Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1880-09-09
hon. CARL SCHURZ.
A Mastery Review of the Is
sues of the Campaign.
Why Conservative Citizens Adhere
to the Republican Party.
The Results that Would Follow Dem.
Ocratic Victory.
Speech of the Secretary of the Interior at Indiana
polls, Ind, July 20, 1880.

warfare is apt to fly to violent exaggerations for
the purpose of producing strong Impressions ;
the language Of reason and common sense will
abstain from them. Let me say at the outset,
therefore, that dc not agree with those who
speak Of the present moment as the greatest
crisis in the history of American affairs. The
questions we have to dispose of are not those
of immediate life or DEATH but the bearing
they have upon the future welfare of the nation.
and upon those interests which most nearly
affect us, is important enough TO make us con-
slider well what we are doing, to ell for our
best Judgment and strenuous effort to put
that judgment into execution.
In the first place let us make it clear to our
own minds what we want. The answer is, in a
general term, that we want good government
that II we have 1t we must endeayor to keep it,
and that II we have it we must endeayor to
get it. What is good government? We may
answer again in general terms, that it is gov
eminent which well understands the public
business, and understanding it, transacts il
within the limits of it's constitutional power,
lntelllgently, honestly, and Justly. The second
question we have to answer to ourselvesis, how
lar the government we lave comes up to these
requisites how far the principles upon which
1t acts, the methods it employs, the aims II
pursues, and the degree Of efficiency it develops
answer the public need, and how far in this
respect we ought to preserve what we have OF
look for other things we have not.
The Government has maintained the public
faith and raised the credit Of the United States
to point never reached before. 1t has with
consistent energy followed policy relieving
the country of the evils of an irrational and
dangerous money system, and greatly promoted
the prosperity If the people by the restoration
of specie payment 1t has funded enormous
masses of the national indebtedness at lower
interest, and thus saved MANY illions year
to the taxpayer. 1t has faith fully executed the
laws With conscientious observance of sound
these constitutional principles it has removed
many obstacles which stood in the way of a
friendly understanding between the different
sections OF the country and different classes OF
people. 1t has, under trying circumstances,
when the public peace was disturbed by riot
and violence on the part of numerous class OF
cltlZens. greatly aided the restoration of order
and security by a calm and moderate employ
ment OF the limited power at its command,
without IN any case resOrting to a doubtful
stretch of authority. 1t has reformed many
abuses in the public service, infused higher
sense of duty into its different branches,
raised It's moral tone, increased its efficiency,
punished dishonesty, and kept the surface I'M
sulled by the scandals arising from lax notions
of official integrity.
think l can say, without exaggeration, that
these achievements will stand unquestioned in
history by all fair-minded men. Wlthal the
country is on the whole in good condition
revlvlng our industries are active labor finds
ready and renumeratlve employment; the Gov
eminent enjoys the confidence of the business
community in rare degree, as our financial
management has won the confidence of the
whole world. Everybody sees reason to lool
hopefully into the future, provided the conduct
of our public affairs remains as good as it has
been.
Now the time for a char ge in the personrae
OF the administration has arrived, and if the
present conduct of affairs is on the whole good
patriotic and sensible citizens will see to it thai
the change now to come be such as to give the
greatest possible guarantee for the preservation
OF all that is good, and, wherever possible, fol
an Improvement on it. They certainly will en-.
deayor to prevent such a change as would
threaten serious deterioration. We should
therefore, favor that candidate for the presi.
dency who. In his respect, can be best depended
upon.
We have to deal with two parties and their
candidates. The Republican party, with James
A. Garfield at its head, and the Democratic
party, with Gen. Hancock.
Now | desire you to put before your mind:
with impartial candor the question, whether the
Democratic car didate and the party behind him
can be best depended upon to preserve that
which is good in the present condition OF
things, and develop in the direction of improve.
ment ?
To speak in all candor, it appears to me that
well as constitutional difficulties. Since the
downfall and disappearance of the slave power
as compact and political interest from which
the Democratic party, more than twenty years
ago, derived its morals, its logic, its political
skill and craftsmanship, that party has beer
hounderlng about, out of logical connection
with the questions of the day !; never knowing
the time of day; always looking for something
to turn up, and when something did turn up
spelling it; lamely tagging in the rear of the
events and requirements of the day; always be-
hind; denouncing as impossible things those
that were already accomplished facts; with 8
strong incapacity to understand the present and
to measure the future, making itself the re-
cipient and rallying point Of all dangerous and
obstructive TENDENCIES and elements, and thus
committing bIunder after blunder, which at the
moment of their birth it uniformly glorIed in as
great stroke of policy, from the secession
movement of 1861 down to the nomination OF
Gen. Hancock in 1880.
There are many good and clear-headed men
in the Democratic party who deplo-e this con-
dition of things as much as do, but are IN
able to control the obstreperous elements and
tendencies Of the organization, and TO tit it fol-
the tasks and responsibilities of government.
Looking back to
THE YEAR 1864
thefourth year of the civil war. when the South.
ern Confederacy was near the total exhaustion
of its resources, we find the Democratic party
in National Convention solemly declaring that
the war was failure and must be abandoned.
A few months afterwards the triumph of our
arms was decided, and confederacy collapsed.
the restoration of our Union was assured, and
the Democracy was forced to acknowledge that
the war had been success. The Democracy
had proclaimed its despair of theRepublic Just
at the time when the triumph of the Republic
was ripe. 1t became evident to every one that,
had the Democratic policy been then adopted.
the war would have indeed become failure
aad the Union have gone to wreck and ruin.
When, as measures of settlement, the 18th,
14th, and 18th amendments were passed the
Democratic party declared them void and en-
titled TO no respect, and almost immediately
afterward found itself compelled to admit that
for the peace of the country and as a basis for
future development these constitutional amend
menus had to be maintained.
Coming down to more recent history, when
the Republicans in Congress had passed
THE RESUMPTION ACT IN 1875,
and the fruit Of the restoration of specie pay
ments was almost ripe to be plucked the Dem
ocratic party, in its National Convention of 1876.
thought it smart thug to declare that the
very act passed for bringing specie payments
was an inpediment in its way and must be
repealed. And who is there to deny now that
had the act been repealed under the pressure