Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1885-10-23
REV. E. Il. HALE ON POLITICS.
He would Not Set the south Up in Bust

the other day. He said:
/ believe was asked here to tell stories,
and will tell one or two before | have
done. want to speak, not as person
caring for immediate political issues, but
because am interested in the great his
torical questions which are before the
country. 1t seems to me that the young
men growing up now are treating these |
matters as if they were of little conse-
quence, as if the country were bound to
pull through. 1t seems to me that the |
discussion of principles are carried on !
with very little reference to the fact that
we are simply at the elimination of eighty |
years of history, and that it is III our pow
er to answer the question what these |
eighty years have done tor us. | was in |
New York on Forefather's Day and the
New England society had a dinner at Del |
monicos. found myself mt the table, by
the side of a gentleman who was an en- |
tire stranger to me. | tried to make my !
self agreeable, as always do under such
circumstances, and | thought he was Il
little short metre in his answers. | said to
myself we have got to have six hours of
1t here | can have very good time if l
sit still eating my dinner, but | can have
better time if | can only make him talk
to me. tried him on one question and
he didn't say anything, and on another
and he didn't say anything then ! tried
politics. | said, "These Southern gentle
men have had the government of their
own states for twenty years" Eyes" he
said, they have had it for twenty years.
| said. there Is not one of the ten States
lately i'll rebellion that can borrow a dol
lar at par, that can build II mile of rail
road, that can establish system of pub
! lie schools, that can administer justice
between man and man, that can induce
hundred emlgrants to come in from Eu-
rope or that can run an exposition.
/ "Now," said |, "why should such men as
that be ntrusted with the government of
the United States? a pretty good people,
am told, and dare say they are but |
say that in twenty years they have not
shown that they can govern their own
States, and having been falthlesS in little
things, they should not be trusted in great
things" Well he seemed to be pleased
with these remarks, and he said, 81 agree
with you entirely, and you may as well
know who am and | found he was II
Democratic representative in the House
of Representatives at Washington from
the state of New York Then felt glad
that told him the truth. Applause and
laughter. 1t would not he proper to tell
what he said. My rule with regard to
dinner-party conversation is to tell what
| said, but not what the other fellow said.
am not what is called partisan l
am certainly not an offensive partisan,
but am Il student of history, and Il great
part of my study of history has been of
the United States. And the result of my
study of that history is this-I will give
it to you in the very words Josiah Quincy
used, for | am one that have seen men
who have lived in the Revolution. He
said to me, Mr.. Hale, Governor Morris
told me the whole secret of this thing in
1903. He said, The mistake we made,
Mr.. Quincy, we made in the beginning,
when we united eight republics to five
oligarchies ; that is the true history of
the United States That was the mistake
that was made in the beginning, that five
ollgarchles were treated as if they were
republics" They didn't know what re-
publican government meant then, and, so
Tar as know, they don't know what re
publican government is now. The gov
eminent of Il republic is government of
the people, by the people, for the people
, the government of an oligarchy is gov
, eminent of the higher classes, by the
higher classes, for the higher classes.
Now, my friend who is taking notes
there, will say Mr.. Hale made "bloody
SHIRT speech. | care nothing about the
bloody shirt but when we have a few
gentlemen whose business it has been all
their lives long to ride around their plan
tatons and make a few barrels of sugar
= and a few bales of cotton and send then
away and take care of their slaves, il
= stands to reason those gentlemen dom
a.. understand the interests and the govern
! ment of great nation like that of the
i United States of America They nevel
:. Thomas jefferson permitted the blunder
q of the eight years of his administration
. nor from the days of Andrew jackson.
II say that for the greater part of sixty year
d of this century this country was badl.
4 governed because it WAS intruSted to
= these gentlemen for reasons of their owl
: went back to their plantations. The
u stepped out and they stayed out for II goo
:. many years. 1t happened that then TO
:, the first time the Republicans took tn
. government of the United States in thei
% hands, and young business men were cal
= ell into Congress and took up the govern
~ ment OF this country and what did the
do The southern notions about bank
- ing left it in private hands. a few of Il
~ can recollect when you paid ten per cei
le to get an Illinois bill off your hand,
o. When you received any money from tn
~ West you thanked God Almighty for it
!, and when you got rid of it you thanke
u him again with greater fervor. That WI
~ the condition of the banking of this coul
~, try under these Oligarchs as long as the
y managed this country. You young Inc
~" may talk about free trade. | am old enoug
ra to have seen the country go to the do.
ar because the manufacturers of MancheSt,
q "a were permitted to make its tariff laws #
10 Il year or two. | say after 1861 we hi
ar twenty beneficial years the business me
az of this country managed this count
,,t and carried on its government. Then Il
,r1 men of this country found out what tn
- country was and found out what it W
~ -, TO be. The upshot of these twenty yea
re- is, that the work of this country incre as
NJ three fold, three hundred per cent,
he these twenty years, or rather this quart
on OF a century. You take all the veal
0N that this country had brought togeth
in $50 years up to 1860, just about25 yea
from the landing at jamestown, and y
get SO much in the twenty-tour yea
that The Northern people of this count
Ak have governed it, that so much has be
multiplied three times over. AS long
err you let the young men, like these men
.ba the Norfolk Club, such men us Fessend
-no and Chase, such men as Davenport, W
40 is going to be governor Of New York [;
ng plausel, such men as George Hoar II
re John Sherman, such men AS are used
lad understanding such things, govern t
su- country everything will lgo along
no right. AS long as you leave the COVE
ion ment of the country in the hands of n
be like Calhoun and Madison and Jelfers,
so long | say, the country will have
government ut all. This was the mo
nd. of John Tyler, "The best government