Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1878-08-30
SPEECH
HON. W. HI. WEST,
DELIVERED AT
Hamilton, O., Saturday, Aug. "a, 1878.
DELIVERED AT

CITIZENS OF BUTIER: Popular government is end
less and irrepressble conflict without the supren-
acy of rational laws there is neither rational liberty
nor social order The eternal vigilance necessary 70
maintain this is inseparable from eternal warfare.
While convictions differ, interests clash. or am
billions maehinate, this warfare must be wsged. To
grow weary in the fight or Indifferent to its results
= fatal. Either power viii usurp, or corruption
isermeate, or anarchy consume, II the people sleep
To this warfare of clashng interests and contend
ing opinions the destiny Of American institutions is
committed Again, for the hundredth time, the
oecks are cleared and the annual battle commenced
ON the 18th Of this month the great Burbon gun,
Thurman, opened fire on the Republican Sumter
n this harbor Of Democracy, and its Presidential
echoes are reyerbenating throughout the nation.
If they are ready for the onset?
They are always ready in fighting
Of on" those. Sc who. because they fail to
evangeize the nations abroad refuse to employ the
means Of grace at home but are always true to the
household Of faith bearing the ark of the covenant
before them. Why should they not beT Armed
with the right, just cause to battle for. success
within their power and the baneful results of Demo
cratic rule experienced, why should Republicans
Eulk in their tents like Achilles, and refuse 10 DO
right, because Agamemnon is thought to have done
Wrong9 Suffrage is not given to be thus made
mockery. il is right the most sacred Whlcn he-
publicanism has bestowed on universal manhood, to
the end that the government Of the people snail be
maintained by the people, not neglected.
But not more sacred is the right than is the obli
CATION TO exercise it. To obstruct prevent it by
force or fraud crime against liberty Is it less
crime TO Jeopardize liberty and the common veal by
'ment and overthrow of Republieanism by the der
ringer and shotgun in Mississippi, shocked the
Ss1Ss and DID sc'ff tRs swell fhe bears
OF ofRepublicans with just pride. when by their self
imposed disfrancisement the institutions ana nonor
of Ohio passed into the keeping of steedman Owen,
O'Connor & Co.? When, because their banner
ceased TO be borne aloft by the bayonet above the
Pelican and palmetto they also suffered II Dy WITH
holding the ballot, tobe lowered IN disgrace from
ShaII ms policy Of inaction this mastery mac
tiyity" be continued. and overcome us like sum
mer cloudT' What fruit has it borne 70 us already2
The answer is brief as it is humiliatng-the afie
ton of the State with the OConnor legislature and
its hideous brood Of iniquities. military non-in-
tervention permitted conclave of sinners more
Nichols the proposed impeachment of the President
by the Essex porcupine is not without reason; its
existence could have had place in The divine pur
pose but to exempfy the doctrine OF total depavty
and give the country foretaste OF what II may ex
pect from Bourbon rule in case it should be so un-
fortunate as TO experience such calamity.
Obtaining power under professions OF economy,
reform and honest government, its practices are on
the principle that TO the vctors belong the spoils
For these Il is aragned the bar of public opinion
awaiting the verdict of approval or condemnation.
THE PUBLIC WORKS.
Previous to 1851, the public works had been the
plunder ground of jobbers and the spoil of political
hacks. Year after year the canal lobby, hungry as
the lean kline of Pharaoh infested the Legislature,
and corruption dominated its halls. The regime Of
Hamiin, Cooper Medberry & Co. became stencil
IN the nostris Of the State From these it was di-
vorced in that year by lease Of the works. since
which time that lobby has ceased to rule BY their
contract the lesees were bound to restore the works
at the end Of twenty years in q thorough condition
OF repair. This Legislature relieved them from that
obligation, took the works of their hands in con-
dition hardly fit to float canoe, and turned them
over to the State again to become the punder ground
of the jobber and the spoil of partisan service.
