St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1884-11-27

wealth AN affection which | inherited
from my ancestry and which | shall
transmit to my children.
/ But do not limit my thanks to the
1 state of my residence and the state OF
my birth. / owe much to the true and
zealons friends of New England who
worked so nobly for the republican
party and its candidates, and to the
eminent scholars and divines, who,
stepping aside from their ordinary avo-
cations, made my cause their cause,
and to loyalty to principle added the
! special compliment of standing as nv
personal representatives in the national
struggle. But the achievements for
the republican cause in the east are
even surpassed by the splendid victo-
lies in the west. In that magnificent
Gordon of states that stretch from the
foothills of the Alleghanies to the
Golden Gate of the Pacific, beginning
with Ohio and ending with California,
the republican banner was borne 50
lOftily that but single state failed to
tjOin in the wide acclaim of triumph
Nor should l do justice to nv own
feelings if | failed to thank the repub-
licans of the Empire state who encount-
cred so many discOuragements and
obstacles, who fought against foes from
within and foes from without, and who
Waged so strong u battle that a change
OF one vote in every 200 would have
given us the victory in the nation.
Indeed, IA change of little more than
800 votes would have transferred New
York, Indiana, New Jersey and Con-
necticut to the republican standard and
have made the north as solid as the
south.
/ My thanks would still be incomplete
| if | failed to recognize with special
| gratitude that great body of working
men, both native and foreign-bo
who gave me their earnest support,
breaking from old personal and party
ties and finding in the principles which
| represented in the canvass the safe
guard and protection of their own fire
side interests. The result of the cleo
ton, my friends, will be regarded in
the future, think, as extraordinary.
The northern states, leaving out the
cities of New York and BROOKLYN from
the count, sustained the republican
canse by majority of more than 400,
OOO-almost half a million, indeed, of
the popular vote. The cities of New
York and Brooklyn threw their great
strength aud influence with the solid
south and were the decisive element
which gave to that section the control
of the national government. Speaking
now not at all as n defeated candidate,
but simply as loyal and devoted
American, think the transfer of the
political power of the government to
the south is a great national mis-
fortune. 1t is misfortune because it
Introduces an element which cannot
insure harmony and prosperity to the
people, because it introduces into Il re-
public the rule of minority. The
first instinct of an American is equali-
ty, equality of right, equality of privi-
iege, equality of political power-that
equality which says to every citizen :
"1our vote is just as good, just as po-
| tentlal as the vote of any other citizen"
| That cannot be said to-day in the
United States. The course of affairs
in the south has crushed out the poIiti-
cal power of more than 5000, 900 Amer
lean citizens, and has transferred it by
violence to others. Forty-twO presi-
dental electors are assigned to the
south on account of the cOIored popu-
latiOn, and yet the colored population
with more than l,100,000 legal votes
have been unable to choose a single
electOr. Even in those states where
they have majority of more than
100000 they are deprived of free suf-
frage and their rights us citizens scorn-
fully trOdden under foot. The eleven
states that comprised the rebel confed-
eracy had by the census of 1880, T.
3OO,OOO white population and 5000
OO0 coiored population, The cOlored
population, almost to Il man, desire to
support the republican party, but by
system of cruel intimidation and by
violence and murder wherever vi0-
lence and murder are thought necessa-
ry they are absolutely deprived of all
political power.
If the outrages stopped there, it
wOnld be bad enough; but it does not
stop there, for not only is the negro
population DISTINGUISHED, but the power
which rightly and constituti0nally be-
longs to them is transferred to the
white population, enabling the white
population of the south to exert an
electoral influence far beyond that ex-
erted 10y the same number of white
how that works To the destruction of
all tar elections let me present to you
five states in the late cOnfederacy and
five loyal states of the north, possess
ing IN each section the same number of
electoral votes. In the south the states
of Louisiana, Mississippi. Alabama,
Georgia aud South Carolina, have in
the aggregate 4S electoral votes. They
have 2,S0O,OOO white people and over
3,OoO,OOO colOred people. In the north
the states of Wisconsin, Minnesota,
Iowa, Kansas and California have like
wise in the aggregate 4S electoral votes
and they have ii white population of
5,6OO,OO or just double the five south
ern states which have named. The
northern states have practically no
cOlored population. 1t is therefore ev-
ident that the white men in the south
ern states, by usurping and absorbing
the rights of the c0lOred men, are ex-
erting just double the political power
of the white men i'll the northern states.
submit, my friends, that such a con-
ditiOn of affairs is extraordinary. nm
just and derogatory to the manhood of
the north. Even those who are vim
dictively opposed to negro suffrage
will not deny that, as presidential cleo
tors are assigned to the south by reason
of the negro population, that popula-
tion Ought to be permitted free suffrage
in the election. To deny that clear !
proposition is to affirm that southern
white man in the Gulf states is entitled |
to double the political power of !
northern white man in the lake states
it is to affirm that confederate |
soldier shall WELD twice the influence |
in the nation that Union soldier can, |
aud that a perpetual and constantly |
increasing superiority shall be conced-