Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1886-09-16

life ever since. have served the people of
this state in many capacities-as an editor
a soldier, legislator and public officer
And although painfully conscious that /
have made mistakes, can stand up, here
in your presence, or in the presence of any
audience of Kansas people, and challenge
any man to say wherein was ever unfaitL-
full to public trust, or guilty of a corrupt
or dishonest action.
OPINIONS CONCERNING QUESTIONS OF
STATE POLICY.
AS to my opinions concerning questions
of state policy no intelligent citizen can be
deceived or misled, for they are fully and
fairly set forth in the two messages have
had the honor to transmit to the legislature.
The questions of prohibition and labor I
have already discussed at some length
Other questions discussed In my messages
may be briefly summarized
REPUBLICAN ACHIEVEMENTS.
have not, my fellow citizens, attempted
to discuss those questions which divide the
people in the larger domain of national
politics. 1t has seemed to me that, or an
occasion of this character, should confine
my remarks to a discussion Of state affairs
But am not Indifferent could not be in
different, to those issues of principle Or of
policies on which the Republican party
bases its action and its faith. am before
you as candidate of the Republican party
l have been Republican from boyhood-
an earnest, enthusiastic, loyal Republican;
Republican from conviction; Republi-
can who believes that the Republican party
embraces in its ranks the best brain, and
heart, and conscience of the American peo-
pie. On every great question presented dur
ing the past thirty years, the Republican
party has taken the side of justice, liberty
and eternal right. Never ashamed or
afraid to espouse the cause of the poor, the
ignorant or the alien, and make their
wrongs its own, it has never, on the other
hand, pandered to vice or crime or cupidity
for support When it took control of the
general government this country was a
weak collection of discordant states, ON the
verge of civil war and disunion 1t crushed
armed rebellion, brought the old flag back
to the places from which it had been
driven, and made the American republic
the greatest of civilized nations. 1t struck
the shackles from 1900, 900 slaves, lifted
them up and enfranchised them, 1t
opened the public lands to the people un-
der the beneficent provisions Of the home
| StSdu dCt AZ SpduIlCtt tliC COulluCut VIII
railways. 1t gave to the people sound
financial system and a stable currency. It
revived and fostered American manufae-
lures 1t encouraged public education 1t
enriched our history with long list of
imperishable names that will be an inspira-
ton and an example to our youth for gen
eratiOns to come-the names of Lincoln.
and Grant, and Seward, and Thorn
as, and Garfield, and host of
Others And finally, when fraud and !
terrorism in the south, and utilization and
falsehood in the north had accomplished
their ends, and this great party surrendered |
the trusts it had SO long controlled, did its |
opponents and traducers, after the most |
patient and careful investigation, discover
any facts or evidence to justify the igno-
rant ond brutal accusations they had made
against Republican honesty and compel
ency? Not single fact. Not shadow of |
evidence. They counted the money"
and it was all there-every penny of it.
They investigated the books, they scanned
every account, they scrutiniZed every item
and figure and they found nothing to criti-
else. And at last, one of the most preju-
diced Democrats in the country, was COM
PEELED to declare, and did declare, that he
had been amazed at the perfect system, ac
curacy and integrity with which the bust
ness of his department had been conducted
by Republicans
But they turned the rascals out" Oh,
yes, that business has been attended to with
promptness and regularity An amending
procession of ''rascals' has been moving
out for year and half ''Rascals" who
had invaded the sacred soil of Virginia and
Kentucky who had stolen negroes and
made them free; who had been with Grant
at Vicksburg and in the Wilderness, and
with Thomas at Mission Ridge, and with
Sherman on the march to Atlanta and the
sea, and with Meade at Gettysburg. Some
of these ''rascals' had grown old and gray,
some limped out painfully because of old
wounds, some wore a vacant sleeve, some
had voted against that great Democratic
patriot, Vallandigham, and some had,
years before, been guilty of singing a song
about hanging a great Democratic states
man on sour apple tree. Men guilty of
such ''rascalities' as these of course de-
served to be turned out, and they were
promptly bounced.
PATRIOTS AND MARTYRS WHO
CAME IN
In their stead long line of Democratic
martyrs and patriots marched in
men who had fought four years for their
democracy" under Lee or Bragg, or
Joe Johnston; men who had expatriated
themselves to the wilds of Canada to
avoid Lincoln's 'bastiles;" men who had
wandered through the timbers of the Wa
bash or the Miami bottoms hunting their
lodge of knights of the Golden Circle"
or ''Sons of Liberty" men who had re-
ioiced over every disaster to the union
arms, and mourned over every union /:
victory; men who had denounced that gen.
tie and loving Greatheart, Abraham Lin
coin, as a ''tyrant," 'baboon," and an
ape men who had assailed our great
Ulysses S. Grant, as
bloody butcher" and drunken tan
ner-those, in large measure were the ,
honest patriot who marched in, while !
The drums beat and the flies whistIed the
DID familiar tune, Turn the Rascal Out"
and the Democratic party of Kansaf, as
sembled in state convention, formally en-
torsed and approved this program by
adopting a resolution that 'the soldiers and
sailors of the late war NOT union soldiers.
not loyal soldiers, mind you, but soldiers
Of the late war; confederate as well as
lnion-'are entitled to the first considera-
ton in appointments
CONCLUSION
My fellow citizens. the issues of this cam
paign are OF vital importance to the pros
perity and happiness of this state and this
nation. Republicans of Kansas, remember :
hat in less than two years from this time
we will be in the midst of a presidential
Do your duty now. and the re-
suit then will be assured Support with