River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1880-09-16
His Eloquent and Thrilling
Answer to Judge
Trumbull.
He Conclusively and Ably Refutes
Every Argument Advanced
by Trumbull.
The Fraudulent Returns Made by
Southern Census Emu
merators
Miscellaneous Political Notes.
GEN. LoGANs SPEECH.

on the 2nd inst, Gen. Logan spoke as fol-
! lows:
Mr.. PRESIDENT, LADIES. AND GENTLE
MEN: In discussing the question whether
or not we will continue in power the party
now controlling the affairs of the govern
ment, or change that control into the
hands of another party, we naturally in
| quire for what purpose is a change de-
| sired? Is the republican party admins
tering the government in accordance with
the principles which underlie republican
| institutions? Are our financial and rev.
enue systems of satisfactory character?
! Are the business interests of the people of
! the whole country at this time satisfac-
| tory? If we answer these questions in the
negative, then in what particular will
either of the party organizations opposed
at this time to the republican party pro-
vide more desirable substitutes? In order
! to Judge, it is well for US TO examine some
what into the history of those organiza-
| tions, what they have accomplished in the
past, and what they intend to do at pres
! ent and in the future? The democratic
party being the oldest of the three, its his
| tory is well known to all reading men of
! the country 1t was organized on the the
DRY that this government was compact;
that each state was supreme in itself; thas
the government was not sovereign, but wat
the mere agent of the states. This theory
was adopted by the Kentucky and Nir
ginia resolutions of 1898. and Endorsed by
the democratic party, and in 1852 made a
part of their political creed. The latter
portion of the first resolution upon which
this theory is based, is as follows:
THAT the government created by this
compact was not made the exclusive or
final Judge Of the question of the powers
delegated to itself since that would have
made its discretion and not the constitu-
ton the measure ofits power; but that, as
in all other cases of compact among par
ties having no common Judge, each party
has an equal right to judge for itself, as
well of infractions as of the mode and
measure of redress
Upon this theory, and with slavery as
its cornerstone, it was aggressive and
moved forward, enunciating the doctrine
| that slavery was universal and freedom the
exception; that the constitution, by its
own force, carried slavery into any of the
territories of the United States, and that it
could only be excluded by state action. In
! 1876 this doctrine became so offensive
to the people of the North, in the attempt
of the democracy to force slavery upon the
states of Kansas and Nebraska, that the
| TpDuDllcdH parry WIS OlSdHIAtus iNo
fundamental principles We're hostility to
the further extension of slavery and to
the doctrine of state sovel eighty. In 1860
this new party, with Abraham Lincoln at
its head, made war uncomprOmisingl
against these false theories of government,
and by reason of that warfare, elected Its
candidates for president and yice-presl-
dent of the United States.
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF ALL THE SOUTH
ERN STATES
combined, and then promulgated the doc
trine of secession, and eleven states seced-
ed and organized armed rebellion against
the federal government, and for four years
forced their armies into the field desper-
atelv, remorselesly, for its overthrow.
During this whole contest every act of
the loval people of the North for the de-
Tense and perpetuation of the national
government was opposed by the democracy
of the country. The raising of troops by
voluntary enrolment or draft was opposed,
the enfranchisement and the arming of ne
groes were opposed. the issue of treasury
notes and bonds for the maintenance OF
the national credit was opposed and de-
clared unconstitutional, the establishment
of the national banking system,was opposed
| and declared unconstitutional. by reso-
lutions of their national, state and county
conventions. in their public prints, and on
the stump, opposition was unrelentingly
waged against the measures'adopted and the
laws enacted by the republican party for
the overthrow of the rebellion and the
preservation of the union. Mr.. Buch
| anan had declared in his presidential mess
age that there was no power in the federal
government, even for its self-preservation,
to coerce the people of state, and this
theory was everywhere Endorsed by the
democratic party, North and South. The
republican party, on the other hand, IN
sisted that the constitution conferred
power upon the government to protect IT
self from violence, either from inorganic
ed mobs or organized armies under the sane
ton of isurrectionary states. The whole
theory of the democratic party was staked
on the issue of this war, and that party
lost The theory of the republican party
won aud because it won the political or
ganization which advocated and defended
| a national Union preserved and thus far
| perpetuated is entitled to popular conf
| dence until it can be shown that it has
abused the great trusts conhded to 1t.
TO SUM UP OUR INQUIRY
| in a single sentence. let me ask, what was
this rebellion? 1t was nothing more and
nothing less than the democratic party of
/
with treason in their hearts, and murder
in their hands, making war for the de-
struction of the best government that man
| ever enjoyed. Ex-senator Trumbull on
the 30th of August, at Belleville, Ill,
| makes the statement that the republican
party is not entitled to the credit of either
| suppressing the rebellion or abolishing
| slavery This statement, coming from a
man so recently member of the repub-
| lican party, who claimed great credit
during the war for his opposition to the
democratic party, makes 1t necessary for
me right here to answer that statement.
think his declaration will astound the
! democracy. especially Of the south
much as it will his former political asso-
ciates of the north. If the republican
party, through its state and national adj
! ministrations, did not raise the armies,
did not vote the supplies, did not pass the
laws necessary for the preservation of the
| union during the war ] ask him 10 answer
me: What party did? AT what time did
the democratic party, north or south, in
any state, take such action as tended 10
aid in any manner the suppression of the
rebellion? Who was il that was to be sup
pressed? Who rebelled, republicans or
democrats? If democrats, how were they
to be suppressed except by the authority
of the national republican administra-
ton? What member of the republican
party, from S6l to 1860, melted rebellion
aided rebellion, fought for the rebellion,
against the union? Senator Trumbull
saws Grant wa democrat. He says was a
democrat. and voted with the democracy
in 1862. Gen. Grant and myself went in
10 the army from Illinois in 1861, and re-
manned there until the rebellion was
closed. From the time Of the first rebel
attack on Fort Sumter no honest patriot
acted with or sympathized with the denloc-
racy IN obstructing the cause of the union
in any manner whatever.
Senator Trumbull gives figures, and
shows that more men went into the army
than voted for Mr.. Lincoln. What Of
that? The first gun fired at Sumter, in
the spring Of 1861, made more republicans
than voted for Abraham Lincoln. Sena
tor Trumbull says the state of Missouri
sent more troops to the war than voted for
Mr. Lincoln in that state, and more than
several OF the northern states sent. Mis-
souri, although il is now a democratic
state, was during the war republican
state, and up to 1870 when all rebels |
were enfranchised by republican generosi- !
tv. To-day it has 10000 republican |
voters. probably ma iority OF them made |
such by service in the union army. llli- |
nois was converted from a democratic to a /
republican state by like causes Why, /
nine-tenths of the men who entered the /
union service as democrats came out re- |
publicans, and remain republicans to-day, |
unlike the distinguished candidate who |
- rTIa,- haI their dar4o.- !