Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1880-09-09
HON. LYMAN TRUMBULL.

Issues of the Campaign Clearly Presented
An UnanswerabIe Argument for a
Change in the administration OF Nation.
al Affairs.
The largest political meeting held in st.
Clair Couney, ILL.,. for twenty years took place
at the Bsueviile Fair Grounds on the 3Oth ult
Ex-Gos. koerner presided. Among the
speskers were Hon. Lyman Trumbull, .candi-
t<ee for Governor; Gen. Lewis b. Parsons
candidate for Lieutenant 6 overnor; Hon
Lawrence Hartman, candidate for Attorney
General; Hon. Thomas Butterworth, Gen
john Z. Black Col. William II. Morrison and
others. The following is a synopsis of the
mastery address delivered by Senator Trum-
bull After thanking tie audience for the
warm greeting extended to him. and abiding
In grateful terms to the many manifestations
OF confidence he had received from the peo-
pie of st. Clair County during bis long resi-
dence among them, Mr. Trumbull said:
A POLITICAL RETROSPECT.
Before proceeding to discuss the questions
which now divide parties it may be useful to
inquire whether there is any thing in the
present attitude of parties which requires
Republican of 1856 or 1860 to support that party
now. This question will best be answered by
OF the Republican party of that period were,
and comparing them with its present attitude.
The Republicans of 1856 declared in their Ma
tlOnal Platform that they were opposed to
the repeal Of the Missouri Compromise;
-. to the extension of slavery into free Ter
litories; in favor of admitting Kansas a
free State; of restoring the action of the Fed
eral Government to the principles of Wash
ington and Jefferson, and that railroad to
practicable route, is imperatively demanded
by the interests of the whole country" The
nominated Mr.. Lincoln for the Presidency,
adopted substantially the platformof 1856, to-
gether with these two resolutions:
" FCurth-That the maintenance inyiOlate of
the rights of the States, and especially the
right of each State 10 order and control its
own domestic institutions according to its
ant I,1Si tn a
balance OF power on which the perfection and
endurance of our political fabric depends;
armed force of the soil of any State OF Ter
ritory no matter der what preteXt, AS among
the gravcSt of crimes"
=" SaIth-That the people justly view with
ala1m the reckless extravaganza which per-
vadeS every department OF the Federal Gov
ernrnent; that a return to rigid economy and
accountability is Indispensable to arrest the
systematic plumber OF the public Treasury by
favored partisans, while the recent startling
developments OF fraud and corruption at the
Federal metropolis show that an entire
change OF administration is imperatively de-
So important did Mr.. Lincoln regard the
fourth resolution, asserting the rights of the
states. that he incorporated it in his inaugural
Address. These resolutions of the Republican
party of 1856 and 1860 distinctly announce the
principles upon which it attained power. For
the ascendancy OF those principles struggled,
CLING to day. But
HOW MANY OF THEM ARE NOW LIVING ISSUES,
And of those which remain, how many does
the Republican party of to day represent?
The effect of the Missouri Compromise, which
prohibited slavery north OF Sc degrees and 80
INMATES north latitude, and the question of
extending slavery into free Territories set
tied forever by the Thirteenth Amendment to
the Constitution of the United States, which
declares that neither slavery nor involuntary
except as a punishment for crime
whereof the party shall have been duly con
victed, shall exist within the United states or
any place subject to their jurisdiction" Kan
sas was admitted into the Union nineteen
years ago q free State, and the Pacific
Railroad was completed and has been in
those questions. The only things left to be
ccompiished by the Republican party, as
of the action of the Federal Govern
ment to the principles of Washington and JEFF
ferson, the establishment of the right of each
State to order and control its own domestic
according to its own judgment
exclusively, the return to rigid economy and
as Indispensable to arrest the
systematic plumber of the public Treasury by
favored partisans, and a change of admins
tration to correct the recent startling devel-
ederal metropolis" For which of these
measures is the Republican party of
most trusted leaders denounce the effort to
restore the Federal Government to the prin-
ciples OF Washington and Jefferson and to
the right of each State to order and
control its domestic institutions according to
its own Judgment exclusively, as little less
than treason. The reckless extravaganza of
the Republican party of late years, greatly ex-
celled that of 1850, which it denounced, and i'll
its frauds and corruptions, notably before the
party restrained by Il Dem ocratic House
of Representatives, it far exceeded any thing
ever before known in the history of the Gov
crnmen1. need not go into particulars to
make good these assertions. The average
ordinary annual expenses under Mr.. Buchan-
ans Administration, denounced by the Re-
publicans of 1850 as "reckless eXtravagance,;
were So ,29l ,45240 The average ordinary an
nual expenses under the first six years of
Grants Administration while the Republic |
cans had control of all branches of the Gov
were $40 ,302 ,325l5, or nearly three
times what they were under Buchanan. In
the meantime the population OF the United !
States had not increased % per cent. Surely |
the ratio of increase in the ordinary expenses |
of tho Government ought not to exceed the !
ratio of increase in population twenty-five
per cent. added to the RECKLESS eXtrava-
gancc" of Buchanan's Administration would
was annually expended by the Republicans
when in full control from 1859 to 1879. The
Republican party OF the last ten Years iras
been no less.
HOSTILE TO THE MEN WHO roUSDEDr
than to the principles on which it achieved
success. Seward, Chase, Wcllcs, Blair, Gree |
others, among whom l light claim to have /
acted an humble part, the men under whose !
auspices the Republican party chiefly won its
fame, ceased to act with it when the war WAS
over slavery abolished and the party depart |
ed from the only vital issues remaining of
those on which it came into power. At no
period OF our history have reckless extrava-
gance and the systematic plunder of the pub |
lie Treasury by favored paIti-anS been so
fragrant as during the last term of Gen. !
Grants Administration. 1t was during that |
period that Robeson Williams, Creswcll, De- |
lano and BelSnap were members of the Cabi- |
net. that the Whisky Rings, the Indian Rings |
and the Custom house Rings most did flour |
ish; that Indian Agencies were sold; that the /
claims of SecOr and ChorDenning
were allowed; and such was the waste and |
mismanagement in the Navy Department
that Admiral Porter testified on oath before a |
committ,e of the House of Representatives i'll
1876 that "our Navy, taken as IL whole is |
worth nothing, and the sooner the country
that fact the better" This was AZ |
ter Robeson had been Secretary of the Navy
for nearly eight years and had used more
than Sl00000,000 of the public money But
why dwell upon this sickening record? The
world knows it by heart, and every honest
man not blinded by party zeal must blush at
its recital. The departure of modern Repub-
licans in their reckless extravaganza and
corruptions, in the lawIcss invasion by arm
ed force of the soil of the States of Louisiana
and South Carolina, in forcing illegal Legisla-
lures upon them, and in the I:iwless invasion
by armed force of other States, under the pre-
text of preserving the peace at the polls are
in the language of the Republican platform of
1860, among the " gravest of crimes" Having
shown that the Republican party has repudi-
ated ITS founders and proved recreant to every
living principle on which it was organized,
there is no reason of Inconsistency or otherwise
why a Republican of fifteen or twenty years
ago should longer support it. its claims to
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