and to once subordinate legislation to muSkrat
rule. Thirty thousand dollars, wrung from the
-weat Of tax burdened people, have been already
paid the lessees for their decayed implements and
dlspidated dredges with which % begin the work OF
repair. How many times $4,000 will be engulfed
by this vortex in the future only be judged of
BY the past
THE BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS
Those temples Of refuge, the curative, benevolent
and charitable institutions OF the State have been
the pride OF our people, 10 which their unfortunate
children were intrusted with an abiding confidence
tion and care experience, skill, and the knder i'm
pulses of humanity could bestow; but that conf
dence has been changed to distrust. that pride to
shame. They were founded to be asylums for the
afflicted children of the whole people and not to be-
come the stake of political gambling Through all
the vicissitudes of political fortune the noble pur-
pose of their founders had saeredy protected them
from partizan spoliatio1, and held them in the
keeping of unSeiiSh devotion. But what signi6ed
this 10 the DantOns of the new dynasty? Reckless of
the fact that they curative ssylums for relieving
aflcton and healing indrmity, they are dealt with
only the qualifications of the turnkey the baihff,
and the butler; and Skill eminent ability,
could exempt their efhcient and unselish officials
from Jacobin prescription His three and twenty
years Of devotion could not save the veteran Gun
dry. and the accomplished Rutter is pushed aside
for the Confederate carpet bagger whose experience
of mental infrmity is chiefly derived from rehec-
ton in his own mirror, and his eommendation that,
as regimental surgeon in the Confederate army,
more rebels fell by his skill than in battle.
THE ORPHANS HOME
The vandalism practiced on the Home of the sol
dier's orphan merits especial reprobation. Some
acts of baseness have become historic Judas Isca-
riot betrayed his God with kiss. The slaughter of
been BEEN given protection and hospitality The The
snake stung It's 6eneiacVor' who had
But It was reserved for a1 Ohio Legislature to 8OsSm P
nish an instance which in meanness obseures them
all-robbing the dead soldiers widow of the mite
which nations gratitude bestoWs the condition
of admitting the dead hero's child to the Home
which the States gratitude has reared. There shall
be received and continued in the Home only the
destitute children above twelve years OF age such
soldiers and sailors who fell died of wounds re-
and pay into It's treasury pension on account Of
such death. This is the provision of baseneSs Was
the liberty Of country for which MCPHERSON died,
the liberty to dishonor his native State? Did Lytle
and McCook and their $1,000 comrades shed their
blood for the State that it might furnish their
lambs? Their so 600 surviving eompsnions in hero
ism VIII respond in October
THE eKRRYMANDER.
:. The disfranchisement OF 100000 Republicans of
the State by the gerTymsnder of its Congressional
districts in such manner that the Democracy
With with minority ss1Gr. ton-+.a Of the popular vote
members, making gain of ive is an invasion Of
popular rights which the people not afford to
approve. II is not question of mere partisan
snartness or local concern, but one of vital mo
ment, in which not only the people of Ohio but Of
the whole country are profoundly interested. 1t
strikes down the principle of government by major
ities and denies 70 integral portion of sover-
eign State It's due weight and proper voice in the
councils Of the nation. Shall 1t be crowned with
success or Indignantly rebuked? II effects, under
the forms and color of law in Ohio what is accom-
plished in Mississippi and other Southern States by
1aHless violence. When it is desired there to
come majorities, gain few members of Congress,
the shot gun policy is employed to diminish Repub
ucan votes. Here legislation is so shaped that Re-
publican votes shall not count The result is, in
both cases. virtually and in effect the same-bul-
doing and disfranehsement-and springs from the
same desperate spirit 1t is the outgroWth OF Ku
Kluxsm taking root in the soil of Ohio. and threat
ening to sap the foundations of representative gov
eminent
KU KLUX SHIRT
From this crime against liberty in Ohio which has
purpose reaching above and beyond mere local
significance, as shall presently show public, atten-
ton Is sought 70 be diverted until crowned with sue
cess in October by the stop thief cry of Democracy
over their Presidential discontinue in louisiana
This is its bloody shirt 1t is not one colored in
the crimson of martyred patriotism in the blood Of
heroic sacrifice in the gore of assassinated rights.
but Ku Klux shirt dyed in the murkv fiuid ~ tha
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