The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-08-14

such DOCK as Blackstone or any of the books of
the law. Those who knew his early life say that
he took an old wooden fre-shoyel' and Whitfield
OIL Its rough handle, and wrote sentence bv SEN
fence the declaration of Independence until he
hSd written 1t fully, and then the next night
whtted II OH and wrote again until his own
hand had recorded again and again. and his
heart had gathered the immortal lessons Of that
mighty instrument And when he was called
TO TO the mead OF this great Republican party, on
the way to his death, standing in old indie
pendence Haul, where the document first saw
the light, filled withits inspiration, he uttered
this immortal and yet safely prophetic senti-
ment: For the support of this Declaration,
and the Government founded under it. would
willingly 60 to my death, as he did. say that
Abraham Lincoln, with such life and such in
SEPARATION, representing in himself all that was
deep down IN the hearts of the American peo-
pie, becoming the representative of
our hrst success as national party under our
new revival, was one of the glories of this
party that It's followers ought never to forget
And now you have heard the review 40 we'll
done that I will pass lightly over it except to
say this: The promises that the Republican
party made on this ground twenty-five wears
ago, and, later, in 1856, at Philadephia, and
since IN It's platforms, have been fulfilled more
literally, more completely, than the promises
OF any political party of which / have read.
What were they? We can best tell what they
were by recountng for d few moments the enc
mics they made, for you know ideas fight even
harder than gods or men, Put two antagon-
lstc Ideas III the arena together, and let the
world look on, and the immortal conflict will
begin. 1t may last through ages, but the truth
will triumph at last Now let us look at some
OF the ideas that the Republican party confront
ed in its first great fight in 1860 What idea
met it in the arena? The Democratic party
met it with two ideas, the first the doctrine of
the Dred-Scott decision, that slavery had a
right under the constitution to go anywhere the
flag floats, in spite of the citizens there: Do
you believe that to-day? Is that idea alive in
Wisconsin? No. Is there Democrat to-day
that believes the Dred-Scott decision and the
Breckinridge theory of politics of 1860? Not
one. It is dead. And the Douglas idea that
the citizens of Territory might have slavery.
if they wanted it, do you believe that here
among the hills of Wisconsin to-day? No. Is
there man so blinded by party prejudice any
where in the Democratic party as to saw that
he believes that idea to-day? If there be one
in this great audience, let him speak.
for have misrepresented him. There
is none. 1t has gone. Yet every Democrat
that voted at the Presidential election in 1860
voted for one Or the other of those two ideas.
for they constituted your whole fight You
threw the whole power of your party into their
defense. Aren't you glad they are dead? If
you are glad, then you are glad that the Re-
publican party defeated you at that election.
and believe In my soul as citizens you are
glad What next? Eleven millions Of your
party held the doctrine Of State rights to the
extent of saying that you could secede from the
Union and break in pieces, and II, 100000 of
you said you would do it. Do you now be-
ieve in the doctrine of secession? Where is
that doctrine? 1t died, burned to death amid
the blazing rafters of the Confederacy. and no.
body but some of the Confederate Democrats
would have brought it back out of the ashes of
death, and revived it in Congress. It was found
necessary to destroy slavery. What did your
party say to that? Every Democrat in Con-
gross and in every State Legislature voted
against the Thirteenth amendment to abolish
slavery. Are you glad of that vote to-day?
Dc you stand by it? Do you want slavery re-
stored in this country? If you don't. then
come to the party that defeated you when you
did all in your power to save it alive. The
Fourteenth amendment-did you favor it?
Not one. The Fifteenth? Not one. Has
there been a great achievement of the last
twenty-five years that your party did not fight
to your uttermost? Let me 20 further Is
there an intelligent Democrat in this audience
that will to-day tell me of great national
idea thatyour party has put forward since 1854
that you believe in to-day? They have
believed in them all as they proposed them, but
any one great national doctrine they have held
to three consecutive years in line? don't
speak now to banter or get any personal ad-
vantage of anybody in the audience, but look
out into the Democratic pasture, and I don't
see q 3-year-old issue-nOt even 2-year. old
one. What they have done one year they have
denounced the next. How is it when you 60
over into the Republican party? Take their
great doctrines one by one, and are they dead?
n 0rQF RI aH in ~ L,s
that they have achieved the purpose and fol,
lowed the way of victory like banner, to be
kept forever for the glory it has won But they
are not dead as defeated issues. We said, in
1854, there should be no more slave territory.
and there never has been foot added since we
said, in 1856, that there should be no extension
of slavery anywhere, and that is true forever
We said slavery should die, and it has died.
We have said that freedom should be the uni
versal rule both as to civil and political rights,
and this doctrine CLEANS with eternallife. They
have been lifted up into our armament, wherein
they shine like stars forever and ever-beyond
controversy, above political parties, above
Congress, cleaning down upon the genera
tons with eternal light, to remain there while
our political armament stands. I am not
among those that glorify the Republican party
and say that it has not made mistakes 1t is
made up OF human beings, and, therefore, of
falllble ones. 1t has made mistakes, as ill po-
Itical parties have; but when you deduct from
its frailties the percentage of mistakes which
it ought to be entitled to make, am ready to
hold to-day that it has made fewer mistakes
and accomplished more good than any party
whose record is known to this country It has
been a brave party. Remember that when the
Democratic party handed over this Govern
ment it only surrendered about half of it to
Mr.. Lincoln. The other half had been sur
rendered to the Rebellion weeks before. The
Republican party received the republic in
state of division and war, and it was met by the
most perilous conditions that ever confronted
any administration at the beginning, but it fell
back into the arms of a brave people, who gave
their millions and their lives on thousand
BATTLE fields to save the nation, and brought it
liberty, and life, and freedom saved, and then
it confronted this debt. The Republican party
has been charged all over this land with the
great burden of the debt upon the people.
Who has been the cause of that business? Who
made that great debt? / bring the vast bur-
den of that public debt and lay it at the feet
of the Democratic party, for they made it. No
Republican ever lifted hand to destroy the
Union. The men who assailed it's life were
Democrats ALL and, if the Democratic party of
the North had stood like one man with us
against the Rebellion, there could have been
no war. It was because the South believed
thew wonld hava bo holm If tho Markham