The Portland daily press., 1882-08-22
SENATOR HALE
Addresses the Republicans of
Gray.
A CLEAR AND CANDID DISCUSSION
OF THE ISSUES OF THE CAMPAIGN.
Especial Dispatch to the press.l

many ladies being present. Thomas Hancock,
Esq, called the meeting to order, and, on the
part of the Republican Town Committee NOM
mated Joseph B. Cummings Esq, as chair
man, who on taking the chair thanked the
audience for the honor conferred upon him,
ana introduced Senator Hale as ''a son of the
State of Maine, that we all delight to know"
Mr.. Hale on coming forward was greeted with
applause Mr.. Hale said:
SPEECH OF SENATOR HALE.
There has been lull in politics for the past
two years, years of inaction but still years not
without contemplation, and it will be remark
able if the sober second thought of the people
for the past year does not result in bringing
back to the Republican party hundreds who,
two years ago svoted against the Republican
candidates, and thus against their old associ-
ates The two years reflection we have had
will tell in this election. There is work yet
for the Republican party to do, work of vital
Importance and it is our mission to show that
it is the duty of every patriotic man to stand
by the Republican party
But great as has been the history of the Re-
publicanIparty,I freely admit that it cannot live
in the past, no party can live, and no party de-
serves to live unless it is able to live fully up
to the present, but still we send up a thanks
giving for the past of the Republican party,
not only in the late days of the war, but in
the trying times of peace that followed the
war. No man will be found who dares to say
that the life of the Republic was not bound up
with that of the Republican party. Our oppo-
nents admit all that the Republican party
claimed in the past. No man would establish
slavery again. No man can be found who
dares to say that free man should be made as
q slave again, and, SO no man here can be
found ready to say that tie free ballot is not
the very foundation stone OF our liberties. L
propose for one to help make the Republican
party party that will take up one by one the
duties and the questions of the hour We
made the territories free, we-must protect the
free men who have settled them. We con-
quered the South; it is our duty to make that
territory harmonious part of the Republic.
We freed 100000 slaves, and it is our duty to
guard and protect them in the citizenship we
were forced 10 give them. We raised an army
and navy; it is our duty to see to it that the
heroes of that army and of that navy be pro-
tected, and if they left loved ones they are the
wards OF the nation. 1t is our duty here now,
to see to it that American labor be protected
from the pauper labor of Europe. We, to save
the nation, run up an enormous debt; it is our
duty to pay it, (Applause) We made in war
times a currency uncertain and wavering: and
having restored it, we must see to it that it
remains So We must reduce taxation, and to
collect the revenues of the government from
those articles that least affect the mass of the
people, and having raised the revenue it is
the duty of the Republican party to expend it
in the manner dictated by due regard to
economy. These are all issues and being So,
can any man say 1.-THE ties of party rests
lightly this year upon me?" We must live in
the present, no matter how blessed may be the
memory OF the past.
Take one issue, the sovereign interest Of la
Dor. Not the generalship of Grant, the bril-
liant dash OF Sherman, the fighting qualities
of Sheridan (never equalled perhaps in the
world) but the great labor element of the coun-
try saved the country. The Republican party
is to-day devoted to the interest of labor, TO its
protection, and no less so here in this State
than elsewhere. The fight is in Congress and
here lit was SO in 1880, and it will be so in
1891 between the Republican party and the
Democratic party Look at few things in
which the Republican believes on this point.
First 1t believes in the dignity of labor; in
the encouragement of labor; in the bettering
of labor; in so adjusting duties as to raise the
most of its revenues out of the pro-
ducts of the cheap labor of Europe. Why?
Because it believes in protecting the mechanic,
the farmer, the laboring man here, from the
cheap labor of Europe. l. brings by that
course the best of the labor of Europe here,
and the skilled lsborers have gone to swell the
population of the West and this idea of the
Republican party has been opposed by the
Democratic party all along, and every conven-
tioD of that party resolves that they favor a
ta,iff "for revenue only" Senator Hale here
told the story of a manufacturing village in
Maine, the proprietor of the mills OF which
said his situation compelled him to be Re
publican" because if the Democrats should
succeed the village must become like TO Gold
smiths Deserted Village, and he himself be
compelled to take his capital and go to foreign
soil there to commence manufacturing with
cheap labor.) The Democratic party would
make villages like Sanford desolate, while it
would tax such articles as teas, coffee and su-
gars. And not six weeks ago when the Repub-
licaps tried to reduce the tariff on sugars, the
Democrats led by the free trade Senator Beck,
resisted day after day all through the hot sum-
mer the attempt. Why? Because this idea is
for "a traiff for revenue ouly' not tariff for
revenue with incidental protection.
Senator Hale here discussed the currency
question, tracing the history of our currency
up from the time of the old State bank system
to the present time when the representative OF
money is as good as money itself, very differ
ent from the "Wild-cat" currency OF Michigan
and the "Red-dog'' bills of Indiana, and he
asked if any one desires to see that kind OF
currency restored.
Taxes must be reduced but at this time the
Republican party can't introduce bill reduc-
ing the tax even on matches or sugar but the
whole Democratic party springs, to its feet in
opposition. "a voice, TRY them with tn
tax on whiskey.') L am coming to that.
(Laughter.) The standard cry here with the
Democracy, led by Gen. Sam Gary, is "No
monopolies,'' but here is the great match mo-
nopoly defended and upheld by Senator Bay
ard. hopeful candidate for the Democratic
nomination for the Presidency, Sand up
springs Mr.. Beck and says II will not
you take the burden from the Southern people
under which they are suffering by reducing
the tax on whiskey (laughter) and tobacco also
from 16 cents to 8.
Take the question of expenditures. Twenty
years ago there was not dollar OF excise tax
ternal revenue taxation. The demands were
SO great for revenue-an increased revenue
that we resorted during the war with England
to revenue taxation, by which we raised at one
time over $300,000,000 a year. But the war
ended, we began to ireduce this tax until it is
upon but few articles, and this year the
Republican party tried to take it off every
thing but whiskey and tobacco, but the Demo-
Gratis prevented us. We now collect Sl46, ,OO0,-
GOO a year, and it takes an army to do it.
There are 466 offices, and 1871 officers who col
lect this money, expense of collection being
less than three per cent, and Of this Sl46, ,000,-
600 collected last year not one dollar was lost.
(Applause) And no other such spectacle is
presented in the fiscal history of any other
government on the face of the earth. And
the same holds true for the past six years when
$74S, ,S31 OH in all was collected. And yet
the air is full of the Fusion cry "The funds OF
the government are beine misappropriated. -
And in contrast cite your Fusion friends to
the history of the last year of Andrew Johnson
administration when he had gone over to the
Democratic party-the last opportunity any
Democrat had to collect aud squander the
money of the government, when the govern
ment lost in sums from $4,000 to the largest
amount stolen the amount taken by the COL
lector of New Orleans-$353 900.
Senator Hale here discussed at some length
the outrages on the ballot box perpetrated IN
the South, and declared that 1.-THE rlght OF
suffrage must be maintained II 1t taxes the