The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1880-09-23
SENATOR BAYARD IN SOUTH
CAROLINA.


is safe and right that this land of ours
upon which we live, and of which all
human power cannot create one foot, do
you think it right and just, do you think
it statesmanlike, do you think it patriotic,
that millions of acres of fertile lands
capable of bearing glorious crops and
filled with rich mines should be given
away to half dozen artificial bodies
called railroad corporations! Is the text
of the American people, "Eat, drink and
be merry, for to morrow we die?" No;
we look to the future, and we say that
this great domain shall BE preserved for
future generations, that they may reap
thefruit of our good guardianship. That
is the doctrine of the democratic party,
but the doctrine of the republican party
is to feed fat those who do not need fat
tening, to make the strong stronger at
the expense of the weak, to make the
rich richer at the expense of the poor;
and in proof of this point to those land
gifts by act of Congress from 1868 until
q democratic majority in the House put a
stop to them. Fellow citizens, this is
not subject to be discussed lightly. 1t
is subject upon which we might spend
more than day to show the terribly
reckless course of this party that has
made grants without regard to coming
generations. can recollect that when l
first entered Congress II years ago how
the lobby Haunted itself in the face of the
public. Subsidies and grants of all sorts
were distributed with a lavish hand. No
wonder the wine ran freely and that
Washington was ''gay place" and that
the republican party was popular with
class that was fattening on
this corruption. When the democrats
came into power in 1875 in the House
and put an end to all their grand dinners
their power was gone.
Another thing l would like to call your
to is the attitude of me repub-
lican party toward the colored people of
the country. There has been contemp-
tible meanness toward the negroes that
meets my most hearty contempt. They
knew the negroes were ignorant. They
knew they were weak and not able to
protect themselves, and what have they
done2 They have professed to be their
warm friends and advisers. They have
told them they were fit to occupy any
station in the government. They told
them they were the equals Of any man in
every respect, and what has it all come
to when the opportunity is given to give
substantial proof of their love and admir-
alton? l challenge any man OF any color
or party to name any single colored man
who holds an Office under the United
States government by the vote of the
northern republican party. I have seen
much of this thing. / have been in
for II years, ami have been
a tax payer, and | know whereof | speak.
In 1870 they began to apply to the repub-
lican Congress, and to make the District
of Columbia what they said was a black
mans paradise, place where the negro
would have to work very little or not at
all and could support himself by voting
the republican ticket. daughter. ,
Well, it brought great many there, but
things went on so that they confess them,
selves they began to recoil from the work
they had begun. They began by destroy
ing the House of Delegates, in which
colored men sat, and they destroyed the
governorship and the board of public
works, and they had spent not less than
Sl,000.000 on the streets of that town,
and that was done by the action of the
republican Congress under law signed
by republican president, being no less
a man than Gen. Grant himself, and to
day and for the last six or seven years
no black man has been allowed to cast
vote in the District of Columbia, and no
white man either. Here this guardian
of the public liberties, this party that
sets itself up as q great example and
apostle of all that is correct and right in
republican government, has stricken
down that right which lies at the very
basis of our institutions. / mean the
right of suffrage. No man for five or six
years past, white or black, could go to
the polls and express his opinion in the
District of Columbia as to whether he is
well or i'll governed, (Applause.) 1
went down to Mississippi in June, 1876,
as the minority member of committee of
investigation. The majority of that COM
mitee was composed of Mr.. Boutwell, of
Massachusetts,, Mr.. Mcmillan of Mime
sofa. They called up the colored people
to ask them whether they had been de.
prived of the right to hold Office and
what had been done to them in elections.
and about all their rights, and had some
conversation with these people; and
wish to call your attention to the fact
that there IS not to-day in the state Of
Massachusetts single colored man hold
ing any Office, nor in Wisconsin nor in
Minnesota. and therefore when they are
down here expressing solicitude that the
black man should bave office they are
deceitfnl, because il their own homes
they take care! that nothing of the kind
shall happen. (Cheers.) So that think
We have right on the score of common
sense and justice to arraign this party
for its gross insincerity in those very
things of which its members proclaim
themselves the especial champions.
YES music hath power o er the wide wide world,
power that's deep. and cndeavoring,
But music now, has no power on me,
For I'm very hard Of hearing.