The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1884-11-27
SPEECH By MIR. BLAINE. =.
Mr.. Blaine serenadsd at His Home.
Makes the Most Noteworthy
Speech Of the Year.

reached BlalneS house their compliments
and friendly regards were expressed in q
speech by Herbert NJ. Heath, OF the Kenebec
bar Mr. Blaine responded as follows, his
speech being continually interrupted by ap-
plause:
Friends and Neighbors: The national contest
Is over, and by the narrowest Of margins we have
lost. I thank you for your call, which, If not
one Of Joyous congratulation. is one. 1 am sure,
OF confidence and Of sanguine hope for the
future. l thank You for the public opportunity
not only to you, but to all the Republicans of
Maine. They responded to my nomination with
genuine enthusiasm and ratified it by superb
vote. / count it as ono of the honors and gratif-
cations of my public career that the party in
Maine, after struggling hard for tho last six
years, and twice within that period losing the
fashioned twenty thousand plurality. No other
expression Of popular confidence and esteem
could equal that of the people among whom
e by ,or ali the es that 10 epnobe
man nature and give. joy and dignity to
life After Maine: indeed along with
Maine, my first thought is always of Pennsylva-
MIA. How can I tittipgly express my thanks for
that unparalleled majority OF more than eighty
thousand votcs-a popular endorsement which
has deeply touched my heart, and which has, if
old commonwealth, an affection which I in
herited from my ancestors and which shall
transmit to my children? But do not limit nv
thanks e the state Of my residence and the
state Of birth. owe much TO- the true and
Jealous fr1Snds in New England, who worked 50
nobly for the Republican party and it's candi-
dates. and to the eminent scholars and divines
who, striling aside from their ordinary avOca-
tioDs, made my cause their cause, and to loyalty
to principle added the special compliment OF
standing as my personal representatives in the
national struggle But the achievements Of the
Republican cause in the East are even surpassed
by the
SPLENDID VICTORIES IN THE WEST.
In that magnificent Gordon of states that
stretches from the foothills OF the Alleghenes to
the golden gate Of the Pacific, beginning with
Ohio and ending with California, the Republican
banner was borne SO ioftily that but single
state failed to join in the wide acclaim OF
triumph. Nor should do justice to my own
feelings if failed to thank the Republicans of
the Empire State, who encountered so many dis,
arrangements and obstacles, who fought foes:
from within and foes FROM without, and who
waged SO strong battle that change OF one
vote i'll every two Thousand would have given US
the victory in the nation Indeed, a change of
little more than five thousand votes would have
transferred New York. Indiana, New Jersey and
Connecticut to the Republican standard, and
would have mad, the North as solid as the
South. My thanks would still be incomplete If
! should tall to recognize with special graft
native and foreign born, who gave me their
earnest support, break ing from old personal and
party ties and finding in the principles which
teeeiJrcSr..ti in the canvass, the safeguard and
protection OF their own tireside interests. The
result of the election, my friends, will be re-
garded in the future, think, as extraordinary
The NSrthern sates leaving out the scites OF
tanned the Republican cause 10y majority Of
more than four hundred thousand, almost half
million, indeed, OF the popular vote. The cit
strength and influence with the solid South aud
were the decisive element which gave to that
section the control OF the national government.
Speaking now not at all as a defeated candidate
but simply as loyal and devoted American,
| think the transfer of the political power
OF Tic government to the South is a
great national misfortune 1t is q misfortune
because it introduces an element which can not
ensure harmony and prosperity to the people;
because 1t introduces into the republic the rule
Of minority. The first instinct of an Amerl-
can, equality, equality of right, equality of priv
ilege. equality OF political power, that equality
which says to every citizen, Your vote is just
Rs good, just potential as the vote of any 9TH
tr CITIZEN" that can not be said to-day in the
United States. The course of affairs in the
south las crushed out the political power Of
more than 5000, 900 American citizens and has
transferred it by violence to Others Forty-two
presidential electors are assigned to the South
on account OF the colOred population, and yet
the colorcd population with more than i, Co.,
900 votes have been unable to choose single
electOr. Even in those states where they have q
majority Of more than a hundred thousand they
are .
