Year: 1870

! SPEECH OF VICE RRESlDENT COb-


FAX.


We give below report of the speech
delivered by Vice President Colfax at
Columbus, Indiana, Sept. l6.


He said: leone before you to-day
with heart full of devotion to the
nOblest cause that ever inspired its
l followers in the campaign through
which we pass in republican land
/ like ours. come to ask you to judge
the Republican administration, the
I Republican Congress that you placed
/ in power, by the. strietest rules by
which you can Judge of those to whom
] you have confided your interests. !
believe there is but one rule by which
| to Judge parties and administrations
and public men, and that is the Scrip
! tural rule, "By their fruits ye shall
know them." If those fruits are good,
well. If those fruits are evil lay the
AK at the root of the tree and hew il
down and destroy it forever. We come
/ here not asking that "bygones shall
be bygOnes." We come here to lay
our bygones before you that by our
past you may Judge of our future as
]
nies Of this great Union of ours. And
l come before you not as a candidate
in the last political campaign / shall
ever make. For as is probably known
to you, intend to retire from pOliti-
cal life absolutely at the end of this
term.


But I am proud to have been one
with YOU in the glorious deeds we
l. ..n.s In k.nw ~ MI
cling our nation where it stands to-
day in the very vanguard Of civiliZa-
ton of the world, upon the magnifi-
cent plane of patriotism and Of Hber-
ty and Of humanity and of justice.


Mr.. COlfax then drew q picture Of
the condition of the country ten
years agO-slavery rampant, and the
Constitution guaranteeing and recOg-
nizing property in man. To-day the
Constitution is regenerated. To-day
that noble trinity Of measures, the
18th, 14th and 18th Amendments, are
in force, guaranteeing liberty, justice
and protection to all. That is the
greatest glory OF a free land, that it
reaches down and protects the poorest,
the weakest, the humblest, with the
same power with which it protects
the mightiest, the most powerful, in
the land.


He said: 1 claim no credit for what
1 have done in bringing about this
noble regeneration Of our county,
But when pass away and am gath
cred to my fathers, 1 want my enc
mics, as well as my friends, to remem-
Der that all through my twenty years
of public life ] have been faithful TO
one principle, in spite Of all Obliquy,
in spite of all persecution, in spite Of
all calumny, in spite Of all vitupera-
tion, and that was to uplift the lowly,
to protect the oppressed, torelieve the
dOWntrodden, TO enfranchise rather
than to enchain, to elevate rather than
to ahase, and to make this great land
of ours free from one end Of it to the
other, with every man on an equality
before the human law as we are all on
an equality before the Divine law Of
Him who rules in the heavens. tits
worth being a Republican even in q
Democratic county like this, TO remem-
Der what you and your fellows
throughout the land have accomplish
ed in this decade, crowded as it is with
memorable achievements, with mag
nificent deeds and with noble work
for this country of ours. When we
pass away, as we all must, what we
have done viii be remembered by the
unborn millions who are to come af-
teru long after our remains have
moldered away in their kindred dust
We must die, but our achievements
for good are immortal, and all through
the coming centuries this country will
be blessed and honored and elevated
for what you Republicans have done
in the past against all the obloquy and
misrepresentation Of your opponents.


The speaker then eXhorted his hear
ers to support the ticket Of the party.
He said the only way in a republic
that you can support your principles
is to vote for the man who is your
standard bearer, and / say here be-
fore you all, that any man who suffers
any differences Of a minor character
to blind him to the fact that it is his
duty, if he is a Republican, to vote
for the man who is presented as the
standard bearer, is unworthy to have
the republican blood course in his
veins.


AK ACCOUNT OF GbANT's STEWARDSHIP.


He then said: come before you
to render an account Of the steward
ship of this administration to prove
to you that every pledge made by us
in 1868, has been, not like Democratic
pledges, broken after we obtained the
power, but has been redeemed faith
fully and to the letter, and more than
redeemed. / come TO answer every
charge the Democracy has made
against us. They are poor, misers-
bic array at best, and you touch them
with the spear Of truth and they van
ish.


And want to tell you one just now.
You have seen, probably, some OF you,
General MOrgan's speech in Ohio; the
opening campaign speech In Ohio, in
which he speaks Of all the monstrosi-
ties and wicEednesses Of the admins
tratiOn, and he goes on to state that
he got a record from the Treasury De-
partment of the accounts Of $40 Col
iectors of internal revenue, and he
found large balance down against
each one of these Collectors. And he
said, casting up his eyes with horror,
lust look at those defalcations and
peculations, the stealings Of the Off
GERS of the administration. Now,
OcAAs 4AOlBttl - q uAAA NAAeAN POASO4%--AL
am on the best Of terms with, and
do sincerely regret am compelled to
say to you there is not a scintllla Of
truth, real, absolute truth, in that
statement. What is the fact? I hope
he did not know it, because then the
statement is an intentional misstate-
ment. Three hundred and forty Col
lectors of internal revenue are nearly
all the Collectors you have in Office,
and by the rules Of the Treasury De-
partment every assessment that is
made by the United States Assessor,
eollectable and uncolectable, in iti-
cation or not in litigation, solvent or
insolvent, against the men who are
unable to pay, or those who eYade
payment by putting their property out
of their hands, all these assessments