Morning journal and courier., 1880-07-21
Price Four Cents
The Campaign
Opened i'm Indiana by Secretary Schurz Extracts from His Speech Delivered Et Tndfannnolis.

Indianapolis.
 To speak in all candor, it appears to me
 that the Democratic party labors under his
 toric as well constitutional difficulties
 Since the downfall and disappearance of the
 slave power as compact political interest,
 from which the Democratic party, more than
 twenty years ago, derived its morals, its loeic
 its political skill and statesmanship, that par
 ty has been doundering about, out of logical
 connection with the questions of the day;
 never knowing the time of day always look
 ing for something to turn up, and when
 something did turn up, spelling it lamely
 tagging in the rear of the events and require
 ments of the day; always behind denoun-
 cling as impossible things that were already &C.,
 complished facts with a strange incapacity
 to understand the present and to measure the future, making itself the recipient and rally
 ing point for all dangerous and obstructive tendencies and clements, and thus commit ting blunder after blunder, which at the mo- ment of their birth 1t uniformly gloried in
 as great strokes of policy, from the secession
 movement in 1861 down to the nomination of
 Genera. Hancock in 1880.
 There are many good and clear headed
 men in the Democratic party, men whom I
 personally esteem and whose friendship I
 value, who deplore this condition of things as
 much as l do, but are unable to control the
 obstreperous clements and tendencies of the
 organization, and to fit it for the tasks and
 ISSDOuS1Dll1IlSS O1 SoNtTuIleIU-
 It is not my habit to rake up the embers Of
 past discords and to substitute for the living
 questions of the present issues which lie be-
 hind us {; but if we want to ascertain the pre-
 vailing tendencies and the present capability
 for good government of the Democratic par
 ty in accordance with the spirit and require
 ments of the present day, it is not unfair to
 review some striking experiences as illustra- tions
 Looking back to the year 1S64 the fourth year of the civil war, when the Southern Con- federacy was near the total exhaustion of it's resources, we find the Democratic party in
 national convention solemnly declaring that
 the war failure and must be abandon
 ed. A few months afterwards the triumph
 of our arms was decided, and cenfederacy
 collapsed, the restoration of our Union was
 assured and the Democracy was forced to
 acknowledge that the war had been a success.
 The Democracy had proclaimed its despair of the republic just at that time when the tri- umph of the republic was ripe It became ic policy been then adopted, the war would indeed have become failure and the Union have gone to wreck and ruin.
 When slavery breathed it's last and its abo- lition had become evident logical necessi- ty, requiring nothing more than the form of the law, the Democratic party declared that the abolition of slavery would be the ruin of the country and must at all means be averted Who Is there to deny now that the abolition of slavery was an absolute necessity, and has turned out a blessing? The Democrats are compelled to admit it themselves.
 When as measures of settlement the thir- teenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendments were passed the Democratic party declared them void and entitled to no respect, and all most immediately afterward found itself com pelled to admit that for the peace of the coun- try and a basis for future develop II. Il be maintained.
 Coming down to more recent history, when the Republicans in Congress had passed the act in 1875, and the fruit of the restoration of specie payments was almost ripe to be plucked, the Demo- cratic party in its national convention of 1876 thought it a smart thing to de- clare that the very act passed for bringing specie payments was an impedi- ment in it's way and must be repealed. And who is there to deny now that had the act been repealed under the pressure of all the imitation elements in the country the confu- sion of our financial policy necessarily ensu- ing would have prolonged the evils of an ir- paper currency under which we were then suffering? I need not accumulate further examples to show how incapable the Democratic party proved itself to under stand and appreciate not only the immediate of the times, but facts that had been virtually accomplished, and how it's greatest efforts were directed to the end of : things that had become inevita- ble, and which it afterwards found itself to admit as good.
 And now in this year of 1880, when the war issues are fairly behind us when by its conciliatory spirit and it's strict observance of constitutional principles the Government has removed all the clements of discord be- tween the two sections which 1t in it's own power to remove; when, aided by wise and successful financial policy, general pros perity is again blessing the land, and when the people look above all things for enlight- ened practical statesmanship that well un- lerstands the questions it has to deal with to foster and develop that prosperity now the Democratic party knows nothing better to do han to set aside all it's statesmen of known md settled opinions, political experience and and to nominate for the Presidency major general of the regular army, a pro- ,essional soldier, who has never been any hing else but that, and who from the very nature and necessities of his profession hes always stood aloof from the management of political questions.
 I shall certainly not attempt to depreciate he character of General Hancock and the great services which he has rendered to the country. He is a gentleman of irreproacha- ole private character, which I shall be sorry 0 see any effort made to discredit. As a sol Her he has shown signal bravery and skill Il the handling of troops under difficult cir ,umstances, and his name is identified with ;ome of the most splendid achievements of he For all this every good citizen will lonor him. But the question is not whether ye shall honor deserving general.
 The question is whether that deserving general would be the kind of President the country needs President who can be de- ,ended upon successfully to solve the prob ems of statesmanship which are now before IS; to preserve the good things already done nd improve upon them.
 It is believed by many that it is an easy task o perform the duties of the President of the United StateS-that the only thing he has to 10 is to form programme of policy which he esires to carry out and to call good and ex- men into his cabinet to attend to he detail of the business, without meddling imsef with its intricate complications The xperience have gathered from personal ob- erVation, not only as a member of the legis- alive body but also of the cabinet, Ehas con inced me that this is a great Emistake
 If all the President had to do were to se- ect seven men who agree with him as to the rincipal objects to be accomplished, and hen consult and agree with them about the leans to be used undisturbed bv the pres ure of outside forces, it would, indeed, be comparatively easy and comfortable thing. But the fact is that the President of the Uni ed States, by the very nature of his position, obliged to spend far more time in listening 0 the advice and the wishes and the urgency f men outside of his cabinet, than to his with cabinet ministers them elves. The opposition he may encounter rom the opposing party in Congress and in he press, is, in most cases, the least of the ifficulties he has to contend with The reatest puzzles that are apt to perplex and ometimes to overwhelm his mind come from is own party, who have a claim upon his at sntion and insist to have that claim respect l. Not only upon the great measures of his administration but upon every detail the ad- ice of the members of his party, especially nose in. Congress, is urged upon him with all sorts of motive. There is scarce appointment he has to make, there is ertainly not reform he wants to execute, nat he will not have to carry through a siege nd storm of opposing wishes and interests. very object he pursues will run counter to 1e wishes not only of his opponents, but of ome of his friends; every reform, the exe- 1tion of which may appear to him desirable, i'll tread upon the toes of somebody whose lterests lie in the abuse to be reformed, or ho has 8 friend to protect who is connected ith it and all these pleas, representations, urgencies and pressures go to le President, not through the members of is cabinet, but behind their backs and it is