The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1880-10-21
HOPE IN HATE.
Col. Villas Applies the Ak to the
Root Of Republican Claims
to Success.
The Party Charged with Anchoring
Its Hope to Continuance of
Sectional Hatred.

Sectional Hatred.
Great Speech of Hon. w. r. Villas,
Of WISCONSIN,, at Mccormick
Hall. Chicago.
Ferry Fl. Smith, Jr., escorted Col Vilas to
the front of the platform and introduced him
as follows:
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, FELLow-CITIzENs
AND DEMOCRATS OF CHICAGO: 1t Is with great
pleasure, as President of this Chicago Demo-
cratic Club, that l have the honor to announce
that we shall hear tonight one of the grandest
orators that Is within the confines Of our grand
republic.
Fellow-citizens, we have most momentous
duty to perform these next few weeks. It has
been charged that respectabilty was all with
the Republican party. As look about these
galleries and see these fair women and these
brave men I cannot but believe, my friends,
that in spite Of the hireling press of the Re
publican party, the lie is sufficiently given TO
that charge tonight.
My friends, not only is respectability with
Democracy, but I tell you that the cause of
humanity, the cause of right as opposed to that
which is wrong, the cause of truth, the cause
OF pure administration and the cause of sound
government is with Democracy and Gen. Han
cock, of Pennsylvania
My friends, it is not my province to detain
you this evening. am not upon the pro-
gramme for speech, and know that you will
willingly let me go when introduce to you Col
W. T. Villas, of Wisconsin.
On rising to respond, Col. Villas was greeted
with three cheers and prolonged applause. He
spoke as follows:
Mn. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CHI-
oAeo DEMooRATIo CLUB, AND FELLow-C CITIZENS
OF CHICAGO / wish, In appearing before youto
RI hd n T
been called this fall, that / might feel that
was better prepared to offer something worthy
of your consideration /; that might not rather
feel bound to crave your indulgence than to ex-
cite your expectations.
There are two modes in which a political
speaker can address his audience the one to
appeal to sound Judgment and good sense the
other to appeal to the prejudices and passions
of humanity. The latter is the more captivat-
ing. 1t gains the applause of the hour and
brings quicker return. But that course does
not lie open to me. There are two reasons why
1t should not be pursued-the one because itis
more profitable to pursue the other-and
more effective reason, because could not, If
would. pursue the latter.
It is our boast that we are asovereign people,
and it is true in a splendid sense. No King, no
satrap, no family of rulers take with their blood
the birthright of dominion over their American
fellow-men. Every man is entitled to his equal
rights under the law. The great gymnasium of
Ill. " enter
equip himself for the struggle and secure the
prize which he is competent to win. So in our
theory, every officer depends for his title to his
Office upon right which he has by the suffrages
of his fellow-citizens. He can have no better
right he can have no other right. The Presi-
dent of the United States, equal in rank and in
dignity with the Kings and throned powers of
other lands, the members of our houses of
Congress, who are not surpassed in the respect
able position they occupy by any Parliament or
tr,k 1oko,,
ton for their title, their right to office, than
the constable or the town and county boards.
But although that be true, there is great differ
ence In the effective voice which the people can
direct towards their servants in power The
voice OF the people is immediate and potential
in our lesser affairs. We may direct matters of
town and neighborhood concern by an almost
immediate appeal to the popular voice; but as
to matters of State and national concern, the
people cannot express their voice so directly
upon them. They are limited they are obliged
to choose, as in this election you are obliged to
choose, between two parties and two men. You
can not express your opinion upon all the null
titudinous questions which agitate the public
mind, and for which the public needs cry out q
decision. You must consider where the balance
upon the WHOLE lies, what is the controlling
important issue which above all others, as be-
tween the parties, demands your decision; and
1t is our duty carefully and painstakingly to
scrutinize the claims of the two parties 1t ia
acters Of the two candidates the full glare Of
public gaze that We may know their characters
EApplause1
1t does not need very discriminating eve to
see that there is no issue of administration or
finance which is defined between the two great
political parties. Both make their claims to
economy, both have made records upon that
subject, and in the ranks Of both parties there
is general feeling in favor of sound govern
ment, wise administration, and q proper and
economical saving of public money, applying it
only to those matters to which it ought right
fully to be applied. So as between both parties
there is now quite distinct line of dernarka-
tion drawn as against the Greenback party,
which is the third one that occupies any posi-
tion before the public. Our Republican friends
In the North are very free to assert that they
escape the folly of Greenbackism, and within q
few months, perhaps, they have claimed to cut
loose from it In the North, yet for a long time
they have sought their votes with as much as
siduity as any others, and only recently we have
perceived the spectacle of their go
to demand the union of Greenback-
ism and Republicanism in the Southern
States, In opposition to the Democratic party
there. The great champion of the Greenbach
party their candidate for President, only re-
Gently returned to fill Republican newspapers
with his outcries of the same character of those
who had employed him and sent him there
He only recently went to Maine to distract the
councils of the opposition, and endeavor as il
would appear, 30 far as his action was con.
cerned, to prevent that union of parties in op-
position to this great enemy of the republic,
the Republican party, which has but recently
resulted in such q victory.
We can draw no issue upon the financial
question. So it Is upon the tariff question
The candidate Of the Republican party, who ir
an hour Of honest conviction Joined the Cob
den Club of free traders, finds it matter of nc
difficulty to reconcile that foolshness with sup
port of protective tariffs.
And we in the West, who have SO long beer
made the victims of unjust determinations il
the levy OF our customs duties, find that We ge
no redress from any appeal that is put forward
The Republican party fastened upon us the
tariff, and the Democratic party have not beer
able to relieve us of it, although I see that il
his speech delivered last night in New York
Mr.. Conkling says when they get into power
they will.
So it is with the Chinese question with which
both parties bait their hook on the Pacific
coast. and with the labor question, in respec
to which both are ready to promise enactmentl
which no Legislature could possibly provide
All these questions of finance and business apC
administration are questions which must avail
decision, for, overshadowing them all, rising
beyond them all in importance, dominating anC
controlling the political scene is the great issu
of sectonalism between the North and South
Until that question is disposed of, and disposet
OF forever, in the only way in which it can be-
by the destruction of the Republican party
the business interests of the country must wait
Questions Of administration and finance are o
less Importance they are of temporary con
Germ. This question goes to the existence ant
perpetuity of our republican institutions.
And what is the aspect which that question
to which ask your attention more particularl
tonight presents to the intelligent and homes
citizen who desires to cast his vote in favor o
the right? They say that the South is solid
and they speak Of it as an offense. Who is re
sponsible for that offense? Who committed it
il it be an offense2 And, indeed, the continu
ance Of it will most certainly be so. What d.
they they mean by it, in the first place2 W
shall better understand what it is if we first dc
fine it little. What is the uniication of tn
South2 1t is only that unifcation which trus