Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1882-10-05

[coahnued fr0m TN paeal
refer 10 it with the greatest satisfsc.
ton. During the war my term of Of
fee for the FIRST term OF FIVE years ex.
pired and there was 70 be reelection,
The first convention held in the judi
cial district was held by the Republi-
cans. There was quite large delegs-
tion from all the counties. They sen,
q committee TO me because Of the
course l had pursued and they said
"Geddes, we don't feel like running
opposition to you and if you will &C
cept our nomination we have conclud-
ed to give it to you.% Said l, al dc
not know why ] should not. l am to
be the judge of the whole people, not
of the Democratic party. / am q
member of the Democratic party you
know, but | am to be the Judge of the
whole people and if you want me and
you have been satisfied. all right. -
And they gave me that nomination.
The Democrats met few days there.
after, and of course nominated me;
did not think of anything else. And
there ! was on both tickets, not likely
to be beaten laughterl Now, didn't
fool them down there nicely? Yet
that disloysl fellow, going around
there opposing the soldiers and abus.
ing Republicans, and the Republicans
nominating and running me for Judge
and running me as Democrat laugh
teri Ofcourse l was elected without
opposition.
That is not all. During the war the
most critical question OF all came up
before me in Ashland county, now
within our Congressional district, and
then in our judicial district. In April,
1863, the Legislature passed law that
under certain rules and regulations the
soldier in the field should vote. They
voted in the fall of 1863. Time has
passed, and our feelings have become
very much modified on both sides.
But those votes were sent from the
field to Ashland county, and by the
Board were excluded and three Dem
ocrats admitted to their seats. The
Probate Judge was one of them-Mr.
Emerson, of that county, my warm
personal friend then, and, to his hon
or and credit let me say, every
day since up to his death. Yet l
made decision that turned him out
and put Republican in. l held that
law constitutional and the votes valid
and the opinion wrote out at length,
because it was the first in the State
under the law and it was published in
the: Republican papers and all our local
papers at the time; and the opinion, of
course was sustained by the Supreme
Court of the State in less than month
thereafter. And so 1t has stood ever
since. In the editorial in the Repub-
lican paper accompanying the publica-
ton of the decision, it was said that it
was an encouraging thing to know
that a man on the judicial bench could
rise above friendship and political con.
siderations and make decision based
on law.
Now, my friends, there may be a
diversity of judgment here to-day as
to the correctness of the decision.
There was then; there ever will be.
But it was decided; it had to be de-
cided. That was my judgment. And
| the men against whom l decided re-
mained my friends. And yet you see
the test to which I was put. Yet
they say 1 stood there denouncing
soldiers, denouncing Republicans, and
therefore if you are Republicans don't
you vote for him. say they ought
not to do that. Come, let us reason
together. Take the facts as they are.
Whether l was right or wrong in their
judgment or in yours, no matter; there
is the fact.
SOLDIERS PENSIONS.
Now, following this, let rue say one
additional word also due to the soldier
In my first term in Congress I was
placed by our Speaker, Mr.. Randall,
upon the Pension Committee. That
led to an investigation of the Pension
Office. There was over this country,
as every man here knows, universal
complaint against the management of
that Office, and the result of the work
of this committee was that the then
Commissioner was removed and the
present Commissioner took his place.
l should like to speak of some of the
work of that committee IN which l
bore part. l need only say, in
general way, that one of the most i'm.
portant measures inaugurated by it,
as the committee all know, { make it
public here), was drafted by me at
their resquest and, at the request of
the committee, presented to the open
House and there considered. I advo-
Gated its passage in a speech that was
published and circulated to the country
and it was to meet from sixty to one
hundred thousand rejected cases-as
good, many of them, as hundreds and
better than hundreds that have been
passed, and thus to have it equalized
and the soldiers throughout the land
benefited.
Now, my friends, it is said that here
and there is fraudulent pension case.
We had in our army two million seven