The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1884-07-24
The Speech Of Ex-Governor Hubbard.

anu spOAc - lOlIOWS Oh ldhiuS the
chair:
Mr. Chairman Gentlemen of the Demo
--1iic Convention. OF the Union (cheerS)-l am
/ profoundly grateful! for the 1fidence which
YOU have repoSed in me in ratlfying the NOM
/ inailon OF the National Executive Committee.
who have dOre your bidding for for the last
| four VI airs. by your authority. l accept il,
! my acknowledgements, not as tribute TO the
humble citizen and your acknowledgements who
/ speaks to you to-day but rather as a compii-
ment TO the great state from whence come
| laDplause)-a State which more than any
other American state is absolutely coSmOpOl-
itan in every fiber of its being. tApplauSe)
In its early days and struggles thither came
| % our relief, as the winds sweep across the
sea- men of Illinois and New York. men OF
Maine and New England, men of Georgia I'D
along the coast, and gave their lives 1T the
Alamo and san Jacinto for the freedom OF
Texas. (Applause1
l can only recall 10 you in the brief moments
which shall detain you the fact that our
1eighbOrlng sister Stdte-her women, her
glorious Spartan women-sent to us the twin
cannon that belched into glorious victory at
San Jacinto. But, fellow-Demcrats, that ex-
as with her over two millions of people,
gladly, at each recurring election, places in
tie ballot-boX over one hundred thousand
Democratic majority. tAppauSe.) Eel ow-
Democrats, we have met upon an occasion of
great and absorbing interest-tO our party. as
well as TO our common country. The occasion
would not justify me nor demand that |
should attempt to speak to you of its great
history and its distinctive principles through
twO-thirds of the most glorious history of our
country. / could not stop to discuss, if
would, its magnificent policy of progress, the
part which II has taken in building up our
country, its proves, lis territory, and its
wealth. can only say TO you to-day. in brief:
that the Democratic party, in all the essential
elements, Is the same as II was when founded
by the trainers of the Constitution, nearly
three-quarters of century ago. ,Applause)
Men die as the leaves of autumn, but prlnci-
piles underlying liberty and self-gOvernment,
the right of representation and taXat on going
hand in hand, economy in the administration
of the Government, that lay the burdens
least they may be laid upon the millions who
constitute our countrymen-these and others
are principles underlying the Democratic
party, which can not be etfaced from the
earth, though their authors may be numbered
with the dead. lCheerS.l / thank God, fell
lOw-citiZens. that though we have been out of
power for quarter of a century we are to-
day, in all that makes adherence, and conf
dence, and zeal, as much a party Organized
for aggressive war as when the banners of
victory were perched upon our heads. The
Democratic party, felOw-citiZens, since the
wartime, commencing with reconstruction.
with our hands manacled, with our ballot
boxes surrounded by the cleaning bayonet,
with carpet-bag rulers, with the voice stitied
the voice of freemen who pay their taxes
to the Government-the Democratic party
has lived to see, through all this misrule,
the day come when. In a great majority OF
our States, the Democratic party has resumed
its control and its power 1t has your House
of Representatives, and but for treason stalk
that, too cloud applause We have had the
Presidency, too. (Renewed applauSe) But
with impious handS-the hand of the robber-
our rights were stricken down at the ballot,
and through perjury, and bribery. and cor
ruption, men uttering falsehC cd through pa e
lips and chattering teeth, stole the Presidency
from this country. (Applause.) Some of the
men who participated in it have passed be-
yond the river, and stand to give an account
of their stewardship. But history will not lie
when it records, as it has, that the Electoral
Commission Qnnnnnnnd m hS fR
Der and the House that il would consider the
question and the evidence of fraud returning
the vote of Louisiana When the law was
passed. remember tit is the blacklist page
of our cOuntrys history-(appauSej-an al
good Republicans to-day are ashamed of it
QOud applausel-they turned their faces as
well as their cOnScienceS upon the promise of
the past and refused to conSiderthe evidence,
all reeking with ignomny, and bribery. and
shame, and counted in man who had
not received. under the Constitution and
the laws, the suhrageS of his countrynen.
That is Il wrong that we have met here to
right (ApplauseJ Eight years have passed.
