Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-10-28
A BIG CONVERT.
Col. Geo. R. Vending on the
Tariff.
HE Is A DEMOCRAT NO
He Scores the Advocates of High
Tariff and Pleads for Cleveland
and Reform.

remember Hon. George r. Vending,
the eloquent lecturer who spoke at the
Academy of Music several times last
winter. His discourses on several occa-
sions betrayed, in spite of his better
judgment, his strong sympathy for the
Republican party. But Tariff Reform
has been too much for this intelligent
lecturer, and he is out pleading for
Cleveland, Thurman and Reform. At
Shelbyville, ILL.,, recently he made a
great speech, which the st. Louis Re-
public published. Parts of it here fol-
low:
The Republic introduces the speech in
a short explanatory paragraph
The Hon. George r. Vending, the
widely known lecturer, spoke to-day at
a great meeting at Shelbyville, Ill, his
home. He has taken no part in politics
for some years, and although invited by
Colonel Brice, of the National Democratic
Committee, and also by the State Central
Committee of Illinois, to enter the cam
paign, he declined. He consented to
make one speech here, and the announce
ment attracted wide attention and an
immense audience. Mr.. Vending has
a very large correspondence with men of
all parties in almost every portion of the
country, and he expresses without re-
reelected and that Palmer will carry Illi-
nois. He will speak ag in November Sd,
either here or in Chicago. Mr.. Vending
spoke as follows:
My FRIENDs-There are things about
Do ~ hot 7 lilo
the name and fame OF Lincoln. You
cannot call the roll of the great men Of
modern times the whole world over and
omit the name of Lincoln. He loved his
country, he loved mankind, and from
the highest station on earth he went up
to his God with the manacles of 4,000,-
900 slaves as an offering. l like Grant.
He was simple, direct, magnanimous.
He was one of the invincible warriors of
the world, and along with Sheridan,
Stonewall Jackson and Thomas, he
made the American soldier INN ortal.
like Roscoe Conkling. l like his
fathomless contempt for trickery. like
him because of his immaculate integrity.
like him because he hated dishonest
politician, and because he scorned the
rings and the master of the rings. They
killed him, but he will outlive them all.
Imperious and autocratic he was no
doubt, but it was the imperiousness of
large man, the autocracy of an honest
one.
Whatever they call him, what care 1,
Aristocrat democrat, autocrat-One
Who can rule and dare not lie.
And l like the prtriotic spirit of the
old Republican party when it loved the
Union. l like it's catholic spirit when it
stood the champion of the downtrodden
against oppression, of the poor against
monopolists, and for the whole country
against a section. No American need
be ashamed to have stood with Lincoln
and Seward, with Chase and Sumner,
with Carl Schurz and Fessenden, with
Lyman Trumbull and John NJ. Palmer
and say 81 was Republican"
But within even the short span of my
life have seen Presbyterians become
Unitarians and turn their backs on John
Calvin. l have seen Methodists forget
John Wesley and become free thinkers.
have seen Roman Catholics become Uni
versalists, and have seen Episcopalians
and Baptists become infdels. So, too,
have 1 seen seen convention of Repub-
lican politicians, led by Foraker, Miller,
Alger and other names almost unknown
to the Republican masses, nominate
genteel and shrewd corporation lawyer for
President on platform which bellies the
convictions of three.fourths of the Repub-
lican party. 1t is falsehood to say that
Republican voters would prefer untaxed
whiskey to low tariff. Republican
leaders at Chicago belied their followers
and betrayed them when they pledged
the Republican party to remove the tax
from whisky and tobacco rather than
lower other Federal taxes. That pledge
was adroitly won by the manipulations
of millionaire monopolists. 1t was not
and is not the voice OF that great body OF
moral and respectable men who made
the Republican party thing of power
and influence.
Nevertheless, the pledge has been
solemnly made. Therefore, must fol-
low these latter-day politicians, who,
twenty-three years after the war, pledge
a party of five million voters to war taxes
in time of peace, even at the expense Of
untaxed whisky, or l must vote for
Grover Cleveland.
1 belong to no party in the senge that
l am for my party right or wrong. My
party must 60 my way on paramount
HOOptiOh VI WO WILL AOG kO eOSCohOA' A>O
politician, no convention, no administra-
tion shall ever have mortgage on
my heart and brain. To God, to my
own conscience and to my own
sense of patriotic duty do 1 stand
amenable for my use of the freeman's s
priceless weapon, the ballot. No man
but a coward or beggar for party favors
fears party lash. That is one reason
why I respect Clinton Fiske and Cover
nor St. John and the Prohibitionists
at large. Whether right or wrong, they
are not towards. They are sagacious,
too, and know their secret enemy.
A wise and brave fight they
are making for the downfall OF
the Republican leaders, for with
the power of those leaders broken, the
pent-up moral forces in the Republican
party will have free play, seek new
allies, and do the world some good again. /.
can have no further parley with Pro-
hibitionist in this campaign than to tell
him that agree with him that the Re-
publican politician is the chief obstacle
now to more than one great reform.
With that politician out of the way, the
field is clear for another and different
struggle.
Ii am for Grover Cleveland. 1 am for
him, not because he is Democrat. nor
because he is the nominee OF the st.
Louis Convention, but because he is as
unselfish and devoted a patriot as
Abraham Lincoln, as sagacious politi.