The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1884-10-24


twas not the Democratic party that gave
it occasion for birth; but il was the demand
that came from the best estate OF the Re-
public-labor in the North--that called
for party 10 be its organ. When Robert
Toombs threatening called the roll of slave
labor on Bunker Hill monument. free Ia
Dor in the North arose to arms at snce. and
there sprang into being the Republican
party as the representative Of labor. APP
plause. 1t fought for labor in Kansas
and wrested that territory for freedom and
away from the slave owners. And when
the war broke out it was the ranks OF Ia
Dor that settled the war in favor OF free
dom-under Abraham Lincoln and the
genius OF the great commanders that up
held our arms and carried us through the
long and terrible years of tho war of the
rebellion. 1t was the answer that came
from the ranks of labor when Abraham
Lincoln sent out his summons to the
country that filled up our dead lines when
they were thinned by battle and siege,
march and disease, and renewed the arms
that at last ended the rebellion at Apo
mattoS Court House. ApplauseI And
it has been labor that ever since has sus-
tanned the Republican party; and when
the Republican party, my friends, fights
so i'm its faithfulness to American labor,
the Democratic party will go down, and it
ought to go down. Applause and cries Of
"GOod"l
wonder, my friends, if you realize the
difference between labor here in America
and labor anywhere else? Cries of "You
betW] Why, do you know that all the
great things that have been accomplished,
in the North especially, have come from
labor? Do you know that all the men,
with slight exception, that have illustrated
and Illuminated the annals of the Ameri-
can Republic have come from the brown
ranks OF labor? This is 80 in no other
country. Take the English laborer. He
comes home at night from his hard days
work to his poor home. He comes home
to his pipe aud mug-that is what Whit
tier says-he grumbles and dozes there I'M
til bedtime: he goes to bed and wakes up
in the morning to the same labor; his
father and his grandfather did it before
him, and his Son and his grandson will re-
turn to the same poor home, to the same
pipe and mug, and 10 the same amending
round of unrelieved labor
Take our laborer-the man on the farm
at the shop, or the forge. or the mill-and
contrast him and his present and future
with that OF any laborer operating in Eng
land or upon the continent. Our laborer
comes home to his comfortable cottage
and his little boy falls on his Bonded knees
before him and offers up his evening
prayer, and that father, as he rests his hand
upon that little bowed head may reflect
that that boy Of his may rise up and attain
to every Station that is in the gift of the
American nation. Applause. From
just such households have come our Lin
coins and our Wcbsters, our Blaines and
our Logans, that are leading tho columns
to victory to-day. Applause.
drove along the other day up in New.
England in my own State. to the little vii
lage of Frieburg. 1t is a charming, lovely,
idealic spot The Sootcheoo river winds
its way through the fertile meadows, its
'green lapse Of intervals about which the
American poet sings. They took me to
the old tavern there they showed me tho
lived while he. taught school in Freiburg
in the winter. They took mo across the
street INTO little brick building, and they
opened the vaults and they brought out
and spread before me o volume of the Reg
Webster's own handwriting, where he had
copied deeds ut twenty five cents copy,
by candle light, through the winter even
ings, so that atthe end of the winter, with
the money that he had got in that way.
eking out the pay that he got for school
teaching, hs rode across the White Noun
tains, as the snow melted, TO that little
farm on the New England hillside, that ho
might turn over the money TO his brother,
to enable that brother TO be educated in
turn. Applause. That great majestic
intellect that dominates the American
mind, that grows more massive and more
colossal as the years go by and cannot DO
emulated by the politician or the states
man, takes its inspiration upon that little
hillside farm and by the winter Preside,
and l myself took lesson from that. l
say here 10 the strength of the institutions
OF tho North, and i say this is why it was,
my friends, that the Republican party is
bound to stand by labor because labor is
the rock-bed upon which it is to be placed.
Applause. And the Republican party
believes in policy that everywhere shall
upbuild and advance and protect labor. 1t
believes in establishing and maintaining
its financial policy, 80 that when your la
Dor in Saginaw comes in competition
with the British or Dominion labor, you
are, you shall be protected.
I sat the other day and talked an hour
with Democratic lumbermsn In Maine
said to him, Where is yonr capital in.
vested?" and he said. "In these mills which
behold before me, in the outfit that /
send into the woods in the winter, in The
vessels and barges that convey my manu-
features to the place where find mar
ket. said, "You are Democrat" His
answer was, II have been; as to the pres
ent, sometimes think, and then again /
don't know" Applause. well" l
said, Have you kept pace with the policy
of the two parties and with the events for
the last Year," Yes" Have you, said.
"read and studied the Morrison bill and
the action Of the Democratic party for the
last year. and its effects?" And he said,
II am doing no now, every hour l have
to spare from my business"
Said /, What would happen. sir, to you
and to your business and TO your work
men il the Democratic policy prevailed.
and il lumber was put upon the free lst?"
Why, said he. II couldn't stand the
racket" Applause. That was his term
n l.