Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-06-28

7 1t insists that the IN estImabie blessing of
American citizenship, purchased with the
priceless blood of our heros and martyrs,
shall be extended to those only who are
IN full sympathy and accord with the
fundamental principles of our Govern
ment, and who will Loyalty support the
sacred provisions of the Constitution of
the United States. And it holds that
Congress has the power to save American
civilization and morality from the leprosy
of Asiatic paganism, degradation and con-
tagion.
It maintains that the nation should ex-
tend the benefits OF free government to
all lovers of liberty, but it demands that
the law of the land shall be q shield to
those only who obey it, and that for the
Anarchists, the Communist and the
criminal American Justice has nathir 2
to offer but the sword.
The reconstructed Democracy has now
been IN power nearly four years. The
administration has been most satIsfac-
| tory to those who hold Office under it.
Its loyalty has received the approval of
every enemy of the Government. The
courage Of its foreign policy has amused
the great powers and pleased every
coward. Its civil service has been
thoroughly reformed as to delight Mr..
! Virgins. Its justice to the disabled
| soldiers has won golden opinions from
| those who gave them their wounds. It's
i financial movement has been safe because
of its inability TO destroy the resulting
prosperity of Republican legislation.
And its unparalleled straddle of the
tariff question has been a source of
wonderment to gods and men. 1t is
| strong in the inbecility of ''innocuous
desuetude," and deserves to live as a rem
| irisceHce of promises forgotten and
| pledges unredeemed.
! There are those in this land who seem
| to believe that the mission of the Repub-
| lican party is at an ems. That the eman
cipatiop proclamation, Appomatox and
the Constitutional amendments are at
once the monuments of it's glory and the
gravestones of its demise. But the work
of the Republican party will never be
done until every American citizen enters
into his unquestioned inheritance of
liberty, equal rights and justice, until
representation in Congress is based upon
votes freely cast and fairly counted, until
adequate provisions have been made for
| the elplessness and old age OF the dis
abled veterans and the widows and or
phans of their dead comrades. Until
sure national and individual prosperity
are firmly established and until patriot
ism and loyalty are the only qualifications
except fitness, for official position in the
service of the Republic.
There are those in the land who insist
that the Republican party keeps alive the
old time sectional feeling, and it refers to
the dead past burying it's dead" The
Republican party longs and prays for the
coming of the millennium of its hopes,
when in spirit and in truth Mason and
Dixon's LIE will be blotted out forever;
when frsternal ties and common interests
unite US all; when the whole people are
found rejoicing together the inherited
Institution of human slavery was destroy
ed by the justice of God: glad together
| that the holy bonds of Union could not
be severed; hopeful together for a mag
niieent national distiny, loyal together
to oomon country and its uncOnquered
flag.
But, when that glad time comes, black
and white must mate side by side in the
broad sunshine of safety and lie down to
peaceful slumber in the untroubled shad-
ows of unprotected homes. The Kepubli
can party leans to the new South with
wide open arms. It Offers loyal assist
ance in the development of agriculture,
the opening of its mines, the building up
of its manufactures. It proposes to
break down the barriers of unpieas
ant memories with the hope of new pros
peritY.
The great distinctive issue of the pres
ent campaign is the issue of the tariff.
To the support of protective tariff there
will rise up an overwhelming army of IN
Ill Al f-I
and the East and the West, the North and
the South, will join hands together to
forever exterminate In this republic the
pernicious doctrine of free trade.
AS we gather here we remember that
ether great convention held in this city
in 1860. We remember how it was in
spired with the wisdom and courage to
select that great man Of the people; that
Moses, who led US through the parted
waters of the sea, past the wilderness of
battle, over the Jordan of safety into the
promised land. Ia 1884 we were driven
back into the wilderness again. Goo give
us the wisdom to fine another Moses
who can limit our wanderiDgs TO four
years instead of forty.
The mighty past is with US here to day.
It fills US with that same spirit of free
dom, patriotism and devotion which
breathed into the common dust of ordin-
airy humanity the sublime inspiration OF
heroic deeds. Let Us read its lessons
rightly and hold it's precepts dear.
When Robert Bruce, King of Scotland,
lay upon his dying bed he requested that
his heart should be taken from his in
animate body and borne by knightly
hands to the Savior's sepulchre. After
his death James, Earl OF Douglas, under
took the scared mission, and with the
heart incased in a golden casket set OF
upon his pilgrimage TO the Holy Land.
On their way thither, himself and com
rades were set upon by a great host of
Moorish warriors. Though they fought
with all the valor of mortal man, they
were borne backward by sheer force of
numbers, and their overthrow seem
ed certain, when Douglas drawing
from his bosom the priceless
casket, cast it far out into the
oncoming host and cried out, "Lead on,
heart of Bruce, we follow thee" and the
knights of Scotland, never defeated while
following a Bruce, pushed forward and
Won the day.
Let this convention find Douglas for
our Bruce. He will take the soul of our
great leader into the golden casket of his
love, end with it lead us on to certain and
splendid victory.
Mr.. Thurston's speech was delivered
with a resonant voice aud could be heard
all over the hall and was continually.1n in
IL L