The Russellville Democrat., 1880-09-02
Speech of G. w. Shinn, Esq.,, be- fore the RusselIyille Hancock Club, August 2:Sd, 1880.

speech or Ut. w. Sh1nn, ESq., De- fore the RusselIyille Hancock
 Club, August 23d, 1880.
 MT. President. gentlemen of the
 Hancock and English club, and
 fellow citizens.
 It is with a feeling of great appre
 citation that acknowledge the com
 pliment bestowed upon me by your
 invitation to address this club. It IS
 with no small degree of flattsry upon
 my feeble efforts, that my consent
 Is given in response to your compli-
 mentary request. It has bean your
 privilege of listening to speakers
 who are much more capable of m
 forming you as regards the inferma-
 tion you seek, and being unaccustom- ed to speaking before public assem-
 plies of any character whatever, your kindness in requesting must
 necessarily he accompanied by your indulgence for my defects, the con sequence of my youth, and the new
 ness (to me- of the questions under discussion, the boundless depths of
 which are reached only by our deepest thinkers. and laid bare only
 by the persistent delvlngs of our
 most brilliant philosophers and statesmen. But in addressing you this evening, it shall be my endeayor to show to you some of the glaring
 facts of republican misrule, which now stand out as the stars of the evening, shedding their generous light upon that corruption which bears not the scrutiny of daylight, and which condemns their own past record as one of the two leading parties of the greatest repub. lie the world has ever known, of showing to you the deep laid schemes of centralization and the origin and present object of that branch com mission party, sired by demagogues, damed by the sister that bred cor ruption, and better known by name as ''the National Greenback party" And finally to introduce to you some of those facts of democratic leglsla- tion, which have been, and are to- day, a credit to our republic, and the determination and tendency to keep our form Of government that of republic, as instituted by our fore fathers, though planted over their graves over constitutional liberty.
 Gentlemen, shortly after the close of our late civil war, when the can non's mouth had bid farewell for the last time to the valley of the Shan andoah, and ceased to echo along the placid waters of the Potomac, when wars grim visage no longer studded every mountain side, glade, or plain, when peace rode the crested wave of shot and shell, and the air of olden liberty swept once again Der freedoms plains of our Wash ington's America, it was the repub lican party that issued the govern ment bonds exempting the money therein invested from taxation, and negotiating with capitalists at the rate of eight per cent. interest. But, gentlemen, don't understand me to object entirely to the action taken by the republican party, for they were compelled from necessity and circumstances to issue the bonds, and we as nation are bound to pay our bonded indebtedness. Had it been the democratic, instead of the republican party, I venture to say the result would have been almost, if not THE SAME. For having been reduced to extremity. the treasury of the nation almost empty, our credit not yet established, and our government wavering on the top most pinnacle of doubt, the wisdom and loyalty of the unionists, warmed by the late war. and calmed by that republican feeling enthused into tEeir hearts by the vic.ors of that contest with Great Brit ain, threw around our weak and tot tering government the safeguard of constitutional liberty, regardless of prejudice and party interest, and | with a spirit commsndable to the l framcrs of our constitution. But 1 how long, gentlemen, did that spirit | iastY Just as long as the govern. ment remained in the hands of the l republican party. When the forest echoed to the sound of hammer, saw and ak; when commerce again sailed | |. I.f T sweeping rivers, when progress