Year: 1872

tRe lnternal revenue taxes Dut WHISKY, uoDdccO
and beer, the tax ON banks and bankers, and
temporarily for small stamp taxes. The taxes
that remain are faithfully and honestly collect
ed. The tax of 66 cents on whisky now yields
near $50, ZOO, 600 year, three times as
much as tax of 80 did in Johnson's admins
tration. No one now doubts the public faith Oh
the public credit. 1t is untarnished. During
all this time, while our population was increas-
ing, our public expenditures have been steadily
diminishing, and now if we exclude the expen-
ditures that grew out of the war, they are
about the standard of fifteen years ago. l ap-
peal to you if this statement of our financial
condition is not an honorable record for the
Republican party. Great and deafening ap-
plause.1


OUR CURRENCY SYSTEM.


/ submit to you, fellow citizens, that this
Administration has been success in other
branches of finance. We have always recog-
nized the fact that in normal condition OF
things, gold and silver are the only true cur
rency, or, to speak more properly, the only
true standard of the value of a currency. The
war compelled us to substitute public credit for
coin 1t was impossible in the nature of things
for the Government to pay the immense expense
of the war in coin All that we claim is thatin
the necessary substitute of paper for coin, we
adopted the wisest forms of currency, with the





that now, since the war, we have advanced the
value of our currency to the standard of coin,
in such gradual approaches as to avoid, for the
first time in the history of mankind, any dis
turbance in business, any panic or revulsion in
trade or values. The combination of national
notes, or greenbacks, with the issues of national
bonds, well secured, furnishes us a currency
so safe, so simple, useful, that it has won its
way into the favor of all the people of the Uni
tod ta%A k1nx~N Is 1,4
will survive the war, and with such modifca-
tions as experience will provide, will be an en-
during element in our finances. have often
thought that you in California made a mistake
in not adopting this currency during the war.
Your policy has certainly checked the flow of
capital and immigration to California. l have
heard from intelligent gentlemen the reasons
for this policy, and am happy to know that the
time is not far distant when those reasons will
not apply, and when our currency and coin will
be of the same interchangeable value-the one
the standard of value, and the other a great
convenience and facility in trade and commerce
A well regulated banking system in this State
will lower your rate of interest and bring you
both capital and credit. Applause and cheers.
ENCOURAGEMENT OF HOME PRODUCTS.


And SO we think the Republican policy of SO
levying taxes as to protect and diversity our do
mestic industry, has been of much benefit to
the country at large. 1t brings production
and consumption closer together. No nation
can be great that does not make all the essen
tials of human life. 1t is by diversifying indus
try, by giving fair wages to all kinds of labor
|-on the farm, in the workshop, or in the mine,
that wealth is created and industry is rewarded.
How much richer you would be, if instead OF
exporting, your wheat to England to pay for
wooden goods, you would make your native
wool into cloth, by laborers who would con-
sumo your wheat. The transportation of both
your wheat and wool would be saved, and the
consumption of the laborers would give great
activity to a multitude of employments that
spring from every workshop. Your magnif-
cent forests, rivaling the cedars of Lebanon,
would be converted into threshing machines,
ships and cars, and these, in their turn, would
feed your industry. I submit to you whether
tbs policy, wisely continued, is not the policy
for the Pacific Coast. [Unbounded applause.
If would indulge myself with the expression
of the dreams which your magnificent resources
have excited in my mind, you would think me
wild; but they are no more than these young
men have already realized. But the San Francis
co of the future is no more like the San Francisco
of to-day, than the San Francisco of to-day is
like the old Mission House across your bay. Il
you will only avail yourself of the opportuni-
ties which the God of Nature has given you
your watchwords are diversity of pursuits and
competition in everything. Applause and
cheers.l


But it is said General Grant had nothing te
do with this-that it was all the work of Con
gress and of Boutwell,. This is not true. Eel
low-citizens, I could state to you in detail, the
various steps in our improved financial condi-
ton, for my official position made me partici
pant in them all, and I know General Grant die
all that any President could do. His Inaugural
Eex- of
He supported General Boutwell, in his policy Of
paying the debts, and the several Acts of Con
gress ON financial topics were not only approved
and supported by him, but were recommended
in his public messages and private intercourse
He brought to every subject of practical legis
lation, even on financial topics not within the
line of his training, clear and vigorous lntellec
and an abundance of information that surprised
me. His determination to support the public
faith and public honor in meeting public en-
gagements is as firm as his famous military re
solve Sc to fight it out that line if it takes al
Summer"


RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SOUTHERN
STATES.


And now let me call your attention to the pol
icy of this Administration in the Reconstruc
ton of the Rebel States When General Gram
was inaugurated, the Fifteenth Amendment tc
the Constitution, which secures to all men the
right to vote, without respect to condition, race
or color, had not been adopted 1t was the
crowning work of the Republican party, with.
out which all would have been an unfinished
edifce. General Grant gave to it his earnest and
and effective support. This amendment was
fercely resisted by the Democratic party,
though they swallow it in the Cincinnati plat
form. The final ratification of it by the requi-
site number of States practically completed
Reconstruction except in one or two States,
which from local divisions gave great embarrass-
ment. Look over this work of Reconstruction,
the most difficult task that ever fell upon any
party. We had the necessity of composing a