Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1880-08-09

one
the South: one for the East, one for the
West. By their policy Of indirectness the
party hopes to obtain power;
Rut nov comes the questioning North ana
avs. .sWhat will you do If you carry tne
ELECTION in November" The Thirteenth,
Eourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments are
ali embodied in our organic law. In seven
,oa,, Sta,e those amendments are dead letters.
If vou pronose TO enforce them, how are you
going to do il? Now, gentlemen OF the
democratic party, we are tired OF wrangine
over the past but we are not SO tlteu rs ~
purchase peace by utter surrender OF our Po-
sition, utter abnegation Of our principles.
YOU get power, will You allow the negro "
vote: Will you uphold the National ered"
at its present high rate. Will you keep the
National treasury as free from rebel claims
As now. or will YOU allow it to be depleted by
everv claim that can crawl through the Four
teenth Amendment? Your candidate Is
brave soldier and q generous gentleman.
You speak with a loyal mouthpiece, out we
see the spirit that covers behind the mask
The voice is the voice OF Jacob, nut the
hands are the hands of Esau. Applause
If Hancock were elected he would have to
depend upon his appointees to execute the
laws. And they would be Southern poll
ticians Even now the northern wing OF the
democracy is controlled by the voters VINO
dwell on the thither side of Mason and DIX
on's line. For twelve years the South has
arrogantly asserted, platforms and candl-
dates you can have; cry hard money or solt
money, riot or reform, anything to elect a
democratic president: and when he IS in the
White House we will do as We please" Five
years ago the republicans lost control OF the
National House of Representatives two
years ago they lost control of the Senate
Ever since then the ghost of the slain Cot
federacy has beer stalking through the cor
ridors of the Capitol. Fitzhugh, the first
democratic doorkeeper, turned out every
Union soldier but one, and filled their places
with unrepenetant rebels. The duty of the
man whom he retained in Office was to run
up the stars and stripes on the public build
ngs: and he gave him an eX-Confederate
assistant whose duty it was to pull them down
again,-a luxury he couldn't enjoy in war
times. Laughter and applause. The first
debate was on the question of universal
amnesty, in which Ben Hill participated.
And there have been enough mule claims
and cotton claims since presented to swamp
the National treasury.
But the democrats say, ''Why are you con-
tinually harping on the past: Why do you
still persist in Haunting the bloody shirt:
Remember the parable of the Prodigal Son.
Now, it seems to me that the cases are not
similar The prodigal said, "Father. have
si,ined against heaven and before thee; am
no more worthy to be called thy son." What
does this prodigal do: He swaggers into the
dining room, kicks over his elder brother,
and saws, Now, old man. bring on your
roast beef" Applause.
Though they may laurel as they will the
graves of their dead, yet they shall not strip
a. nr hnr for fhna
flowers. Applause We shall continue to
strike the lash from the fingers from which
we once wrenched the sword. We believe
that Farrugut sailed into Mobile Bay for some
other reason than to give Office to democrats.
We believe that Sherman did not blaze his
way ''frOm Atlanta to the sea- to light rebel
brigadiers to seats in the Congress. We be-
lieve that those who participated in the
nations trials shall share in her triumphs.
1Great applause. We would like to open
the ports of the South to commerce, and her
fields to thrift, and restore her people to
opulence; but that cannot be done until she
ceases to strike the nineteenth century in the
face; till she ceases her petulency and comes
down to new basis. We want to restore
the country; they want to restore the demo-
cratic party. They tell us that as we con-
quered them they ought to rule US. But we
can submit to no such one-legged sylogisms.
[Applause.
Their object is to have history vindicate
the rebellion. To this end they have incor-
porated every financial vagary and everything
else that will draw votes. No longer does
the democratic party come as a knight IN
panoply, riding into the lists to do battle for
ideas; but as skulking robber, trying to
gain his ends by chicanery and violence.
In some communities there is no Odor so
offensive as a negro; in Others they have
been so transmitted that they smell as sweet as
bed of violets. To the hard money man they
claim as representative men, Benton, Sey-
mour, and the sage of CIPHER alley. Does
he sigh for the Micawber-like system If f.
nance which is to evolve something out of
nothing, and pays one note by giving anoth-
er, they point to Pendleton and Brick Pome-
roy. In caucus they seek to drown the past
by glittering generalites; but the ghost of
Banquo will not down but thrusts its CORY
presence between them and the chair of
state.
When this democratic party comes forward
and says, 81 demand power for am holier
than thou" l propose to examine the tape
line with which the republican party is to be
measured. For twenty years the democratic
party has been identified with all that is un-
fortunate in our politics. Its very existence
III thC ANoitu CVst tHc ldtlOH TWO years more
Of war, $500, 0OO. 900 more debt, and 200, 900
more lives. 1t stopped the bayonets of our
soldiers to PROFOUND puerile conundrums
about the Constitution. 1t has proved itself
to be the great political imbecle of the CEN
fury. 1t maunders and clamors because its
faccid fingers can no longer clutch the
helm of State. Turn from this to the record
of the republican party and as you turn leaf
after leaf of glory, you read the biographies
of heroes. you see how the flower of patriot
ism blossomed on the red stalk of carnage
At home, in counting rooms where prudence
turned away her face and capital sustained
country, on land and sea, on mountain and
in valley, by the whirr of Turbines, in the
mines, at the FORCES, on the farm, wherever
the heart of the nation throbbed. wherever
the flag of the nation cleaned there the re-
publican party wrought its record of glory.
[Applausc. And is this all to be forgotten
because our opponents have seized a lone
Union soldier and elevated him between a
penitent North and an impenitent Indiana
banker! How is it with this democratic
party? Oh. l know; there was Belknap,
And Babcock is said to have profited by the
illicit distillation of an article dear to demo-
cratic Threats. Now, when the democratic
party last had control of the country, in 1850.