The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1880-07-22
WEyTOR. o. JuIv 1O. 1880

receive from you, in the presence OF
the Committee of which you were
Chairman, the official announcement
that the Republican National Con-
ventiOn at Chicago had that day
nominated me as their candidate for
President Of the United States.
! I accept the nomination, with graf.
itude for the confidence it implies,
and with a deep sense of the erespOn-
sibilities it imposes.
I cordially indorse the principles
set forth in the platform adopted by
the Convention. On nearly all the
subjects of which it treats, my opin-
ions are on record among the pub
lished proceedings Of Congress.
I venture, however, to make spe-
cial mention of some of the principal
topics which are likely to become the
subjects of discussion. Without re-
viewing the controversies which have
been settled during the last twenty
years, and with no purpose or wish
to revive the passions Of the late war,
it should be said, that while Repub-
licans fully recognize, and will siren
uously defend, all the rights retained
by the people, and all the rights re-
served to the States, they reject the
pernicious doctrine of State supre-
macy, which so long crippled the
functions of the National Govern
ment, and, at one time, brought the
Union very near to destruction.
They insist that the United States
is a Nation, with ample powers of
preservation ; that its Constitu-
ton and the laws made in pursuance
thereof ''are the supreme law Of the
land p that the right of the Nation
to determine the method by which its
own Legislature shall be created,
cannot be surrendered without abdi-
eating one of the fundamental pow
ers of Government that the Nation
al laws relating to the election of
Representatives in Congress shall
neither be violated nor eVaded; that
every electOr shall be permitted, free
ly and without intimidation, to cast
his lawful vote at such election, and
have it honestly counted, and that
the potency Of his vote shall not be
destroyed by the fraudulent vote Of
any other person
The best thoughts and energies Of
our people should be directed to
those great questions of National
well-being in which all have a com
mon interest such efforts will soon
est restore to perfect peace those who
were lately IN arms against each 9th
er, for justice and goodwill viii out
last passion. ..s
But it is certain that the wounds
of the war cannot be completely
healed, and the spirit of brotherhood
cannot fully pervade the whole coun-
try, until every citizen, rich or poor,
white or black, is secure in the free
and equal enjoyment Of every civil
and political right, guaranteed by
the Constitution and the laws.
Wherever the enjoyment Of these
rights IS not assured, discomfort will
prevail, immigration will cease, and
the social and industrial forces will
continue to be disturbed by the mi
grafton of laborers, and the conse-
quent diminutiOn Of prosperity. The
National Government should exer-
else all its constitutional authority
to put an end to these evils, for all
the people and all the States are
members Of one body, and no mem
Der can suffer without injury to all.
The most serious evils which now
aflict the South, arise from the fact
that there is not such freedom and
tOleratiOn of political opinion and &C
ton, that the minority party can ex-
ercise an effective and wholesome
restraint upon the party in power.
Without such restraint, party rule
becomes tyrannicaI and corrupt.
The prosperity which is made posi- |
ble in the South, by its great advan-
tages of soil and climate, will never
be realized until every voter can free
ly and safely support any party he
pleases.
Next in importance to freedom
and justice is popular education,
without which neither justice nor
freedom can be permanently main
tanned. Its interests are intrusted
to the States and to the voluntary
action of the people. Whatever
help the Nation can justly afford,
should be generously given, to aid
the States in supporting common
schools but it would be unjust to
our people, and dangerous to our
institutions, to apply any portion Of
the revenues of the Nation, or Of the
States, to the support of sectsrian
schools. The separation Of the
Church and the State in everything
relating to taxation should be absO-
lutte.
On the subject of National Finan-
ces my views have been so frequent
ly and fully expressed, that little is
needed in the way of an additional
statement. The public debt is now
so well secured, and the rate Of annu-
al interest has been so reduced by
refunding, that rigid economy in eI-
penditures, and the faithful appliea-
tion of our surplus revenues to the
payment Of the principal Of the debt,
will gradually but certainly free the
people from its burdens, and close
with honor the financial chapter of
the war. At the same time the Gov
ernment can provide for all its ordi-
nary expenditures, and discharge its
sacred obligations to the soldiers Of
the Union, and to the widows and
orphans of those who fell in its de-
tense.
The resumption Of specie pay