The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1884-09-25


degree Of rhetorical and literary ability.
that kind myself. vet would not try It under
any circumstances. uaughterl There IL not
people on this continent. who n has got the faith
In him. who cannot write Republican plat
form that is not q good Republican doctrine
everywhere. lApplausel There IL the same
difference between the Democratic platform
and the Republican platform that there was be-
tween our present national currency and the old
stump-tail currency before the war. Our plat
form is current everywhere. Did you ever
think what would happen to Democratic or
ator IL he had put his platform in his Pocket at
night and got on the train, and really landed In
the direction he didn't suppose he had gone?
Suppose that he started nom Chicago and was
comingto Boston, but by some curious freak he
was in Boston at the time, began TO clamor for
a free ballot and fair count Laughter and
applause You see 1t is a question OF climate;
the platform
Is LIABLE TO SPOIL
with a change OF weather. C.aughterl Sup
pose that the patriotic Democrat-and there are
many such--constructing his platform. after
days and nights OF anxious hair-pullfng and
headache, has made mp his mind as 10 what the
concern means on the subjec, OF the taiin, and
he starts out full of the idea that he is friend
OF all Gods creation and free trade. He Is go
ing South, as he thinks, and the Penn sylyania
Railroad lands him In Lancaster, Pa. and, as a
Democratic orator, he begins to talk in favor OF
free trade and 10 give that construction To the
platform What kind OF a funeral awaits that
manp Loud laughter and applause
Our opponents object to our talking about
our record. They decline to talk about theirs,
and don't blame them. lLaughter.l In the few
words shall have occasion to utter about the
broad line of distinction between the party and
the members OF the party, the same that
would draw between a corporation and a stock
holder, for instance know stockholders OF the
Standard Oil Company, excellent, splendid, and
worthy gentlemen, but the company lpausing
solennly, laughterl know Democrats who are
great. deal better than their party; never
knew any one worse. lLaughterl This party to
which the 80 called and self elected and self
appointed thoughtful and conscientious citi-
zen had attached himselfl ILaughter.I This
party that has shown how potent the silent
vote" is in Maine loud laughter, applause, and
cheersl and in Vermont.
have said they object to any discussion of
their record, and they insist upon 1t that when
any Of us begin to talk about 1t we are discuss
Ing old affairs. Now, II Is no objection, gentle
men. to an issue that 1t IL DID, IL 1t Is not settled.
lLaugnter.l The preachers for q great many
hundred years have been denouncing sin That
Is very old issue, one of the first know of; and
suppose they will keep at IL till sin quits IL is
about as hard for political organization to un-
load its character as 1t Is for a man. Political
parties come 10 the people of this country and
ask for confidence and trust, and the people OF
this country, pretty intelligent and observing,
look not so much at the vehemence and vigor OF
the promise as the probabilities that the prom
ise shall be kept; and those probabilities they
determine by the history OF the individual or
the party who makes It. Now, il not that the
best kind of sense? ia party promises to vim
dictate the public credit, that party always hav-
ing orders TO destroy it, will you take the prom
Use? Voices: NO, no. y or course you will
not. If II pretends and promises to take care of
financial interests, while its history has been
a steady line of effort TO destroy them will you
accept the promise? l take 1t not. These are
fair, square questions which every voter and
every citizen must ask for himself and upon
which he must act
Now. gentlemen, what is the record of the old
Democratic partyl II this hall were all filled
with Democrats. III every man here "A Demo-
crat solid In the faith and firm in the belief, 1
could clear the hall in three minutes by reading
them their own platform of 1868 or 1872. Laugh
ter. They have never made promise in which
the interests of this country have been involved
that they have kept. There is no great measure
of public policy which has contributed to the
growth and the prosperity of the nation that that
party has originated favored. In all
its long career for the last thirty years there is
no measure OF that character which that party
has not diabolically and demagogically and
unanimously opposed. Is there any one in this
large and splendid audience, in this old,
splendid city OF Boston. made memorable by
the present, and sanctibed in the hearts of all
our people by the tender and sacred recollec-
tons OF the revolution-is there single one Of
you, gloryinR in the greatness OF our country
OF its past, its present. ana in the sublime hope
and promise of its future-is there a single one of
you that can point me TO one single thing within
the last quarter or century that this Demo-
cratic party has ever done attempted to do,
from which you citizens draw any pride, or
from the doing OF which the country would have
single great event in our history which makes
up our patrmony and our heritage as a people
that that party has not internally opposed?
daughter and applause.I Now that Is dread
full question, 10 is a solemn inquiry, and the
dreadful fact of the matter IL, that there is not
one single instance, not one.
Now fellow citizens, the Republican party,
whose advocate in very small way L am to-
night, has never made great promise that IL
has not religiously performed. lApplause.l It's
promise of to-day is the statute OF tomorrow,
and its platform of to-day ripens into the fun
damental law of tomorrow. [Applausc.l IL
has crowded into its brief career of twenty-five
years counted by achievements, thousand
years, and the greatest history that has ever
been recorded. 1t made our Territories all
free. 1t elected Lincoln. By one supreme
effort it lifted 000,0O0 Of human beings from
the night and shame and barbarfsm of African
chattelage into the clear and bracing atmos-
phere of American citizenship. Applause, 1t
paid a great debt. 1t lifted up to the highest
pinnacle the national credit and the public
good name, and 1t has placed this great coun-
try in the midst OF prosperity marvellous and
unexampled In the history Of the world. lAp-
plausel Gentlemen, / can never tire of speak
Ing of its glories. No one ever speaks of or
recounts the adventures of the Democratic
party, If / may make one honorable exception.
Thinking that they needed recruits in the
State CT Maine, Gov Hoadly, of Ohio, visited
at Biddeford. He was at one time a Repub-
lican. and, feeling the need of a record, he
furnished one to his Democratic friends in the
State Of Maine. / propose, for your informa
is something new, fresh. has nothing OF the
mildew of age about 1t, and quite in the nature
OF discovery. tLaughterl Gov. Hoadly, adj
dressing a Democratic audience in Biddeford,
spoke TO them in the words and figures follow
ing:
The Democratic party under [pausingl who
do you suppose, Senator Jefferson loud
laughter added the Gulf States TO the Union
tApplause.l The Democrats of Biddeford
never had heard of that before, evidently
Laughter. The Democratic party under
[pausingl James Il. Polk sent the American flag
to tie Pacific loud appausel and gave us land
enough for twenty States. [Applausel
That is all. Loud laughter and cheers.l Tho
trouble with tAat record is. it begins too early
and quits too quick. Laughter.
IT STOPS JUST SHORT
of the time when the thing begins to be inter-
esting. IL reminds me or the old news from
the Potomac Important IL true" Laughter
The Governor goes on, however. to say that at
one time he was an Abolitionist. There is no.
body here who Will mention what am going to
say outside, but did you ever see one of these
washed-out Republicans who had faded into
the Democratic party, sort OF melted in, so to
speak that ever Dragged about being Demo-
cratp lbaughtorl / never did. He was always
proclaiIning the fact that at one time he was
something better. He used TO be q Republican
[laughterl; like the decayed gentility you i'm
old States that has seen better days, little
raveled out at the edges and run down at the