Year: 1867

as the tax-gatherer will reach you out.


How indifferent you have hitherto been to
this vital question, be indifferent to 1t no
longer, it will soon be too late. This senate
of the United States is one branch ofthe law
making power. 1t has also the power of
making treaties, a power that rises above
all law. 1t has power that to-day holds
the President bound in shackles, so that he
cannot fill an office without its consent 1t
is a body that holds its place by longer
tenure than the other branches of govern
ment. 1t has become the controlling branch
of government, and yet in that body men
who talk about the sacred rights of suffrage,
these are the men who will destroy all Impair
tial representation and put you under the
domination of a minority miserable in num-
bers and still more miserable in point of ca
pacity and intelligence. There is no man
there who pretends that this power ought to
be entrusted to this poor people, who are at-
ter all only victims of blind fanatacism, and
who would never even know the names OF
the senator's they elected any more than they
know their own names by which they have
registered themselves as voters. daughter
and applause.) | stand here so deeply i'm
pressed with these opinions that | have no
political passions left. | implore you, my
republican friends, to listen to what have
to say to you. | ask you, will not these
things come home to you as well as to US
and to the people of the south? Can you
afford to put up with a government like that
a mockery of representative body? L ask
you, can you afford to erect such govern
ment as that and give over the majority OF
that senate to one quarter of the people after
disfranchising more than a majority OF the
people, even in these states? L ask you II
it is safe for you, any more than Tor us


Again / ask, my republican friends, can you
save the country with your organization after
it has committed itself to just such a policy
as this? Our complaint is not merely thai
the republicans have violated the written


contract. 1t is because they are violating
the life and principle of this government and
forcing their system of weakness into 1t and
inaugurating rule without strength or Wig
or. ask every intelligent man If he ever
read in history or ever knew an intelligent
business man who conducted his affairs up
| on the principles now followed by the gov
ernment. We want the cooperation of the
people of the south 10 give activity to tht
commerce and industry of the country, ant


this accorded to us, that portion of our coun
try will be as prosperous as any other por
| ton. But they have put that section under
| the charge of military power and the freed


mems bureau-under a government more
despotic than that exercised by any crowned


head in Europe. / ask the laboring men to
day what is it that you dread ? 1t is the
| taxation, that scants the table and that lin


its your ability to give the comforts oflife t.
your families. (Applause.) | speak conf


IDENTITY here tonight because know that
| lift up my voice against system of govern
! ment that carries distress into the homes o


the people and sweeps away our commerce
| from the seas. 1t is the wisdom of states


manship that teaches that a system tina
spreads such temptations before the peoplei


corrupt in its principles and dangerous in it
| nature. Now, l believe that we are to tri


umph in this contest. (Applause.)


| We mean to restore the Union OF ou
| fathers we mean once more to re-establisl


the principles of our government. And ma
! God defend the right in this contest; and if
| shall be for the benefit of this land that W


shall triumph, as believe we shall, may W


rejoice in November next that one grea
step has been taken to bring back again tn
days of good government in this land tha
1 lnya