w~aa~
•
4. -7 :1 1 4 ,
•••••• ••••-.4084 .
tr
1, 1
,
v DEMOCRAT
VOL. XXXII.
flogutolutrg flentocrat.
EVERY AVV.UNEAUAY
itt.toiNmsyno. P.A., Hy
11111.1. r. t lISON 11. J.it4)lllV.
TER:W. — 11 I' ll in AJVAItro. If nit rid p.m%
XIX 1111111T1Itt. 30 coat. additional will be i breed.
117' No WIWI' 0b0:001itogegl ' t oil 411 all orager
life paid NI teat ot the or int .1 the editor
IIATEI4 AV MA . EIMAIN II .
Illte 4111114 reNVITIVIII A IVAN*.
One inure NM or hire., Itioetllotto
beery subspquont Instal lon 14,1,1 than 13..
041 , 4441. he. ea. 3M. GM. I!
•letit 'quite, 0.003 00 4.00 000 100
• Two squares. 3.0 u 1 1
3...0 0.110 0.00 14,141
Three " .00 i •.U0 PM) . 1".111 1 0 0
w O A
I. stuatox. 0 1 e. 141 111,e0 141111 20.00
Ilalf opium's, 110.01 110. M) 1 14.00 I
IA lid i Now
!hie c.w.o. Ithoo 1 11. U 0 :01,1* :tox4ll 1:11,00
ihretin * . find Adthissiotrator'n rinttre. 09
.Itl store Notice VA)
Other adverodentchts I h.ct ted scenr‘Ohti t. , .pcoial
/antral'.
Undress •nticee, without ailvertitcuiriit,
cents per line.
Tenneinnt noiVerthennurnlln pay3ble in mit anre all
•410. e. due after t 4. Ot.t inpertion.
PEEC OF
ZION. C. R. BUCKALEW,
At the Court Iluttse, its illuomsbitry,
3,6mthty L'ecniati, Sept. 7, !Sag.
---:0:
I Rtl'OltTElt BY U. P. MI:RP111%.1
Fellow Gilizom of Cob, niUtt Olonty
It i$ sometimes said in a pleasant or tinnier
ens manner that. "this is it great eountry."
It is certainly AO in geographical ex t en t,—
Our territory abuts upon the two main
(wean+ Or Ilse globe. Its northern lamb r
passes now into a region of extreme cold,
while its southern parts are washed by the
warm waters of the Mexican (intr. IVon
derful in extent, infinitely varied in scenery
and char:tiler is that country which we in-
habit and which we are proud to call our
own. This (smgly has beets settled and is
inhabited by various sorts of pipulations.
%%ideas races and stocks of mankind have
contributed to that t0a..6 of humanity which
now constitutes the A meriean people. Here
i s the native Indian, imperlbetly wilted with
us, to be sure. awl yet constituting an inter
esting part of what in a general seive may
be descrilied as the people or the United
States. Here is the negro, brought by the
hand of violence and foree from his native
deserts and his native wilds in Aiiies. and
Owed as a laborer in the Southern Statesof
our Union. Ilene all1:3111'st MA are emigrants
from every nation of Europe, and most
of us are the descendants of former
emigrants f rom those nations; mei already
upon the Pacific et ast are seen visitors from
the Asiatie entintrils, from China and from
Japan, %vim collie i hel itek beg ea,”!.tyaielit,
seeking profit, seeking to et!joy. to semi' ex •
tent, those advantages which till over the
world it is understood that Amerivan in-ti
tutiuns colder upon the man of labor and of
toil.
If wn pas-. rroto enteidering eerterritery,
its extent. our pnlilltitiotl, it.- N om,.
and the diversities whieh characterize it, to
consider the pioductinits of 4J:ll* entltitly and
material interests, our nonds :tr. !
excited and expanded in the contemph
of wh:►t we ace. Here i 4 6.! 13),141 11I th tt ,t
in the Smith, the enitiV3:i,iti whic h
fOrd+4 clothing to millions in all i!arts of the
earth. 'there, too, can be i4 r,,a a Ile? se..etr
co ne, s ide by side with the heautit al plan
tain and she orange tree, while here in Ih. ,
North thousands of farms, ba-king below h
the summer's sun, are rich and golden with
the Opening grain, which centribute.,
whenever the necessity exists, to the sup.
port of the Man of hunger and the mail of
labor in foreign hunk airs to „;apply in
abundance in all parts of ()mown etenitry that
cheap and nutritious bread which has come
to be thought a necessity of human exis.
tem. Again, we see in Pemr:ylvania great
mineral interests; wonderful regions, com
paratively sterile upon the surface, but
which arc rich beneath, where have been
stor e d up, through countless ages, that fuel
which will warm and cheer the workshop.
of art and the homes of the poor. And
our people have Ibund other miner:di in
newer regions west—gold and silver, anti
copper, and lead; and they are bringing
them out fain the depths of the earth and
casting them into the channels of eemmerce.
