Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1879-08-08


by thus attempting to force an eigtty-fve cent |
dollar on the laboring man you swindle him |
out OF one hundred and eighty millions of |
dollars year. The amount which the pro
ducing class would lose is absolutely incal- |
culable. Now, Mr. President, It will be seen, |
that made no allusion whatever to any leg |
islation that preceded this present session of |
Congress, and It will likewise be seen that l |
arragned them for attempting to do that |
wicked thing. was misapprehended. Now, |
let those who say was in the wrong, tell me |
whether they are in favor of the original War |
neI bill, which placed the free coinage of all |
the silver that the world might present to be |
coined at the mint of the United States. The |
very moment you issue those silver certificates |
you do away with n bimetalllc tender. The
very moment you issue those silver GER |
titcates that are worth eiphty-tive |
cents on the dollar, that moment the
labOring man, the raiser of wheat, the
producer of every product, receives eighty
five cents and no more, and gold becomes
mere article of traffic To-day the labOring
man can take gold, or silver, or bank-notes,
or Treasury notes, and IL is perfectly inmate
rial which he takes Do away with these and
he must take silver coin, whether he would or
not. A distinguished citizen of Wisconsin,
who has been making a great ado upon this
same question, applied TO one of your Judges
I am talking now about Wisconsin-to
know whether he would not Join in this silver
amendment He took the bill and looked it
over; says he; "With one amendment
think will Join you" Says he; "What is
| thatln Said he: "That every man who makes
a legal-te Of $1,000 in payment Of note,
shall give a mule to carry It away with" You
Will understand that 81, 900 weighs GO pounds
| $4,000 60C pounds, Sl00 900 5000 pounds, and
81 ,0O00 900 weighs 10000 pounds, or 30 tons
Now they want to force the laboring man,
the farmer, the mechanic and the purchaser
| Of every kind to take this silver money for the
sole benefit of the owners of the bullion. Mr..
| Chicago paper are you In favor Of the original
Warner billl
You will pardon me, fellow citizens, because
| II is personal, for this little interruption, IL
had time would like to talk finance to you
and almost anything else, but ! am talking
about the twenty-ifth anniversary of the for
nation of the Republican party. Now, what
has this great Republican party donei 1t has
been in existence for twenty-five years, and
what has 1t donei Well, fellow-citizens,
what has it not donel In the first place,
| it fought the war through and saved your
| Nation. 1t did that, didn't i'll Well, after
| the war was over certain Democrats of the
COpperhead school and persuasion advocated
| repudiatiOn of our National debt, or, in other
words, to pay it off in greenbacks and all the
| Nations on earth said "These people will
| fight, there is no doubt about it they have
shown it In the Mexican war; they have shown
1t in the war for the preservation of their
| Government, but they will never pay their
debts, and no Nation that votes its own taxes
will ever pay its debts.n The Republican
party, think, and every moral Democrat
| stood up and said "We will show you that
we value our National honor higher than we
! value our National life, even, and we have
| gone on ever since the close of the rebellion
paying off our National debt faster than any
man on earth could count the money. Three
| Thousand millions OF the five thousand mill
| ions that we expended has been paid. We ex-
pended $1,000, ,000,0 600 and more than 100000
| precious lives to save this great Government
! and now this people assert that all of that
vast treasure and all of those precious lives
were expended for naught, and that there is
not yet union upon this continent to call the
United States of America.
! say, fellow-citizens, therefore, that We
saved the National life and the National
honor, but what was the situation of the Gov
| ernment when this great Republican party
came into powerI
| have shown you how we stood as to arms
| and to money, to ships and to material, but
what has the Republican party donei 1t came
into power In 1861, when your treasury was
bankrupt, and, as l said before, when your
arms were scattered and your ships wete scat
tered, and it took this Nation when 1t was in
the very lowest depths of humiliation. This
was the condition of the Nation when the Re
publican party took the reins of Government.
