River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1880-10-21
His Great Speech at Cooper
Institute, New York.
The Most Eloquent and Dispas-
sionate Grafton Delivered
This Campaign.
a Full and Fair Review OF All the
Campaign Issues.
The Record of Boe4- Parties Impair
TALLY Contrasted.
speech of Hon. VIM. N. Eyarts. Deliv-
cred in the city of New York. sep
tOmber 20, 1850

per judgment of the American people on the great
issues before them, inclnes me to think that was
wrong IN an opinion which | have tended to es
pouse that It was the press that was the only POI
tent orator in these popular discussions. BY their
magnificent enterprise and apparatus they speak
to millions where we speak to thousands BY their
perpetual possession Of the public ear they lay
down line upon line and precept upon precept, in
season and out Of season, whether men will bear
or whether they will forbear, and the orator has
no such hold uDon the attention or the respect of
the people.
But know that if one speak even in wills
per- IN the cause of his country, and for love Of it,
the people of the United States viii catch up the
sound, and wherever patriotism has not died out,
and wherever liberty is not suppressed, and where
ever the suffrage is honored and respected, they
viii carry ON the voice until, lost in the final de-
cison, it has triumphed or has faded away. APP
plause The question before the country, the
question before this vast representative assembly,
is as to which of the two parties that divide the
nation the conduct Of its affairs for the next few
years may be safely may be wisely, may be hope
fully trusted by people loving its honor respect
ing its duty and valuing the institutions which we
have inherited from our noble ancestry.
Iwenty-tour years ago the people of this coun-
try ntrusted the management of its affairs to the
democratic party of the United States; twenty
four years ago they trusted to a Pennsylvania
democrat lhissesl the management Of its affairs.
To-day it Is proposed to you that you shall restore
IL 10 the III inc MINUS oi
another Pennsylvania democrat laughter and
hissesl for their management Twenty years ago
the people of this country intrusted the manage
ment of their affairs to the republican party, born
of patriotism and devoted to liberty. [Appause. J
Twenty years ago they thus intrusted their at
fairs to the hands of an Illinois republican lap
plausc,l and substantially the people of this
country are to answer to-day the inquiry to their
own conscience, the test of his history the judg
ment of the world, whether they repent of taking
power from Buchanan and repent of giving power
to Lincoln. Appause.1
Active fault finders may in these twenty years
have had private or public grievances; there
may have been failures ofequality, always to
the greatness Of the occasion; but history reads
it, as foreign nations read it, as the great God :
fearing people of the United States read it, it
next November the Pennsylvania democrat is
restore to power, it is verdict that the people
have tired of patriotism and are wc2ried with
liberty. lCries Of Good and applause.
Now, IN these twenty years the democratic
party, made up as it when it was trusted
under Buchanan, has five times asked Of this
people to be restored to power and five times
the people have answered in the same way
Never! no, uever!" Applause. They tried it
during the war, when the nation was III the
throes Of desperation, when every coward had
joined the democratic party, when every pol
troon in the whole North was ever ready in the
army of non-fghtng traitors, and the people
said: 1T is said to us that our youth have per-
ished. and that our youth must perish it is said
to us that mourners are to 60 about our streets
for whole generation; it is said to us that the
substance of this people-thritty, industrious,
fond OF pursuits OF gain-shOuld be poured out
like water, and that, so far as can see, the
last dollar may be called for but we KIN ow what
made our population what it was; we knew wha.
made our wealth; and we will maintain liberty,
and union one and inseparable. though the last
man should fall in his place and the last dollar
he in ba I'M
DEMOCRATIC APPEALS AFTER THE WAR.
They asked again, after the was over and
after the resistance to the loyal government had
taken the form Of controversies about reconstruc-
ton, and the appeal to the people was that-the
republican party having fallen into quarrel, and
having in their own hands great impeachment
and great struggle in their own ranks-they
would trust power to the democratic party, united
no longer then divided between cOmbatants in
arms and non-combatants in the treasury-the
united democratic party, and the people said: No,
the party that carried us through the war. when
you said that it was failure, shall conduct the
government now; and you shall submit to it Jap
plause); and that you may understand what we
mean, we viii put the great captain who received
your surrender in charge of the government.
Applause.
