Year: 1872

and condign punishment. Tamma-
ny, which now supports Greeley,
sends its thieves to the legislature,
while the republican party sends
theirs to the penitentiary.


Equally groundless was the
charge of "military usurpations"
brought against the president. No
single instance of military interfer-
ance by his order in all this disturb
ed condition of the South, not au-
thorized by express provision Of law,
can be found. The cry for relief
from military rule, sent up so i'm
ploringly to Mr.. Greeley and his
followers, by those who are stretch
ing their hands 10 them over the
"bloody chasm" they themselves
have made, is no more nor less than
relief from that restraint by law
which compcls them to desist from
outragcs perpetrated by night, and
in disguise. upon unoffending wom-
en-, helpless negroes, and white men,
whose only offcnse is that they
came from northern States to make
their homes in the South. Proof of
scenes, worthy only Of barbarism,
is full and incontrovertiblc. No
man with his eyes open can honest
ly deny it. The speaker had him
self seen, in Washington, under the
statue Of Liberty itself, a man whose
back had been laccratcd by those
disguised ruffians, who had bound
him to the earth and beaten him
to extort from him the promise that
he would leave the State he had
chosen for his home and return to
the North. It was to put stop to
these terrible outrages which dis
graced tho nation that the 'sku-klux
act," so called, was passed, against
which the whole artillery Of the op-
position is opened. Under this act
it is made the duty of the president
to employ the military power Of the
United States Gin all cases where
insurrection, domestic violence, un-
lawful combinations or conspiracies
in any State shall so obstruct or
hinder the execution of the laws
thereof and of the United States as
to deprive any portion or class of
the people of such State Of any Of
the rights, privileges or immunitics
or protection named in the cOnstitu-
ton, and secured by this act, and
the constituted authorities of such
State shall either beunable to protect
or shall from any cause fail in or
refuse protection of the people in
such rights" These arc the words
Of the law, and to require less of the
president would be to abandon the
citizen and cease to protect him in
his constitutional rights. A presi-
dent who would fail to do this de-
serves impeachment. The prcsi-
dent is also authorized by the same
act to suspend the writ of habeas
corpus when these "unlawful COM
binations shall be organized and
armed, and so numerous as to over
throw or set at defiance the constitu-
ted authorities" But the Congress
that made this law provided that
the power to suspend the writ Of ha-
beas csrpus, even in these cases,
should terminate with the last ses-
sion of Congress. Arepublican Con-
gress refused to extend it, and even
refused to extend the session by q
recess till November, SO that there
should be no pretense for the exer-
else Of this extraordinary military
power during a presidential can
vass. This is the head and front
of all the military usurpations" by
the president and Congress, against
which the cry has come up from the
new converts to peace in the demo-
cratic party. They vanish into
thin air when tested by the facts.


Mr.. Dawes then drew picture
of the prosperous condition of the
country under republican admins
tration; pointed to the wonderful
disclosures of growth and develop
ment revealed by the census; show
ed that in the last ten years her.
manufacturing products alone had
increased 1913 per cent. and that the
value Of reala and personal proper
ty in this Union, exclusive of slaves,
mad increased from $l3, 900, 600. 900
DISCO to 100000, 900, 900 in 1870;
that every citizen had been protect
ed in his rights to the utmost abili-
ty of the administration; that
there had been thorough en-
forccment of every law; faith
full collection of every tax; a rigid
economy in the disbursement Of the
public money, and a sacred regard
for the honor of the nation at home
and abroad.


That there were faults in the ad-
ministration Of President Grant
which could not be defended, he
did not deny; that errors had been
committed which should have been
avoided, he admitted, but that the
president and the chief officers of
the cabinet by which he was sur
rounded were actuated by the strict
est honesty of purpose, and that the
administration as whole had been
signally successful in all the great
elements Of an enlightened and en-
larged statesmanship, would be the
just judgment of impartial history.
With all its faults and shortcomings,
it presented such contrast to the
controlling elements of that organi.
zation which was arrayed against
it, that no enlightened patriot, un-
warped by prejudice and not blind
ed by passion, could hesitate to
give it his support.


The speaker closed with an ap-
peal to the men Of business not to
abandon the principles and paths in
which they had found stability and
prosperity, for those Of the dama-
cratic party, strewn in the past
with the wreck of capital and the
ruin Of labor. He implored the
friends Of equal rights not to put
their trust in the mere lip service
of those out Of whose grip every
constitutional guaranty had been