Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1882-07-04
SENATOR HALE'S SPEECH AT
THE REPUBLICAN STATE
CONVENTION.

y Gentlemen Of The Courention.-One OF
the largest conventions ever held in the
State, attended by the earnest men whom
| now see before me, attests to the
strength of spirit, the undying vigor of
the republican party of Maine. These
delegations, representing every neighbor-
hood in the State, walked into this room
with the tread of veterans, aud well they
might so walk, for the State of Maine
since 1876 has been battlefield-the
Belgium of America. And now before
me are assembled the men who have
taken upon themselves to see to it that
this campaign shall end the war. ap-
plause and that for 10 years to come
there shall be no more doubt about the
republicanism of the State Of Maine than
there is about Vermont or Iowa.
These last six years, my friends, have
done US no real harm. No man, no Or
ganization is worth anything until he or
it has been purified by agnoy through
adyersities. Broken and defeated as we
were in 1878, we yet triumphed anew
in the next year. We drove out from
the State government the spoilers who
had in,renched themselves there and ever
since, as believe, in the sober thought
of the people of Maine, we have been
steadily gaining the ground that we had
lost
1, will be battle, gentlemen, worth
the winning. The Governor Of the State,
large portion of the county officials, a
Legislature that shall elect a United
States Senator for six years, a delegation
of four members in the House of Repre-
sentatiyes in the National Congress.
Does any man here fail to appreciate
that Do you want the man whom
this convention shall nominate to-day for
Governor, or do YOU want two years more
Of inhiction of Gov Plaisted, Do you
want plaisted or another like him as
United States Senator No hundred
times, no. But what you do want, my
friends, is, that my able and eloquent
colleague, Mr.. Frye, who sits in the high
place to which YOU have called him, shall
81, there for six years more. Applause.
Do you want delegation in the
House Of Representatives that shall up.
hold the hands of the obstructive and
revolutionary Democracy, or will you
have four men that shall help the Repub
lican party in the work that yet remains
for it to do: Does any man here doubt
the Importance of that work or believe
that the mission of the Republican par
ty is ended or that tired Of fighting it
may move out Of the battle
Let us glance in the briefest way at
the record now being made in Congress
Certain things the Republican party is
trying to do. In all Of these things
which it seeks to do for the benefit of the
industries and the people of this country
it finds itself confronted by solid or al
most solid Democracy.
1t has upon its hands in Congress the
great question Of the currency Of the peo-
pie, that question which is so interlaced
with business and with all enterprises
that it is Of first importance. 1t has pre-
pared and elaborated measures in the d.
rection Of keeping alive the best currency
the sun ever shone upon, and it was met
by the opposition of almost the entire
Democratic party.
To the republican party it is entrusted
the protection of American labor, to see
that the labor of our fellow citizens here
is protected when it is thrown into COM
potion with cheap labor abroad, and to
see that the provisions of the tariff under
which we live, which need revision and
changes that have been made necessary
by time, in the time shall be readjusted
to present needs, and upon this issue the
Republican party has met the almost
solid wall Of the Democratic party, and
to day the news comes from Washington
that after commission has been appoin-
ted by the President, combining all
shades of opinion, wise men who shall
sit in the months of the vacation and
elaborate a plan for tariff revision so that
it shall bear equally upon the burdens of
the people, the word comes that the rev.
dictionary Democracy have determined
in the Senate to prevent the confirmation
Of the commission and so prevent any
action upon this question.
Take the question that has come up
not political only, but involving senti-
ments common to mankind, the question
of polygamy. The democrats filbustered
and INSTRUCTED business for hours and
days rather than let bill pass to extir-
pate that foul crime twin sisters to slav-