ThatliS true. We are told that the law has
given the verdict to them. That is true.
When jury is in its box. under the statutes
of your State, and a Judge upon the bench
who holds the scales of justice unevenly,
holds with guilty hands parchment from the
Executive of your State, and allows the jury
sitting in the box to condemn man To death
under the Segis of law. he does what all the
law-wrteTs of civilization for hundreds of
years have cursed and damned as legal MUIR
der. (ApplauSe) Oh, the great sin of that
Electoral Commission remains to-day un-
punished, and ever will be unavenged so long
as the Republican party is in power in this
country. (Appause.J | thank God that there
is no statute OF limitations running in favor
of that party. (Applausc) And in that con-
nection, my acknowledgements. be it said TO
the credit of the Democratic party that they
exhibited none of that spirit of the HOtspur
and of the pirate. none of that spirit which
sought to ingulf this country, fresh as il was
upon the heels of a great and fratricdal war.
But our great leaders, Tilden ana Hen
dricks-here the Speaker was interrupted by
lOng-cOntinUed applause, the delegates rising
to their feet and waving their hatS)-Our
great leaders, Tilden and Hendricks, with the
dignity of heroic statesmen, with the courage
of men who love their country better than its
pelf and its power, accepted the wrOnged and
injured verdict of perjury and of fraud, and
they are grander to-day in their defeat than
the men who wear the power at the expense
of justice and right. (CheerS.) Thus we have
succeeded in the face of Federal power. We
would have succeeded in 1870 but for Federal
god and Federal greenbackS, fresh and I'M
cut from WaShingtOn-iapplauSe and laugh
terJ-mCney earned and held by Star-route
contractors and the longing friends of venal
Administration. tApplauseJ
acknowledgements, we want reform, God
knows, not only in the perSOnnel-in The men
but as well in the measures of the Govern
ment as it is. Cheers We want men there
whose very lives and whose very names would
be platform TO this people. We want men
there who in all the departments of the Gov
eminent. in its departments of justice, in its
postal affairs. in its interior department,
everywhere, shall follow its servants with the
eye of the minister of justice, and see that
every cent that belongs TO the Government
shall remain with the Government. (Cheers.)
NJ tribute shall be demanded. except the
tribute that is due the Government, that there
be no assessments upon 1O0,ODO oihce-holdcrs.
p5id 800, 900 annually, $5,0O0.OOO To go into
corrupt political fund. The.e-these, we
thank God, will be corrected when the Demo-
cratic party shall get into power. ZAP
of principles by the Republican party
They tell US they have civil service reform,
and yet they demand in the next breath from
every federal Oficeholder of the 100000 their
tribute to the corrupt fund, that shall be paid
out TO the voters at the polls. They tell US
they have punitive government, and yet not
a solitory felon has been condemned in the
dock of those who have stolen millions from
the public treasury. Your Springer commit
tee only yesterday and the day before tell us
of the perjury, of the corruption. of the sub
ornatiOns that run all aIong through the
ministers of justice in the prosecution of the
government. We want real reforms reform,
my countrymen{ that shall mean what it says,
and that shall Say what il means. (CheerS)
MOreOver-and shall briefly clOse-fellOw-
citizens. it is not my business as your preSid-
ing officer to-day to enunciate anything that
shall be embodied in your platform. Thank
God, that would exist. burned deep in YOUR
hearts, if every one that had been adopted for
fifty years were burned up. 1t IS Ter non
scriptd the doctrines which we have inherited
from the glorious ancestry that has become a
part of the traditions of the fathers
But wish TO say one thing. in this great as
sembage of freemen, to your committee on
platform, that you Will endeavor to unite up
on the basis of principles which we have adj
vOcated for the years that are gone. and that
you will have no Delphic oracle speaking with
double tongue in the platform which shall be
named by you. 0oud applauseJ Let the
Green Mountain boys. the men of New York.
the men of Maine, of Texas, of Louisiana
and Georgia. from the Carolinas to the golden
ham1nH no m IN at
form shall say in our noble vernacu ar of pur-
est English tongue what they mean. 20 that
the way-faring man. though a fool, need not
err in reading il. In doing this we will declare