Year: 1870


reductions take effect, their number Is to
be still further lessened, districts 10 be con
soildated, and the expenses OF that pranch
Of service largely curtailed.


will mt stop to make Il balance sheet;
but an administration that, without any IN
crease of taxation, can increase the receipts
of our NATIONAL treasury under the tariff
and tax laws, over eighty millions III ITS
first eighteen months over the amount col
lected by its predecessor in its last eighteen
months-can pay off in the same time one
hundred and seventy millions of our ma
tional debt-can strike Oft at one blow
eighty millions of burdensome taxation
can reduce our national expenditures one
hundred millions in the first eighteen
months of this administration, and can
make the currency in the pockets OF the
people worth sixty millions more than when
it entered ON its duties-deservcs the conf
dence of the people, whose interests it has
SO faithfully served, and can bear philo-
sophically thesunjust and bitter criticisms to
which it has been subjected by its enemies.
What grander results could the most exact
ing have demanded of the administration


EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW.


In nothing. however, has the Republican
party won prouder glory and more enduring
honor than in pressing forward to the con
summation OF the great principle of equality
before the law, and establishing it irrcvoca-
bly, in our national constitution. Through
ali the ages that are to come TO this land of
ours. the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fit-
teeth amendments of the constitution Will
stand as monuments OF the rights Of all, a
trinity of measures working a triple safe
guard for the poor and the humble. and
nobiy carrying out in our supreme law that
God given principle, "Whatsoever ye would
that others should do unto you, do We even
SO unto them


Now. if never before, We can declare as a
nation. that we have obeyed that command
OF the Creator proclaimed amid the thull-
ders of Sinai, there shall be Bat one manner
Of lar for him that is born among you and
for the stranger" and henceforth thanks to
Republican fidelity and, in spite of the bit
terest opposition from our enemies at every
step, the Constitution, like the Ten Com
mandments and the Lords Prayer, regards
man as man. under the same equality before
the human law as he is before the Divine
law-under the same obligations and en-
titled to the same privileges, whether the
wealthiest or the poorest. the most power
full or the hrlmblest, of all our millions of
citizens.


A REGESERATED CONSTITUTION.


As our destruction of slavery shook the
foundations of human bondage wherever il
yet fingered i'll the world, SO our establish
ment of equal rights by constitutional
amendment. will be an incentive and an
example to al who found States hereafter,
or who seek to regenerite nations, already
existing, by the true principle Of popular
sovereignty. And as the arm OF national
,pOwcr. once under Democratic rule.
stretched out potentially over a whole 4on-
tinent to remand a flying fugitive to the
plantation OF the auction block from which
he had escaped, so now. under Republican
rule, and under :. regcnerated constitution,
the same national arm protects the Luinblest
in all his rights, civil and political. with the
ballot, the safeguard of the weak against
the strong.


We rejoice. too, that the work of recon
struction has ended. When the last Con
gress opened its session, four States were
still unrestored to their full relations with
the government. When itclosed every State
had been declared entitled 10 representa-
ton in Congress-proyisional governments
had ended-and every star upon our banner
symbolized State.


The FRANCO-PRUSsIAE WAR.


l recognize only one kind of war as iustiti-
alAe in this civilized and enlightened era of
the wOrld-and that is war for the preserva-
ton of national existence. Such a war is a
sacred war; but all others are carnivals of
anguish and misery, OF mu:ilation and
bloodshed, of broken hearts and crowded
grayeyards, over which devils and not men
might rejoice And while | believe with
King William. that the Judgment of
the Almighty and of men will fall Oh
any one who forces into war Of dcvast;-
ton two great and peaceable nations, and
willie regard this war as the most cruel
and needless of all wars, | have reioiced
that, in single night, the empire OF Napo-
leon, organized on broken oaths OF fidelity
TO the renubllc he OVerthreW. has OaSSed
away, and that republic has been organ
lied in its stead For | am one of those
who believe 4 republican government possi-
BILE everywhere, among intelligent people,
where its chief officers exercise their duties
with wisdom and moderation and justice TO
all. And shall rejoice still more if Ger
many-the land of free thought and intel
lectual culture-shall be united hence
forth, from the North Sea to the Bavarian
Alps, as war made the Fatherland in this
struggle-working out with increased popIl-
lar liberty, an even mightier destiny i'll the
future. through peaceful industry, liberal
institutions and harmonious sclf-govern-
mtnt.