The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1879-10-08
- DE OH
HON. L. Q. c. LAMAR.
Made at Oxford, Monday, Sept. %.

/ who heard il delivered. As il has been prepare
| entirely from memory, THE gentleman no
. having taken any notes and owing to GU
anxiety 10 lay it before the readers of our pres
ent large edition, there has been no Ntlme L
send il 10 Mr.. Lamar for revision, il should no
be taken strictly accurate, but only Tor wha
it is-a report from memory.-Nicksburs
Herald.
SENATOR LAMAR spoke al Oxford on Monday
10 a llr-e audience Of his fellow-citiZeus of that
anu dining counties His speech, talk as
he styled II, less ornate ana impasSione ed
than his utterances usually are, but fun OF
big thoughts and patriotic ideas, and made a
profound impression upon his hearers ON the
subject OF finance he exposed the boundless,
! bottomless and brainless schemes of the Green
back party, and said however they might delude
/ for time, they would eventually entail ii put
into practice, the direst calamites from which
this country had ever vet suffered. He illus
trated in many WAYS the utter futiitv of the fat
money idea, and said Of ali humbugs this was
the most senseless and unfathomable in the
extent of its folly. He read from Calhoun ;
! works the utterances of that statesman which
/ had been quoted by Greenbaekers in support
| of their theories and demonstrated blythe con-
| text and by his unmistal1ble convictions else
| where repeatedly expressed, that Mr.. Calhoun
| never countenanced any money not convertible
| into coin, and that good faith TO the creditor
was with him one OF the cardinal principles of
| Governmental finance. He reviewed the record
| of the Democratic party ON themoney question:
showing that il had been uniformity true to the
| faith of the fathers. He cited Washington,
| Jefferson, Madison, Patrick Henry, Calhoun
and Others great statesmen, who had been
| identified with agriculture, and all whose SYM
pathies and interests with the farming
j people, and who had vet left beacon lights to
warn us against the perils of an irredeemable
| currency. No would say they were the
! servile tools of a money power.
Referring to his own course and position
| finances, he said-that eight years ago man in
Mississippi had less thought than he Of again
| being in public life. But suddenly the action
and platform of a Convention of men calling
themselves liberal Republicans, held at Gin
cinnati, opened to him vista of hope. He
thought he saw an opportunity for the South to
regain its proper place IN the Union upon the
conditions put forth by that Convention and
that he could do something towards that end.
There was an universal acceptance by the South
OF the terms proposed, the main features Of
which were three: An Acknowledgment of the
perpetuity of the Union; the acceptance of the
war amendments 10 the Constitution; and the
payment of the public debt to the last farthng
and the sacred maintenance of the public faith
and public credit. The Baltimore Convention
| endorsed these principles of the Liberal plat
form, and acquiesced in the nomination of the
Liberal candidates
In the election which followed, the Southern
States obtained for the first time, representa-
tion in the United States Congress. He
chosen as one of the representatives, from Mis-
sippi. He entered Congress with these condi
tions of readjustment fresh in his mind, and
promises and professions in relation thereto
fresh upon his lips, and he had never lost sight
!
speak of the part he took in the debates OF that
Congress, but an eminent statesman of the
East, Mr. Hoar, of Massachusetts, in a polit-
cal article recently pub. ished had said that
his utterances in behalf of the people of the
South, had done much to change the animosi-
ties of a generation into sympathy and kindness
In that Congress the South was upon trial
through her representatives,, and though the
Administration party relentless in its
measures of suppression, the result OF that trial
was such that the South entered the next Con
gress with increased representation and the
! Democratic party with majority of the lower
| house. Preliminary to the assembling Of that
! Congress, Democratic causes was held and he
was made its Chairman. He delivered an
address outlining the policy which would mark
| the measures of that party, in which he pledg-
| ed anew, in the strongest language to fidelity
! to the Constitution with all its amendments; to
| Il sound currency; to speedy return to specie
payments; to the faithful payment of the pub
| lie debt and TO the sacred maintenance of the
public faith and credit He quoted from his
address that occasion and read some ex
| tracts from leading newspapers of the country,
| North, South, East and West applauding his
utterances-amongst others one from the Dem
ocratic organ of Mississippi, strongly laudatory
| in its terms and which he said he valued for
| more reasons than one. He then quoted from
| the Democratic platform made at St. Louis in
| 1876 to show that that platform pledged the
! tire party TO the identical principles enuncia-
! ted in his caucus speech, which had been at
| the time accepted as authoritative exposition
| of the party policy, and threw in that, in the
! meantime, with these utterances fresh upon his
| lips, h 4ad been unanimously elected by the
Legislature of Mississippi to the United States
Senate. In that body it became his duty to
vote upon measures of finance which presented
substantially this question: Shall the public
deht Oh the United States be paid in money of
less value than the money which in use by
| the Government at the time the debt was con-
tracted and which the creditor had reasona-
Bile right to expect to receive in payment?
