Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1880-07-22
A SCATHING REVIEW.
General Garfield Describes
the Position of the Dem
ocratic Party.
A Specimen of Hancock's
craftsmanship.
A Telling Communication from the
Poet Laureate.

/
Mr.. Chairman, it is now time to in
| quire as to the fitness of the democrat
| ic party to take control of our great ma
ton and its vast and important interests
of the EeXt four years. put the ques-
ton to the gentleman from Mississippi,
Mr.. Lamar, what has the democratic
party done to merit that great trust
He tries to show in what respects it
would not be dangerous. | ask him to
show in what it would be safe. | affirm
and [ believe | do not misrepresent the
great democratic party, that in the last
sixteen years they have not advanced
one great national idea that is not to-
day exploded and as dead as Julius
Caesar And if any democrat here will
rise and name a great national doctrine
his party has advanced, within that
time, that is now alive and believed in,
[ will yield to him. Applause. In
default of an answer | will attempt to
prove my negative.
What were the great central doctrines
of the democratic party in the presi-
dental struggle of 1860? The fOllwers
of Breckenridge said slavery had a
right to go where the constitution goes.
Do you believe that to-day? And is
there man on this continent that holds
that to-day? Not one The doctrine is
dead and buried The other wing of the
democracy held that slavery might be
established in the territories if the peo-
pie wanted it. Does anybody hold that
doctrine to-day? Dead-absolutely deadl
Come down to 1864. Your party, un-
der the lead of Tilden and Vallandig-
ham, declared the experiment of war
to save the union was failure. Do
YOU believe that doctrine to-day? That
doctrine was shot to death by the guns
of Farragut at Mobile, and driven in q
tempest of fire from the valley of the
| Shenandoah by Sheridan less than
month after its birth at Chicago.
Come down to 1873. You declared
tionary and void. Does any man on
this floor say SO to-day? If so, let him
rise and declare
Do you believe in the doctrine Of the
Broadhead letter of 1868 that the So
called constitutional amendments
should be disregarded? No; the gentle,
man from Mississippi accepts the re-
suits ofthe war; The democratic doc
| trlne of 1868 is dead!
walk across the democratic cam
paign ground as in graveyard Under
my feet resound the hollow echoes of
the dead. Their lies slavery, a black
marble column at the head of its grave
on which | read: Died in the flames
of the civil war; loved in its life; lamen-
ted in its death; followed to It's bier by
It's only mOurner, the democratic party!
And here is a double grave: Sacred
to the memory of squater sovereignty.
Died in the campaign Of 1860. On the
reverse side: Sacred to the memory of
| Dred Scott and the Breckenridge doc
| trine. Both deaths at the hands of
| Abraham Lincoln! And here monu-
ment of birthstone: Sacred to the men,
ory of the rebellion; the war against it
| is a failure; IIIden et VoNa7ediqban
fece,qtH A. D. 1864. Died on the field
guns of the republic. The dOcrine of
secession, Of state sovereignty, dend.
Expired in the flames of civil Wal, amid
| the blazing rafters of the cOnfederacy,
except that the modern Eneas, fleeing
| out of the flames of that ruin, bears on
his back another Anchises of state SOW
ereignty, and brings it here in the per-
son of the honorable gentleman from
the Appomattox district of Virginia
(Mr. Tucker. [Laughter.l All else is
dead.
Now, gentleman, are you sad. are
you sorry for these deaths? Are you
not glad that secession is dead? that
slavery is dead? that squatter sover-
eighty is dead that the doctrine of the
| failure of the war is dead? Then you
are glad that you were outvoted in 1860,
in 1864, in 1868 and in 1872. Ifyou
have tears to shed over these losses
shed them in the grave yard, but not in
this house of living men. [ know that
many a southern man rejOlces that
these issues are dead. The gentleman
from Mississippi Mr. Lamar has cloth
ed his joy with eioquence.
Now, gentlemen, if you yourselves
| are glad that you have suffered defeat
during the past sixteen years, will you
not be equally glad when you suffer de-
feat next November ? Laughter. But
pardon that remark; [ regret it; |
should use no bravado.
Now, gentlemen, come with me for a
IiIOI1SIlG IiIlO II1e GAIL u VI CIAC 4CpliblA-
can party and review its career. Our
central doctrine in 1860 was that
slavery should never extend itself over
another foot Of American soil. Is that
doctrine dead !? 1t is folded away like
a victorious banner, its truth is alive
forevermore on this continent. In 1864
we declared that we would put dow the
the rebellion and secession. And that
doctrine lives and will live
while he second centennial has
arrived. Freedom, national, universal
and perpetual-our great constitutional
amendments, are they alive or dead?
Alive, thank the God that shields both
liberty and the union. And our nation
al credit! saved from the assaults of
Pendleton, saved from the assaults Of
those who struck it later, rising high
er at home and abroad, and only now
in doubt left its chief, its only enemy,
the democracy, should triumph in No
vember.
Mr.. Chairman, ought the republican
party to surrender its truncheon of COM