Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1880-10-09
BUYS AND SELLS EXCHANGE
SPEECH OF SENATOR RAYARD
Al THE ACADEMY OF mU-
SIC, BROOKLYN.

lItlS SISGilllZ doouICs9 liOs 4 itdt NOi
are citizens of Brooklyn / know
That you are my fellow-countrym
/ feel. Four years ago l sto0t
! where ] stand tonight. / was OF
the errand then that / am now, ant
the object that l had then / havt
now, and the object that you haC
then you have now, and it is ont
worthy of you and of me, because i
is the prosperity, the welfare, tn,
happiness of this dear land we al
love. Gentlemen, can it be tina
men left free to act in regard to the
government of their own affairs anC
the affairs of those who are to come
after them shall esteem politics &
low business, of selfish purpose, o.
mere trickery, of poor and low OBJ
! jects? Shall it be that we can con.
template our political duties and
dwarf them to poor, narrow, sec
tional and personal purpose. / can.
not believeit. Standing here before
this serried phalanx of faces would
like at once to strike the note in
which / am to speak and you are to
hear, and / know no better way
than to revert to a great fact in his
tory. The beauty and force Of its
significance always appeal to me,
although it occurred in a land far
distant from our own. It was at the
siege of Badaios, in the army led by
the Duke of Wellington to preserve
Spain from the ambition of the first
Napoleon. In that siege there fell
a young Irish officer. He was struck
by a shot and so wounded that his
life was to be counted by the pulsa-
tions of the arteries which had been
severed. Surgeons were called and
they told him that death must come
soon. Raising his crippled arm as
the blood flowed from it and each
pulsation marked the passage of his
life, he called for goblet and he
held it underneath the life-current
until it filed, and then as death
came near closing his eyes he raised
it and said, eff it had only been for
Ireland % Yes, brave soul he was
fighting in the ranks of destiny,
perhaps for the cause of good gov
ernment, but he wished that his
life-blood could have been poured
for the island of his birth. So here
tonight in what spirit shall we ap-
proach the vast question of the con-
troll of the government of this cOun-
try except in one of simple devotion
and elevated faith, free from selfish
orsectional domination or rinfluence?
The other night in the great city of
New York great body of intelli-
gent, of wealthy, of high-favOred
citizens, men and WOmen-or per-
haps they would like the other title,
lower in my estimation, ladies and
gentlemen-met to hear the issues
of this canvass discussed, and they
brought to address them a man of
distinction and ability, highly fa-
vored and endowed by nature and
strengthened by popular feeling,
and yet how his vision or their Wis
ion was shrunken They saw but
half their country. They believed,
or sought to be instructed in the be-
lief, that this country can fulfil its
great destiny, so manifestly intend
ed for it, with one part in shadow
and the other in sunshine. Such is
not the rule of the world. Why
will not these people learn that the
fractions of truth which reach our
mind are often all but fractions, and
that he is wisest who obeys clearly
the dictate and the call of nature
and the God of nature, in he treat
ment of his fellOw-men. There was
a distinguished English physician
high in the ranks of science, high
in social distinction, whose life was
a blessing to his fellow-men. 1t
was Sir Henry Holland. Once he
went into the east, and there he met
a pasha, ! believe in Egypt. He
was anxious to see this man, of
whom he had heard as possessing a
and superstitiOus power
over human life. 1t seemed this
oriental governor had designs
against the life of one of his enc
mics, and he called the interpreter
and asked Sir Henry Holland
whether he could furnish him with
a poison that would take human
life, but not Immediately; that
could be administered to the victim
who should receive it unknOWingly, |
live in health awhile and yet droop, |
decay and die in little time when
of the act that caused it
should have passed away. When
this message was conveyed to this |
apostle of benevolence and cure his |
answer was, ''The study of my life !
has been to save and prolong the
lives of my felloWrcreatqres, Pei |
sons I have never sought and / |
have no knowledge 10 convey upon |
that subject" The thought of Sir
Henry Holland is that which / feel
and that which, it seems to me, all
Americans should feel in treating of
the government of this country, |
Within its boundaries / confess to |
you have no foe except him who
will administer poison to the gov |
and the welfare of my fell |
Iow-countrymen. / do not propose |
to picture to you those of our fellow
who are less Well-off |
than yourselves. If / mention them |
at ali it is, my friends, that your
bounty may flow towards them as |
God Almighty's bounty has flowed |
towards you. Heaven forbid that l |
should speak of any portion of this
great country of ours except in |
terms of brotherhood, kindness,
reconciliation and the spirit Of har-
mony. What, I ask you, is to be
the effect of this long parade OF false
figures, unwisely used, with which |
the senator from your state sought |
to tickle the passions and delight /
the vanity of those who heard him |
a week ago in New York? What |
does it prove? Can it be that you |
are happier for knowing that while |
YOU sleep in comfort others rest in
wretchedness? that while you are |
independent and strong, others of |
your feIIow-countryme are denied |
the opportunities that you have res
eeiVed and which you have im-1
proved? Why, surely that IS the |
Spirit of destruction and not concili-
alton. So, therefore, there will |
arise naturally, logically, from all |
these figures quoted by the senator |
from New York who spoke In the |
Academy of Music but one result, |
He sought to show that American |
tonnage, shipping and tEansporta- |
ton over Gods highway of the sea |
had greatly declined since 1860. So |
it has, but what is the frightful and |
inexorablel logic of his figures, which |
is to fall upon him and crush him,
their utterer, and the persons who |
furnished them to his unskilfui
handg From 1910 to 1860 the skill
of the American mechanics, the
force of the American forests, the
adventure of the American seamen,