Year: 1868

Speech OF Hon. HOratiO SEYMOUR.
The following is the speech of Hon


Horatlo Seymour. of New York, tn,
Democratic candidate for President, OF


taking the chair as presiding officer O.


the Democratic National Convention:
\ Gentlemen Of the ConreRtion-I thank
you for the honor you have done me il


making me your presiding officer. This


convention is made up of large num-


Der of delegates from all parts of oul


broad land. To great degree we are


strangers to each other, and view the
subjects which agitate cur country from
different stand points. We cannot al
once learn each others mode of thought
or grasp all the facts which bear upon
the minds of others. Yet our session
must be brief, and we are to utter a
voice without delay upon questions OF
an exciting character and of deep inter
to restrain all exhibitions of passion, to
drive out of our minds all unkind sus-
picions, is, at this time, great duty.
Cheers. l rely upon Your sense of
this duty and not upon my own ability
to sustain me in the station in which /
am placed by your kind partlality. Men
never met under greater responsibilities
than those which now weigh upon us.
1t is not q mere party triumph we seek.
We are trying to save our country from
the dangers which overhang it. We
wish to lift Oft the perpleXities and
shackles which, in the shape of bad
laws and of crushing taxation now par
alyze the business and labor of our land.
Loud cheers.] We hope at least we
can give order, prosperity and happi-
ness to those sections of our country
which suffer so deeply to-day in their
homes and in all the fields of their indus
try from the events of the past eight
years. / trust our action will show that
we are governed by earnest purposes to
help all classes of our citizens. Avoid
ing harsh invectives against men, we
should keep the public mind fixed upon
the questions which must now be met
and solved. Let us leave the past to
the calm judgment of the future and
confront the perils of the day. [Cheers.]


We are forced to meet the associations
brought forth by the late Republican
Convention. / aver there is not in this
body one man who has it in his heart to
excite so much of angry feeling against
the Republican party as must be stirred
up in the minds of those who read the Sc
declarations in the light of recent events,
and in view of the conditions of our
In the first place they con-
gratulate the perplexed man of business,





whose hours of toll are lcngthened ont
by the growing cost of the necessaries
of life, upon the success of that recon |
policy which has brought all |
these evils upon them by the cost of it's |
despotism, and the corruption
of its bureau agencies. In one resolu- |
ton they denounce all the forms of re-
pudiation as national crime. Then
why did they put upon the statute books |
of the natioo the laws which invite the |
citizens who borrow coin to force their
creditors to take debased paper, and |
thus wrong him out of large share of
his claim i'll violation of tue most sol
emn compact? Loud cheering.1 If re-
pudiation is national crime it is crime
to invite the citizens of this country
thus to repudiate their individual pro-
misses. [Applause.] Yves it not crime
to force the creditors of this and other
States to take currency at times worth
no more than forty cents on the dollar
in pay ment for the sterling coin they
gave to build roads and canals, which
yield such ample returns of wealth and
[Applause.]


Again they say it is due to the labor of
the nation that tnxation should be equal
zed. Then why did they make taxation
unequal beyond the injustice of making
1ne class of citizens pay for another the
shares of the costs OF schools, of roads,
Of the local laws which protected their
ives and property? 1t was an unwise
end hurtful thing. 1t sunk the credit of
5he country, as unusual terms always
ire hurtful to the credit of the borrower.
They also declare the best policy to di-
ninish our burden of debt is so hurtful
70 our credit that the capitalists will
seek to loan us money at lower rates of
interest than we now pay and must
continue to pao so long as Reputation
IS threatened or suspected. Then, why
have they used full $500, 100000 of the
axes drawn from the people of this
to uphold a despotic military
and to crush out the life of
States, when, if this money had been
lsed to pay our debts, capitalists would
now seek to lend us money at lower
rates of INTEREST," But for this covert
our national credit would
not be tainted in the markets of the
world. Applause


Again, they declare that of all who
we're faithful in the trials of the late
war, there were none entitled to more
especial honor than the brave soldiers
and seamen who endured the hardshfps
Of the campaign and cruise, and imper-