER.
From 1861 until this hour Pennsylva-
mia has had Republican Governor and
the nation Republican President. From
1861 to 1875 all departments of the Fed
eral OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES, executive
and iudicial--have been Republican,, and
the same is practically true of this State.
That party had but to speak and 1t was
done; to utter its decree and it became
law. With the purse of the nation in
the one hand and the sword in the other,
it bought Oh beat all opposition into the
dust. No political party since the birth
of free government has welded such
power and enjoyed such opportunities
No pestilence or famine has desolated the
land, but the earth during all this period,
with luxuriant bounty, has yielded her
wealth and her harvests to the touch Of
toll Why. then, should we not to-day,
In State and nation, be happy and pros
porous people? Why should not the air
be vocal with the music Of our industries
Why should not the millions of hands this
moment outstretched, willing and anxious
to work, find ready employment Why
should this land, blessed by heaven and
and rich in all the elements Of productive
labor, be turned into vast almshouse,
whose only echo is the cry for bread and
against whose portals the tramp stands
knocking day and night tor admittance !?
These questions and many others like
them the people ask, as they have a right
to ask, and they turn with anxious and
resolute purpose to the Republican party
and demand an answer. As their servant
charged with high duties, commanding
untold resources, and exercising, legally
or otherwise, imperial power, it is called
for Judgment upon the record made by
itself. Ii either faithless or incompetent
Its claim to public confidence should
perish.
What is our condition to-day, after al
most seventeen years of unbroken Re-
publican rule? 1t is not too much to say
that values have decreased one-third and
the debtor class, unable to meet their OBJ
legations after a long and desperate strug-
gle, have yielded to the. inexorable logic
of events and gone down in hopeless
ruin. need hotpoint you TO the endless
list of application Is for the benefit Of the
Bankrupt law, which Is now repealed.
For the last five years every hour that
the clock has struck, day and night. has
tolled the financial failure of an Ameri-
can citizen. Like death, the iron-heel
of disaster has crushed both high and
low. The manufacturer, giving employ
ment TO athousand men. and the country
merchant, providing for himself an hum
BILE support, have alike bowed bene ath
the fury of the storm and now lie pow
erless except to mark the path of its des-
olation. Driven by the Sheriff from q
home of their childhood and from the
their agony and beneath a starless' sky
they summon their oppressors. to the
Judgment hall.
Nj ore than thirteen years have elapsed
since the close of the war. The South,
FRUSTRATED and exhausted, addressed her
self to replacing the ravages of war with
the fruits of peace, but State after State
was overrun with cormorants and ad.
venturers, who fed upon disorder and
fattened upon plunder.- They secured
control of the local and State govern
ments and rioted in the substance OF the
people. In few years the debts and LA
bilitles of the eleven States that had en-
gagged In the Rebellion were increased
over $500, 900, 900. In Mississippi one.
ixth of all the land was sold for taxes.
If discomfort prevailed, the army was at
hand to deepen the oppression BY aiding
the oppressor. When these politica
vampires had loaded themselves with
plunder they would Zee thescene of theil
crimNs, not always uppunished by the
avenging minister of justice.
This policy, long supported BY the
Federal Government, entailed great bur
aily robbed, was unable to pay her share
| of our common debt, and the national
expenses were largely increased by main
| tanning an army whose only employment
was the maintenance of so-called State
| Governments, which rested alone not OF
| the popular will, but on the bayonet.
Strangely enough, carpet-bag rule ex
pired in its last gigantic scheme, AND
now these eleven Statesi under. rulers Of
their choice, are as peaceful as Pennsyi
yania, and their citizens, white and col
| ored, are as secure in their rights OF per
son and property as our own.
By reference to the Finance Report fol
1877. pages II and IL, it will be seen thai
the net ordinary receipts OF the Treasury
since the Republican party came into
power are 5,067 ,869, ,221 65, and II yor
will turn to the report of the Civil Ser
vice Commission, appointed 6y Presiden
Grant, of which George William Curil.
was a member, made to the Forty econe
Congress, you will find 1t estimated
athaf one-fourth Of the revenues OF the
i limited States are annually lost in tht
collecrion." Hence, If the five bilion'
recelyed represent but three-fourths o.
| tbe amount levied by. law, the remain
ine fourth, lost or stolen, but paid by tht
neonle. is 81, ,685, ,956, ,407 81, a sum reatel
fban the assessed value of all of tho pro
nartv. real and personal, in Pennsy vahia
and n sum, too, Mhich, with intere iron
The time it was collected, would more
4 than pay every dollar OF the nao' ona
ldebt. The payment Of taxes 10 never TN
most pleasant duty, but 1T becomes es
necialiy. hard In, these times, when TN
tax-nayers has every reason TO Dehey'
that out of every $4 paid by him Tor Tn