Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1880-04-07

boarded, is reviving old industries and strating
new railroads, tolegraphs, workshops. Mines,
factories, rolling mills, and furnaces are all now
In full and successful operation. From surplus
revenues, without any increase in taxation, our
debt is now beng rapidly reduced, and this very
month the reduction Is greater than in any
former month since the creation of the debt,
being fourteen million dollars. [Great ap-
plause.] Hundreds of millions of our bonds
have been sold, bearing per cent. interest, at
or above par, and our credit is SO advanced that
they can be sold in future operations at q
very large premium, and bonds at still lower
rate OF interest may perhaps be successfully ne
gotiated.
And our political condition is vastly improved.
The Republican party, at the elections of last
fall, carrie !, either by majority Or plurality,
every state III the north where elections where
held, and it is confidently believed that We
would have carried Indiana and Oregon if there
had been any elections In those states. Il is
believed, also, that at any fair election, five of
the southern states would give majority to the
Republican ticket. They are only deferred
from doing SO by the lawless violence and ter
rorism that IN 1875 defeated the will of q ma
jority of the voters.
Such is the changed condition of affairs in
which we are about to enter into the preslden-
| tial contest of the present year. do not. fell
low citizens, attribute all these results to the
policy of the Republican party alone; but do
say that without the steady and firm mainte-
| nance of the Republican policy they would have
been impossible. Providence, by giving us
bounteous crops and the people a "mind to
work, has since resumption greatly aided this
policy. We admit this, and are thankful for it;
but it is certain that if the Democratic ideas Of
the last or the present congress had prevailed
our credit would still be ianguid and our in
dustries would still be laboring under the effects
of deprecated and disordered currency. 1t is
the policy of the Republican party, firmly main
tanned and enforced in the midst of doubt and
disaster and partial defeat, that is the chief
human cause of the great change in our affairs.
And now, the question for the people of the
United States to determine is whether they will
allow this policy to be changed and the Demo-
cratic party to be placed in control of the execu-
tive and judicial branches of the government
for the judicial branch will follow the fate of
the executive branch. The Supreme Court Of
the United States, which has been the brlwark
of equal rights and fair elections, will in the
natural course of events be changed in single
presidential term SO as to place the ideas of the
Democratic party in control of the supreme
judicial tribunal of the land. This is to
be the first great issue of the campaign,
and the second is like unto it. How can the
| equal rights of all American citizens be sup
| ported and maintained? 1t is manifest that
| this will not be done by the Democratic party.
| The rebel element now controls that party in
| every southern state, where alone it is secure
in its political power. The triumph of this els-
! 1t will read strangely in American history that
| the very men who waged an unsuccessful war
| against the Union, who were the cause of
| the loss of five hundred thousand men, and FIVE
| thousand millions of treasure. are now SO nearly
in possession of nearly all the powers of the gov
eminent, and only want success i'll the elections
next fall to enable them to rule the government
| they sought to destroy, and to disregard and
revise all the guarantees won by the Union
armies, with such cost. If they carry this cleo
| ton the rebellion of 1861 is success If they
fail now the dominant classes of the south viii
see that they must submit to the equal rights of
all classes; or if they do not, the courts and
| laws of the United States viii maintain and en-
force these rights. Upon this point there will
will be no division or hesitation among Repub-
icans. Every citizen of the United States in
the south, as in the north, must be secure
in the enjoyment of civil and political
rights, and every power of the nation
al government must be exercised to
this end. Loud and long-continued applause.1
This issue is broadly defined, and the only
question is whether it shall be now settled once
for ALL or whether it shall by ceaseless agitation
continue to disturb our politics. The south
never can and never ought to prosper while the
great body of her laboring population is held in
subsection and deprived, is now the case, Of
rights plainly given them by the constitution.
The north is growing and the south will be de-
caying until this issue is settled, as all such
issues must be- in republic, in favor of the
full protection by law of every person in the en-
joyment of liberty and justice. Next to the
| firm and judicious enforcement of the law by
the courts, the best remedy in the south would
be the encouragement of common schools, such
| as are almost universal in the north. This
should be done as a matter of public policy,
both by the state and national governments. If
the coored people of the south were redeemed
from the ignorance caused by slavery, it would
be no more. possible to overawe and overcome
them by Ku-klux Klans and tissue ballots than
it would be possible here in the north.
Isay, then, in conclusion, that the Republican
to stand by the policy that has secured you pro-
nounced prosperity, and will secure to all our
people, equal civil and political rights. Let the
national convention at Chicago after full con-
sideration, and without bias or prejudice, say
who can secure success, and the Republican
party, Like well drilled army, will wheel into
line and overcome the vesdges of the great
rebellion of 1861. [Long and prolonged ap-
plause.]