Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1880-09-22
CONKLING SPEAKS.
ern Danger--About the Finances
Able Exposition.


Able Exposition.
New YORK, September 1.-THE Acad-
envy of music was crowded to overflow
ing tonight, on the occasion of the Re-
publican mass meeting, and the police
were obliged to close the doors to keep
the throng from overcrowding the CORR
doris. Thousands went away, being I'M
able to gain admittance to the building.
On the stage, among the prominentmen,
we're Hon. Edwards Pierrepont, Judge
Cowan, Gen. Arson McCook, Postmas-
ter James, Collector Merritt, Gen. Gra-
ham, Gen. Carr, Hon. Thurlow Weed,
and others. About o'clock Governor
Cornell entered the Academy and
was escorted to private box
amid three cheers. Gen. Arthur and
Hon. James W. Varum accompanied the
governor. Shortly before 8 o'clock
Senator Conkling arrived, accompanied
by Hon. Hamilton Fish, Hon. Lloyd
Aspinwall, Hon. Jno. Jay, ex-Gov.
Denison, OF Ohio, and Hon. Levi 2.
Morton, and as the party advanced upon
the stage q simultaneous cheer arose
from every part of the house, and hand
kerchiefs and hats were waved in the
air. The excitement subsiding. Mr..
Aspinwall advanced to the footlights and
said he had been requested to open the
meeting by reading a letter from Gen.
Grant. Prolonged applause. Hon.
Hamilton Fish was elected chairman
and in brief speech introduced Senator
Conlkling, who was greeted with cheer
upon cheer as he came forward.
After an eloquent aIlusion to the grandeur
and blessing of the republic, Mr.. Conkling said:
The Democratic party is the Democratic candi-
date and [ am against the ticket and all it's
works. The general issue confronting us is in
itself and in its bearings sectional. Would that
it were not so, but it is SO. In twelve states of
the Union the approaching election is co be no
more than farce, unless, as has sometimes
happened, it be turned into tragedy. In several
southern states there is a large Republican ma
jority; but all the southern states alike, without
exception or without doubt, are relied upon to
count upon the Democratic side and score one
hundred and thirty-eight electoral votes. There
is to be no free debate, no equal rights, no true
expression III these states; and yet he who dis
cusses these questions must be tod in the
coarse parlance of the day that he waves /" the
bloody shirt"
The senator denounced the proposed count
in some southern states, founded on the last
census, and then read Gen. Grants recent let
ter, In which he says that "the Democratic
party as now constituted andscontrolled, is not
a fit party to trust with the control of the gen.
eral government" and went on to say that the
South controls the Democratic party, and that
III congress the Southern members hold absO-
lutte sway. Should q controversy arise regard
ing the presidential election and the election
be thrown into the house, there, the vote being
taken by states, the South would cast nearly all
the Democratic votes, and in the senate the vote
for vice president would come from the same
source In every event Of Democratic success
the Southern end of the Democratic party must
be to the Northern end as the locomotive is to
the tender, as the horse is to the cart.
This is as plain as any truth in gravitation or
arithmetic The South has control of all
the working committees of the senate.
On every committee there is q majority of
Democrats, and of these a majority in all cases
consists of southern senators. The same condi-
lions prevail in the house. There are fOrty-twO
committees. The chairmen of twenty-five are
from the south. All the committees are so con-
stituted that the ma jOr1ty is Democratic. and of
the majority more than half is southern. Dur
ing the two years while this absolute power in
both houses has been SO lodged the existence
of the veto power, and the approach of presi-
Dental canvass have suggested urgent reasons
for "gomg SLOW" Many expected bills have
not been introduced; many that have been in
troduced have not been "pressed;" some thai
have been "pressed" have run against such OBJ
stinate opposition as to secure present post
ponement or some modification; but whenever
the hour strikes that the veto power is in Dem
ocratic hands, put there by southern votes,
whatever the solid caucus DEGREES will be writ
ten. That caucus will be controlled by those
who represent less than one-seventh of the peo-
pie of the union, and not more than one four
teenth of the producing, commercial: industrial,
tax-paying and property interests of the country.
The senator read official figures of the bureau
of statistics to prove this assertion, and said:
These facts are not recited with pleasure but
deep regret.
The next topic discussed was the trade of the
Mississippi river, and upon this point Conkling
said: The river commerce of the Southern
Mississippi is regarded as great tie of interest,
a safeguard and assurance against purposes
sectional or inimical, and a large foundation for
the claims set up for southern influence in ma
tional affairs. This theory, as far as it ever
was true, belongs to the past. The tread of
man in all ages has been on lines of latitude
not on lines of longitude. Rivers and noun
tains on this continent run north and south;
men bridge and tunnel them and move east and
west. The construction of railways has
revolutionized traffic and transportation.
The great companion and competitor
to this transcontinental movement is
the lakes and Erie canal. The commercial
forces of seven great cities have grasped this
vast carrying trade, and hold, propel and di-
rect it. Boston, New York, Philadelphia and
Baltimore at the east, and st. Louis, Chicago
and Cincinnati at the west, command the
machinery and outlets and inlets through which
the surplus products of the Uaited States reach
the markets of the world, and through which
the merchandise of Europe is brought here and
distributed. Could science deepen the mouths
of the Mississippi till the Great Eastern could
load at the wharves of the Crescent City, the
achievement would no more arrest or divert the
movement of commerce and population east
and west than it could control the tides of the
sea or change the course of the stars.
Statistics were here given, locating the bulk
and substance of the nations wealth in the
north, and the speaker said: affirm that the
broad issue at this election is whether our
colossal fabric. commercial, industrial and fnan-
cial interests, shall be under the management
and protection of those who chiefly created and
own it, or shall it be handed over to the sway of
those whose share in it is small. and whose ex-
perience, antecedents, theories and practices do
not fit them or entitle them to assume its con-
troll?
Mr.. Conkling spoke of wiping out the Repub-
loo, uo+a in bo NV Itv