DEPRIVED OF FREE SUFFRAGE
and their rights rs citizens are scornfully
troddtn under foot. The eleven states that
comprised the rebellion federacy had by the CEN
sus s or W., $50 100 oo9 white population and
nlation almost to IL man desire to support the
Republican party, but by a system Of cruel in
timidatiDN and by violence ana murder, when
ever violence and murder arc thought necessary,
they are absolutely deprived of all political
power. II he out rage stopped there it would be
la enough; but it does not stop there, for not
only is the negro population DISTINGUISHED, but
the power which right fully and cOnstiturionalIy
belongs to them Is transferred to the white pop
South to exert an electoral influence far
beyond that excrted by the same number Of
white people in the North. TO illustrate just
how 1t works to the destruction Of all fair cleo
| ions, let lie present to you hvc states in tho
late cOnfederacy and five loyal states Of the
North, possessing in each section the same num-
Der OF electoral votcs. In the South the states Of
Louisia,,a Missis ippi, Alabama, Georgia and
South Carolina have in the aggregate forty-eight
electoral votes. They have 2,SOO,OOO white
neople and over 3.OOO.OOO colored people. In
Iowa. Kansas and California have likewise forty
eight electoral votes and they have white
population Of 100000. or just double the five
Southern S.t states which haze named These mes
ulation. 1t is. therefore, evident that the
white men in those Southern States bv usurp-
arc excrtius just double the political power Of
the white men in the Northern states. IsuDmit,
my friends that such condition of affairs IS
extraordinary unjust and derogatory to the
manhood of tho North Even those who are
vindictively opposed to negro suffrage will not
deny that il presidential electors are assigned to
the South by reason of the negro population,
that population ought to, be permitted free suf-
frage in election. 10 deny that clear PROPOSE
ton is to affirm that q Southern white man in
the gulf states is entitled to
DOUBLE THE POLITICAL POWER
ri Northern white man in the lake states It
ia to affirm that confederate soldier shall WELD
twice the influence in the nation that Union
soldier can, and that a perpetual and constantly
Southern white man In the government of the
Union. II that be quietly conceded in this gen.
Grafton, it will harden into custom until the
badge OF inferorlty VII attach to the Northern
stamped it upon the Saxon churl. This subject
Is OF deep interest to the laboring men OF the
north. With the Southern Democracy tri-
nation. the negro will be compelled
to work for just such wages the whites may
d ,cree-wages which will amount, as did tho
supplies Of the slaves, TO- q bare subsistence
equal In cash perhaps to IS cents per day. II
averaged over the entire South. The white
iaborer in the North will soon feel the distinct-
i've effect OF this upon his own wages. The Re-
publicans have clearly seen from the earliest
days OF reconstruction that wages IN the South
nn~t be raised to just rccompense Of the
ousy lowered, and the party has steadily
worked for the former result. The reverse influ-
encc will now be set in motion and that condi-
Lincoln varied the free iaborins men Of the
North will prove hostile to their independence
and will inevitably lead to a rainous reduction.
the skin will not suffice to maintain
an entirely different standard of wages
in contiguous and adjacent states, and the vol
untary will be compelled to yield to the invol-
nntary. SO completely have the colored men
in the South been already deprived by the
Democratic party Of their constitutional and
legal right citizens Of the United States, that
they regard the advent Of that party to national
power the signal for their reinstatement,
and are affrighted because they think all legal
protection tor them is gone Few persons in the
North realize how completely the chiefs of the
Rebellion WELD the political power which has
tious fact that the Democratic senators who
come from the states Of the late confederacy all
and mean all-without single exception, per-
sonally participated in the rebellion against the
can't fact that in those states no man who was
loyal to the Union, no matter how strong
Democrat he may be to-day, has tho slightest
chance Of political promotion. The one
GREAT AvENUEsTO HONOR
in that section is the record Of Jealous service in
the war against the government. : 1t Is certa: My
an astounding fact that the section in which
friendship for the Union In the day of its trial
should be called now to rule over the Union.
Al. this takes place during the lifetime of tho
generation that fought the Wal, and elevates into
practical command of tho American gOvernil ent
the identical men who organized for it's dest. uc-
ton and plunged us into the bloodiest contest
of modern times. have spoken Of the South as
placed by the late election In possession Of the
government, and mean all that my words inn
plv. The South furnished nearly three fourths
of the electoral votes that defeated the Re-
publican party, and they will step to the
command of the Democrats as unchaleDged
and as unrestrained as they held the
same position for thirty years before the war.
Gentlemen, there cannot be political eqna lily
cannot be a minority of white men in the South
ruling u majority Of white men in the North.