Year: 1869




during the month of May, 1868, were
not quite SIC. 900, 900. From the same
sourcesTof revenue in May, 1869. they
amounted to $50, 500, 900, and vet there
were thirty-six collection districts not
yet heard from. These figures, taken
from the official records, fellow-citi-
I zens, show two things: First, the
alarming corruption of the old admin
istration, and second, a gratifying ex-
hibition of the thOrOughness, and Wig
or, and virtue of the administration
now in power.


REDUCTION OF THE PUBLIC DEBT.


Now let me show you another fact.
During the wear that will close at the
end of this month, we shall have re-
duced our debt more than $50, 600, 900,
but SIS, 200, 900 of the reduction was
made during the month of May last
More than half of all the reduction in
our debt, during the current year, was
made under the administration of
General Grant.


Now, fellow citizens, these facts,
and many similar ones which / might
state to you, indicate sufficiently that
the Republican party has set itself
thoroughly and earnestly to the work
of reducing the expenses of the Gov
ernment and being economical in the
collection and disbursement of the
revenues. One word more on the
[ public debt and / leave this branch of
the subject. Your debt, as it stood on
the first day of this month, was 50, ,464,-
900, 900, and, with all the corruptions
and all the drawbacks that have been
had during the last two years, we
have been making handsome reduc-
ton on the debt all this time-nearly
all. We have averaged a large reduc
ton during the whole period since the
war ended, but that reduction is being
rapidly increased since the new ad-
ministration came into power


Well, now, fellow citizens, how
have these things been done? Why,
this new administration stood face TO
| face with the great responsibilities of
the situation. General Grant did not
meet the American people, and tell
them some sweet, soft song about easi-
| ly paying the debt without taxing the
| people. He told you no stories of
gentle reputation, or getting around
a great debt by some indirection. He
came out boldly and manfully, and
settled all these questions by declaring
in his inaugural-which you have to-
day indorsed, l am happy to say-that
he recognized no repudiator as a part
of his Government, and no repudiation
as a part of his policy; that he
acknowledged the debt to be a sacred
obligation of the whole nation; that
in it was the price of your liberty;
that in it was the price of blood, and
that every dollar of it must be paid to
the uttermOst, precisely as promised
in the bond.


That has strengthened our credit,
strengthened it at home and strength
ened it abroad, and we are now stand
| ing out before the world as a nation
that can fight for It's liberties, and
then work and labor for its honor lap
plause]; that honor is as dear as life,
\ and that in our debt, and all that per-
tains to it, the nations honor and the
nations faith are involved.


Now, fellow citizens, who can look
over this record without being proud
of it? Who can look at the other par
| ty, and the career through which they
have passed, without rejoicing this
| day that we have stood by the old
banner and continued true to the old
party.


\ QUESTION FOR DEMOCRATS.


If there be a Democrat in this great
crowd to-right, 1 want to ask you a
question as an honest citizen of Ohio.
/ 1t may be a question that you will
think a little impertinent, but will
venture to ask it, and ask it in good
faith, as one citizen to another.
ask you, my Democratic friend, if
down in your heart tonight you are
not glad that your party has failed
during the past eight years. Laugh
ter. Are you glad or are you sorry
that your party did not succeed in its
/ doctrines of 1864? You know, my
| fellow citizen, that if you had succeed
ed the Union would have been broken
to atoms before now. Are on sorry
or are you glad of that? Are you
glad we put down the rebellion, or are
you sorry? In your soul, my fellow
/ citizen, Democrat though you are, l
/ believe you are glad tonight that your
party was beaten ON that issue.
Take a step further. When you re-
sisted the draft, do you wish you had
| been successful in breaking it down?
/ Are you not, on the contrary, glad
that the Republican party outvoted
you on all these questions? Come
/ down a step further. When we pro-
posed to pass the Constitutional
Amendment and abolish slavery
throughout the Republic, every man
/ in your party, as now organized,
opposed it TO the bitter end. Are you
glad or sorry that you did not succeed?
Are you sorry that slavery is dead ?
| Down in your soul l believe you are
glad, and therefore glad that your
party was beaten at the polls.


Take a step further. When we pro-
posed to reconstruct the South on the
basis of liberty, you opposed us at
every step. Are you now glad that
you were not successful, or are you
sorry? l believe on that subject, too,
you will rejoice by and by if you do
not to-day, rejoice with US that you
were beaten and beaten by US.


REPUBLICAN TRIU1IPHs, NATIONAL


TRIUNIPHs.


Fellow-citizens, the Republican par
ty has had the proud distinction of
doing a good work for its political
enemies, as well as for itself. In all
these years our triumphs have been
your triumphs, my Democratic friend.
Our successes have blessed you; your
successes would have cursed both you
and us. Do you know any other
political party of whom this can be
I said? Consider this fact for moment:
was there ever such a war as that we
I fought? While the war was in prog
russ, and I affirm it to-day, every man
! that fought for the Union was actual
ly fighting for the South as well as for
the North, and I believe that time
will come when these men of the
| South will thank God that their faith
ers were beaten in battle, and the
right and the Union triumphed.-I
! LCheers.l 1t was the only war in
I history where the success of one side
was the joy and glory of all, and where
| the success of the other side would
/ have been the ruin of both.


Fellow-citiZens, this made our war
and this makes our party war and a
party of high, moral issues, of issues
| that rise above the mere common,
every day strife of party politics, and
/ lifts it up into the clear atmosphere
of high, and noble, and patriotic en-
deavOr-and here tonight, gathered
in this quiet place, under this beauti-
full sky, and beside this noble old
structure, that we all love, let us re-
| joice together, and let us ask our DEM
Ocratic neighbors TO rejoice with us
over our victory which will, by and