They enter into the general mass of labor
productinus for the advantage of our own
country and of all other countries. Here
along the n ' coast is a bh:pping inter
est engaFed in commerce, Ibrtnerly very im
portant in the aggregate or our national in
dustries, now dwindled and shrunk into infi
nitely small limits, pat* tta ae, , tunt of the
recent war, which changed tie, direction and
movements of commerce, and portly by im
provident and unwise government.
NATtfRE (IF OUR GOVERNMENT.
Now. then. gentlemen, when you come
to consider our country in all these respects.
what is a natural conclusion to which you
may chine? Why, that government iu the
United States intist he extremely ein a I ;fit% •
ted and difficult. It has been found in oth
er countries and in limner times, that when
government extended its action very far from
the point where it was located and ad
ministered it became either Pei& or
despotic; it was either insufficient to
preserve order and promote the interests of
the country over which it VW placed, or it
resorted to three, to all the arts of despotic
government to maintain itself and to ;wenn'.
Wish those purposes of order fur which in
great part governments are instituted
among teen. Complication and difficulty
were, therefore, by many sepposed to be a
necessity of our politicai existence and of
our political action. It was so said in the
outset when our experiment was begun; it
has been repeated often since ; and it is now
the creed and belief of a great party in this
country which holds the major mass of po
litical power amongst us and is now strug
gling and exerting itself to the utmost for
the purpose of retaining and extending
that power.
Ihntlenien, I think it fbrtunate, not for
us merely but for mankind, that the men
who estehlished our political institutions and
gave them to us, did nut hold to this opin
ion. They believed that in America there
could be established and maintained a free
government which would unite the two
principles of simplicity and force. They did
not believe that it was necessary to make an
intricate, involved, and eomplicated frame
of government for the management of our
national fiffsirs ; and they believed that, al
though they should confer upon the com
mon or Federal bead of our political system,
to wit, the government of the (!niteil Stat e s,
only limited and rustrieted powers et:alibied to
a few clan-e+ of political questions. never
theless this country as it then geed anti as
it would staid in future time, , xitild be welt
governed, order could be preserved, liberty
could be secured, the interests of' the people
thoroughly and entirely maintained. They
believed that the experiments in other times,
in rawer ages of free government had
failed, not because mankind were incapable
of sell' government, nor because they ever
wilfully overthrow good political institutions,
but because they had not had fair play and
a fair opportunity to exhibit their virtue,
intelligence, met sagacity in those former
experiments. Our fathers were determined
that a great experiment of free government
should be undertaken in this country. and
that it should have a lair opportunity of'
seeress.
Gen. Washington himself who presided
over the Convention that thrilled the ems
j stitution of the tithed States expressed
gteat doubts—and be honestly held them
unquestionably,—whether the new governs
went which it was proposed to establish in
this country could stem!, whether it would
work and accomplish the purposes fist which
it was designed. Ile expressed great solici
tide and cancers upon that subject; but
what else did he say? Ile said that he
would spend the last drop of' his blood if
necessary in order to give it a fair trial. It
was in the spirit of that declaration that he
mewed the onice of !'resident after the
Constitution was formed, and entered
upon the perfermanee of its defiers. And
hp kept firm to his purpose afterwards.—
, lie eusleavored &wine his administration to
maintain the Coestitution and its principles , .
' He held the scales of justice so far as he
could, equally hal:sliced between parties.
Ile endeavored to give to the people the ex
am* of an honest, faithful, constitutional
administration of reruhlican institutitets;
and he succeeded. It was to a great extent
the distinguished virtue of hi- character and
the success of his civil administration that
Rave to our government a fair start, that
attached to it the affection.; and the confi
dence of the people, and enabled us to go
out for more than halt' a century, runn ing
such a career of ricer's and of honor as
never before had blessed the fortunes of any
people upon the earth.
What then. gentlemen, is the material
and vital doctrine which we are to have in
view always in considering our system of
goverinneut and its administration? It is '
that the government of the United States
must be administered and conducted within
and wording to the provisions of the Con
stitution of the United States; that it must
net wander from them tier assume to itself
powers which that Constit wises does not con
fer; that it insist not undertake to regulate
the affairs of the people of the United
States its any respects except in those few
where a clear charter, a complete warrant
has been conferred upon it. In this spirit
our government was generally administered
from the 4th or !Morel', 170. when it was
orgaeiz—l, down to the year 1 , 4;1. The
Constitution was kept; the laws were ole
so.red. the courts and their jellgytents were
respected, the States within their jurisdic
tion.; w ere not molested, were not infringed
upon by the Federal government. The cons
!evacuee or this peliey was that we had
yeetee, ;trustee*, harmony throughout the
emestry. For more than seventy years this
was the eundit ion of things in our land. It
was beeause MPH atiMilliSOred the governs
meet of the I:J;itedStates who thought that
a plain, , imple. f.tithsiid adoniisietration of it
within it-. clear powers, was both rightist]
and caflint and that the great IllasS of
;;,iveremereal adieu ie this country might
left to the local comuntnities. or States,
hay whirls our people mere divided.
