Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1880-02-26
SHERMAN'S RECORD.
Gen. Joe Geiger's Speech at
Columbus

The first time met John Sherman was
in 1912, when l vas abOy. We were both
old Wings. He was younger man than
| was. He came down from Richland
county. then intensely Democratic, in
which no Whig had any expectation of
preference whatever. But he elung with
devotion to the principles of that party.
He believed that they were right, and he
allied himself wit them, and stood by
them in summers Sunshine and in win
ters storm. He was brave man. He
worked along faithfully. He was poor,
but at last John Sherman got into the
American Congress, and he has never
deviated from the straight line of what
he considered his duty from that day to
this. Great applause. There is no spot
or blemiSh on John Shermans flag. Ap-
plause. 1t has always been held up by
him, us politician and statesman, truly
and well. He carried it as bravely as his
brother bore the American flag from the
Mississippi to the sea. Great applause |
Take him wherever you find him, scru-
tinize him, analyze him, and by heavens
he is every inch man. Great laughter
and applause. don't know whether that
arose from his early associations with
me or not roars of laughter1 or whether
he was instinctively right.
Now, | have not been very consist
ent politician. l don't believe there has
been party in existence since nv send
ing myself forth as kind of vOlun-
teer on the political stage, with which
have not been associated. Great laugh
ter. That is what made me so much
smarter and better than you dirty ducks
that have belonged to one party. RE
newed laughter. When the blind bride
was pnt on me, and the political harness,
and was hitched to loaded wagon of
manure, | would not pull till l could
look back and see what kind of load
was in there, and knew where l was to
draw it to, and it was hard to tell wheth-
er l was going to lean against the collar
or the breeching. Great laughter.l Eve
ry man that wants to go for one who
had as few failings as any politician in
Ohio, or in the United States, should
support John Sherman. Has he ever in
any manner, at any time, or in any form,
proved recreant to the Republican party
Has he not been faithful from beginning
to end? Has he not stood by the ad-
ministratiOn of Lincoln, of Grant, of
Hayes straight along?
He has done for the country what but
few men could have accomplished, and,
without meaning any disrespect to the
other candidates that arc named in COM
petition with him. / would like to know
the man that in the performance of civil
service rendered more for tie Govern
ment than John Sherman. Applause
As your Governor has said here tonight,
he took your finances in a distressed and
disturbed condition, and placed them
where we are standing now Who lives
here that has ever seen the prosperity
that now exists in the country because
of the fidelity and substantialness of our
finances? You have four kinds of cur
lency new-greenbacks, national banks,
silver and gOld-and if there is gentle
man in this assembly who is not salts
fed with either of them. and prefers the
old Democratic doctrine of individual
responsibility, he can just bring either
of them to me and will give him my
note for them great laughterl; and
think that very probably after he dies
his administrator will hrve the note to
collect. Renewed laughter.
Now, can any man point to any dishon-
eSty that has ever been connected with
Sherman's name? He has been before
the people long time, and has been the
mark of antagOnism, vituperatiOn and
violence. Yet he stands faultlesS so far
as his individual integrity is concerned,
and the man that is honest personally to
fellows never will be false to his country.
[Applause.l
| say without fear of contradiction
that you may take the entire annals of
every nation or government from the be-
ginning of civilization until now, and l
say, as financier, John Sherman stands
without peer. Applause. Any man
posted in politics understands that what
care now interested in above all other
questions is our finances, ,and when there
is no other man of the sort offers for
the Presidency, why, in the name of
common sense, should we not stand by
and vindicate him. [Great applause.l