Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1880-08-13

aristocracy. This was not the fault of the
Southern men; they cannot help holding
such views of Government. 1t IS the way
they have been educated but we don't want
to put the Government back into their hands.
The recent Cincinnati convention IN their
platform says they still adhere to their past
opinions, and the attitude they took in vot-
ing against all these amendments is their
position in relation to them today. Laws
must be passed to carry out these amend
ments 10 the constitution, otherwise the con-
stitution would be of no effect. The pas
sage of laws for this purpose has encounter
ed the uniform opposition of the Democrats,
in debate and by their votes. The Demo-
Gratis in Vermont would not vote against the
incorporation of similar rights and privi-
| leges into the State constitution Yet all
these amendments and the laws passed to
| give them effect have been uniformly op-
posed by Northern Democrats. Not all as
Individuals but as party organization.
machine under caucus rule, against which
the individual Democrat is as powerles as
| fly against locomotive. They have voted
over and over again to repeal these laws and
have not voted TO put anything better in
their place. They say it belongs to a State
to determine whether a citizen OF Vermont
going to that State shall be treated as a
/ ClllLtu VI nDt. lOlltu has Eulutu utdiif
thirty Representatives in Congress by the
representation added for the negro vote.
Y ct this vote is for the most part disfran-
chised by the aristocracy, on the ground
that they are ignorant and not qualified to
vote, notwithstanding the fact that ignorant
whites vote, North and South, and these
negroes know Just as well what is for their
interest as the whites know what is for theirs
| The speaker did not believe in property,
writing or educational qualifications to vote.
| The negro that dusts my shoes may be as
competent as | to decide who should go to
Montpelier to make our laws
He had travelled South quietly-did not
go with brass band. The Southern peo-
pie don't believe in a Government by the
majority, as you Republicans do. 1t is the
way they have been brought up They pro-
fess tc believe that we hate them, when we
are only trying to secure fair play. MIR.
Bayard, champion of equality and justice,
asked me, why is it that you cannot get
over your hate towards US 2" told him |
had no hate towards the South | merely
wanted all the people there to have the
same liberties the people of my State pos
sessed, and reminded Mr.. Bayard that he
had had passed in Delaware the same laws
was trying to have passed in Congress.
They can't get it out of their heads that o
few of them should do all the governing.
They are an aristocracy, and they ask us to
put this Government into the hands of q
consolidated aristocracy, in which they, not
you Northern Democrats, are going to rule
They are going to carry the election in three
or four Southern States by breaking up
political meetings. Democrats attend Re-
publican meetings to break them up. They
say they have got these States and are going
to keep them-got them by fraud and vio-
lence and will keep them now by tissue
ballots. The presence of these tissue bal
lots in the ballot boxes is not an accident,
but an organized party movement, because
they don't believe in majority Government.
If Democrats like this way of doing things
let them go to South Carolina.
Mr.. Phelps tells US it is our duty now to
remember that the war is over, and that
there is now no difference between the loyal
and the disloyal Colonel Waddell says
they have given up the idea of disunion and
of restoring slavery but they have not yet
given up the idea that the slave aristocracy
must rule Equal r1ghts-the rights to cast
their vote without intimidation and have it
honestly cOunted-have not yet been be-
slowed. Referring to talk about the blues
and the grays, he said if true in 1865 that
the Union cause was right, it is right
now. One of the consequences of main
tanning this right was an expenditure OF
IS, 900, ,000, 900, sum so vast rs to surpaSs
all our efforts to comprehend it. Three
quarters of this sum has been paid by the
North, as the North pays more than nine
tenths of all the taxes Nothing pays in the
end but work. Every dollar of gold is
nothing but work boiled down-work has
paid for it. Now the money opay this
debt has come out of the labor of the North,
and all that remains to be paid, or is assumed
to be paid, must be paid by work, and by
work of Northern men. If there is now no
difference between.,.orner loyalty and dis
loyalty, pensoning the rebel soldiers. repeal
of the cotton tax, payment of claims Tor
damages, against which there is no constitu-
tional amendment, must be right, and all of
these demands We must pay if We once
say there is no right or wrong side.
The only bar to the payment OF
these Southern claims is the law that re-
quires claimants TO prove their loyalty.
There is now pending in Congress bill 10
wipe out the distinction between loyalty and
disloyalty, as affecting all claims against the
Government Senator Beck once arraigned
me, when chairman of the Judiciary Com
mittee, for not reporting this bill to the SEN
ate, and boasted that they would have a COM
mittee at the next session that would report
the bill, characterizing as stigma the re-
quirement of an oath of loyalty. This same
bill is pending yet. At the last session, by
way of having little Yankee revenge on
them, | tried to get the Democratic commit
tee TO take up this bill, but they were as 81
lent as a mouse. They want it to stay in
the hands of the committee till after the No
vember election, then, if they win, you Demo
/ of will find Cnnraalvps "a
little after the fair"
Referring TO the subject of taxation, he
said the only taxes the Democrats have re-
duced were those on whiskey and tobacco,
two great staple products of the South. They
have had chance for four years to make
better laws-only two have they touched.
Referring to the currency question, he
spoke of our upside down way of speaking
of the comparative values of gold and cur
rency. We speak of the premium on gold
while the value of the gold dollar never
changes the premium on il being in fact
corresponding discount on the green
back. He reviewed the differences that
prevailed between Eastern and West
ern Republicans up to 1874 on this subject.
In the debates and comparisons OF views
preceding this period, those differences
had become harmonized, and the period of
waiting to take decisive measures to secure
| the resumption of specie payments ended IN
the decision 10 go ahead, and the Resump-
tion Act, placing the event four years in the
future, was passed Every Democrat in Con-
gress voted against this and every other
measure looking to the restoration of our de
pressed currency 10 4 par value with gold.
| The men that suffer most from Il depressed
currency are the working men. Rlch men
can endure it, and by taking advantage OF
the depression in property, purchasing and
waiting for it to appreciate in value, often
grow richer. The Democratic party Is not
the friend of the working men. Its whole
history on this currency question is against
the working man.
Turning TO the coming State election, Sen
ator Edmunds said Vermont sounds the key
note in this campaign. An increased Re-
publican majority in September is necessary
| to carry with it the force of a victory. y
reduction of this majority is Democratic
victory. Vermont is regarded throughout
the nation Us Il sort of model republic. There
are here few rich men and very lew poor
men Wealth is more equally distributed
here, and there is n more equal distribution
of schools and church spires. Therefore the
Judgment of this State, going up or down, is
regarded as determining which way Repub-
lcan sentiment is setting. Vermont, in the
coming State election, will have much To do
in deciding the national contest in Novem-
ber lie believed this flag hung out to-nish.
will be illumined with the light of victory,
and in their hearts Northern Democrats will
be glad; for peace, justice and equal rights
will then prevail all over this land.
The Watchmda, whose report we copy,
says Senator Edmundss speech commanded
the closest attention Of his hearers, and re-
ceiyed their earnest, thoughtful considera-
ton. His arguments, clothed with the SIM
plest English, and made AS clear as the sun
light. had the force of judicial decisions.
The, have already borne fruit, and, widely
disseminated through the surrounding towns,
as they will be by his many hearers, will
show goodly harvest of votes in September.
A. A. lcakcl, Il private in the one hun