Well four years went on and thoy said: Nov,
our people are fond Of change you know" Tie
answer was: so you thought when you took up
arms in in 1860 and we then showed you that we
were not fond of change. We loved our country
as it was; we aGored our country as it was; but
you then proposed to us a change, and enforced IT
by the most telling argument that democratic
party ever issued-powder and shot and shell.
No: we will keep the government long as the
democratic party holds the front and presents the
array and avOws the principles that we have re
sisted up to this time, Therefore will keep it
in the hands Of the captain of our armies
that we have trusted before" Applause Well,
they said: I'VE have had long peace and pros
perty-a lon, eace and prosperity Think OF
the emphasis lat the democratic party put on
that-that in the year 1876 we had had long
peace and prosperity Why do they suppose that
we are a nation of red Indians, that few years
of peace seem irksome and tiresome, and change
is desiredl And as for prosperity, did they sup
pose that when the laborerS Of the country, under
the desperate tangle of our finances that the re
bellion had brought upon us, were working hall
the time and were living upon halt WageS-dld
they think that that was the complete prosperity
which the laboring people of the United States
should enjoy! We answered; No; but we will
elect volunteer soldier [appausel who never hid
behind his charming family; but went to the war
and served to the end; and we Will trust HIM.
Well, now. they said eve do not like this. >
What can be done to please these peoplel We
have offered them n change four times since they
trusted Lincoln, and they have said that they
would not change a all. Why, they must be a
people of fixed principles! They must be people
they must be people who think
that they can take care of their own
interests. What an extraordinary thing! peo-
pie welded to such continuance in well-doing,
and to such saga sious and persistent selection OF
the means of carrying out their purposes, is on
the very brink of despotisn! What can save
theml \ people that chooses republicans for
twenty years, Why, what can save them from
the abyss of military despotism!
We thought when, in 1868, wee the great
est war that modern times had seen, and when 1t
was waged against free and republican institll-
tions by great military power-wc thought that
was more clearly threat of military despotlsm
than anybody had dreamed possible and when
we got out of the war we thought that we were
delivered forever from any fear of such despotism
And we were. [Applause]
''But it is not now by the ranks Of war and its
armament that We attempt to oYerpower you,
they said, lit is by appealing to your open, gen
erous, confding nature. Well" they said, look
at the alternatives we offered We offered you, IN
| 1864 a great Union General-Gen. Mcclellan
| he was great Union General-and united south
| in arms And this desccaed democracy stood
upon its dignity at the north, and said: What,
not take a great Union General Why, what Il
| pledge of fidelity, when YOU see rs plain a day
| that if YOU only put yourselves under that great
| Union General, Mcclellan the south Will lay
down its arms, because they won't have anything
| to fight for ther as that will end It. Did the
| people respond to that The answer was This
candidate is better than his party. lie WIS only
unready but his party was untrue. Applause
| But vet the great statesman that the affections
| Of the people had climbed about; that had writ
! ten Il more glorious page in history than any
one since Washington [applauseI; that had made
liberty uniyerS and had dispelled the shadows
of color and the lines Of race Is the president for
| us rather than the great general Of the union
| army; a man who had not been found unready or
untrue during the trials through which this coun-
| try had passed Applause. So the people did
not accept the great union general
Well in 1865, they said: I'VE offer you can
| ddate from the nOrth-always from the
| north-Goyernor Seymour candidate better
| than his party Well that was true How un-
| der heaven should these people think--when ours
| is government not of men, not of kings, not OF
mobiles but of the mass Of the popular feeling and
of public principle that is represented in the pres
dency-how, | say, should they think that
party could commend itself to the suffrage by say
| Ing it, candidate better than they! hat 3
reason for taking party, that It y worse than
| the candidate [Laughterl | don't know that
our eountrymen have eaten Of the insane root
and have gone mad. but don't think that any
answers they made to that proposition show that
they have lost their wits ut all. Well, now. Gov.
Seymour was better than the party. In fact, a.
he has gone On increasing in excellence, think
he il better than any party, or, ID fact, don
know but he Is better than all hls teliownien.
lLaughter.l That may be. ! know he showed
very extreme instance Of that fofgvng spirit
and that humbleness Of soul which are said 70
mark the Christian when. clothed with the sword
Of power and speaking IT, the name 81 anthor ".
when your streets were red with the Dlood OF m
nocents he spoke 10 the rioters a. has friends.
Now that suits a man for some departT ents Of
life but not for the command Of the army and
navy at the United States TGreat applause.