Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1888-07-26
ADDRESS OF CHAS. C. CARROLL
BEFORE THE
BEFORE THE
ST. CLAIRSYILLE REPUBLICAN CLUB.
Wednesday Evening, July is, 1888.


argument to the Club. You are each of
you better acquainted with the facts
and practical principles of politics than
am l. But aside from personal consid-
Grafton, it is not exactly such nOurish-
ment We need at the present stage. We
are all very well satisfied, l think, with
our position. We need no new argu-
ments. We are not so weakly grounded
as to need continually to be propped and
stayed with new arguments. We dc
not, take it, come together here to
strengthen our convictions, to say doubt
fully to each other 1--WE are right" Al
though many of us are young, we are
neither political babes nor political inva-
lids, requiring to be tenderly nursed with
the milk and broth of first principles
and political A B Cs. We fatter our
selves that the iron of political truth has
entered our souls, and that we are rea-
sonably sure of some things. We know
that our opponents are wrong. Our
basis of fact and logic and certainty is
strong enough, and our convictions are
strong enough. We are sure that we
are right that remains is to 90 ahead.
The trouble indeed is that we rest too
securely on our settled convictions.
They are likely to become with US in a
sense distractions, pallid and cold, hav-
ing lost the bright warm spirit Of life
that first inhabited them. What we want
and need is to kindle our enthusiasm
We have all the materials with US. The
mOuldering embers of conviction are
here. Piled high around are the dry
fagOts of fact and argument. All that
is needed is strong breeze of genuine
sentiment from the heart to fan the
mass into a roaring fame of enthusiasm.
Nothing, it seems to me, can better
awake our slumbering enthusiasm and
arouse us to warmer appreciation of
those truths which we have already ap-
proved and embraced, than to look brief
ly over the grounds and buildings of
our political heritage; our history in the
light of to-day; the present as the growth
of former glory; the future from the
broad foundations of what was and
what is.
If there exists or ever existed an or
ganization that might be proud of its
past and desire to live in its memories,
tits the Republican party. The world
knows its history by heart. Itwas born
of the need of the times. Its advent at
one of the most critical points in our
history marks an era in the broader his
tory of the world, for it was just in time
to save to the world its last and grand
est nation. The political infant, like
the tabled monsters of antiquity, was
born a giant, and in the very hour of its
birth it grappled with gigantic war
and slew it. The wonder did not cease
here. Without any of those iron meas
ures by which cOnquerors the world
over have received the fruits of victory,
this party yet held the vanquished as
firmly and well by the most noble for
bearance, and the most fraternal SYM
pathy and love- 1t did its best to close
the chasm of war. 1t reached its hand
over it and said, ''Let the dead past bury
its dead" Though meeting with but a
half-hearted and sullen response, it went
on with the work of reconstruction, and
out of estates discovered, discOrdant,
belligerent, out of land rent with civil
feuds, and drenched in fraternal blood"
it built up this nation under one flag
with its motto, ''Liberty and Union"
These are two of the grand memorial
Halls that adOrn the young Republicans
political domain: Their artisans were
men whose names have already become
the watchwOrds of liberty throughout
the world, and whose memories will al
ways be present to dwarf into its proper
that class of successors of
whom the present occupant of the White
House is chief" "Our first great lead
er," the Agamemnon of the West; the
Ulysses whose name will live when
Homer's hero is forgotten. Revere your
young Republicans; be tender
ly proud of Lincoln and Grant. But
beside these two temples, the one of war,
overtopped by the one of peace, stands
another as yet incomplete, but which
promises to tower as high as its COM
panionS. It's broad foundations were
laid by the opponents of the Democracy
and the ancestors of the Republican
party. Its cornerstone was laid by the
party. Republican skill has
modelled its design, and Republican
workmen have built its walls. The ge-
MUS which it shelters has entered like
electric fluid into the nations blood, de-
velOping the ineXhaustible resources of
our land, sending man into the bowels
of the earth after hidden treasure, send
ing him into the forests with his axe,
and the fields with his plow, energizing
trade and commerce, covering the seas
and rivers with laden ships, filling the
land with one long, glad chorus of whir-
ring and rattling and screeching machin-
cry. Nor is this all. With short hours
and good pay the American workman is
enabled to do something beside earn his
bread. He himself reads and his child
goes to the free school. Time and en-
ergy are found to cultivate the mind
and raise to higher things than mere
read-getting. The arts and the sci
enceS flourish more universally than in
any other nation under the heaven. |
need not read the inscription over the
portals of this unfinished temple. 'Pro-
lection to the American wOrkingman, to
American industries, to the American
home" These are not the only broad
walls and high towers of our domain,
but they are enough to rouse the spirit
and quicken the hearts all Republi-
cans. five still lack enthusiasm, let us
look at the present, at the situation.
First, the enemy. The Democracy,
after having opposed the cause of the
Union, after having opposed reconstruc-
ton, after having, as party, hindered
every wise legislative act that has bless
ed the country for thirty years, still
stands in unpatriotic opposition to
American interests. Each of you who
las read the st. Louis platform will
agree with me that there is only one
clause that an intelligent man would