Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1880-11-02


was the end of the homestead bill as long
as we had Democratic president.
Within two years after that we had the
homestead bill, signed by Abraham Lin
coin. Applause. Under that bill five
hundred thousand families are settled in
western lands. Under it any head of
family can go there and settle. Why is
this? Because we, the Republicans,
said it was better to settle family on 100
acres for nothing, there to delve and
work and add to the riches of our
country. No strange thing, [ know,
that the people of Milwaukee are largely
cOmposedsof men of foreign birth. Why
was it, fellow citizens, that during the
Democratic times before the war foreign
ers were not protected in their native
land They always chung in Germany
and Ireland, and they were lost to the
idea that where man was born there must
he live. He could not shake off his ma
tionality. You know that was the doc
trine Thousands of men came from
Germany, and if they went back again to
their native homes they were liable to be
confined and imprisoned and put into the
army, and compelled to serve for num-
Der Of years. And although they took
an oath to support the government of
the United States and have become citi-
zens, the reigning power said that makes
no difference; once born there you must
always be attached there.
Why was it that the Democratic party
never sought to relieve our foreign citi-
zens of this burden. [ know of my own
knowledge of men being in this country
thirty or forty years that would not go
back to their native land for fear that
this claim of military service would
be made against them. Why did
not the Democratic party remove this !?
[ will tell you why. Because they de-
MED TIE nationality of the United States
of America. The idea of these state
right Democrats was that the states were
sovereign, and there was no place for a
nation to be q sovereign. They regard
ed the nation as a mere tributary to the
states, and therefore never did and never
would call themselves nation. Now,
L for one, am In favor of calling this a
nation and
SPELLING 1T WITH THE BIG n.
Laughter and applause. When the
Republicans came into power with their
ideas of nationality, they compelled the
recognition of the rights of foreigners
and they said when a man came to our
country and took the oath of allegiance
to the United States that he was a citi-
zen of all the states. Who was it that
opposed the oppression of feudal vassal-
age It was the Republican party of the
United States of America. We made
foreign lands recognize the right OF
every man to choose his own country In
order that he could better his condition.
So that now any man that becomes full
citizen has right to go anywhere
around the world under the protection
of the American flag. Applause.
L see sign that [ rather think will be
good text for me, for [ am tired of talk
ing on this line I have shown you that
according to the narrow ideas of the
Democratic party they can not do any
thing that is good for this country. They
cannot do anything good to advance the
common interests and benefit the nation.
They are bound hand and foot by the
narrow doctrine of state rights. The Re-
publican party does not only believe that
this government is anational government
with great powers, but we can give the
greatest good to the greatest number
without any care for the resolutions of
'98. Applause.
Now want to talk upon the question
| OF resumption and specie payment,
about which you have heard something
AT the close of the war the people of
this country were in debt twenty-seven
hundred and some odd million dollars,
the annual interest of which amounted
to one hundred and fifty million dollars.
A great many honest people believed we
could never pay that debt, that it was
beyond our means, and a good many
men, and women too, perhaps, although
L think the women were not very guilty
of that, began to think about repudia-
tlOn-abOut some way of cheating or
getting rid of the burden of the public
debt Things went along pretty smoothly
for little while, until finally the ques-
ton as to the payment of this debt came
up. The Democratic party had various
projects about it, but the Republican
party of the United States made up it's
mind that it would
REPAY THAT DEBT TO THE LAST DOLLAR
according to its terms and conditions.
Applause. The Republican party de-
clared that this nation should be honest,
and although it might come hard, yet we
would pay that debt dollar for dollar,
precisely as we agreed to do it. ZAP
plause. 1t was said it was hard to pay
it in gold. So it was, but we agreed to
pay it, and that is reason enough for an
honest man. Applause. ] The result
of it was that our credit became better
and better; people began to confde in
our ability to pay. Our bonds rose rap
idly until in 1869 they approached par
in coin. Then it was that the Republ-
can party passed bill to strengthen the
public credit. That contained two prop
ositions: One was that we should pay
this debt according to it's terms, and the
other was that we would bring about the
resumption of specie payment as soon as
practicable: Applause No Demo
GRAFT had the honor of voting for that
bill. Applause. The mere fact of
that declaration advanced our public
credit, so that in about year or two
from tbis time If was found that orr