The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1881-11-10
Gen. Chalmers Speech before the Cen
trail Club.

II IS no ulspdFdgemenG ID others L0at aQ- /
dressed the people before the late election to /
announce the opinion of every man who /
heard the Speech of Gen. Chalmers before |
the Central Club in this city on Saturday |
night last, that it was unsurpassed in elo- /
quence, cogent reasoning, orthodox doctrine |
and impressive delivery by any address of
the canvass. We have full report of the |
speech, but as the election is over and it |
was devoted mainly to State questions, We
will pretermit the portion that related to
these topics, except the following subjects of
special interest:
We need immigration, and it viii come in
due time. But we have people enough TO
improve our condition if we would only
DIVERSITY OUR PURSUITS.
We should stop whining for other people |
to come to help US and go to work to help
ourselves
We do not need foreigners or yankees to
teach Us what to do, we know ourselves ifl
we would only practice what we know.
The grey haired men of the South, like
Dixon, of Georgia; DR.. Redhead and DR..
Phares, of Wilkinson county, Mississippi,
and Montgomery, of Starkville, have set
an example in improved agriculture which
the young men of Mississippi, aided by the
lesson of our Agricultural and Mechanical
College, will follow
The Bermuda grass which is sodding our
turned out fields, is preparing mines of
wealth for the future when we learn to fence
it for pasturage and cut it for hay. With
single ploughing of our lands in May, We
can produce splendid crops of crab grass
hay, better than the timothy we buy. And
yet We fight our grass six months of the
year TO kill it, and then send north to buy
our hay. Experience is teaching us better
things.
Nor do we need strangers to teach US
manufacturing.
The grey haired men of Mississippi, like
Carpenter, of Natchez Nelson, of Bay
Springs; Ed. Richardson and his accom-
plished assistant, Capt. Oliver, of Wesson,
are leading the way Mississippians must
follow.
We needed capital to revive railroads,
and it has come to US from southern cities
and from France. The fair daughter of
John Sidell, of Louisiana, who married
the Baron Granger, the banking prince of
Paris, was the missionary who sang the
songs of her Zion on the banks of the Seine,
and breathed into her husbands ear the
out millions of his money to build up the
waste places of her native land.
When the prophet stood in the valley Of
the shadow of death he said
CAN THESE DRY BONES LIVE?
His question was answered when the spirit
of God was breathed upon them, and he
saw bone come to bone, sinews bind them
together and the flesh cover them until
they stood forth an exceeding great army.
The doubling prophet might have asked
the same question when he stood amid the
/ ruins of the Confederate States and saw
/ railroads broken and destroyed, cities, towns
| and private mansions in ashes with nought
/ but blackened monumental chimneys to tell
where they stood, fields laid waste, fences
/ gone and property in slaves taken away.
/ But the same spirit that animated the sons
and daughters of the south in that terrible
struggle has breathed the breath of life into
our old land once more and we stand forth
again an exceeding great people. All this
prosperity has come to us during democratic
rule and is the work of democrats.
On the financial questions, which are liv-
ing issues, Gen. Chalmers spoke tersely and
ably as follows:
FINANCIAL QUESTIONS.
1t has been my custom in this canvass to
discuss one of the great questions ofthe day
aud which was recently discussed with abil-
itv and anxiety at the Bankers Convention
at Saratoga: it is, who shall furnish in
the future the paper money of this country,
but have not the strength to enter fully
on that discussion tonight. Paper money
of some kind has become a commercial
necessity. No man desires to return to the
old shipplaster system nor to the State
bank SYSTEM when we had to suffer
discount on our money whenever We
crossed State lines. The question re-
! solves itself then into this: Shall the
government furnish the paper money
directly for itself or for the benefit Of
the national banks. There can be no
national bank notes without there is a
j national debt, and the Republican party in
t sist that the government shall remain IN
f debt and pay interest on its bonds to furnish
e basis of credit for national banks The
old Democratic platform from 1923 to this
day was against national banks and IN favor
: of the payment of the public debt. Our
bonded debt should be paid as rapidly as
+, possible aud it should be paid according to
=, the letter of the contract in coin OF the then
i standard value. The then standard value
was the silver dollar of 4l21 grains This
. was the only ueQultlou VI INC WIZ
dollar from 1892 to 1872, when the Republi-
can party defined dollar to be.25-S grains
r of gold. The new dollar is said to be worth
8 sixteen cents more than the old one, so that
the Republican party by changing the
definition Of the word dollar added sixteen
e per cent. to our indebtedness and on bond
e ed debt of two thousand million dollars add
. ed three hundred millions of dollars to our
bonded debt, for the benefit OF the bond
{ holders and against the interest of the peo-
g pie Such inquities make me wish for the
5 old time sterling Democracy of Andrew
: Jackson Jefferson, Calhoun and Jackson, who
taught opposition to a perpetual pubic
debt, and that silver was our standard OF
: coin value. five are to depart from these
r doctrines now, what would these leaders Of
Democracy think ofour fall? They we're tht
: great leaders of their day, and their memo
II ries have been perpetqated in statutes o
n bronze.
r As we have before remarked, it is to De re
b GREETED that Gen. Chalmers health (which
I is still feeble) compelled him to abandon
'f his list of appointments before the election
n His speeches we're doing immense good IL
retaining acknowledgements and per
= suading them that if they are sincere in
:. their professions in favor of financial reform
and ofopposition to the aggressions of M
:, nopoly, their true place is in the Democratic
re party.
be LETTER LIST.