These measures for the first time in the his
tory of the United States brought it's good
faith into question and debate at home and
abroad, and in determining his own duty with
reference to them he confronted with
these pledges and promises on the part of the
people of the SOuth-this record of the terms
| of her restoration to the Union-tnis parole of
honor which was the condition of restoration
| Nay, more than this, he was confro ted with
her proud record in war, and in peace, from
| the formation of the Government down to the
present time with the names of her iiustri-
| Gus sons adjoining and Frightening every page
| of the nation 8 history. All was without spot
or stain-so full of honor, truth ana glory,
! that he could never rise III his place in the
| halls of Congress without feeling his pulses
bound with new life in the consciousness
| that he part and parcel of that grand
| commonwealth of manhood, intellect and pa
| triotism. With these pledges upon his own
| and his peoples, lips; and with this history
| (of all the wreck of the war, the only heritage
| that is left u.s. committed in part to his keep
| ing, what was he to do, but soto vote tore
deem the one and to preserve untarnished the
| other. With his convictions upon the charac-
| ter and tendency of the proposed legislation
| land their correctness had been abundantly
verified, no other course was possible
Upon one point however he had been much
misunderstood he was advocate of BIZ
metallism, as any one could see who would
read his speech on the silver bill. and stood
pledged to favor the unlimited coinage Of sill
yer whenever the silver dollar is N ade equal in
| value to the gold dollar. Now that the silver
| policy has entered upon, without that interna-
| tional action which he considered necessary to
b - mat NJ F1,1 L.
should do what he could to make it a success
| but should also do all in his power to have the
standard of the silver dollar ra sed uAtil it shall
| be equal in value tQa gold dollar all over the
world. Those who had eontended that this would
| be accomplished by its mere reconciliation
| had been mistaken, as 1t is now worth relative
| ly TO gold, only ninety cents.
| With reference to his course on the Electoral
| Commission BiII-thc Southern men who sup
| ported that measure could not be reproached
| BY any fair-minded man. The most marked
| feature of that great struggle was its section
| al character. Upon the issue presented the
States were ranged in almost the same order
| as that of the war, which was itself scarcely
| a greater crisis in the affairs of this country
A solid South was confronted by an almost
| solid North. Those who think The Republi-
| cans were not resolved on maintaining their
| position knew little of the temper of the lead
ers of that party-backed as they were by the
| Administration, with the army and the navy
and by overwhelming Northern public
| sentiment One of them. Mr.. Morton opposeG
the Electoral Commission, because he said
| without it the Republicans already had the
| game in their own hands and with 1t they
| ght lose it. 1t was a Democratic measure
| and was supported BY such men Thurman
| and Bayard who had been faithful to the
South in all eonjunctures. The South had no
voice in originating it and for her to have
| opposed, it would have been to place herself
| in a position of great danger. Such was the
| situation that if an issue of force had been
| preci pitated it would have been charged to
| the South of which it would have been said
| ''she marks her return to power with a return
| to arms and blood, and the North would have
| swept down upon her with fury and thirs-
| for revenge the horrors of which no imaginat
| ton can paint. They may talk Of audacity
| and courage and of 8 resort 70 arms who know
nothing of civil war He should ever thank
God that in that time he gave him another sort
| of courage TO put aside all thought of self, all
vain gloriousness, and to think only of the