The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1880-07-30
RepubIican Ratification.

toms building last night LOT tne purpose VI
holding a Garfield and Arthur ratification
meeting. 1t was designed to hold the meet
ing out doors in front of the building and a
stand for the speakers had been erected and
O bonfire built, but the elements interfered
and II was held IN the hall Of the building
The Queen City band rendered music for the
occasion. By o'clock the hall was filed
with about two hundred people, among
whom there was a good sprinkle Of ladies
and Greenbackers, with here and there
Democrat.
The glee club sang a song, "Hold the Fort
for Garfield is Coming
Ex.Governors Pease and Davis and Jack
Evans were expected, but did not arrive.
General j. G. Tracy, of Houston, the big
gun Of the occasion, was present, and was
introduced by Judge Norton. lie spoke
as follows:
COLONEL TRACY's SPEECH.
He began by saying that in this age OF
newspapers and telegraphs, when lntelli'
gence is SO rapidly dihused, he did not hope
TO come to an enlightened place like Dallas
and tell them anything new. Among other
things he said he wished to talk and exchange
thoughts with those present as a Republican.
According to holy writ, Solomon of old is
accredited with saying that "There 10 nothing
new under the sum-" Could that wise man
now look do Rn upon the earth and take OBJ
servation of mundane affairs he would be
forced to the conclusion that he was wrong
and that the Democratic party of the United
States, regularly every four years, since the
close of the war for the maintenance Of the
union, has invented something entirely new,
| if not in philosophy or science, at least In
politics. Their first great original invention
was tiny policy Of Andrew johnson,
which was relied upon by the leaders of that
party 10 accomplish two things: First The
election uf Democra. to the presidency,
thus enabling their hungry hoard OF office
seekers to grasp the loaves and fishes of the
government they mad sought with arms in
their hands to destroy, and from which they
had been excluded SO long that many of them
were thinner than DR.. Tanner is likly to be
after his 40 days fast, and second to render
the r, construction acts Of congress null and
void. In other words, in their own language,
MS embodied in their platform Of 1868,
ave declare the reconstruction acts of con-
gress to be revolutionary null and void"
On this issue they appealed to the country
and we're most gloriously defeated. The
bright visions of fat offices had vanished
like Galveston fog before q norther The
brains of their leaders, fertile in expedients,
were racked for four long years, when
lol and behold another new invention is
given to the country in the shape of
NEW DEPARTURE,
with Horace Greeley shaking hands across
the bloody chasm thrown in
to give grace to the move.
ment. The faithful rallied to the support of
the old Abolition war-horse as best they
could 1t was highly seasoned dish of
crow, but they eat very extensively, in hopes
it would finally lead them to bounteous re-
past of chicken-pie. But the idea did not
take among the intelligent voters of the coun-
try,and the new departure went to keep COM
pany in the political graveyard, side by side
with the ''my policy" of the great johnson.
Again the confederate crossroads was in
mourning; again wall went up from the
faithful all over the land, and lamentations at
hope deferred. The Democratic heart was
sick, but still the leaders planned tor another
four years, and the next invention WAS
TILDEN AND THE BARI.
They had at last got tired of new departures
and bridging bloody chssms, had come out
under leader most fit to lead such q party,
and with money enough, they thought, to
elect him. Money flowed in streams, carry
ing joy and ENTHUSIASM in its train. By prac-
tees which would shame any party laying
the lightest claims to fairness, they succeeded
in putting the result in doubt, though no one
of candor will dispute that. the Republicans,
on fair vote and an honest count, are
entitled to Louisiana, Mississippi Florida and
South Carolina. AT last, however Tilden,
the bar'l, the cyher dispatches and all that
went to make up the front of the political
batlle were laid alongside the other inven.
tions, and again the federal offices did not
change hands. Driven 10 desperation by
three successive failures, and hopeless of sue
Ceeding with any candidate whose record was
not identified with the Republicans during
the struggle for national existence, they are
forced TO the necessity of invading the ranks
of the standing army of the United States
and seizlng upon one of the four major
generals in that service. This is another new
departure for the Democracy. We all know
how bitterly their orators have denounced
military candidates when nominated BY the
Republicans; yet they have done precisely
what they have so loudly and persistently
condemned. While in NV York recently,
in company with some Democratic friends
from Texas, visited General Hancock's
| headquarters, on Governors Island, to pay
our respects to that distinguished soldier.
A little tug boat belonging to the govern
ment soon landed us on the Island. The
sight that there met my eye made an i'm
preston upon my mind long 10 be
remembered. To reach headouar-
tiers, we had to run the gauntlet of rows of
huge guns, coumbiads, Parrots, mortars.
Literally was reminded of Tenryson's poem
on the Charge of the Light Brigade:
Cannons to the right OF them,
Cann9ns TO the left Of them,
while shot and she'll we're laid in immense
piles in every direction.
What surroundings for candidate for the
presidency Of the United states, and that, too,
on the Democratic ticket. If that party was
entitled to the sentiment of pity, they are
certainly to be pitiei for being forced into
an attitude SO inconsistent, an attitude which
gives the lie to their record for the past
twenty-five years. 1t is the last effort of a
gasping, hopeless party. II is the invention
Of desperate, unprincipled politicians, who
hope with Hancock as a stalking horse, to
hide their unsavory record from the public
gaze and thereby to escape the public con-
domination at the polls in November. That
they would succeed would be to doubt the
intelligence and sagacity of the American