Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-07-13
Gar1ield,s Letter of Aceeptanee.


forwarded to Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts
the following letter of acceptance of the nom
ination rendered him by the Republican ma
tional convention:
MENTOR, Ohio, July 10.-Dear Sir: On the
evening of the Sth of June, on, in the presence
of the committee of which you were
chairman, made the official announcement
that the Republican national convention al
Chicago had that day nominated me as theil
candidate for President of the United States
1 accept the nomination with gratitude for the
confidence it implies and with deep sense of the
responsibilities it imposes. 1 cordially endorse
the principles set forth in thu platform adopted
by the convention, On nearly all the sub
ieets of which it treats my opinions are on
record among the published proceedings eff
Congress.
venture however, to make special men,
ton of some Of the principal topics which are
likely to become the subject of discussion.
Without reviewing the controversies which
have been settled during the last twenty years,
and with no purpose or wish to review the pas
sions of the laie war it should be said that
while Republicans fully recognize
and will strenuously defend all
the rights retained by the people and all rights
reserved to be the States, they reject the per-
nicious doctrine of State supremancy which
long crippled the functions of the national
government and at one time brought the
union very near to destruction. They insist
that the United States is nation with ample
powers of self-prescrvation that is the constitu-
tion and the laws Emade in pursuance thereof
are the supreme laws of the land that the right
of nation to determine the method by which its
legislators shall be chosen cannot be surren-
dered without abdicating one of the funda-
Al
the national law relating to the election of
representatives in Congress shall neither be
violated nor 1evaded; that every elector shall
be permitted freely and without intimidation
to cast his lawful vote at such elections, and
have it honestly counted and that the potency
of his vote shall not be destroyed by the fraud
ulent vote of any other person.
The best thoughts and energies of our people
should be directed to those great questions of
national well-being, in which all have COM
mon interest. Such efforts will soonest restore
to perfect peace those who were lately in arms
against each other, for justice and good will
outlast passion. But it is certain that the
wounds of the war cannot be completely
healed and the spirit of brotherhood cannot
fully pervade the whole country until every
citizen, rich or poor, white or black, is secure
in the full and equal enjoyment of every civil
and political right, guaranteed by the constitu-
tion and the laws. Wherever the enjoyment
of these rights is not assured discomfort will
prevail, immigration will cease and the social
and industrial forces will be disturbed by the
migration of laborers and the consequent di-
tional government should exercise
all of its constitutional authority
to put an end to these evils, for all the people
and all the States are members of one body,
and no member can suffer without injury
to all.
The most terrible evils which now aff1ict the
South arise from the fact that there is not
such freedom and federation of political opin-
ion and action that the minority party can ex-
ercise an effective and wholesome restraint
upon the party in power. Without such re-
straint party rule becomes tyrannical and cor.
rupt. The prosperity which is made possible
in the South by its great
advantages of soil and climate will never
be realized until every voter can freely and
importance to freedom and justice, is popular
educ alton, without which, neither justice nor
freedom can be permanently maintained. It
is intrusted to the States and to the voluntary
actions of the people. Whatever aid the ma
tion can Justly afford should be generously
given to aid the States in supporting common
schools, but it would be unjust to our people
and dangerous to our institutions to apply any
portion of the revenues of the nation, or the
States to the support of sectarian schools.
On the subject of national finsuces, my views
have been so frequently and fully expressed
that little is needed in the way of additional
statements. The public debt is now 80 well
secured, and the rate of annual interest has
been so reduced by refunding, that rigid econo-
my in expenditures and the faithful applica-
tiou of our surplus revenues to the payment of
the principal of the debt, will gradually but
certainly free the people from its burdens and
close with honor the final chapter of the case.
At the same time the government can
provided for its ordinary expenditures and dis
charge its sacred obligations to the soldiers of
the Union, and to the widows and orphans of
those who fell in it's defense.
The resumption of specie payment, which
the Republican party so courageously and sue
cessfully accomplished, has removed from the
field of controversy many questions that long
and seriously disturbed the credit of the gov
ernment and the business of the country. Our
paper currency is now as national as the flag,
and resumption has not only made it every where
equal to coin, but has brought into use our
store of gold and silver. The circulating me-
dunn is more abundant than ever before, and
we need only to maintain the equality of all
our dollars to insure to labor and capital a
measure of value, from the use of which no
one can suffer loss.
now enjoying should not be endangered by
any violent changes or doubtful financial expe-
riments. and in reference to our custom laws a
policy should be pursued which
will bring revenue to the treasury,
and will enable the labor and capital
employed in our great industries to compete
fairly in our own markets with the labor and
capital of foreign produce. We legislate for
the people of the United States, not for the
whole world, and it is our glory that American
labor is more free, intelligent and better paid
than his foreign competitor. Our country can
not be independent unless its people with their
abundant natural resources possess the requi-
site skill at any time to clothe, arm and equip
themselves for war, and in time of peace to
produce all the necessary implements of labor.
It was the manifest intention of the founder
of the government to pro-
vide for the common defense, not
by standing armies alone, but by
raising among the people a greater army OF
artisans whose intelligence and skill should
powerfully contribute to the safety and glory
of the nation.
Fortunately for the interests of commerce
there is no longer any formidable opposition
to appropriations for the Improvement of oul
harbors and great nayigable rivers, provided
that the expenditures for that purpose are
strictly limited to works of national import
ance. The Mississippi river, with its great
tributaries, is of such vital Importance
to many millions of people
that the safety of its navigation
requires exceptional consideration in order tC
secure to the nation the control of all it:
waters. President Jefferson negotiated the
purchase of a vast territory, extending from
the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific ocean. Th(
wisdom of Congress should be asked to devils.
some plan by which that great river shal
cease to be a terror to those who dwell upol
its banks, and by which its shipping may safe
ly carry the industrial products of 25 000, ,00
IF Tbo iofo oE ou1 1tr1ro ;al