Year: 1870

| Wv WI " "AADNhI' " NhNC 80 ~


GENTLEMEN OF PIE Con


vENTIoN / acknowledge my


high appreciation Of the honor


your kind confidence confers


upon men, in choosing me to


preside over your deliberations


The cordiality of your greeting


excites my grateful sensibilities.


We have assembled as the


representatives of two hundred


and fifty thousand voters OF


the State of Ohio, known as


the Democratic party, to or


ganize the political campaign of


l870-to unfurl again their


broad banner, and inscribe up


on it the tenets of our political


faith. In measuring the impor-


tance Of this struggle in which


we are about to enter, we


should not confine ourselves to


the consideration Of the fact


that we are to nominate three


or four candidates for state Of


fees, but we should bear in


mind constantly that in addi-


tion to these three or four,
nineteen members Of the Fed
eral Congress are to be elected.


And although you may carry
your state ticket, it does not
follow that the great reforms
the country calls for can be
carried out unless you shall ac-
quire the federal power that
will enable you to control the
acts of Congress. Let it be
borne in mind, too, that the
selection has an additional sig
nifcance, from the fact that
the members Of Congress that
you will be called on to elect
this fall will hold over until af-
ter the next presidential elec-
tion, and, perchance, in the
event of the election being
thrown into the House of Rep
resentatives, may have devolv-
ed upon them the choice of the
next President Of the United
States.


1t would, gentlemen of the
convention, be an act of imper-
tinence in me to suggest or at
tempt to dictate to you what
should he the character of this
campaign. For my own part,
| shall be quite satisfied if, in
your wisdom, you see fit simply
to declare, i'll general terms,
that we are opposed to ALL
that the Republican party has
done for the last five years
[applause], if in addition to
that you will declare that you
are opposed to all they are now
doing; for of the last two acts
Of any Importance, one is an
act by which they have made
5he most magnificent grab Of
The public domain thatis known
to the history of legislation;
and the other is to send bayo-
nets into the State for the pur-
pose Of controlling the ballot,
box at the ensuing election
and it would, perhaps, be quite
safe, judging from the past, to
leclare that we are opposed to
what they may do in the little
orief future in which they may
nave the power of the nation.
Applause


Fellow.citizens, let us recur
OF q moment and take a retro.
'pective glance of what has oc-
cured during the last few
years. When the late. war
broke out between the two sec.
ions, the leaders of this party
n congress passed with great
lnanimity a resolution that the
var was to be prosecuted for
,he purpose Of maintaining the
supremacy of the constitution
md preserving the Union, not
or the purpose of conquest or
But after four
.ong years of stricken battle, in
which untold millions Of mon
" were spent and thousands
If the best lives sacrificed for
,he purpose of keeping these
States in the Union, when the
foe laid down their
lrms, we were told that the'
States were out of the Union,
md the same bayonets laid