Year: 1870

Terre IIaufe. Monday Eye.. July IS


Lddies and Gentiemcn:


Ihave recently returned from Wash


ington much exhausted by long are
laborious session OF Congress, am il


feeble health, also, as you all know
and have suffered much from the ex


know whether shall have strength


sufficient TO speak to you ve-y lone


tonight. / shall ask your indulgence


and "a my voice is not strong, WOULD


ask that there be as much quiet rs


possible, in order that / may be heard


| shall begin what l have TO say to.


night 10y congratulating this large au.


dience and the country upon the gen


eral condition of prosperity that pre-


walls throughout our land. / think


may say with perfect truth there never


was before since our government was


formed Il condition of such universal


prosperity as prevails this day. Every


condition of society is prosperous.


There never was time when labor


was better rewarded than it is now, OF


when the wages of labor would pur-


chase more of the necessaries and the


luXuries of life than now. There


never was a time when labor was so


honorable as it is now, and SO univer-


sally recognized as the foundation OF


all national growth and prosperity.


And rs it is with labor, so it is with


every other department of the body


polite. The mechanic, the merchant,


the manufactures, the professional


man and the capitalist-all, to speak


in general terms, are now fourishing
are now growing apace as they have


never done before. / use strong lam


guage, but | am justified in doing it.


Lock at the prosperity of your own


beautiful city. l am told ii is growing


more rapidly and acquiring wealth
more rapidly than ever before. And
a. it is with Terre Haute so it is with
indianapolis and almost every town
in the State Of Indiana; and rs it is in
Indiana SO it is in Ohio and through
out our whole country.


Now, of course there are some per-
sons who are in embasrassed circum-
stances, and always will be. There
never was time, and there will never
come time, when there is not some
particular line of business that per-
haps is suffering, as compared with
others. But | am speaking now of the
mass of the community and the gen.
eral condition of business; and | de-
sire TO call your attention to the great
blessings by which youare surrounded.
Whether you look at the development
of our country in the West, the growth
of our cities. the improvement of our
farms, the building of railroads and
turnpike roads, and every species of
public mprovements; whether you
look at the general consolidation of
the business of the country-that it is
now placed upon solid foundations
that it is now escaping from that ele-
ment of initiation and speculation
which always disorders and in time
VIII destroy business-bear in mind !
that the business of the country is set
ting down upon solid and enduring
and that, though our APP
parent prosperity may not be as great
as when prices were high and when
there was general spirit of specula-
tion-yet our prosperity now is steady;
it is onward; it is regular. And | APP
peal to gentlemen of all parties to say
if the thing we most desire and which
we most need at the present time is
not stability-stability in business,
in the finances, stability i'm
those things that men must study and
understand and calculate upon when
engaged in individual enterprises, and
understand well what they shall Go
The next year or the next month.


But. Notwithstanding our unwonted
and growth, there are croat-
ers, there are grumblers; and there al
ways will be. You have sometimes
seen men who, when they were i'm
perfect health, would strive to make
every body about them miserable by
that they were about to
lie. And so you will find politicians,
N the midst of this great prosperity
and this great affiuence, who tell Us
he country is on the very brink of
the very eve of bankruptcy
md that if they are not placed in
power, or their party, every thing Will
20 TO destruction. Now you know .
.hese things are not so, and there is no
intelligent lady or gentleman here to-
/ care not what party they
)eloDg to-who, if they will take a
his community, of this State, and of
his nation, will not come to the con-
,lGsion that, as people, we are more
prosperous in this year 1870 than in I
my former period of our national life. {


/ spoke of stability; take, for exam {
lie, the currency. We have had i,
rou ole with our currency, growing :
,ut of our war and out of strange
md unnatural condition of things, '
,ut now il is coming back to solid {
oundations. Only short time ago
I was worth but IS cents on dollar, '
low it is worth 90, and we have every l
eason to believe that if there shall be
10 political disturbance, within six {
months the paper dollar in your pocket ,
Will be enuai fo q dollar In rnll This