Year: 1870

| be quite satisfied If IN your wisdom You
see fit plainly to declare, in general terms
that we are opposed to all that the Re-
publican party has done for the last five
years [applausel if, in addition to that.
you will declare that you are opposed to
all that they are now doing in the last two
acts OF lmportance-one is by which thev
have made the most magnificent grab OF
the public domain that is known to the
history of legislation, the other is to send
bayonets into State for the purpose of
controlling the ballot box in favor of an
election.


Fellow citizens, let us recur, for mo-
ment, and take a retrospective glance of
what has occurred in the last few wears.
When the unfortunate war broke out he
tween the two sections. the leaders of this
party IN Congress passed, with great una
nlmlty, a resolution declaring that the
war was to be prosecuted for the purpose
OF maintaining the supremacy of the con-
stltutIon and preserving the Union. not
for the purpose of conquest or subiugation
And after four long years of battle. in
which untold millions of money were ex-
pended, and hundreds of thousands of the
best lives, for the purpose of keeping these
states IN the Union, when the misguided
zoe laid down their arms, they were told
that the States were out of the Union.
ana the same bayonets that were laid
down by them have been used for their
spoIugation and degradation, and for the
purpose of destroying the legitimate re-
served rights of the States and the rights
OF the people. Applause


Yea, look at the fraudulent manner in
which they have treated the soldier who
went forth and laid down his life in de-
tense of his flag. They contracted with
him that if he would go forth and fight
these battles to keep these States in the
Union, they would pay him the enomous
sum of thirteen dollars in gold-yea, in
gold. But after he was sent to the field,
and after he had fought and was wounded
and died, they issued, instead of gold,
manufactured rags called greenbacks, pay
ing him IN deprecated currency, leaving
his family, his wife and children, either to
the consideration or dependent upon the
charities of their fellow citizens.


Yea, those capitalists of the country
who did not go forward to fght-they is
sued another obligation of the govern
ment called five twenty bonds, that thew
SAID should be paid in greenbacks, and af-
ter having defrauded the soldier of his
honest earnings by paying him off in the


u
now propose, and are in the very act of
carrying out the proposition, to pay those
that were to be paid in greenbacks in gold
thus reversing the proposition, paying the
soldier IN deprecated currency who was
to have gold, and paying the capitalists,
who was to have the currency, gold.


Fellow citizens, every act of legislation
has been one of oppression, and without
going INTO detail, without specifying the
charges, which would consume much time,
only recur to these to illustrate the fact
that they have oppressed the honest inz
dustry of the land by their high protec-
tive tariffs, and by the injustice and inc
qualities of their entire revenue system,
by which the rich are made richer and the
poor poorer


Fellow citizens, they have DESTROYED
the independence of the Judiciary, thew
have usurped by their Congress, the pow
ers of the Executive department of the
government, and they have also stricken
down the reserved rights of the States. 1
regard it as the mission of the great Dem
ocratic party to bring about those reforms
and to restore to the Executive depart
ment its legitimate functions under the old
constitution, to restore the independence
and purity of the judiciary to what it was
IN the days of old, when such men as Mar
shall gave honor to a seat upon the bench.


1t is the mission of the Democratic par
ty to restore to the States the rights that
have been wrongfully taken away from
them, 1t is the mission of the Democrat
ic party, / trust, to heal up the bleeding
wounds OF the war, to cause to be forgot
ton the anImosities that were engendered
- Sl.s.t -.-f-- te.sa-te -5z4liet 7-o-+e,o +e
the hearts of the people fraternaf feeling.
For without that there can be no perma-
nency in the union of the States. And
when these shall have been accomplished
facts, and the rights of the States shall
have been again restored, and when fra
ternal feeling shall prevail between the
people of the different sections, then NAV
we sing in the language of the poet: