The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-09-15
THE REPUBL1CAN PARTY.
It Follows Its Own Sweet william Eloquent
Tribute to Its Achievements.

It Follows Its Own sweet william Eloquent
Tribute to Its Achievements.
Emery A. storrs, at Boston
This is a very remarkable party Of ours-the
Republican party, It never had, in all its long
and splendid, and lustrous career, leader who
could take it one single inch in the direction it
didn't want to go. Our leaders have sometimes
left us, and in wholesale way. So much the
worse for the leaders, so much the better for the
party In 1872 Governors and ex-Governors
senators and ex-senators, judges and ex-Judges
Tray Blanche and Sweetheart, Gro Bds of them,
left the party because the party, as they said,
was corrupt and how splendidly the old ship did
right herself up after they got off How mag
nific emily she made for the harbor of a splendid
success, and how desolate, discomftted and wa
ter-b0gged have been the leaders who jumped
overheard ever since There is another remark
able feature about our party which distinguishes
it from the Democratic party. 70 write a plat
form for the Democratic party requires tho very
highest degree Of rhetorical and literary ability.
/ think possess some ability of that kind my
self vet / would not try it under any circun-
stances. There is not Republican in all the 55,
coo, 900 of people of this continent, who has got
the faith in him, who cannot write Republican
platform that is not good Republican doctrine
everywhere. There is the same difference be
tween Tie ptdblOTlQ anu bIl6 hepUD-
hcan platform that there was between our
present national currency and the old stump
tail currency before the war Our platform is
current everywhere Did you ever think what
would happen to a Democratic orator if he put
his platform in his pocket at night and got on
the train and really landed in the direction he
didn't suppose he had gonel Suppose that he
started from Chicago and was coming to Boston,
but by some curious freak he landed at Atlanta
or Savannah, and, thinking he was in Boston all
fo, hu1lr
fair countl You see it is a question of climate;
the platform is liable to spoil with a change of
weather Suppose that the patriotic Democrat
land there are many such constituting his plat
form, after days and nights of anxious hair
pulling and headache has made up his mind as
TO what the concern means on the subject of the
tariff, and he starts out full of the idea that he
is friend of all Gods creation and free trade.
He Is going South, as he thinks, and the Penn
sylvania railroad lands him in Lancaster, Pa,
and, as Democratic orator, he begins to talk in
favor of free trade and to give thar construction
to the platform What kind of a funeral awaits
that man?
The Republican party has made of jarring
States Nation and it has made that Nation
free-tree in every sense and in its largest sense
and on this continent what an edifice has it
reared, the dome as broad and vast as the arch
ing skies above us, from whose walls we have
removed the decaying timber of human chattel-
hood and replaced them with the everlasting
we have effaeed the old, foul inscriptions of the
bad old times. The bred Scott decision. with
its internal doctrine no longer faunts its shame
IN our eyes The story of the escaping slave no
longer is recorded on its banners the crack of
the old whip has died away; the bay of the pur-
suing bloodhound is a bad recollection of bad
past; the imploring cry of the pursued slave is
heard no more But REDEEMED as if a planet
shune upon it giistens there Republic beneath
whose flag every human being is free-free to
think, free to speak, and free to vote as he
pieases- The old clustering spirit Of our insti-
tutions before the war that elevated itself on
its piles of boxes and bales, and chalked its dol
lar and cent marks all over Gods Ten Command
ments, has been pulled down and in its place,
coming from her throne among the stars, is that
radiant spirit which worship in my waking
hours and in my dreams the spirit of mighty,
free empire, with her glistening coronet upon her
brow, with sword and shield, and plume, taking
the poorest of our citizens by the hand and say
ing BY the living God he shall be Free to
think, to speak to vote as he pleases and for the
incarnation of that mighty spirit urge the cleo
tion and shall vote for Blaine and Logan.