Year: 1870

1


! TThe following able speech was delivered at
Rome, n y, on the evening Of Oct. 24th, 7ol


No country can be well governed unless
those who control its action are animated
| by just and generous purposes. We can
not hope to bring back to our country
that fraternal feeling necessary to its safe
ty, and which was broken up by the late
civil war, unless it is felt that our govern
ment to be fair in its dealings with all
| sections. 1t is charged that the Repubh-
can party have placed the people of the
South under the feet of bad men, who are
trampling upon right and Justice in order
to hold political power by fraud or force
These charges are repelled by our political
opponents, who assert the troubles at the
South are prolonged by lingering spirit
! of rebellion. It is not easy to get at the
truth about these grave difficulties, as
their scenes are remote. 1t is natural,
therefore, on each side, that the men sho'd
accept the statements of their political
friends as true. To throw light upon the
temper and purposes of the leaders of the
Republican psrty, as they concern our
own and the Southern States, I will lay
before some facts which are within your
own knowledge, which have taken place
here. and which no man can gainsay. Men
who ask you to give them political Offices
IN our State and nation, make it a leading
point In this canvass that gross frauds
have been committed at the elections held
in the city of New York; that by means
of these frauds the majority have been
robbed of their political rights These
charges are not only pressed upon you by
journals and public speakers OF this State,
but they are rung throughout the land
If they are true, the guilty actors cannot
be too severely punished by public senti-
ment and judicial tribunals; if they are
false; if they are put forth as a cover for
an attempt to cheat the people of the city
of New York of a fair representation in
the State and nation, then those who make
these charges are unfit for official position.
If they are falsely made by those who con-
troll the Republican party, then you will
know that the people of the South are
kept under the feet of malignant and
wicked men, who mean to hold power at
any cost of Justice and humanity. These
questions, then, growing out of the census
returns of the cities of New York and
Brooklyn, are of more than mere local i'm
portance. They are the touchstones which
show the


SPIRIT AND PURPOSES OF PARTY LEADERS.
1t is charged that the census returns
prove that the vote given In the city of
of New York is so fraudulent and exces.
slve, that it has changed the result Of our
elections and wrongfully placed political
power in this State in the hands of the
Democratic party. What are the facts
! The census returns show that the popula-
tion of New York falls but little below
one million souls. Take the largest vote
! ever given in that city, which was at the
election of 1868, and which was less than
1000. If this number proves fraud,
then there was fraud in this county at
that same election. There was fraud in
every Republican district in this State
There was fraud all over our land. The
population of Oneida county Is about I09-
600, and its vote was about $4,000. The
vote in the State of New York, at that
| election, was more than $4,000. If the
vote in the city of New York, in proper
| ton to its numbers, as shown by the CEN
sus, shows fraud, then, unless the census
will show that New York has more than
5,500,000 of people, the Republican dis
tricts of this State are steeped in fraud to
their very eyelids. The facts brought forth
by those who are


TRADUCING THEIR OWN STATE,


disprove their own calumnies. These men
are not only waging war upon the rights
and interests of the whole State, but also
upon the city; if they cut down the right
full population of the city, they cut down
the rightful political power of the State
New York suffers severely by her consti-
tutional representation in the Senate
where her foul millions of people count no
! more than one-fortieth part of her popula-