It. nical. At'( POWEU.
..$1 50
50
however, a party came int., pow
er, the avowisl purpose of whkh was to use
the powers and influence of the Federal go
vernment fir the purpose of reforming the
institutions of some of the States, fer the
purrese of acting upon a local institution in
the sent kern States of the riiion. That
was re-fisted by us, by one of our great
poli
tical patties upon the ground that the gov
ernment of the United States had nothing
to du with that institution ; that action upon
it pertained to the States exclusively; that
the reneral government ought not to assume
any power in regard to it. Public opinion
divided upon that question; one (:arty was
for action up
on shivery in various ways by
the Federal government and the other re
sisted all interference therewith. In the
contest which followed the Democracy of
the North were certainly not in favor of
slavery any more than they are now; they
had no interest to subserve in continuing it;
the opinions of most of them were impend
to it and they would have rejected it when
ever proposed as a domestic institution in
their own states. But they stood upon the
constitutional doctrine, without whet this
government cannot last, that the States
should exercise all political powers not con
ferred by the Constitution upon the govern
ment of the United States. They stood
there when the currents of popular passion
ran against them ; when human sympathy
was aroused in the North : when by the
pulpit, a n d the rostrum, and the press there
was a deluge, as it were, of feeling and pas
sion created against the institution of slave.
; first against its expansion into theTer
rueries, afterward neamst its being permit
ted to exist in the (Astrid of Columbia or
places under the exclusive jurisdiction of
the 'sited States, and eventually against
its existence anywhere. Tho Democracy of
the northern States went into a minority en
that question. In order to stand by their
principles they accepted defeat. Looking
b a ck now to those events, who among them
that understands the nature of this govern
ment of ours and desires to hand it down to
those who come after us, a good system as it
tame to us, can regret his position at that
time? We stand now as we have ever stood,
upon the ground that the general govern•
ment can exercise no power which has not
been clearly conferred upon it, and that the
States or the people of the States shall
possess all which have not been so con
ferred.
CA11;1 OF OUR Int ERENT
Now, gentlemen, I venture to say that all
the evils which afflict us at this time in this
country arise from departures from this prin
ciple, anti all the dangers which confront us
in the future do so confront us because a
party in this country does not adhere to this
prinetple and will not apply it in the admin
istration of the government. Take up any
of their measures of poliey,—tho Freed
men's Bureau, the reconstruction laws for
the South—go through the whole body of
them and you will find that each one of
them is a departure, or the consequence of
a departure from the grants of power in the
Constitution of the United States. Who
gave to Congress the right to take the mon
eys of the people paid into the public treas
ury and distribute them as chanty through
the instrumentality of a Doreen anywhere?
Where is the power granted? Nobody ever
pretended that there was any suchauthority
BLOOMSBURG, PA., WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16,1868.
except as an emanation of the war power.
The war ended in April .15 , 7,5, and yet this in
strumentality of Radical government is now
spending our money at the rate of millions
a year. When the Bureau measure was first
considered, Mr. Wilson of Massachusetts
proposed as an amendment to the bill creat
ing it that it should continue a veer or two
after peace. A debate took place and it
was then insisted by me that the Bureau
could not exist beyond the war upon any
pretenee even of power. The Senate re
jected the amendment. At a subsequent
session the bill was passsed in a form which
authorized the continuance of the Bureau
for a year from the close of the war. The
war closed in April 1565, but the duration of
the Bureau was extended by subsequent le
gislation, and here we are in the year 18613,
more than three years qua. peace catne,s!nd
that interesting institution is yet in exist
ence and in full action.
TILE RECON2,I2CrTION LAWS.
Noweake the Ileconstritetion laws as they
are called—the aet of March 2, 1807, of
3lareh 23 and of July 19 of that year, and
of lareli 11, litete NVltat are those laws?
They provide in the first place that in the
States of the South there shall be military
government, pure and simple. Five major
generals were placed in command in ten
States and those States were divided into
military districts. They had conferred on
them the power to administer civil and
criminal justice at their pleesure throughout
those States without limitation except that
they could not take life without the consent
of the President of the 17:thud States, and
it required two struggles in Congress to get
that exception—it only c ame at the end of
prolonged debate at a night session. The
whole population of those States were, about
two years after peace had been seemed,
placed under the command of major gener
als who bad power to try by military com
missions or courts matted anybody lhr any
thing, to sentence at their pleasure, and to
execute those sentences with the single ex
ception I have mentioned.
