Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-10-28
ISSUES OF THE DAY.
An Able Review OF the Political Situation
by j. w. McClung, Esq.

An Able Review OF the Political Situation
by j. w. McClung, Esq.
The District committee extended an in
vitation to j. w. McClung,
Esq, to take the stump in be-
half of Hancock, English and SibIey, but
other engagements prevented He accord
ingly tasks leave to print" his remarks, and
below will be found portion of the speech
he would have made if he had been upon the
rostrum:
Allow me in a candid way and informally to
review some of the issues which have been
made in this campaign, and to address few
words to the independent voters who read your
paper.
THE PERSONNEL OF THE CANDIDATES.
First-Having: utterly failed to make single
point against Gen. Hancock personally they
say the man Is not important. It is the party
he represents we are called on to vote for or
against Those who use this argument never
used it before. If they had candidates who
were pure and unimpeached characters, they
would not use it now. II we had candidates
who had been convicted of selling their votes
for Credit Mobiler stock and 5000 fees for
advocating pavement swindle and dismissal
from the custom house of New York for corrupt
practices, and this conviction and dismissal
had been done by our own party, you would not
hear Republicans say the character of the can
didates is not important-it is the party alone
we must look at. They would say that the
dignity of the office-the highest in the world
! the honor of the Countrywide foremost republic
in the world-required that the man who sits
| in the seat OF George Washington should be
man of clean hands and a pure heart.
If English had been kicked out of the custom
house by even SO corrupt party as the Democ-
racy, they would say, will the honest voters of
the country accept a man for Vice President
whom his own party repudiated and expelled
from an inferior Office which he disgraced.
They would tell us the President might die az
did Harrison, and Taylo and Lincoln, and this
smirched character brandsd a scoundrel by his
own party, might have to disgrace us in the
eyes of the whole world by sitting in the seat
of Washington, while the archives of the gov
eminent of which he was head, contained the
recorded proofs of his infamy, and the ballot
box of tho cabinet contained the black balls
which ex oelled him as an unclean and I'M
worthy officer.
But since all the character is on the Demo-
cratic side, all the want OF character on the
other. we are told that the character and per-
sonnet of the candidates are not i'm portant
This is so absurd and untrue it only needs to
be stated to carry its own refutetion. The
feelings, the opinions, the character and the
spirit and bent of the candidates have every-
| thing to do with the administration of their
offices. lack Chandler would have had a
different 4dy mi frat s.
Horace Greeley's. yet both were stalwart Re-
publicans. Hayes administration was very
different from what it would have been if
M0sby-a good Republican-had been Presi-
dent-or even Ben Butler. And all that we
know of Hancock'a moderation and censerva.
tism, his iudlsposition to use violent Or ex.
treme measures when clothed with full power
| st New Orleans, his patriotism aud devotion
to the Union the battlefield,
| his freedom-from- all machine politics and cor
| rupt alliances, and above all his boldness and
| independence as q man, all go to show that his
administration would be different from an ad-
ministratiOn presided over by Robert ToomISs.
who is good Democrat, or John Kelly, the
Tammany chief. even Tilden and Hendricks,
who are more partisan in politi,s and of diff
ferent bent of mind.
The spirit and animus of the man, his meth
DDS of thought, bis associations, his honesty.
are everything ic assuring the American PEG.
Pio tuat AC WILL uOnOE tuC seat OF washington
and not prostitute it to the level of the slums
of q New York custom house, or the reekinr
corruption of Washington lobby.
Ali the ingenious devices Of the most corrupt
and unprincipled politicians who have ever
run political party in this country have been
exhausted in the vain search for something, for
anything which might smirch the character of
Gen. Hancock for patriotism, for honesty and
honor, for moral character and integrity, and
he has stood the ordeal unimpeached
and stands to-day before the American peo-
pie unscathed and without reproach.
THE SOLID soUTH-WHAT GRANT SAYS ABOUT IT.
The next issue, which is most prominent
in the campaign, is that il IL net safe to turn
over the country to the Democracy because the
solid South is Democratic and will rule the
Democracy. To hear the style of Republican
talk upon this issue 3 stranger would be con-
strained to ask who are these people who are
such marplots Of destruction that it is unsafe
to trust them with power? Are they American
citizens interested in the glory and prosperity
of the country, of similar character, similar re-
ligion. similar views of free government, aimi-
lar pride IN the traditions of 1876, in the fac
of the Union, and devotion to our constitution?
Gen. Grant travelled through the South prior
to the Chicago convention, and reported to the
Northern people that he had passed through all
the rebellious States and that the people of
those States regard the Union flag as guaran-
teeing to them oil the rights and privileges of q
free people without regard to race, color, or
previous condition of servitude; and that we
have no reason 10 doubt that those who wore
the gray will ful6ll all that they promised in
loyalty to the flag and the Union. Gen.
Grant was giving an honest opinion then. If
his testimony is true, the South is t'solid'' for
the Union, for the flag ana for the government.
1t they are solid against the Republican party
1t is no more to their discredit than it is that
majority of the people of the United States are
solid against the same party. They have
right to be solid against those whose mis-
management of the government has sought
to rule them as conquered enemies by mill
tary and monarchical measures outside of the
constitution. They have right to be solid
against those whose impracncable
methods would have made pyra-
mid to stand upon its apex,
by placing the ignorance and barbarism Of the
black race. perverted by csrpet-bag rule of
tcoundrels and adventurers, supreme in power
over the intelligence and virtue of American
citizens as jealous of their rights and liberties
to-day as were their forefathers in 49,
What shall we do with the South3 said Ben
Harrison in bis Chicago speech. voice re-
piled: ''hang theIn;' shoot them" Suppose
the East should bond together against the
West, and their orators should make the in
quiry. "What shall We do with the West?"-
and the answer "hang themP' ''shoot themr'
should flash over the wires to as