Year: 1860




borrowed $4,000 for current expenses,
for the payment of which they have made
no provision. / tell you, he said, and
without the fear of contradition, that the
State is bankrupt to-day, and cannot pay
the interest on its debt. But it has got
to pay or repudiate, this SUMMER II
won't be hard for the present administra-
tion to do the latter. Laughter. 1t is
literally true, and have it from black
republican authority, that the Attorney
General had prepared to put forth an
opinion in December last to the effect
that the State was not bound to pay its
debt. j tell you, gentlemen, you are
standing on the brink of precipice that
you scarcely know of. Our credit is
gone, and our money is gone, and now
our officers are preparing to repudiate the
payment of our debts because they have
squandered and stolen the money we had
provided them with to pay them. Ap-
plause.] The speaker then referred to
the Saur Canal and the loan that was
effected last winter, in the face of the
constitutional prohibition, for its repair.
He charged distinctly that the repairs
were not needed; there had been no
break, nor indications of weakness, in
that work. 1t had been constructed by
the most competent engineers of the
country, and accepted as a perfect work.
No one had never heard Of its being out
of repair until the black republican eEgi-
neer, sent there by the administration,
made report, and estimated the cost of
repairing it at 100000. Then an
opinion was furnished sanctioning the
issue of bonds, aud the money was raised.
This whole affair reminded him very
much of the temptation to which Christ
was subjected. A very ugly parsonage
took him up into high mountain and
babe him look over the whole region
about, saying: All this will give you if
you will fall down and worship me. But
he only replied, Get the behind me, Satan.
Our prhphets, Moses and Jacob, went
down to New York and were taken into
high place and shown all the land of
Michigan, and told that all this should be
theirs only they should-divide the canal
loan with him Intense merriment.] l.
And they did it! prolonged laughter
and applause. And now what have they
got Not an inch of land that they can
put their finger on. Applause.] But
he was detaining the convention too long.
Cries of "Go on" "Go on"


If we can succeed in nominating
Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston for
the Presidency, his election is raised
above prophecy; it is certainty. ZAP
plause.] There has been no such
movement of the masses since the time
when Andrew jackson was before the
people in 1892, as now. The great
unanimity that has characterized the pro-
ceedings of this convention is an index
of this. You come into this convention
and with one voice send delegates to
Charleston to nominate the Little Giant.
[Appause.1 No man in the country to-
day possesses so many of the traits of
Jackson as Senator Douglas. A great
statesman, with the courage of lion to
carry out his measures, with an abund-
ance of what we used in New England
to call "pluck," his name is a tower of
Strength. [Applanse.] Hc has hosts of
frlelhs in every State of the Union
The SPEAKER believed his nomination and
election Necessary to the safety and peace
OF the UnioL He disclaimcd any sym
pathy with dis,uionists, and was not one
who feared for the perpetuity of this
confederacy. He ed not believe the
power existed that csuld dissolve the
Union. But there may he no dsunion
and yet no Union; no war aud yet no
peace. 1t was not to be denied that
terrible state of things exists in our
country. Sectional hostility was working
anything but unity of feeling and harmo-
ny in the great family of States. So
long as the dwcller on the Potomac or
the Mississippi does not feel secure in his
home and his household gods, he will feel
like stranger and an alien in the land.
The triumph of the democratic party in
the approaching campaign would produce
better and a happier state of feeling
throughout the country, and would restore
confidence, friendship and prosperity
where now the contrary prevailed
[Applause.]