Year: 1868

fee of your old Court House I was
engaged in making out tax dupli
Gates, recording the proceedings Of
your County Board, settling with
Supervisors, &C., making acquain
tances who have since been friend:
Well do I remember also how ir
our mock Legislative assemblies ]
was studying the demands of parlia
mentary law which recent events
have required me to administer in
the Congress of the United States
Some of you who have come here
since that olden time do not know
anything about that old Court House
of ours, and those associations
which are clear to me, and which
1 shall never forget. There are
some things about it which were
peculiar. remember some things
about it which were peculiar. 1 re
member it was not in Ionian, or
Doric, or Corinthian style Of arch
itecture, but it was emphatically In
the Indiana style of architecture -


Laughter I remember distinctly
that it was just exactly as long as ii
was wide, and just exactly as high
as it was wide. Laughter, and
cries Of That's so"] It was the
model Of the temple Of justice in
olden times in Indiana, and I have
found in speaking over that State a
few Of these venerable and antigua
rian relics left yet.


Then coming down latter, I shall
not speak to you Of my public life
whidh 1 have had to lead, for it mas
been familiar to you. My political
life has been cast in the stormiest
period in the history OF our country
from the days of the Revolution
down to the present time. With all
the excitenents unparalleled in the
political contest Of the past rejoice
to be able to say before you to day
that never, when l returned to your
midst, has there been man, how
ever antagonistic he might be to N
that ever met me with the reproach
that had turned my back upon a
solitary pledge made when asking
for your suffrages, or that ] have
proved infdel to the faith I pro
fessed to you when I was candi
date before you for your favor.
[Great applaus. Differing with
some all know my convictions were
the convictions of nay life. / be-
lieved in them as unreservedly as ]
believe in the inspiration ofrevealed
truth. They were the polar star
that guided my political course
they were the chart by which l mark
ed out my public career. I have
proved faithful to them in the past
and whatever is to be before me ir
the future, God helping me, I shall
stand by them as earnestly and in
f1eAibly in the years to come as
have in the past. Great al
plause.


You remember that the most o.
my life has been spent among you il
the editorial profession, and almost
all Of you, especially those who have
lived here for yeare, can bear wit
ness to the fact that was no slug
gard in the performance of those du
ties. I was generally the editor thu
publisher, the proof reader, the mai
boy, the collector, all rolled into
one laughter But I performed
them to the best of my ability, and
I have this to say: Looking bach
to my earlier life, as an editor, car
say that while 1 antagonizeG witt
my opponents, because I believed
their principles wrong and my OWL
right, I antagonized without oppro-
hrium and l opposed them without
invective; and every one of yor
here, Democrats and Republicans,
can call as witnesses, that in spite OF
all the political storms for the las
six or eight years have not, as yot
know yourselves, in this Distric1
ever designated the Democratic par
ty by any other name than thai
which they have chosen themselves
OF all the hundreds of speeches
have made, you have never heard
me allude to them as ''Copperheads'
or anything that they might con
denim as personal or opprobrious
I have given them the name tha
they see fit to give to themselves
and I have borne patiently and with
GU, such retort, every epithet thai
has been heaped upon me by thoss
who have seen fit in that way to op
pose me. I have believed that te
be the wiser course, AMI experience
has proved its correctness to me.
There is one hing that embarras
ses me in speaking before you to
day as 1 address you, there come
thronging into my mind the great is
sues which the millions of the Amer
lean people are to settle at the poll:
at the November election. But M
lips from the position that l nov
occupy before this people, are to b.
sealed in regard to those issues.
can not speak in regard to the plat
form, nor can I speak, as | deen
propriety forbids me to, of the can
didates that are arrayed against us
I have not deemed it proper or fit


ting, when one is presented by tn


people, or a party representing
large portion, or a majority Of the
American people, for the nationa
offices for which Gen. Grant ant
myself have been presented, to g
into the political arena, and ther


discuss these exciting and agitatins
questions My record is made vi


before you; it is written upon th


pages Of our country's Legislation


for the past fourteen years. 1t


inscribed there where l could no


erase it if I weuld, and where


would not erase it if l could. 1t /


therefore good or evil. 1t is m,


convictions expressed in my votes