Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1882-10-05
- SPEECH Or
HON. GEO. W. GEDDES,
EorMalk, on Saturday Afternoon,
August 1eth, 1889.
DELIVERED At


zENs:-We meet together to-day az
has been the custom in times past, even
among our fathers, to consult togeih-
er, take counsel together, reason with
each other, canvass the acts OF our
public servants and learn what has
been done in your national councils.
II your public servants act wisely then
they have your approval. II they have
acted unwisely after your dispassion-
ate and careful consideration of their
acts then you are at liberty, under our
form of government to meet at the
ballot box and express your judgment
your judgment of approval or dis.
approval. accept that investigation.
l am proud of that form OF govern.
ment. / never appear before my fel.
low.citizens to discuss public measures
and look out upon their faces and their
intelligence without looking back to
the first and early work Of our fathers
in which they established a form ot
government for and in the interest OF
the people, and to-day my heart, my
judgment, my purpose is to devote
what can of ability and strength to
the preservation Of that form of gov
ernment Applause.
THE NECESSITY OF A PURE BALLOT.
At the very basis of that form OF
government, at the very threshold OF
our liberty and security, is the ballot
box. If that is impure there is no se-
curity. If that is corrupt there is no
safety. If that is prostltuted then we
have no free government. If that bal
lot box is debauched, or if the public
mind, which is centered in that ballot
box and upon which we rely for the
preservation of our form of govern
ment should be debauched then there
is no security or safety to free institu-
tions [applause]. l am here, there
fore, as trust | have always been, and
may ever be, as the advocate Of the
purest possible ballot box applause1.
There is more than one method of tax.
ing away the liberty of free man.
You may drive him from the polls by
physical force, and I would not be so
much alarmed at that as | would at
those more secret, insinuating, cor.
ruping and debasing means that are
sometimes resorted to to carry elect
ions. | can come therefore with safety
to the town of Norwalk, to the people
irrespective of party, distinguished, l
am proud to say, for their intelligence,
and appeal to them to aid in the pres
ervation of the purity of the ballot
box applause]. We therefore meet
periodically and we are met together
to-day. Hence it is that we have an
election approaching when your public
servants must answer to your judg.
ments. Altogether l have not had the
honor and the pleasure of representing
you in the national councils, yet I
have been there as the representative
of an adjoining district, and it was
equally incumbent upon me to look
beyond county lines and district lines
and take in our state, take In all the
states and look to the interests of all.
Now, fellow citizens, let us look to
some Of the questions of great import
ance to you, individually and collec-
lively, and to the country at large. We
had before us during the last session Of
our Congress questions of vital i'm
portance, affecting not only the tenn
poral welfare, but, as | think. the per-
manent prosperity of this country. Let
me begin with
THE CHINESE QUESTION.
That question must have agitated
the public mind in your midst as it
has the country over That was not
question Simply of whether a China
man should come upon our soil, but it
was question SO interviewer with our
own domestic interests, our own social
rights, our own political standing, our |
own financial welfare, with the growth,
prosperity and happiness of our whole
people, but above all and over all, it |
was interviewer with the interests of |
the laboring men of this broad coun.
try, whose rights and whose interests
no public servant ought for moment
TO overlook. One Of the most delicate,
intricate and embarrassing questions
now affecting the public mind is the
labor questionable complications be-
tween labor and capital. We have
our. mining, our manufacturing, our
commercial and our banking interests.
We have employer and employe and
under our form of government verify
believe that they ought all to be so
united and SO harmonized and SO work
together that they would serve as the
BYE to the feet and the hands, and as
The head and the brains to the physical
power of man in his own being Tap.
plause as harmonized. as happy and
IS united as is the human system.
Therefore, when this Chinese question
,ame up, feeling that it was thus in,
;erwoven with these interests, I real
zed at once the vastness and the i'm
,ortance of that question. Let me not
Do misunderstood. | would like to !
zee the whole world, from the rising to /,
he setting of the sun, civilized and
Jhrlstianized. Wherever Gods sun
'ises and sets I would like to see the
,enign and blessed influence Of NOR {