Year: 1875




thank you most sincerely for the honor


of temporarily presiding over this Con


vention-one destined to make an i'm


portant landmark in the political histo


ry, not only of your own State, but of the


whole country.


while our immediate duty will be


the selection of leaders under whose


guidance we shall do battle this fall, our


action, it must be remembered, inaugu.


rates the most important contest which


has been waged in the history of Democ-


racy in America. The lines are tightly
drawn; the issues are patent and unde-
niable On the one side we have the pol
icy Of that political organization which
for fifteen years has controlled the desti-


nies of our National Administration. A
period of ten years of profound peace has
| elapsed since the last hostile gun was
fired between the North and South and


what to-day is the condition of the coun-


try? The merchant and mechanic, the


capitalist and day laborer, are unani-


nous in their well founded complaints


manufacturers and consumers, producers


and exporters, all cry aloud that trade


is stagnant, commerce languishes, the
necessary medium for effecting exchang-
es exists in insufficient quantity, and Ma
| tional and PERSONAL bankruptcy stare us


in the face The party in power is rot


ten to the core; unblushing corruption
| stalks unchecked through every depart
ment of the public service; frauds so
! gigantic that as yet their existence is
doubted simply because honest men can
not conceive of such stupendous rascali-
ty, have been committed by high officials
| of the Government, some of whom are
! yet retained in Office While our civil
| service is a National disgrace, our foreign
| policy is contemplate and pusillanimous.
From the Department of State at Wash
ington to the remotest revenue office in
our broad domain, private, personal and
| corrupt practices have become the order
of the day The administration of pub
lie affairs, instead of being managed in
the interest of economy and honesty has
degenefated into a system of peculation
to enrich those who are intrusted with
the disbursement of the public funds.
The henchmen of the Republican party,
wherever they hold Office, seem to have
read the handwriting on the wall, and
the haste they exhibit in enriching them
selves, without regard to the chances Of
| exposure and the discredit they bring
on their party, shows that the most in
terested adherents of the Administration
know that in a short time their lease of





pass away foreverl


But pass away it must; and its depar-
ture will be day of rejoicing for all who
love their country and value its institu-
tions. 1t must be remembered. further
more, that while we possess facts which
astound us at the depth and breadth of
the corruptions; frauds from which the
Government has suffered, that as yet we
have had no systematic Investigation,
such as the next session of the House of
Representatives will afford US. The
schemes to defraud the revenue to rob
the postoffice, to swindle the Indians, to
transfer vessels of the navy to the hands
of private spectators; in short, the al
most innumerable plans which have been
devised by men placed in office by the
Republican party to drain the Govern
ment, whose property they swore to pro-
tect have never come fully to our knowl-
edge. 1t is to the interest of that party
to conceal, as long as possible, every
equivocal transaction, every disgraceful
offender. As a consequence, it is only
when circums tances SO combine that con-
cealment is no longer possible, that the
light of truth and honesty is ever per
mltted to penetrate into the dark places
of the public service The Whisky Ring
the Smuggling Ring, and other combina-
tions to defraud the revenue and distress
honest dealers, have only come to light
since competent man was called to the
Treasury. Who can surmisc what will
result when the same process is carried
out in the office once occupied by VIII
liams, the servieeable Oregon lawyer, who !
was willing to use the legal machinery
of the General Government to screen po-
litical favorites, but who lacked brains |
to make his actions even assume the |
semblance of plausibility.


THE end draws nigh, and soon the |
name and spirit of the party which for
SO long has domineered over US will be
known only in the memory of its iniqui-
tous deeds. An impoverished and al
most bankrupt country-one only saved
from fierce sectional feuds and fratrici-
dial strife, by the energetic opposition
made by the Democracy-a plundered
exchequer, and system of military gov
ernments in the South, such as North
America never before beheld, are among
the treasures which the Republican par
ty bequeaths to history. The reign of
the Spaniard in Central and South Anne
the oarpet-baggers in the Southern States
In fact, the transactions of the latter ex-
ceed those of the former; and when in
future years the student shall compare
the transactions of the one with the 9th
er, he will discover that while the Span
lard eXcelled in courage, the carpet-bag
ger transoended him far in the extent
and audacity of has thefts.


No more auspicious day could have
been selected than the Centennial ami
of that battle of Bunker Hill,
which, one hundred years ago, served to
unite all the American colonies in one
opposition to the mother coun-
try The conquests of 'T3 and IA are
our Lexington and our Concord, to-day
the gladstone thunder of the hundred
years which commentaries the noble
deeds of ancestral patriots, will speak
not less emphatically our regard for
their glorious memory, than will the
voice of Ohio's sons, in convention assem-
blcd, pronounce against these grosser ar
bitrary eXcesses of power and vile breach
es of trust committed in our own land,
and in our own day, by an Administra-
tion wholly recreant to the principles Of
IT76.


eve are. to-day, called upon to select
a standard-bcarer, whose record shall be
q fitting tribute to the mem
ory of those grand principles which ami
mated the Democratic party in the day
of its victorious ascendency-the era of
good will and sectional harmo-
ny soon to be re-established; and it is
meet that the man should be one whose
public acts are directly opposed to that
policy of bate which, for so many years,
has been the dominant influence in Re
publican councils. Tho base policy
which would make q Poland or an Ire
land of the South-a conquered, suhiu
gated enslaved province in the heart of