W hat next? Provision was made that
the people in those States might postssibly
have civil governments with full powers at
some time. So it was enueted that the
generals should appoint men to register the
voters, and appoint a time for holding
elections when men should be chosen to
State Conventions to form Constitutions
which were to be submitted to a popular
vote ; that all the officers of election should
be appointed by them, and after Constitu
tions were adopted they were to transmit
theta to Congress. In voting to select
members of State Conventions and in vot
ing upon the adoption of State Constitu
tion., all the adult male negroee were to be
permitted to vote, not one of whom had
ever been allowed to vote by any Constitu
tion bvlbre. By net of emigres.. it was pro
vided that they might all vote at these twi t
elections. Where did Congress get the
p o w e r to do that? Who made the Coneti-
Nano of Pentewirenia ? to /77e. Jupiter
the Revolution, a Convention chosen by the
people of Pennsylvania Met which ails pre
sided over by Benjamin Franklin roil made
A Constitution for our State. Again, in
1791). a Convention freely chosen by th e
people formed a constitution mei idler they
limited it announced it by proclamation in
the streets of l'hiladelphia. That constitu
tion is in o.ree yet and we are living tinder
it. In lees a convention met that propose,'
certain amendments to it which being sub
mitted to the people and amep(ed by them
became a part of the temetitution of the
State. Since that time, on several oceaeions,
the legislature net two suecessive sessions
agreeing upon sonic form of' amendment to
the constitution, it has been submitted to
the people of the State and voted upon by
them. Awl so it has been everywhere in
this country. If there is it principle certain
shop established in America, and certain and
established as a republieen principle in the
orgaikatiou of free government. !eh., that
the people who arc to be bound by a con
stitution and they only, can make it. 111'
course, we all know that ; it belongs to the
very horn-book of political science.
Who made the constitutions in the South
under this scheme of reconstruction? Sub
stantially, they were made by Congress, and
in that Congress not one representative (in
either Senate or House) from any one of
those States. So that, in the first place,
they were not made by the people who were
to be bound by them ; and in the next place
they were mile by representative bodies in
whi c h the people to be bound by them lied
me representation whateter. '('hut is m i di.
cal reconstruction in this lTuton in Ihti7 and
lsfisl Well. we Anal think that rather
stern practice to be applied in Pennsylvania.
Perhaps we should do something more than
grumble if it were atompted here. But the
location of such an act by Congress does not
change its character. It is just as wrong
Gtr Congress to pass outside of its just au
thority and make a constitution in one Stare
of the Union as in mother; Congress can
make one nowhere. Now observe, they pro
vided that the whole mass of adult negro
men should vote in choosing delegates to
conventions and shouldvote on the question
of adopting the constitutions made by such
conventions, and the whole prowl:ding was
to be superintended and, to a great extent.
controlled by major-generals of the army of
the United States. If them is anything of
necessity to be inserted in a constitutiou
when made. it is the rule of suffrage. That
is at the foundation of everything in making
free political institutions. Who shall vote
is the first and important thing to be deter
mined amp regulated. The political com
munity determines that fur itself ; and from
time to time that rule of suffrage may be
changed by the people,as has been done often
in our State and in other States.
But there was something further in this
legislation. Not only did it provide that the
negroes should be permitted to vote at those
two elections connected with organization,
but it was further provided that the consti
tutions to be formed should confbr sdch right
of suffrage upon them ; or, what amounted
to the same thing, it was provided that if
constitution contained such a provision it
would be accepted, or deemed acceptable by
Congress and the State adopting it be re
stored to its political rights of representation
in Congress and participation in Presiden
tial elet Cons. All these constitutions were
made under laws containing such provisions.
I repeat. then, that substantially and in point
o f t au t th o s e S o uthern constitutions were
made by Congress because the acts of Con
gress deemed who should vote or be con
cerned in making them and also provided
in efleo what qhould be leading provisions
in those constitutions when made.
Now, we say that this whew) of recon
struction dictated and enforced by Congress
is not valid ; that it ought not to hind the
people of the United glottis, and that the
parry which established it, which upholds
it, which proposes to maintain it i n future,
should stand condemned; that the unauthor
ised power of the government of the
United States should he withdrawn
from those political communities and
they be permitted to form or amend
their own institutions precisely as we in
Pennsylvania aro authorized to form or
amend ours. We say further that this sys
tem of unrestricted negro suffrage is evil
and must lead to bad and deplorable conse
quences in the future. Why, is it not man
ifest to any man of intelligenco wh o has
considered this subject that unlimited col
ored su ff rage in the South means corrupt
elections hereafter. That this large mass of
voters will be influenced by appeals to their
passions, uninstructed and uncultivated as
they are, nobody can question. But they
will be more largely and (Molly subject. to
theinfluence of' money,to the distribution of
the good things of this life by which their
votes will be affected, and this will extend
through the whole mass of the communities
which compose those States. We know
that the great evil we have to guard against
here, North, and in fact the evil to be most
guarded against in all free countries, is the
corruption of the electoral body. So lu ng .
as the great mass of the ele c tor a l populatum
remains sound and pure you can maintain
free government. W hen influences come into
existence that taint and corrupt it essential
ly, the government must change its form.
When the people become too base for free
institutions, they will depart from them;
some new film of government better suited
to their natures and to their condition will
take the nlace of die old. This is the his
tory of the world from the beginning. We
to upon the establishment of this system
of unlimited negro suffrage in the .South as
a judgment of degradation upon our politi
cal institutions and when we behold this
consequence following upon usurpation we
see clearly how necessary it is to maintain
the old doctrine upon which our govern
meat was founded. and down until recent
times administered, that Congress shall ex
ert no power which has not been clearly con
ferred upon it by the fundamental law.
