Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1880-09-02

ftpm the national tendencies OF the repuoii-
ran partv to the principles that brought our
government to the verge of dissolution IN the
5svs of Buchanan. The principles of the
Southern States, with their bloody violence,
are the fruit of Judge Humans doctrine,
vh;le those of the Northern States are the
outgroxth of republican ideas.
Senator Hampton. in q recent speech al
Staunton, Va, stated the issue fairly:
.Consider what lee and Jackson would do were
thev alive. These are the same principles ior ~S,
they fought for four years. Remember the men VINO
,nred forth their life blood on Virginias soil, and
do not abandon them now
The South did fight for the rights of the
States as they understood them; and TINS
contest has already cost the nation halt a
million of lives and over six thousand mil
lions of dollars 1t is for the people OF the
North. who took the burden of this contest
upon themselves. to say whether, within
twenty wears after our heroes were sacrinceu
in the war. and while the debt still bears
heavily, they are willing, for the sake OF graf
living the democratic party, to vlndicate tiie
principles against which we fought. NOT
does it help the matter any that this party
with such aims and ends, bats its hook with
a soldier who did honorable service IN our
cause. We are intelligent enough to look
beyond this tempting bait to the animating
principles which lie behind this demand for
change. They say they want Hancock,
major general in the regular army. We had
for several wears, while General Grant was
President, democratic defamation, without
limit, against military rule. We have been
warned BY the lessons of history that free IN
situations are only endangered by ambitious
men, who NAV seek, under military forms, to
enslave the people. And yet this party. for
getting their defamation, propose to take a
soldier who has had no civil experience,
whose mind was developed in military
school, and whose life has been spent under
military laws; but they take him to carry out
and maintain the principles for which they
fought, and not those for which he fought I'M
der republican auspices. Excepting the
adoption of the old doctrine of State rights, l
know no distinctive principle of the demo-
cratic party. which can be named by an in
telligent citizen. no other measure which
they seek to accomplish, no other policy
which they seek to develop, and yet we are
asked to make this great change.
And now, fellow citizens, suppose change
is made suppose the restraint of repubii-
can President is Withdrawn. what will the
democratic party do under the doctrine for
which Judge Thurman and General Hampton
plead. On the day of the Inauguration a
horde of greedy office-seekers, hungry in
search of office, will come down upon the
heads of departments with their claims for
reward for party services, and inexperienced
men ill be thrust in to discharge the most
difficult functions of Official life. Trained
and experienced officers, whose capacity and
fidelity are recognized everywhere. will be
turned out, and the great operations of the
Government be placed at once in ineXper-
fenced hands.
A still more dangerous horde Of claim
agents, now haunting Washington, already
keen for plumber, and versed in all the tricks
of the trade, will seek to open the doors of
the Treasury to the brood. Of Southern claims,
which, despite our overlooking revenues, will
bankrupt the Treasury in year. Thus far,
during this administration, the gate has been
put down and barred against all these claims.
The statute of limitations and the decisions
of the department have cut them off; but
under democratic administration of the
Treasury Department, how easy it would be
to break down this barrier. know from
my personal knowledge number of claim
agents, influential men. who will vote
for Hancock on the ground that
his election will enable them to
recover claims now barred. All that is need
ed to cause the refunding of the cotton tax,
amounting to $6S, 900, 600. is an appropria-
ton. Most of the members of the South,
through their constituents, are interested in
these claims.
A slight extension of the period of limita-
ton, as to claims for captured and abandoned
cotton, will open up tens of millions of this
class of claims. An enlargement by half
dozen words of the law for the payment of
quartermaster's stores will bring upon the
Treasury demands for more than one hun
dred million dollars for food consumed by our
army in the war of the rebellion. taken from
disloyal people, and for damage done to them
as natural result or consequence of the
war. Experience has shown that to swell
these claims, ten-fold or even a hundred
fold, testimony can be manufactured with the
greatest facility and apparently of the clear
est character. Should this be acted upon by
an officer friendly to the object. no man can
estimate the demands that in this way, under
cover of right, may be foisted upon the peo-
pie of the United States. And why shonld
not this be done? If the principles of the
democratic party are to be again adopted by
the votes of the people. and the very
men who fought for them are to be placed in
power, why should they not be identified for
their losses? Why should they not be paid
for their slaves? Why should not the brave
rebels who fought for their principles be
placed on the pension roll? Even a change
in decisions by the Secretaries of War and
Treasury would bring upon the government
tens of millions of dollars of Southern
claims.
But again, if the principles of the demo-
cratic party twenty years ago, and the men
who fought for them, are restored TO power.
you will find the same slavish acquiescence
of the democratic fragments of the North to
the democrats of the South as before the
war. The election laws, of which I have
spoken. will be the first to be repealed, and
thus will be legalized all the atrocious crimes
and frauds Of the South, and even the great
fraud of New York will be condoned forever.
Amnesty and forgiveness will be proclaimed
for the meanest crimes that have ever been
committed against free government
What protection will there then be for
the freedmen of the South? What
then will there be against ballot-box suffers
and like criminals in the North?
What further is likely 30 happen? The
democratic party has opposed from the be-
ginning, as unconstitutional, our whole svs
TEN of National banks, and favored system
of state banks as matter of constitutional
right. BY the passage of law of two lines
they can repeal the tax of ten per cent. now
levied upon the notes of State banks. and
thus, without formal repeal of the National
N Ef.NT.a