The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1880-09-14

that will be borne down by the tide and
food of execration. But speak 10 those
who love their homes and children and
love their fellowmen, and ask how can
such men support such a party? So that
if there was no other fault to find With
their party than that they do their best
to put their ellow-countrymen apart, that
alone would be enough for me to decline
to favor it, and that is the question, too,
all over this land of ours. Go where you
please, and you find
SECTIONAL HATRED AND JEALOUSY.
Why, who is safe from it? What will they
not do to invoke it? If there be on the
face of the great earth man who would not
tell lie to save himself or his friends, that
is Wade Hampton. [Cheers. Wade
Hampton is not man to hide his thoughts
or fears, to look a man in the eye and tell
him what he thinks. You know him. He
has been since he went to the Senate free,
candid, outspoken, conscientious repre-
sentative of his people and of the Consti-
tuition. He has had nothing to hide. There
was no thought in his heart that would
not bear Gods sunlight, and yet when he
made speech the other day in Virginia
and was talking with those people whom
he had fought for and whom he loved, he
advised them to stand upon the public
faith and not to tamper with their public
reputation, and he said that il Lee and
Jackson were here would you not do as
they would do in such case as this ? Can
you doubt, said he, where Lee and Jack
son would have stood had they been
spared to live under condition such as
this. And what did those partisan spirits
do with his speech? They declared that
the man whose honor is unsullied as the
sun intended to reinvoke the spirit Of mil
itary resistance to the government And
they knew that was lie. [Cheers. They
knew that when Hampton sheathed his
sword and signed the terms of submission,
and when he went into the service Of the
government of the United States, he did
it with clear conscience and with an In
tent to keep his word, and he has always
kept it. Cheersl But it is useless to
defend him here where you all know him.
But all over the North they have tried to
spread falsehood and injure the man
among people who delight to honor him
and love him. And how shall we meet it 2
There is an old saying that lie will travel
a league while Truth is putting on his
boots, and so | suspect we are content to
be silent, except TO make the denunciation
that make to-day, and such As would
make anywhere where that falseheod met
my ear. But this shows the desperate
efforts of that party who would SOW
THE SEEDS OF DIscoRD
and arrest the tide of prosperity in our
midst. l think these efforts will be in
vain. | think there is divine purpose
that does not intend these people to re-
main at war with themselves. Everything
speaks to us to oppose the party based
upon these things. The love Of our coun-
try, the love of peace, the very hard ma
terial gains of our daily labor, all warn
us that sectional party is q foe to the
prosperity of country, and that every
man Is equally interested in putting an
end to any such attempt. Sometimes it
was convenient thing for Garfield to re-
sort to such topics just as the sailors cay,
" any port in Storm" and it strikes me
that any man with the Congressional rec
ord to answer to that Garfield has is wise
if he flies to anything to avoid its expla-
nations. Cheers.
One other thing and am done When
the government was founded we were
a poor, hardy, industrious people We
had stripped ourselves for hard fight, l
mean your forefathers had, and they came
out of the struggle with their selffespect
and independence, and very little else;
they framed this government and they
avoided kingly rule. They determined to
distribute the power in small parcels and
for short terms. The whole object was
that small amount of power should be
placed in the hands of plain and simnle
men. Scholars and philosophers and men
trained in state-craft were few. They con-
signed the government to plain people,
and they gave to each man only limited
amount of power, and they placed the
power of the government in departments,
and only gave it to men for limited terms.
The object of that was this: It was, in
my judgment, the safety valve by which
they could hope to make this government
a success. The people in choosing their
rulers would inevitably make mistakes
The people in following certain policies of
government would necessarily find them
selves in error, but in the election which
they left open was the path by which they
could retreat. We were to be .enab1ed to
change our rulers when we found that
they had violated our confidence, and to
change our policies when they werc found
to be unwise. But in order to do that
the elections must be free, and to-day one
of the dangers that confront us is the
declaration of the leaders of the Repuhli-
can party that the safety and welfare of
the party require the power TO be kept In
their hands, and so to serve their country
under that pretext they have resoxtedto
official interference with elections Ahat
threatens to make our elections no longer
free. We must check it now. There are
105, 900 names of officials on the blue
books of this country. Each one Of those
men is armed with some such power, aad
authority and has so much of the public
money. What was it given to them for Z
To serve the publicly Was it. given
them to keep them in their places 70 re-
sist the popular choice, or to give thsm
the power to prevent the public from
changing their rulers? II so then the
whole object and intent OF our elections
have been destroyed The safsty-valve
of the American government IL ffes cleo
tions, because the people are given she
chance Of retrieving their mistakes and
are not apt to make the same mistake
twice. The ofice-holders say, You peo-
pie Of the United States may think {
change! desirable, but We thiak it hester