TILE DEMOCRATIC POLICY.
Now, gentlemen, what do those who speak
fie. the Opposition party (because we may
now describe ourselves as such) teach and
proclaim in this contest ? They teach and
they proclaim two things as the material
and vital matters for consideration by the
people : first, that this system of reconstruc
tion must be abandoned at least so far as the
federal government is concerned, and next,
that the expenses of the federal government
and its imposition of burdens upon the
people iniet be thoroughly 'Aimed. What
makes expense ? Departures front the Con
stitution. What makes burdens upon the
people? An expanded system of federal
government. $o that to wlichever of these
Inestions—reeonstruction or public exprn
aitura —you turn your attention, you find
that it establishes or vindicates the propo
sition with which I began, that this govern
ment of ours must be administered a.s a re
m Hued and limited government, leaving the
pilot urns Or political powers to be exercised
in the States, in the localities where their
exercise i.v required, and that upon this
doctrine alone can our government be neon
tamed and be made to subserve the interests
of the people.
I.7 I )VERNMENT ES PESSES Aso REvEscr
Now take this matter of expense.
have already spoken of meonstruction.—
Over Merit hundred millions of dollars were
eolleeted fisitti the people of' the United
States in thitty-six months, beginning Juty
I, I:915, and ending dune 30, Ices, redwing
the gold duties on lUlllOrld to the greenback
statelaid. Between fifteen am i 4txt eei ,
hundred millions of dollars were collected
off the people of the I nited States by their
preeminent in those three years. hew
nronh of that has been paid on the public
debt ? A emnliaratively small amount.—
Most of it has been expended by govern
ment won current objects.' I have an idea
that six hundred millions of that mem of
money should have been paid upon the
principal of the public debt. In ley judg
ment that would have left us plenty of
money to pay the interest on the debt, which
must be met, and pay liberally for pensions
and bounties and all other legitimate and
proper objects of government outlay. But
it has cost you one hundred millions of dol
lars a year to keep up your army in time of
peace. Filly-six thousand men are arrayed
tinder the flag of the United States, when
10,10 u or 15,000 would be adequate. Your
navy has cost thirty or forty millions a year,
which should have been eight or ten mil
lions at the utmost. The Ft-admen's Bu
reau has cost an amount that nobody can
compute, because the filets cannot be fully
known. In 1866 Congress appropriated
over six millions to that Bureau specifically,
and in the next year nearly four millions ;
but a pert of the outlays by that Bureau do
not appear in appropriations devoted to it
expressly ; they are covered up in army ap
propriations, because army supplies' have
been turned over largely to it. A large
number of the officers or the Bureau have
been army officers, and it was a measure of
economy to employ them; but if there had
been no such Bureau in existence, all those
officers and the men connected with these
might have been discharged and returned to
the pursuits of private life. Congress,
which formerly authorized an expenditure
of s2o,u(s) a year for
. publishing the laws.
last year spent three times that amount for
that purpose. This is a sample item, Ft'
ported to us by the Department of State.
Congress increased its own compensation
over 000,000 in the item of salaries. By
reducing the compensation to *4,000 a year,
which would be sufficient, there would be a
saving now of $317.000 per annusu—wore
than Is quarter of a million! The contin
gencies and incidentals of the two Houses of
Congress are enormous and scandalous;
half a million could easily be struck off
without impairing the energy of the gov
ernment in either one of these Houses.
But I cannot go over the various items
upon which them has been undue outlay,
and upon which there might be retrench
ment. The general result we have before
us and undisputed—fifteen hundred millions
of dollars collected in thirty-six months, ten
and a half millions a week, a million and a
half a day; and nearly the whole of it ex
pended upon other objects beside the public
debt. Nobody has ever pretended that
more than two hundred and fifty wallops
out of this fifteen or sixteen hundred nul
lities has been paid upon the debt, and a re
rent estimate puts it at ono hundred end
thirty-four millions, excluding money nn
hand upon the first day of July last, which
Congress had appmpriated away. Bus we
need not stop to fix the exact amount ; we
know it to be a small amount when com
pared with the amount of the public debt,
or with the amount of revenue collected.
Now, what ought to have been done after
the war ended? You understand that our
debt was made twice as much as it other
wise would have been by the issue or paper
money largely during the war. The gov
ernment itself issued paper money ; it in. '
corporate(' hanks to issue paper money; the
currency was largely increased. Prices rose;
and the consequence was that the govern
ment appropriations became enormous, and
the debt was swollen in magnitude. I shall
not discuss the propriety of that policy,
whether it was wise or not ; we are at pros
cot only concerned with the fact. The
amount of the debt was, in fact, doubled be
cause of the policy we adopted in regard to
the currency, ctutsite ab illerCllmf of pi lees.
