Year: 1868

Saddled upon them and their children fo


forty years, and the bondholders and mel


of wealth pay no part of it. Applause.


They are weakening the moral sense of the


people to pay any of it. If | owe you any


thing and ycu make an unjust demand up


on me, you weaken my moral sense o.


obligation to pay you anything. And tel


these men they are weakening the mora


sense of the people to pay any of it when


they are making such unjust demands !


said the other highland let them de-


nounce me for it if they will-if the bond.


holders of the United States shall so far


control Congress as to convert this currency


debt, this debt that is, only payable in


greenbacks, and was bought with green


backs-into forty year debt, and are GO


ing to demand at the end, forty years the


payment of the principal in gold, | am a


repudiator. Immense applause. | say


pay the debt, but according to the


terms nominated in the bond but


give DO pound of flesh. In the


first place, the men of money would


not loan their money to the Government


without good security for it. When they
wanted you for the army they took you by
| the nape of the neck and took you away
Applause. And they now claim that you
have to pay all the debt. Let me illustrate:
live at College Hill, near Cincinnati. Be-
fore the war there was man living there
worth $780, which he had invested in an
omnibus and horses. When the war broke
out he hired man to drive his bus, and
went into the war. He came back and is
now running his bus again. That fellow
has to pay two and half per cent. of his
earnings every month, to the tax collector
to pay in two and halt per cent. Of all
his receipts. | found. by looking at the
assessors books that he paid $llS 40 Gov
ernment tax last year.


The man that lives across the road, at
the same place, was engaged, during the
war, in making army wagons, and he in
vested $5O0 900 in Government bond. He
pays five per cent, tax on his income, but


is entitled 10 take out 81 900 of that as
President of National Bank. Yet the
fellow who runs the bus, and fought the
battles of the war, has to pay $llS 40 inter-
esb on his bus. am in favor, my coun-
trymen, of taxing the bonds of these men,
and taking it out of the coupons as they
come in. Applause They say it was
a necessity of the war that these bonds we're
bought with greenbacks 1t is necessity
of peace that they should be paid in pres
cisely the same way. [Applause. My coun-
tryncn, while this property of the rich
man is exempt from taxation, everything
the poor man eats is taxed. Why, your
wite's night-cap is taxed, and the cup of
coffee you drank this morning, one cent and
half of its cost was Government tax. You
house that rent, and have got some ten
ants. They put it pretty heavy upon me;
but every ten dollars they put upon me |
sock upon my tenants.


Let me tell you my ccuntrymen, that the
times upon which we find ourselves, de.
mand that every man should look at prin~
ciples, as well as the man-to look especi-
rlly at the principles for which he has vo-
ted. Will you allow this currency debt to
be fastened upon you and your children for
forty years, and then pay it in gold? Will
you let it become law, or will you put
your stamp of condemnation upon it for>
ever? | am in favor Of giving protection
to the workingmen' interest, the great in
dustrial interests of the country; | am in
favor OF preserving the public lands to the
people; an in favor of such limitations to
the hours of labor that every man shall
have opportunity for mental improvement
and social enjoyment, and so we in these
days of machinery need not be confined to
cig ght or ten hours labor day Eight
hours labor is as much as human nature
can endure. Because our workingmen are
overworked many Of them get to drinking.
We want the working men of this country
to be the peers of all other men indeed,
we want them to be the leaders in the great
work of cvangeizng the world and of
emancipating it, and making this nation the
praise and glory of the earth, And with
schools and churches upon every hill top
and in every valley dedicated to God and
liberty, we may summon all nations to
come up to the summit of human excel
ence, greatness and glory.