The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1879-08-07

PRELIMINARY WORK.
Promptly at ten o'clock the Convention
was called to order by Hon. John G..
Thompson, as Chairman of the State Gem
trail Committee, who spoke as follows:
Before calling the Convention to order, l
desire to say, by way Of explanation, ]
found, this morning, very large number
tion who were not delegates. and of course
it would have been my pleasure to have
given tickets to everybody in the city who
desire to come here, but the hall was 80
small that it was an inpossibiity. The
main body of the hall simply seats the del
sgates to the Convention, and in the ar
.angement every delegate is provided with
a seat. Beyond that the only room left
was the stage and the gallery. The COM
mittee deemed It proper to not require any
tickets of admission to the gallery, but per-
init every person who desired to 60 Into
the gallery to be admitted without ticket.
Then there was room upon the stage for
about one hundred and fifty or two hum
dred people, including the officers Of the
Convention, the Secretaries, the Vice Pres
idents, and reporters for the press; and such
others as could get upon the stage. is
sued the tickets as nearly equitable as /
could, but l found this morning, crowds
surrounding me, and there was nothing
left for me to do but deliver up tickets to
every man who asked, and when they ran
out could not give any more, 30 that II
any others were little disappointed IN not
receiving tickets, ask forgiveness, because
ii was impossible for me to do more than l
have done on this occasion. [Applause.
I want to say one word more, that IN the
distribution of these 6ckets, so far NJ know,
there was no partially shown to any one
asking tickets. ] simply gaveto those who
asked me. would have gladly given to
all who desired them If it had been In my
power to do so. Cheers- l-,=.-
And now, before calling the convention
to order, and before announcing tenn
porary organization, as agreed upon BY the
State Central Committee, have only one
word to say. don't desire to detain the
convention by q speech, because you have
much to do, and the business Of the conven-
ton il the business which you came here to
transact, and not to hear remarks from the
Chairman Of the committee, and Hope that
in the selection of your ticket to day all per
sonal feelings and chickering's will be buried.
and the best interests Of the party conserved
by the placing In nomination ofa ticket that
viii be tiumphantly elected at the polls
next October. .lApplause. ,1 -
am satisfied, from the faces before me,
that the Democratic party of Ohio never
was more alive or more In earnest as to
their duty than ON this occasion; and con-
9ratulate the party of the State IN having
sent up an assembly Of gentlemen. of dele
gates, that are SO able to transact the busi-
ness of the party, and to put IN nomination
a ticket that every Democrat IN Ohio Will
support. [Great applause r.s .o5t.f.r...-'.
The State Central Committee have Sc
lected for temporary of6eers= Gen. james
B. Steedman, of Lucas county [Cheers1. fol
Temporary Chairman; for Temporary Sec
Ietary, Allen O'Myes, of Pickaway county.
[Cheers.] Assistant Secretary, Thomas
Riley, of Cuyahoga county, ECheers.J ~,
And now, gentlemen Of the convention,
have the pleasure OF Preeel6n9t to you
your Temporary ChanDans General James
B. Steedman, the fighting General and hero
of Chickamauga [prolonged cheers], who
Will say q few words to you concerning what
the fruits of the war are, 20 far as his OBJ
servation goes. [G1eat applause.]
SPEECH OF GEE1RALJA1CEsB B. sTEEDNAN.
General Steediaana having thus been m
troduced, came forward to the front0f the
stage, and, after the upuarious burst OF
applause with which the announcement Cd
his name was received had suhided some
what, spoke az follows sssts = l;s'.i :.
Democrats of Ohio IN Convention assem-
bled-I beg leaye, through you, to tender
to your committee my most grateful &C
knowledgements for the dising guished hon.
or conferred upon me BY presiding tempo
rarily over your deliberations IL Is an
honor of which any citizen OF Ohio might
feel proud; and / beg to assure .you that
esteem it the highest compliment ! ever
received in my life. (ApplAnse- Since
this Convention, the largest that has as
sembled in the State since the war, II at
tracing the attention of the entire people
of this country, and the patriots and lovers
of liberty throughout the land are looking
with he deepest so6citude upon the action
which You shall take here to-day, upon the
momentous issue forced upon the country
by the attitude of the Republican party,
Had the Conscxipt Fathers supposed,
when they were framing this Government,
that it would ever attempt to use the bayo-
net to oyerawe and mtimidate the people
and control their elections, the Constitution
of the United States would not have been
adopted, [Long continued applause.
Our Revolutionary Fathers were impelled
to the step which they took when they sep
arated from the Mother Government on
account of the use of the bayonets to do the
very thing with them which the Republican
party has been doing lnce the war, and is
determined to continue doing IN this coun-
Try. [Applanse.
This issue is forced upoA ms, and we are
determined to meet It. Our opponents in
this State have endorsed it, and present to
us the gage of battle. To deceive the peo-
ple as to the real, living issue before them
IN the coming campaign, they have avowed
their determination to reopen all the issues
Tof the war, and swing the 'bloody SHIFT
again in the faces of the people. They
have decided upon that. Well, the DenOe-
lracy of Ohio can well afford to mech that
issue with the Republican party. lCAeers.
The base ISLANDERS which thsy have
heaped upon the heroic -DemOcrats
who were sleeping IN soldiers eesves, a.d
whose bones are bleaching o. the battle
fields of the war Of the sbellibn. is to be
repeated in this canpsign. And they
have nominated their ticket with reference
to the couducting ef the campaign upon
that plank. They might have done better
Han to nominate Charley Foster to lead
hem in such a campaign. [Cneers and
auahter I Of course have nothing to say
tere to-day, personally, against Mr., Fos-
er, or Mr. Hickenlooper, or any other gen
hman ON the Republican ticket, as gentle
nen; deal only with them politically.
1 According to the published biography Ae
ais gentleman, Mr. Foster was twen+v
Rht years old in 1861, when the ~