When peace came, with the currency greatly
expanded, we ought to have applied the
larger part of the revenue upon the debt
and sponged it off rapidly, because, as we
come back toward specie payments, as we
contract our currency, as we reduce the
prices of articles in' the community, the
burden of this debt becomes the heavier
upon us. When we return to specie pay
ments, to hard money. to the currency of
the Constitution, and then come to pity our
debt, in point of fact we shall pay it twice
over. Ido not exaggerate in that state
ment. With restricted means, at a con
tracted standard, we shall pay a debt which
was created in a time of expansion. But
we cannot always keep the currency inflated
and prices up; in the long rue they are
ruinous and wasting to the community. We
must get back, and within a reasonable pe•
riod of time, to a sound currency, to com
paratively moderate prices. It now looks
very much as it' we should get to that 'mint
(provided we do uccomplish it), with our
debt undiminished, with the whole mass of
it upon our hands. We shall have, in other
words, a debt of $2.600,00(1,000 upon us,
contracted in a 611143 of expansion, and to he
paid us time of contraction. We desire to
avoid that result ; but we cannot avoid it Jr
we pour out money upon a useless army, if
we pay heavily to cultivate the political of
rectums of the negro population of the
South, if we pay shameful sums for Con
gressional and other official expenses. We
cannot avoid it if we support a party in
power which uses the government for its
selfish purposes ; a party which is Wafer
cut to time expenditures of the public money,
and which "outside of the Constitution" is
constantly engaged in prosecuting its meas
ures for the procurement and remotion of
public power.
I=ZM
Now, what can the party who have nomi
nated Seymour and Blair do if they come
into power, with reference to the finances
and the monetary affairs of the govermuent?
They can reduce our army of 50,01 n) men
down to ten or fifteen thousand and the ex
pense of it from $100,000,000 to a) or
millions. They can reduce the expenses o f
the navy from millions of dolllrs to Bor
p) millions. They can abolish the Freed
men's Bureau, with its profligate awl wen
d:dons expenditures. They can reduce Con
gressional compensation by voemoo awl
then leave members of COligre: , 6 adequately
compensated at $4,000 a year. They can
prevent the Southern Senators and Repre
sentatives from voting th e mAe c ,i half' a
millum of dollars for salary for sixteen
months before they were elected,—a little
point to which I will call your attention in
a moment. They rant cut off the contingent
expenditures of Cencress itself and at least
one half of all the officers employed by the
two Houses. Nay, I think in those times
of peace and justice which will be inaugur
ated, we shall hardly need even a Capitol
pollee. (I.sughter and applause.) Of course
I can mention only particular rel;wins most
easily stated awl underg.ani, without at
tempting to present the whole question be
tween parties am to economy awl fidelity in
financial administration.
I'AY CARVET-lIMIOMS.
T alluded a moment since to the pay of'
the Southern usembers of Congress : and
as that,illu,tratcs reconstruction by,its fruits,
I will say a few words upon it. Two or
three nights bel'ore the adjournment, at the
last session, a resolution was offered in the
Senate that the members of the Senate
from the reconstrueted States who had
been admitted should receive compensation
from the complete:Alecto of the 411111 Con
gross, the 4th of March, 1867. Au amend
ment was offered to make their compensa
tion begin front the time of their election.
The vote was taken and stood 17 to 21 upon
this proposition, a majoritrof four against
the amendment, some of shoo members from
those States themselves voting against it.
At that point of time a question of order
was raised by me under parliamentary law,
that members who were directly interested
in a question could not vote upon it; that
these men who were to receive this compen
sation under a special vote were in the cat
egory of men who had claims upon the gov
ernment; and, consequently, being interest
ed, they could not vote. A debate of two
or three hours took place upon the question
of order, by which time the original propo
sition, as I shall presently explain it, be
came somewhat alarming to some gentlemen
who were about to come home to northern
constituencies to give an amount of their
conduct and to meet the discussion of Con
gressiomd proceedings in home debate , and
thereupon it was managed that absent mem
bers were brought in and by a close vote
the amendment was carried and the original
proposition lost lbr the time ; it stands de
ferred until next winter when, if the people
give the party in power a renewed lease of
power, approve their conduct, declare them
all honorable and fit men to govern this
country, l have no doubt this money will
be voted, the emergency of the election
having been passed. What does it amount
to? The salary of a number of Congress
amounts to $4OO per month, tax off. For
sixteen months, from March 4, 1867, to
July 4, 1868, it would be $6,400 to each
member. The reconstructed States are to
be entitled to 50 members of the house
and 20 Senators, making T 0; that you
perceive nearly #430.000 of COMponSation
was involved, assuming that this mode of
payment would be applied to all the mem
bers of both Houses from those States.—
These Men were all elected in the summer
of the present year, about the months of
June and July. On the 22nd and 25th days
of June laws were passed admitting Arkan
sas, North and South Carolina, Georgia.
Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana to repre
sentation in Congress. In other words, on
June 22nd and 25th, 1565, for the Gres time
this Radical Congress declared those States
entitled to he represented at all find these
Senators were all chosen either a short time
before or immediately alter that date. So
that they proposed, and some of' them by
their own votes, to he paid fin. sixteen
months before they were elected to their
offiees i for sixteen months before the ma
jority m Congress . even had recognized their
States as entitled to reprerientation. In
other words, nearly half a million of dollars
was to be voted at once or cmitually into
the pockets of the carpct-bag Senators and
Representatives for a period of tune Wore
they wore chosen to their offices at nil, or
their reconstructed States entithsl to repre
sentation in the two Houses!
FRUITS Or RWIONSTRITTION.
I might go on and tnke up these Dimon
struetion laws, explaining one feature after
another, awl then point out the fruits which
they have produced. This corrupt action
of men voting money out of flue public
treasury into their own pockets Ihr work
they never did, for imaginary servious fur
months before they were chosen, or there
was any pretense that their States could send
them, is only a sample of what Reconstruc
tion brings forth• It does not stand alone.
Look at the islislature of Florida, which
has just passed a law that it will it*df
choose Presidential electors, because it will
not trust the people of the State to chow
them They have passed such a law and
adjourned to meet in November to choose
electors. Nobody supposed when a member
of either branch of that Legislature was
selected that ho would have anything to do
with the Presidential election. The Legis
lature were chosen with no reference to that
allbittet ; and yet they pass a law to take the
choice of Presidential electors from the peo
ple awl to wield that power themselves
Look at Alabama. In that State also
bill or a similar character was pas:toll—that
the Legislature itself should choose Presi
dential electors. It was sent to the Gt.v.
entor. Tlmre Was some prudent fear ol'the
effects of it North, and the Governor, upon
some judicious suggestion, sent back a veto.
What was done in the two Houses? Did
the Legislature act upon his Veto and sus
tain it or dkapprove it? :so; they laid it
over and postred it till the day before the
President:al eemtion. What then? If the
State is likely to go against them mu the
popular vote, they can then ',ass that Law;
they have thf votes to puss it over the veto,
(which may or may not be a Wet fide veto)
and if that is done, they will choose electors
and not allow the people any voice in their
selection. This is one of the fruits of Re
construction in Alabama!
TEST CATU
What else ? In most of these Southern
constitutions they have put a provision that
no man shall Lao permitted to vote who doss
Hot swear solemnly beforehand before a pub
lic officer that he accepts the political equal
ity of the negroes with himself, and will
maintain it in future. Think of that!
There is a majority in this State opposed to
colored voting ; we have it in our constitu
tion ; we do not allow that class of' persotas
to vote. There has been difference of opin
ion among our people on this subject, hut a
naujority has been opposed to negro suffrage
and is opposed to it now. Not one of you
holding your opinions could go into these
reconstructed States and settle there and
vote honestly under their comatitutious. l'utt
would hove to swear away your manhood,
your judgment upon this sultiect, not
. t 4
the time being only but for the future. 1 00
must swear substantially- that you will not
vote to alter the constitution of the State
or in any any other way remit hack these
Congress-math) voters or any of them to
their former condition of non-voting. This
is a fruit of reeonstruction under Congres
sional legislation. This is the oath made
by carpet-bagger and negro in State conven
tions, and adopted by negro votes, a n d fast
ened down upon the people by Congression
al law. For what malaise? In order to re
tain political control of those States, to push
away honest anal decent men from the elec
tions, even men front the North. It has
nothing to do with loyalty ; it is an oath
test of opinion, most infamous and wicked,
concocted for purposes of rascality and ate
plied generally in tue South to prevent hon
est and fair elaxtioos.
Oh! is it possible that all this iniquity—
and I have not touched more than the verge
of the subjet,t —is it iossible that this mow
:emus iniquity of reconstruction now going
on for a year and a half, as it appears in the
enactments of Congress, upon the face of
the Southern constitutions, in the legislation
of the new-made legislatures of those States,
and in the political
. proccedings at their
elections, can NAM in review before the
American people and not be rebuked? If
so, I will not say that I shall despair al
together of republican institutions, but I
will say that l should utterly despair of
them it they were to be judged by the elec
tion,
of 180.
But this will not be the result. This sub
ject and the financial question hav e go ne t o
our people everywhere. They are under
going debate ; they are tieing comprehended
and understood; and it is idle now for the
speakers and writers o f the R e publican
party to come along with the old war cries,
attempt to get astride the passions of men
and ride them forward in the direction
they luny choose. It ca n not he. M en ma y
have misbehaved themselves in the war, tbr
which they received a just measure ot' ap
probrium, but what has that to do now with
this question of reconstruction or this other
question or taxation, of revenue and its
disbursement? The pool* willjudge the
actual issues of this want pawn, and put aside
all matters which are irrelevant or untimely.
corm:Nor. sumoun
Gentlemen, at tho New York Convention
an eminent man was named by our party
for the office of President, who bail been
Governor of the greatest dour States. He
has undergone examination as a candidate
since he was named, and no man could un
dergo suet% examination better. lie has a
political and a personal record which defies
criticism and debate. Remember, ho was
Chief Magistrate of the greatest of our
States during a part of the war; and for
years no man in this country contributed
more than he to the suet-esti of our armies
in raisin g troops, in organizing them, in
sending them forward to the war, and in fol
lowing them afterward with considerate and
earnest care and assistance. When our own
State was invaded by the enemy in
being destitute of troops of our own, Gov
ernor Seymour sent over troops to our aid.
