The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-02-25

The Danv.lle Key-Note and History Of the
Nomination.

The Danv.lle Key-Note and History Of the
Nomination.
None of General Harrison's numerous
public utterances previous to his nOmina-
tion at Chicago have attracted more atten-
tion than his speech delivered before the
Lincoln League, of Danville, Ind, on Sat-
urday, Nov. %, 1887, in which he declared
the issues of 1886 still unsettled, and, in no
uncertain voice, demanded certain reforms
,in his own State of Indiana. among which
Lsyfie an equal ballot, n thorough referm in
the benevolent institutions and just and
necessary legislation on the temperance
question. He demanded an equal ballot in
these ringing words: "We are citizens of
Indiana and are proud of it, but we hold
that pride in subsection and that citizen
ship to be subordinate in many things to
the glory and duty of our national citizen
ship. At every election where we
deposit ballot we are act
ing upon questions that expend them
selves within the State lines of Indiana,
and upon others that are bounded only by
the oceans that have fixed our outer lines
as nation. have said some of
the issues of the last campaign were con-
summated. 1t was campaign made against
odds such as a party has been seldom called
upon to meet. That infamous apportion-
ment of our State for legislative and con-
gressiOnal purposes, devised to suppress
the popular will in Indiana, devised to en-
able a Democratic minority to control our
Legislature and to secure majority of the
delegation in Congress, yet stands upon
our statute book; yet calls upon every true
man in Indiana who believes in an equal
ballot who believes that every elector
shall count one in every election, and no
rage in this State. l know
that infamous gerrymander received
the reluctant, believe, the corrupt, sup
port of some who voted for it. believe it
of some Democrats in favor of those bills
were not uncOnnected with promises of fed
eral appointments. The outrage of this
legislation was shown in the last election,
when the Republican party cast 10000
than the Democratic party did, and yet the
Democratic party controlled your Legis-
lature on joint ballot. l .allude to this
question first because it is the bottom
question. 1t lies under all others. What
profit in discussing the question Of temper
ance legislation, or the reform of our benev-
Olent institutions, or any other of these To-
cal questions which are to be determined
by the action of our Legislature;
influence, man for man, in the chOos-
ing of Legislatures So / say to
third-party men, prohibitionists, who
listen to me, what chance have you-what
chance has any other reform of success in
the State of Indiana until we SO readjust
our apportionment that a majority of
our people may secure majority In the
Legislaturef
This legislation is part of deliberate,
remorseless scheme that thasTanifestatiOns
North and South to secure ans perpetuate
Democratic control by the disfranchise
ment of Republicans. When look over the
situation in the United States when turn
my eyes toward the South; when ! look
vision, / look here into the faces of my. Re-
publican friends in Indiana and see them
partially disfranchised, and a high con.
sttitutlonal t officer, chosen by majority OF
excluded from the exercise of his office Der
cause he is Republican, j am
full of apprehension, for / know
that such a condition does not permanently
consist with that respect for the enactments
of our Legislatures that is the only sure
guaranty of public order. Has it come to
be true, soldiers of Hendricks county, COM
rades who left home and friends and stood
on the fiery edge of many fight, who
looked with unblanched faces and resolute
eyes into the very face of death for country
and the fiag-has It come to this, that the
men who loved and followed Lincoln. the
men who rescued the country from destruc-
| tion, who lifted its downtrodden flag, and
who bound its Constitution with bands of
| steel, and restored its honor among the
nations of the world-has it come to this,
| that such men shall be sheared of their po-
| litical rights in order that the party of the
| the Nation, and its Democratic sympathiz-
| ers their ascendency in Indianaso
| 1t was in this speech that he showed the
| dangers of trusts and combines to American
industry and the welfare of the people. and
also declared at length that the principle of
the projection of American industry shall
not be eliminated from our tariff laws. and
that necessary reductions cannot safely be-
left to free-trade hands. This speech was
note. and its reverberations continued un-
| til thelreturns from the election Of 1888 de-
] claZed that the pripcipla of protection. 50