The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1884-05-26

by military tyrant. The usurpation was
consummated and the assassins of self-gov-
eminent were severally rewarded out OF
the public treasury, and as yet the
greatest fraud of the century has not been
punished To redress the wrong becomes the
paramount duty of the Democracy in the
coming presidential campaign. To attain
this end we ask the earnest cooperation of
every Democrat and every American citi-
zen.n %kgk II
The denunciation of the electoral fraud
was received with applause, and after the
reading of Congressman Morrisons reference
to Samuel j. Tilden, the thousand Demo
Gratis in the audience sprang to their feet and
waved their hats and cheered. The same
enthusiasm was exhibited when Congressman
Blackburn mentioned Mr. Tilden's name.
Senator elect J. s. C. Blackburn, of Ken
lucky, was the first speaker He took for his
text the surrender of the seas to England and
| the conspiracy entered into in 1876 and 1877
| by the leaders of the Republican party to
| nullify the suffrages of the people. He de
MED that the destruction of our commerce is
| due to the civil war alone, and said that
| since the war the decline of commerce
had gone on steadily. The main cause for
this decline he found further and deeper
than the navigation laws and traced it
| to the class legislation of the tariff-the
| Chinese wall placed about the country by the
advocates of protection. 1t was this, he
said, that compelled this nation to pay $780,
900 annually as tribute to foreign
bottoms AS nation must sell as well as
buy, he demanded as the necessary condition
| of progress that the nation should be free to
do the one as the other; that our ships shall
be free to bring to us the products of foreign
chimes. The Democracy of New York
had not forgotten the crime of
1877, when a hard-earned victory was
filched from tine people by lot of political
jugglers who committed the most damnine
crimes. Mr.. Blackburn urged That the dele
gates from this state should go as those Of
other states will go, instructed, SO that the
platform shall give forth no uncertain sound
that the tariff plank shall declare for reve
nue., not for protection, not for tribute anG
plumber, but to give enough for the mainte
nance Of the government, The speech wa
received with great enthusiasm,
The Hon Frank Hurd of Ohio, was thu
| next speaker He began by echoing the sen
timents of Mr. Blackburn on the recent tariff
: struggle in congress, and said: ave ask you
| of Tammany and those who are to go to thu
| Democratic national convention to decid,
whether the ISL honest men who voted Il
sustain the decision of their party platform
are the true Democrats, OF the forty-on'
| who we re voting against them" A voice
"Traitors"l He traced the history of tn
Democracy on the tariff question, and urge
that the supporters Of the Morrison
bill were the real Democrats, sustain
ing the policy of the party as pro
posed in the platform of 1880. In conclusion
Mr.. Hurd drew vivid picture of the pros
) perity that is in store for this country whei
revenue reform shall be enacted into law, b!
the final success of the reforms, which be sal
. have been pledged by Democratic conven
tions from time to time, and which he re
garded as the cornerstone, not only of tn
Democratic party, but of the prosperity c
j the nation. "With the triumph of thes
n principles" he said, america shall be tn
empress of the seas" At the conclusion c
Mr. Huri's speech the meeting adjourned.