Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1880-10-14
Speech by Schuyler COlfaX.

ents of Mishawaka on the
BENEFICENT AND AUSPICIOUS CHANGES
since he last addressed them. The nation
has been lifted from a slough of desponC
to highway of hope, and the clouds tha
then darkened our horizon have been sue
ceeded by the bright sunshine of an in
vigorating prosperity.
No nation throughout the world is en-
iOying such good times as those that glad
den our land to-day. Our manufacture.
of all kinds are in active and successful
operation; labor is in demand and at high
er wages, the balance Of trade with foreign
nations is largely in our favor, and there
fore, gold from abroad is daily coming tC
our shores; our greenback dollar has equal
purchasing power with the best coin dollar
in the world; and the interest paid by the
nation, the states, or corporations, or in
dividuals, has been greatly reduced.
Can our opponents, by any tariff tinker.
ing, make our manufactures more profita.
bic or prosperous? Can they, by any
legislation of which they can inform You
make labor more in demand and at high
er wages? Can they so doctor our finances
that they can, in the financial markets OF
the world, make our national credit better
or have the interest of our war debt re
duced to lower point? Can they cause
| IllOIc SOlU W now 1IlbO our 1dIlu from OIUGl
nations? Can they make our greenback
dollar more valuable and in higher credit
than it is to-day? On the contrary, if any
earnest, bitter democrat was thinking OF
investing in building, in manufactures, in
railroads, etc, and his party was triumph
ant would he not wait to see what they
would do before risking his money? And
millions of others would hesitate and wait
| Just as he would. That waiting and lack
Of confidence would affect all disastrously
| Is it not better, therefore, to decide now,
without reference to partisan issues at all,
to ''Iet well enough alone" when change
can not better our condition? However
prophets of evil may preach to you a gos-
pei of discomfort, no one can deny that
our republic is to-day the most prosperous
of nations, as we'll as e.hope Of the poor
throughout the world; for wherever, in any
land around the globe, a poor man is found
want ing to better his condition. his hopes
and prayers and heart are turned toward
| the United States. Is not that the high
est testimony to republican policy? What
can our opponents promise better than
that? But leaving this broad and undeni-
able generalization. and testing the ques-
tion by political issues, the answer is equal
| ly triumphant.
| THE SOLID SOUTH
with the northern democracy, elected in
| 1856, the last democratic national admin
| istration our country has seen. In time
of profound peace that administration of
| Mr.. Buchanan's increased our national
debt in four years 300 per cent, namely
from $2S, 100000 in 1857 to S90,000,000 in
! 1861. And, when it went out of power,
our national per cent. bonds could not be
scld at higher than SO cents on the dollar,
and that last democratic administration
had to pay as high as II per cent. interest
per year for loans for current expenses.
| Look at that picture and then on this.
| Since the rebellion of the solid south was
conquered, the debt their treason entailcd
on the nation has been reduced from 81
| 756, 100000 i'll August 1865 to 81 $4,000, 600
in 1880, reduction of over $500, 1000;
and our yearly interest charge has been
reduced, in round numbers, by our dimin-
ished debt and improved national credit.
| the enormous amount of 80 per cent.
Instead of paying Z $40 interest per
year, as we did at the close of the war, our
per cent. bonds are at a large premium,
and all the balance of our debt can be
funded, if republican policy can be sus-
tanned by the people at the unprecedented
figure of % per cent. interest per year.
But our democratic friends object to this
contrast between republican administra-
tions and their last democratic administra-
tion in our republic; and they fill the air
with charges of republican corruption"
as the reason why republicans should be
driven from power, and all the branches of
the government should be entrusted to
democratic hands.
Well, then, let US make the comparison
nearer to our times than their last demo-
cratic president.
GEN. GRANT,
whose administration is specially denounc-
ed by our opponents, was president for
eight years from March, 1869, to March
1877. During these eight years with a
republican administration and republi-
can congress, our debt, entailed on this
country by the rebellion of the solid south,
was reduced from g, ,432 100000 to $2,019,-
100000, reduction of S413,0O0,000. Dur
ing these eight years, New York city was
under the control of Tammany hall (which
with the solid south controlled the nomi-
nations of the last democratic national
convention with a democratic city admin
! istratiOn and democratic common council; !;
and the debt of that single city was increas-
ed during the same eight years, from 1869
to 1877, from $35 100000 to 100000.
du 1ICTcdSc OI tDOt,UOD,UOU.
And what is even worse, very large
proportion of this enormous increase is
universally acknowledged to have been
robberies, by the million upon million, by
democratic magnates of Tammany hall
with the connivance and concurrence of
the democratic official guardians of the
city treasury.
Our opponents only hope OF carrying
the state of New York is by the aid of
Tammany hall, whose political demands
have recently all been acquiesced in by the
party. Whether you take the debt-in-
creasing history of the last democratic
national administration, or Of the demo-
cratic gOvernm ent of New York city, as
the contrast with the steady debt-paying
history of republican administrations, his
tory gives you its solemn warning against
democratic success now.
But our opponents mag demand 4 wider
range of years for the contrast between
democratic and republican rule. They
boast that they governed this country al
most uninterruptedly for sixty years, and
we will make the contrast on that basis.
The democrats have always professed
GREAT REGARD FOR FOREIGNERS
and claimed their votes on that pretense.
But their professions have been mere
words But republicans made haste as
soon as they had abolished slavery by the
| 13 h amendment TO the constitution, to
declare in the fourteenth amendment that
the same shield of protection, and the
same constitutional equality of rights and