Year: 1871




and trusted sons. If there be maj


in this vast audience tonight tha


can tell me one act that the Demo


cratic party of this country ha:


done, in the last twelve years, tC
. maintain and hold in its place and


glory this Republic of ours, thai
man knows chapter of our history
Il that have not yet read. Laugh


ter and applause. But, fellow citi


zens, l cannot look upon this scene


without feeling pride and gratifica.


ton at the great work that has been


accomplished, that surpasses all my


powers to describe. Allow me to


digress for a moment on what may


not be politics, but which is never


theless apart of our country's pride.


| recollect in 1867, when l stood in


the city of Paris, and saw the great


work of that one mans power that


toIe down the dirty tumbledown


houses of Paris and built up beau


tiful avenues and magnificent pal


aces, that after all there was some


thing splendid in the power that


could thus recreate a city, and per-


haps there was 4 good side to the


thing called despotism, but when


landed in New York, and saw that


magnificent marble palace wherein


the merchant prince holds his court,


and when l saw on one side of it a


little dingy house butting right into


the side of the marble palace, and


learned that a little plucky widow


woman owned that brick house, and


that there was not money enough in


New York to buy it of her, and not
power enough in the Republic to


take it away from her, / praised


God for the pluck of that little wild


ow and the beauty of our city, and


said to the world, ''Let her little


brick tenement stand forevermore


unless she wills to tear it down"


And We have seen, in the terrible


bloody days or Paris, what became
of the one-man power, this spring
that has passed. Here, fellow citi
zens, is the revolution we have been
making to-day over in the Opera
House. That is the way we revolu-
tionize-those silent ballots, those
innumerable voices, this uproarious
thunder that shakes no justice, but
that upholds the hope and glory of
the Republic. This is our answer
to Europe. This is our example to
the world. Fellow citizens. as | |
said moment ago, all these, or the
salvation of all these, follows as the
legitimate glory of the great Repub-
lican party of the United States.


Fellow citizens. What does the
Democratic party say on this ques


ton? How do they behave on it.
Twill not 60 over their record. Your
distinguished Senator has done that
so thoroughly that it leaves nothing
to do but to pick up here and there
a sheaf of wheat that may have
fallen from his load. But let me
call your attention to one single
fact. Every triumph that the Re
publican party has achieved in the
last twelve years has been grum-
blingly and -hesitatingly adopted by
the Democratic party about five
years after it was done-eyery one
and there is not an element of pow
er, or strength, or manhood, or de-
cency, in that party to day, that they
did not borrow from us. taken lit
tie way back. Now all you need do
to trace their history is to read our
struggle five years before, and what
they denounced and cursed they af- :
terwards adopted silently, or in
some dusty way put into their plat
form. L


Well, now, the new departure to {
which you have listened, and which {
is SO well styled by our Senator, is
only another specimen of this same :
kind of work. They have tried I
three kinds of platforms and candi- t
dates in the last six years. They |
first tried a regular 91t and out t
platform and a regular out and out
Democrat on it, and we answered {
them, you remember, by the one q
hundred thousand majority against |
them. That is when they got the t
fartLast away from the Republican I
party. You remember that two q
years ago they tried a second time. t
They got Democratic platform and q
a noble soldier toput on it as can II
didate, thinking to win something 7
by that, and he stepped upon their e
platform and kicked their plants to b
shivers and bade them good morn u
ing. Having tried those two t
schemes, they now propose to try s
The third, and the third is to make b
heir platform as nearly like ours as p
they can venture, and take man who a
IS not altogether unacquainted with '
The war. Now this is the third ex- n
pertinent, the third in kind, and even b
with That it was utterly impossible o
% hold their party upon. Il


Fellow citizens. The real strength \
Of parties, the real strength of poll }
,ics, rest at last upon few simple 7
qualities of human nature, that the !.
man can judge of as well y
Is the proudest, and one of those ',
qualities call your attention to for u u
IN instant. If there be one thing =,
lpon this earth that mankind love VI
md admire better than another, it is d
| brave man-it is man who dare to


ook the devil in his face and tell him I,
le is the devil, laughter who dares u -
% tell what he believes he ought to .
10, who dares to take fate by the a a
lorns and say Il go down with this y :.
ruth rather than survive with one =, ~
ie,' and if the Republican party be y :,
lot that kind of life, and that kind D "
If truth, then l don't know where " "
% find it; and if the Democratic ~ y,
,arty be not the extreme opposite of :,
hat truth in the last ten years, don't II
Know where you will find the contra =,
les. Think for moment of the gi- "
,antic questions we were called to y;
meet and handle when we came into VI "
,ower and were young long in the y, y,
We were 4 party of des- -
rogers, we were the hook and ladder :
company of the Union, tearing down =,
he whole fabric of slavery, and the a. a,
Democratic party held it up and "
it as majority in power |;
ave to do. hut weak and vOunp VI