Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1878-08-01
EX.GOV. WOODFORp'S SPEECH
AT THE
Republic an State Convention.


greet YOU to-day defenders of the nation S
faith, as in the dark days gone by you were the
defenders of the nations life.
greet you to-day, friends in the best sense. of
labor and the laboing man, as in the dark DAYS
gone by you were tue true friend of labor, when
you STOOD for freedom a. being national and
slavery a. only sectional. applause
You have done me great honor in asking citi
zen of distant State to take part in your debate
The only return | can make for your confidence
and courtesy is to speak honestly and plainly.
A along the path that we have come since thu
spring OF 1861 there are wreck and loss aud suf-
ferng. We saved the nation at cost of blood
and treasure simply terrible. We have steadily
striven to be honest at a cost that has been very
severe. We shall only reach the sare ground Of
specie resumption by fidelity, an integrity and
possibly a suffering, that will test the manhood OF
this people just as Its manhood has been tested
during all the seventeen years that are gone.
(Applause.)
standing 10 contemplation OF such loss and su f.
fering; thinking Of factories idle or running but
on partial time; thinking of fortunes wrecked /;
knowing hststo-day many man in this land Is
living on one1blrd and one quarter of what he
ned aud had to live on 10 and IL years ago /:
knowing how mauy are actually in want and hun
ger; do not dare to meet the issue that confronts
simply with smooth words. There have been
sickness and suffering in the body polite; there
are sickness and suffering 10 the body polite.
1t is hard thing to pay debt. 1t means hon
esty. 1t means industry. 1t means frugality, and
these things are but the echo of the primal curse
that 10 the sweat OF mans brow man must eat his
daily bread. 1t is very hard thing to pay great
debit. and have not come TO prophecy smooth
thipgs or to utter honeyed words. (Applause.)
This nation is sick with irredeemabe paper
currency, bssed debt and not on coin. We
need radical and sure cure. We need heroic treat
ment, the wise physician, possibly the surgeon.
Aud have not come to prescribe nostrums and
plead for quacks aud quackery. (Applsuse)
Now 20 back in thought over the path that we
have come. The republican parry started as Sen.
ator Hamlin-no, love better to call him by that
other name, that links the CONVENTION of to-day to
the memory OF the past, our old Y ice PresiIe ut
| 1amlin OF the Lincoln time. (Long cheers }
The republican party started for purposes of right
and not of policy When be spoke to day for
honesty, he but echoed the biih-cry of the repub-
lican party. (Cheers.) We started with an ad-
ministratiou against us. We started with one OF
the old parties dead and the other surrendered to
the power OF slavery. When Senator Hamn re-
signed his seat in the United States Senate and
took your nomination for governor, and appealed
to the conscience of this people, you overture "
the powers that were. You sustained the repub-
can party in being ri hit and the nation in striving
to De free. (Applause.)
Whenever this parry of yours a d mine shall he
false to that original purpose of conscience,
in which it was born, this republican party Will
not only die, but 1t ought to die and be buried out
of sight. (App.ause.) Whenever this republican
party comes TO be an organization SIMPLY for the
purpose OF getting and distributing official spois,
then the republican party has outlIved its useful
ness and should pass from the face of the earth
| (Applsuse.)
so long as there are vital principles that affect
the welfare of the people; so long as there are
questions that touch the interests Of labor; that
touch the condition of the poor that touch the
| -pndles. the business, the commerce Of this
country, the republican patty has but one duty
aud that is TO be on the right side of such ques-
tons (Applause) When it stands upon the
wrong SIDE II should be buried and your votes and
mine Will be the spades to cover it from sight.
Appause.)
Let US 90 back from this TO that hour when our
party had its birth thus cousecrated to the idea of
| ioelty. Fidelity to that idea involved when the
| rebellion came, a second purpose and that was the
purpose of loyalty. The party which had said
that the nation should be free then stepped to the
| front and said the nation shall live. (Applause \
To-day another question comes, and the party that
was born to make the nation free and that existed
that the nation might live, says that the mis-
SION OF the republican party is to administer
this government as that the dollar that uuderlies
all fat traffic all exchange Of produce, all educs-
ton and all culture, that this dollar shall be an
honest dollar, worth dollar the world over.
| (LOng applausc.)
| DO any think st lte the issue aud need of the
| hour too strongly
This government may have bad administration
yet You may be happy in your home and | may be
| at rest IN mine. IhIs government may have bad
admiDist alton aud yet you and may fnd place to
| earn money and so to get our honest living. This
| government may have bad administration and vet
all the processes of trade and society of the store
aud the bank, the counting room, school house
aud church, may go on peacefully side by side
But if you rob labor by paying labor in
that which is not money; if you invite
reckless speculation by injecting into the com
and traffic Of the land that which is not the
[ b IL .th and of
tempt by law 10 make something out of nothing and
to leg,sate that gas Is solid earth then have YOU
broken up the very foundations of society. Gap
plause.) The laborer is falsely paid. Initiation
comes. Fortunes seem to rise. The bubbles
float, rridescent before mems eyes, and they
say how bright and beautiful is ali this. Al
last the bubbles break and there are paralysis aud
disaster the broad land over. (Applsuse.)
But, say you, did not your party create the
greeDback Yes. Did not your party clothe il
with legal tender quslityi Yes Did not your
party force II AS the basis of national banking and
Of ali exchange and business Yes. Aud why
Back In those dark days, during the war for
which we were not responsible, when treason had
Rripped the nations life, when we had exhausted
our resources, when We had borrowed and begged
aud taxed to the last limit, we then printed the
government credit ia form OF treasury notes. We
gave those treasury notes legal tender quality.
Aud Why The nation had no coin. Tue gov
erumeut gave them to the soldiers in the field, to
men who furnished the supplies at home. These
soldiers, had wives and little ones. These needed
; bread. clothing, shelter. SO the government