Morning journal and courier., 1884-09-19
A Party to be Proud of.

From the Washington National Republican,
 On the very threshold of it's accession to control the Republican party was compelled to take up and wage for the preservation of the Union the most stupendous war recorded in the pages of modern history. How faith full to that awful trust it was a united, pow erfu1 and prosperous nation now testifes. It found time while carrying on the war for the suppression of the rebellion to construct the great system of transcontinenta1 railways that now bind together the Atlantic and Pa cifc oceans, and have resultedin in incalculable benefits and upbuilding in the far West.
 Always devoted to the interests of the poor and the laboring man, it is one of the pecu- liar glories of the party that one of its ear Hest acts was the passage of the homestead law to whose benefcent operations so many happy families o-day owe their comfort and prosperity, and which gives to every laboring man in the land the certainty of a home for himself and an estate for his prosperity, if he desires to avail himself of it's provisions.
 Amid the carnage and suffering of the civ il war it found the opportunity for abolish ing slavery, and the pen of Lincoln struck the shackles from millions of chattels and bade them stand upright free men and women. Having removed from the country the stain and disgrace that had rendered cur boast that our land was the land of freedom mockery in the eyes of the world, it then elevated the men who had just emerged from bondage by throwing about them the dignity and protection of citizenship, and placed it within their power to rise to legal and mate rial equality with their late masters.
 The war necessarily led to the creation of an enormous debt, but coincident with it's creation it was matter of party policy to Ta9OViHA for ifs 4 AOa1nSE deter mined Democratic opposition this policy was adhered to, and the old world bows in re- spectful astonishment at spectacle for which their own financial management can afford no parallel, of 8 strong nation reducing it's, debt by payment of the principal even be- fore it becomes fairly due. One thousand four hundred millions of debt extinguished in seventeen years, without distress to the people, is a magnificent tribute to the wis dom of Republican statesmen.
 When the party came into power the cir culating medium of the country was as bad as bad could be. Every State had it's own system of banks, and many of them several systems State banks county banks and private banks alike issued notes. The secur- ity to the unhappy holder of the bills was uncertain, and their value huctuated from day to day. No man dared to take bank note without consulting "detector" to see how much discount from its par value should
 
 tion, for the note quoted at five per cent. dis count to-day was liable to be quoted at ten discount tomorrow. For this depreciated, unstable, makeshift currency the Republican party substituted a circulating medium so uniform Tn value, so amply secured as to payment, and so convenient in form and de- nomination that the American greenback and national bank note are at par in gold the world over. Under Democratic rule twenty five years ago a citizen of Maine setting out to travel supplied with currency worth par at home was likely to find his money worth ninety-five per cent. in Massachusetts, ninety in Pennsylvania, ninety in Ohio, eighty-fve in Illinois, and by the time he reached the Pacific coast his bills, good for one hundred cents on the dollar at home, were just as likely to be refused altogether not. Un- der Republican rule to-day the traveller knows his good greenbacks or national bank bills are exchangeable for gold at par in any State or territory of the Union. If for no other reason, the people of the country owe the Republican party an immense debt of gratitude for this reformation of the curren- cv The convenience and certainty of this system established by the Republican party have intrenched it so firmly in the regard of the people that they would quickly resent any radical changes in it. Yet it is only a few years ago that the Democratic party was denouncing the greenback and the national bank note as unconstitutional, and straining every nerve to break down the national bank system-
 To further enumerate the beneficial acts of the Republican party since Lincoln's inaugu- ration would be to write the history of the United States during the past twenty-four years. It has put down the rebellion, re- stored the seeded States to the Union, es- the public credit reformed the cur rency, brought about resumption of specie | payments, destroyed slavery and made the sx-sIaves citizens, paid vast public debt, | fostered manufactures and protected labor, pacifed the Indians, pensioned the soldiers 1f the Union with degree of hberal1ty with put precedent Under it's benign admlnistra- ion the country has experienced prosperity | hat renders it the marvel of the age, and Iraws to our shores each year an army of people from the old world eager to share in he peace and progress of the great republic. Mistakes in minor matters have been made, put in all essentials the substantial deeds of he Republican party have been designed for he material and moral advancement of the lation.
 Deacon R. Robbins presided at the fifty econd annual meeting of the Wethersfield nd Berlin Sunday school union held at Ken ington last week The secretary, Deacon Tohn Wizard, read reports from schools in Rocky Hill, New Britain, Newington, West Hartford, Berlin, Wethersfe1d. Kensington, and Elmwood. The reports howed large gain in membership. The argest school in the union is that connected with the South church, New Britain, which l las membership of over 1 1000. The super ntendent is Deacon John Wizard The aver Ipe attendance at the Griswoldville school | vas seventy mine per cent of it's member-I hip; this was the banner school on written f eviews This school was awarded picture if Jesus in the Temple with the Doctors' oy the committee.