Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1880-10-21
NO CHANGE WANTED.

The following is an extract from the
the address of Henry Ward Beecher be-
fore the great meeting at Cooper Union
New York:
Well, hear those on the other side,
Young men--and some Of them very
young-say: "The Republicans have
been in power long enough; it is time we
had change" Well. gentlemen, let us
ask these men deliberately, what kind
of a change do you want? Do you want
a change in our foreign relations? We
are at peace and amity with every Ma
tion on the globe. You cannot change
that state of things unless you go to
war. Well, then, do you want a change
in our finances? When paper dollar is
worth a gold dollar can not see what
change you want there; you cannot
make it worth two dollars. Other men
would say: I'VE want more paper dol
lars" Now a paper dollar represents
property, and l have no objection to
your increasing property, but l protest
against your increasing that which rep
resents it; you would find very quick
limit to the increase of the representa-
tive property when there was no prop
erty to be represented. You have got
gold and silver. We are generous of our
gold and prodigal of our silver. We
have dollar, worth dollar if it is gold,
and we give about so or IS cents for it if
it is silver. Laughter.] Gentlemen, we
have got silver enough. l wish some of
these men that are bothering about the
polls were sent out to dig it; their coun-
sci and their action at home are not very
profitable.
In regard to everybody else there is
universal content. If go to the artists
he tells me: There is very large de-
mand springing up for my pictures" if
l go to the builders they tell me
they are having house after house
pressed upon them; l go to the mason,
and his trowel clicks on the brick from
early morning to late at night. l ask
the loom and it says 81 am crowded to
death with work. go to the plough
it shines as mirror, rubbed through
the burrows to bring out the harvests
that ali Europe and all the world wants
[applausel; ask the compass and the
rudder, and they say never were the
seas more propitious; / ask commerce
and agriculture and manufacture; | ask
the fine arts, scholarship and learning,
and there comes an answer as of one
voice from every intereSt-domestic
private, public---everywhere the Nation
was never more prosperous than it is to-
day. Loud applause.
And now you want a change. To dc
what? A change to carry this prosper
ity forward faster would not be whole
some change. That way lies specuIa-
tion, fictitious prosperity, the insanity of
hope; moderation is on this side. The
other change, and the only one, is to GO
back to the dollar customs of the early
days, when men did nothing but attend
to politics. No., no. This Nation was
never more blessed than it is to-day
Loud applause.
Now, National prosperity lasts about
ten or fifteen years, and then the natu-
raj evolution of things brings matters to
point. We give men credit,as it were,
for period of ten to fifteen years; then
we call upon every man to settle up. Set
tling up is called crisis. Laughter I
And 1t is. Then, when we have settled
up we all start again, and generally
there is a run of ten to fifteen years, ac-
cording to the nation. If it is a vital
nation, the settling up comes in about
GtU W III d COuoOI fdIlNt e
nation, like the British, it comes in
about twenty years; if the nation is
more phlegmatic, like the Dutch, it
takes fifty years to do it. Laughter |
But we are on the day of pros
perity such as has never been measured
out to this land, and the Republican
party, having gone through the night
having carried the Nation safely through
all its past difficulties; having suffered
in every possible way; having vindica-
ted patriotism, and being now about to
stretch out its hand and reach its Just
reward of quiet and peaceful comfort,
which prosperity brings, the minions of
Slaveocracy and Democracy start up and
say, Gentlemen, get down from the seat,
and let us get up and drive" Laughter |
Where is there guarantee for anoth-
er four years of prosperity clearer than
than the four years that are running out
to-day? Who is he that can inaugurate
kinder policy than President Hayes
has done? Applause. Where can you
pick out Secretary who can manage
the Treasury as Sherman does? When
has there ever been Cabinet, from the
days of Washington cleaner in every
member of it than the Cabinet that now
coDsults at Washington And yet men
can say,looking at these four millennium
years; I've want y cbangeF" Do you