Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1880-10-21
WIN. NJ. EVARTs.
His Great Speech at Cooper
Institute, New York.
he Most Eloquent and Dispas-
sionate Grafton Delivered
This Campaign. Z
A Full and Fair Review OF All the
Campaign Issues.
The Record of Both Parties Impair
tally Contrasted.
Speech of Hon. ~ Isi. NJ. Eyarts. DeEiy-
r. cred im- the City of New York, sep
t0nber 59. 1850.

cred i'm the City of New York, sep
tOmber 20. 1850.
MR. CHAIRAIAx FELLOW CITIZENS. LADIES AND
GENTLEMEN: The kind reception which you have
accorded in advance to whatever may be able to
contribute IN the canvass now pending, to the pro-
per judgment OF the American people on the great
issues before them, incnes me to think that l was
wrong in an opinion which | have tended to es-
pouse that it was the press that was the only po-
tent orator III these popular discussions. BY their
magnificent enterprise and apparatus they speak
to millions where we speak to thousands Iy their
! perpetual possession of the public ear they Law
| down line upon line and precept upon precept in
| season and out OF season, whether men will bear
or whether they will forbear. and the orator has
no such hold upon the attention or the respect of
| the people.
But know that if one speak. even in a whis-
per- in the cause of his country and for love of it
the people of the United States will catch up the
sound and wherever patriotism has not died out
and wherever liberty Is not suppressed. and where
| ever the suffrage is hOnOred and respected they
will carry the voice until, lost in the final de-
cison, it has triumphed or has faded away. TAp-
| plause.I The question before the country. the
question before this vast representative assembly
Is as to which Of the two parties that divide the
nation the conduct Of its affairs for the next few
years may be safely, may be wisely, may be hope
fully trusted by people loving its honor respect
ing its duty and valuing the institutions which we
baye inherited from our noble ancestry.
! IWenty-tour years ago the people of this coun-
try ntrused the management of its affairs to the
democratic party of the United States; twenty
four years ago they trusted to a Pennsylvania
| democrat misses the management Of its affairs.
To-day it is proposed to you that you shall restore
1t to the same democratic party, IN the hands of
another Pennsylvania democrat laughter and
! misses for their management Twenty years ago
! the people OF this country ntrustcd the manage
ment Of their affairs to the republican party born
OF patriotism and devoted to liberty. [Applause.I
! Twenty years ago they thus intrusted their af-
fairs TO the hands of an Illinois republican Tap
plause,l and substantially the people of this
country are to answer to-day the inquiry to their
own conscience, the test of his history, the judg-
ment of the world, whether they repent of taking
| power from Buchanan and repent of giving mower
to Lincoln. [Appiause.l
! Active fault finders may i'll these twenty years
| have had private or public grievances there
! may have been failures ofequalty, always to
the greatness Of the occasion; bht as history reads
it ,as foreign nations readit, as the great God
fearing people of the United States read it, if
next November the Pennsylvania democrat is
| reSIUreu 10 power 1Ul Il yefuICU people
| have tired of patriotism and are wearied with
| liberty. (Cries of Good" and applause
| Now, in these twenty years the democratic
! party, made up it when it was trusted
under Buchanan has five times asked of this
| people to be restored to power, and FIVE times
/ the people have answered in the same way
Never no, never" Applause. They tried it
! during the war, when the nation was in the
| throes of desperation, when every coward had
joined the democratic party, when every pol
| troon in the whole n orth was ever ready in the
| army of non-fghting traitors, and the people
said "It is sadto us that our youth have per-
ished, and thateour youth must perish; it is. said
| to us that mourners are to go about our streets
| for whole generation; it is said to us that the
substance of@t this people-thrfty, industrious,
| fond of pursuits of gain-shOUld be poured out
like water, and that, so far as we can see, the
| last dollar may be called for; but we lln what
made our population what it was; We knew what
made wealth; and we will maintain liberty,
and union, one and iuSeparable though the last
man should fall in his place, and the last dollar
should be spent in the conflict" u Applause
| DEMOCRATIC APPEALS AFTIR THE WAR.
| They asked again, after the war was over and
after the resistance to the loyal government had
taken the form of controversies about reconstruc-
| tion and the appeal to the people was that-the
republican party having fallen into a quarrel and
| having in their own hands great impeachment
and great struggle in their own ranks-they
would trust power to the democratic party, united
no longer then divided between combatants in
| arms and non-cOmbatants in the treasury-the
united democratic party, and the people said: NO
| the party that carried through the war, when
you said that it was a failure shall conduct the
government now; and you shall submit to it Zap
| plause) and that YOU may understand what we
mean, we will put the great captain who received
your surrender in charge OF the government
[APplause.l
Well four years went on, and they said: Now
| our people are fond of change, you know The
| answer was: so YOU thought when you took up
arms in in 1860, and we then showed you that we
were not fond Of change. We loved country
as it was we aGored country it was; but
you then proposed to change and enforced it
| by the most telling argument that democratic
party ever iSsued-poWder and shot and shell.
| No: we viii keep the government long as the
democratic party holds the front and presents the
array and avows the principles that we have re-
sisted up to this time, Therefore will keep it
| in the hands of the same captain of our armies
they said: eve have had long peace and pros
perty-a long peace and prosperity" Think of
the emphasis that the democratic party put on
| that-that in the year 1876 we had had a long
peace and prosperity! Why, do they suppose that
we are nation Of red Indians, that a few years
of peace seem irksome and tresome, and a change
is desired? And as for prosperity, did they sup
pose that when the laborers of the country under
| the desperate tangle of our finances that the re-
| belGOn had brought upon us, We're working half
the time and living upon half wages-lid
| they think that that was the complete prosperity
| which the labOring people of the United States
| should enjoyl We answered: mo; but We will
| elect volunteer soldier [applausel who never hid
behind his charming family; but went to the war
| and served to the end: and will trust him" "
| Well, now they said: we do not like this
What can be done to please these people2 We
| have offered them change four times since they
|
would not change at all. Why they must be a
people of fixed principles. They must be a people
who understand their own minds. And
they must be people who think
that they can take care of their own
| interests What extraordinary thing peo-
pie welded to such a continuance in well-doing
and to such aga ,ious and persistent selection of
| the means of carrying out their purposes, is on
the very brink Of despotisml What can save
them! A people that chooses republicans for
twenty years. Why, what can save them from
the abyss of military despotism!
We thought when, in 1865, we ended the great
est war that modern times had seen, and when it
was waged against free and republican institu-
tions by great military power-we thought that
was more clearly threat of military despotism
than anybody had dreamed possible, and when
| we got out of the thought that we were
delivered forever from any fear of such deSpotism
And we were. [Applause.l
but it is not now by the ranks of war and its
armament that we attempt to overpower you"
they said ''it is by appealing to your open, gen
erous, confding nature. Well" they said, look
at the alternatives we offered We offered YOU in
1864 great Union General-Gen. Mcclellan
he was great Union General-and united south
in arms" And this desccated democracy stood