Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1880-10-21

y n
| hence they viii feel about Garfield as they feel
about President Hayes now. TGreat applause
They used to be, in following the republican party
and adopting the credits as belonging to them
selves, at safe marching distance of about
twelve or eight years behind them but-now they
| are beginning to crowd us for they are only four
years behind. 1fthey viii only keep on and study
our steps and learn our music It may bring them
abreast of Us some time or other Lau ghter I
ONLY TWO SUPERB" IN HISTORY. ~
Well, now, having discussed Gen. Garfield. who
is not better than his party, let us look at Gen.
Hancock, who is better than his party. Laugh
ter. Gen. Hancock is a great and faithful gener-
al of the armies of the United States Applause
mingled with hisses He was a faithful general
IN the war, and in his place in the army he has
been faithful general since, and no republican
seeks either to obscure belitte his claims upon
his cOuntrymen. But when Gen. Hancock ;
sought to be the 'InaSe-way" to bring up the
party whose candidate he is to the standard of a
party like ours. that has seen a Lincoln applausel
Grant Lapplausel and Hayes renewed APP
plauseI he has got to have Il great deal more
avoirdupois to weigh us down. [Laughter
What do,these people think change of party
government means? Is it. as some of these pa
laYererS would have us suppose, a toss of Il cop
per or a wave of hand, and all is Overl Is that
50! Is that what q change of parties meansl
W hat change of parties in Il great nation like
this means! What change Of parties from the
one that preserved the country to the other that
attacked its that all that it means! Does it
mean nothing to the poor freedmen of the south
whether, all else being against Them the Federal
executive Is TO be against them, tool Does it
mean nothing to the loyal people of the country
TO the heroes OF your fights, to the leaders in your
cabinets, and to the memories of the great states
men that have passed away, whether the Amer-
can people are to put that party and those mem
orles and those living statesmen to an open
shame-and whether they are to eXat over their
heads the party that, in the name of the people
and with the peoples power, we have resisted un-
til we saved the country from war and preserved
1t from disasters OF peace! | tell you gentlemen,
that the relations OF people to their public men
and OF the public men to the people are reciprocal
and when 4 nation turns its back in prosperity
upon those who never turned their backs in the
field or In the cabinet against the enemies of the
country, the people have gone over to the side of
the enemies of the country. [Applause. Man
neIs change at different ages. but this affair of
transfer OF power from one party to another diam
etHcally It's opposite is, with proper allowance for
the difference OF manners and the amelioratiOns
OF life, pretty much the same thing. And as I
remember but one great character in history that
received from his countrymen the surname of THE
Superb"-Only "Tarquinius Superbus" of
Rome thought l would see whether history that
had repeated itself here with this magnificent title
would not find some other traits Of resemblance
Ill the transactions of Tarqunus' government
Ihe KING OF Rome that preceded Tarquinius
had made Il change i'll the Roman constitution in
favor of popular rights. He had endowed with
share IN the suffrage and III the commonwealth the
pleblans and 1t was 1t thorn in the side of the
naughty classes that domneered over them that
the poor plebians should be trusted with the suf-
trage. Now think that Lincoln did something
OF that kind for the poor plebians Of the south.
LApplause. L think the republican party has
done not only something, but all that its powers
thus far have permitted it 10 do to establish these
popular rights-tO be sure, only in the hands of
the pleblans. Tarquln came forward and slew
Tullius. and the great reformers that represented
the people died by the hand of the assassin and
then when he had thus got power he at once took
away from the very plebans every vestige of their
"iehts IIn. mt tn lInatL al sa,latnrS who had
voted for it. He took into his hands the wh0Iu e
administration OF justice and he slew eXiled all
that were obnoxious to his will. Well gentlemen
let me say for the Roman people that Tarquinius
Superbus was the last king that ever sat upon the
thronem IN Rome [applause] and until the time that
CasSlus and Brutus completed the assassination of
C&Sar-doWn to that time there had always been
Brutus that would brave the eternal devils to be
KING. Now, as L say, manners have changed.
Three hundred years ago in England they sent
these foreign ministers to the Tower and beheaded
their archbishops. But the principle of human
nature which makes the gulf so wide between the
principles of Servius Tullius and Tarquinius Su-
perbus, and so wide the gulf between the princ-
pies of Abraham Lincoln and the party of Gen
Hancock, and change of parties do not pass like
a summer dream No, it is to be from our hearts, |
if at all and thank God it is te be only If we have
the will to allow it. [Applause.]
THE PARTIES RECORDS COMPARED.
Now, We viii see how the two parties stand and |
how the party that Garfield represents stands by |
the side OF and in comparison with, the democrat
ic party. l will read of the democratic party |
first, 1865 The bonded debt shall be paid in |
greenbacks. Laughter. Government bonds |
and all public securities to be taxed equally with
all other property" There is the faith of the
ton sacrificed at once. 1t then arraigns the re-
publican party for the unparalleled oppression |
and tyranny that have marked its career" |
Laughter Now, this is the smooth spoken Gen |
Hancock, who thinks that the republican party |
will not make much of a change if it falls into |
line behind him. This is the party-our party
that he speaks of us displaying the unparalleled
and tyranny that have marked our
career-your career and my career Let us vote |
for Hancock [Laughter' Again, it announces
that should the republican party succeed in No
Yember next, and lnaugurate its president, we
will meet as a subjugated and conquered people,
among the ruins of liberty and the fragments Of
the constitution" Laughter. Wei would be
very glad to meet Gen. Hancock as | often have
done, almost anywhere. But amid the ruins of
liberty and the fragments of the constitution / |
would say that would not recognize him at all.
Laughter. Then they regard the reconstruc-
ton acts OF congress as usurpatiOn; and las un-
revolutionary and void :" and vet
we are told that everything is going on smooth
YIN a groove'-in a republican groove with
only change of bars and of brakemen and of
engineers and of conductors and of superinten-
dent. Laughter. The whole fabrc-that
splendid fabrc-of energy, of courage, of faith,
by which the wisdom of the republicans has
lrawn the nation out of the horrid, out of the
'ulnOus contacts and destruction of war and set
them on the plane of comparative peace and on
she plane of laval that ''usurpation uncon-
revolutionary, and voidl;' Applause
What did we say when we were struggling to
BAY this debtl forI think it must be admitted
hat the north was to pay, and IS to pay, more of
hat debt than the south. We did not try to
scale it," we did not try to tax it. What did
re do! We speak our mind pretty well. Our
platform denounced all forms of reputation as a
rational crime. [Great applause. There is no
sound in that, is there! We did not
top to see whether we could commit a crime and
scape punishment in this world or at the hands
# providence. 1t was enough for us to know
hat it was crime. (Reading): "And the ma
iOnal honor requires the paying off tue public
ebt Ill the utternost good faith to all creditors at
lome and abroad" not only, according to the
etter, but the spirit of the law under which it
vas contracted. [Applause.l Lord Coke says
the letter killeth, but the spirit maketh a lie"
And if there any doubt in the minds of our
reditors. whether they were the poor widows
nd orphans in our land or the ROthschilds
nd rich bankers OF London, that we would
ay debt that was so sacredly contracted to
ave all that is worth having in this world ac- ;
ording to the spirit well as the letter such
declaration would set them at rest. Zap
lause.l
Now, let us see the wisdom Of the other side
hey said pay your debt in greenbacks: tax
our government securities" We said that the
est policy to diminish our burden of debt is to SO
improve our credit that capitalists viii seek to I
1an Us money at lower rates of interest than we !
L..