We took the reins on the 4th of March, 1861.
| We borrowed all the money that we could bor-
| row to pay our soldiers during the year 1861.
The time came when We could borrow no more
money, and there was time when we owed
$40, ,000, 900 for food, clothing and supplies for
our army, and when we owed our poor soldiers
from two to four months deficiency of pay,
and we had not one solitary dollar in the
Treasury of the United States to pay our hon
est debt. Then the question was, What
shall we do nextW Well, fellow-cltizens,
will tell you what we did do. We came out
frankly, and said to the people of the United
States: 1--WE have no money, and we can bor-
row no more money. We have this vast army
in the field. Win you trust us for food and
clothing, for pork, beef, potatoes and flour!
VIII you trust us, and take our promises to
payl FOR in no other way can we carry on
the war;" And with one accord, from North
to South, from every nook and corner
of this great country, came up responses
"Take anything, take everything, take all
that we have got, and give us your promises
to pay, and pay whenever you get able, and
thus and there started the Greenback party.
l don't want anybody TO claim the paternity
of the Greenback party, because was there
myself when that child was born. / acted as
both wet and dry nurse to it, and no man
shall claim the paternity of that thing. We
, did issue, and we continued to issue, and the
Republican party Is responsible for the issu-
ing of greenbacks, and they were responsible
to fulfill that pledge the very moment they
were able, and they did redeem its pledges in
coin of the realm. The time came on the 1st
of January, 1879, that we were able to redeem
that last pledge given in the hour of extremi-
ty to the people of the United States, and the
very moment Jue uay came we ulu resume
specie payments, fulfilled the last pledge ever
, given to pay in the coin of the realm our OBJ
legations, and specie payment has come to
stay.
J AS l said moment ago, we took care OF
this Nation. When its credit was 80 low that
it found no purchasers for its bonds, we car
ried it successfully through the war, and we
have carried 1t successfully since the war.
! While there was no purchaser for your bonds
in 1861 at any price, to day your four per cent.
! bonds are selling at 1922 in the markets OF
the world, and the credit of these United
other Nation on earth save one. And yet, fel-
low-citZens, you say that this party, having
fulfilled its conditions it ought to die. The
mission OF the Republican party is ended, and
it ought TO die. Well, llowctizens, II there
J ever was political party that was prepared to
! die, II is the Republican party. But my fel-
} low-eitiZens we have made other arrange
, ments The great Republican party, whose
) twenty-tifth anniversary We celebrate, has ac.
complished more In that twenty-five years OF
its existence than any other political party
that ever lived on earth has accomplished IN
a thousand years. 1t is the only party that
9 ever existed on earth for twenty-five years
thatat the end of that period could not point Il
Q one single solitary unfulhlled pledge. defy
[ the worst enemy of the Republican party has
{ to name one single pledge that was ever made
. by the Republican party 1t has not to-day full
= filed to the letter. We promised to save youl
vast IefflJOTles from tnc DllBnJlng curse Ol
e human slavery, and we not only saved your
4 vast territories from the blighting curse but
. we wiped the curse out of existence from the
r continent of North America. We pledged
: ourselves TO give you homestead law, ant
: we gave it to you. We pledged ourselves u
! build the Pacific Railroad, and we did. W.
( pledged ourselves TO give you an agriculture
n college land bill, and we did It. Every
4 single pledge given has to-day been fulfilled
, by this great Republican party, and ye
y Notwithstanding all that they say that you
: mission is ended and therefore you ought /,
!. die. And who are the men who thus ute
r these anathemas at the Republican party
e Aye, they are the men who rejoiced at ever
4 Union defeat, and who mourned over ever
!, rebel defeat. They are the menwh said tina
; your greenbacks were not worth the paper ol
s which they were printed. They are the mel
l. who said your bonds would never be paid, an
now they say right here in your town: 90
q let bygones be bygones; les us forget tn