Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-09-10
The Republican Party "a Party OF the
PeOnIe,


our own countrymen, has abundantly proved
its superior claims as party of and for the
people Wherein, during the last twenty
five years, has the Democratic party shown
itself to be in sympathy with the working
classes and devoted to their interests? Was
it in becoming the champion Of negro sla-
vory,-an institution which degraded labor
and excluded immigration from the fairest
portion of our country Was it by refusing
to raise a hand in defence of the Union when
assailed by Southern assassins, that Union
which is the star of liberty to the down-trod-
den and oppressed of all nations? Was it, at
q later period, by endeavoring to postpone
the re sumption of specie payments, and ca
tering to the demand for an rredeemable pa
per currency, thereby unsettling values and
deranging the machinery of business Was
it by its wholesale naturalization frauds in
New York, whereby the citizens of the
wealthiest and most powerful State in the
Union were controlled and their property
plundered by n gang of thieves? And upon
what does this same Democratic party base
its claims Tor the sufTrages of the working
classes in tho present canvass? Upon its de-
mand for tariff calculated to reduce the
price of labor to the European standard,
thereby depriving the poor artizan and day
laborer of all hopes of acquiring wealth and
the comforts of life? Upon its efforts to re-
move all safeguards for protecting the purity
of the ballot-boX-that palladium of all our
rights-that sacred emblem and guaranty Of
our libertes-that holy of holes, from whose
depths issues voice which makes tyrants
tremble, and which all men recognize as the
very "c0r Def'? Does it rely upon its pol
icy Of intimidation, violence and fraud pur-
sued in certain sections of the South, where
by minority usurp control of the State and
by their actions declare that popular govern
ment is not to be tolerated? All, yes a fine
record has this Democratic party upon which
to base its claim as party of the people-a
party devoted to the interests of the laboring
man The truth is that the leaders of the
Democratic party, North rs well as South, do
not believe in democracy. They have no
faith in popular rule-not even in popular
liberty. They are opposed to it. Though
they profess to believe in the principle enun-
ciated in the Declaration of Independence, that
AL men are created free and equal, " they in
terpret it to mean only white men. They be-
lieve that this is a white mans government
and they think that white men ought to rule
it. This is the policy and the practice of the
South to-day, and the policy of the South is
the policy of the Democratic party.
Now, then, look at the recori e the Re
publican party as regards the Interest," of the
common people. Founded as the champion
of human liberty and equal rights it has ever
proved true to its purpose. When the life of
the republic was menaced, when the fairest
and grandest fabric that human hands and
human intellect had ever reared was about to
be destroyed by the enemies of human liber-
ty, was it not the Republican party that came
to the rescuey Has not the Republican par
ty, since the war, done all that it could do,
consistently with national honor, to wipe out
the animosities engendered by that great con-
fict and make the Southern States the safe
and fit abode for free labor and immigration
with how little success, however-thanks
to the craftsmanship of Andrew johnson and
his agents Of the General Hancock stamp,
backed by the support of the Democratic
party-let the negro exodus, let the return
ing emigrants from the North, let the muir
dered victims of ku-kluxism, let our own
Wllises and Twitchells tell
1t was in the interest of the common peo-
pie that the homestead law was enacted by
Republican Legislators 1t was in the inter
est of the common people, and against the ut
most efforts of the Democratic Congressman,
that measures were taken to secure stable
currency for the country and provide for the
payment of the national debt. It is in the
interest of the common people, and under
Republican lead, that measures have been
taken to open up the vast regions of the West
to settlement and cultivation by means of
vast systems of trans-continental railways. II
is in the interest of workingmen throughout
the country that the Republican party has
furnished protection to American industries
and aided in creating diversified system OF
labor which makes us yearly more and more
independent of the old world. In short, the
Republican party has always stood upon the
side of the people as opposed to oligarchies,
for free labor as opposed to slave labor, for
human rights as opposed to race tyranny, for
civilization as opposed to barbarism, for a
broad nationality as opposed to sectionalism,
for home industry as opposed to foreign in
dustry, for education as opposed to ignor,
ance, for progress as opposed to false con,
servatism, for all that tends to make our ma.
ton great, glorious and united-a fit abode
a fraa apl iptallioanf Y,apY1a IToxy thar,
can any laboring man be so blind to the
truth, SO blind to his best interests, as &c
vote with party which is but the tool of an
arstocracy, and which has been, and is, the
bitter opponent of every measure calculated
to promote his welfare? We believe that the
eyes of the workingmen are being opened al
the present time as never before TO the true
merits of the two parties. The prosperity
which now blesses the land, and which is the
result of the wise measures put in force by O
Republican administration, is of itself most
convincing argument in favor of the prinoi
Piles to which it adheres and the honesty OF
its professions. OF what effect is the stale
Democratic talk about the proAigacy and cor,
ruption of the Republican party, when thai
party to-day is giving the country one of the
purest and best administrations which any
nation was ever blessed with, and stands
ready TO guarantee another after the SAINT
pattern under President Garfield? We be
lieve that at the coming elections in thi
State and throughout the country, the work
ing people will rally in greater numbers THAI
ever before to the standard of the Republican
party, and prove their intelligence by thei
votes, by ensuring the election of that maj
of the people, James A. Garfield, as chic