They were sent promptly and without grudg
ing. They did their work. Our State was
to a great extent protected by them.
A riot broke out in New York city. lie
Left the quiet of his residence at Albany and
went down to Now York, called over some
State forms newly organized from Staten
Hand, and used them to put down the riot.
Ile went among the rioters themselves, and,
addressing them in kind language, (for
which he has since been foully abused, and
very unjustly), reasoning with them, allnyed
their passions, and thus assisted to restore
peace and order in that city. No Federal
troops were used at all ; the government was
saved front expense or trouble about the
riot by 11overnor Seymour's discreet and
energetic action. I saw him myself, at 6,1
time, at the Astor House, in oonauitatiee,
NUMBIM
in Viet in session with the Republican Mayo
or that eity, and with llovernor 51orgat
linked States Senator from that State, aii
a Republiean• They were acting very prof
orly in emieert and harnionhitotly to webers
the peat%) or the city. if there was amu
in the Union who attlsted this governmer
in the late war, ho did. Ills position gay
him the opportunity of aiding the goveri
moat. and ho did his duty thoroughly, an
to 11,1 in this State he gave needed and time!
assistatoie. HOW mistaken and misplaiss
thee, are these revived cries of -loyalty
in the eleetion of' I ftrig ! Th e y d o m a t on e
our candidate or cause, and can only di:
grace those who utter or applaud them.
1110 f.
The opposite party have mimed for th
Presidewy the genet al chief in commit'
of the armies of the Unite .1 state , . it
w at , prnsentr"l, nut tweitte,t, lie bad het:
identified with them in their past history
their past struggles ; not bemuse ho w.
known t o hold opinions wills diem upo
any one question whatever but bee tuse
running hint and in supporting him, the
would to some extent keep Out of sight did
own misdeeds and enormities, as they se t
posed. By running b u n they expected
escape front a debate upon reconstructio
and upon the use they hail made of th
people's money, and to get us back agni
into war debates, and by shouting "rebel,
'ereb , d." and other cries, having na l're•
eat significance or application to the east
paigst of 1%8, obtain a false judgmet
front the American people and be enable
to control our govertunent for the four yea
to come, as the have for the four years pas
(HUNT'S COCKSE AS TO EXTUANGE4
I have little to say about Gcn. Grant'
military record. It is nut .the most illus
trious and brilliant in the world or in a:
history. I cannot approve of his cours
with referent,: to the willing.) of prisoner
of war. I think it was improper, 111 -Avis
e.l; I might almost say, inlitUnan. At on
time it was supposed that Mr. Stanton wa
responsible for exchanges not being made
But his friends (111110 forward with over
whohning proof that he was not responsi
hie ; the respondbiliti •srus to a great eaten
pushed away front him; it was shown tha
control over that subject hal been turnet
over from the Secretary of War and dole
gated exclusively to the Lieutenant! leneral
General fluter was the agent of exchang
at the time ; and in speeehes awl publics
tons be bas produced official evidence, he
sides his own statements, by which it ap
pears clearly that he was not responsible to
interrupting the exchanges. That respon
Ability rests upon the man who ("Antrollu.
At that time the eXtilan . V3 and the genera
management td' the war ; and ho took th
ground that by not exchanging, by bullin
Sentient men in our prisons while the Con
federates held ours in theirs, the advatitag:
would be on our side, as we bad
their men than they had of ours ; and the
whh regard to the suffering and &Ai
while these things were hard upon iodivid
tuts, yet its a matter of general i
was to our advantage; and therciere h.
persisted in it. This reasoning has not up
proved itself to the people of this country
and it will not approve itself to the judg
meth of history. I say, then, that upo
the military recur.' presented, here is
great imperfection, n great blot ; and 1 .1•
not think that the candidate who has the
record has an' large or extraonli wiry claim,:
upon the aoltiler population of the I
States.
GNANT'A "NO rourr."
But the great objection to him is that la,
has ''no policy'' of' his own. Ile says so
he says it openly in his letter of uceeptanee
It chosen to the l'resitlential oflitat, he wit
go into it and exercise its duties and it.
power without any poliey whatever of hi
own. IVhat then? lie will tweept tin
policy of Congress. That is the way every
body understands it, the way members o
Congress and the people everywhere under
stand it ; and it is no doubt the just ewa
struetion. the actual meaning of' his lan
guage. What then have you? You hay
simply a proposition to continue in powe
the Radical leaders in the two Houses o
Congress. They are to run the governmen
according to the ir pleasure in the future an ,
to control its policy throughout. The el&
lion of General Grant does riot mean any
thing more than au Meumbeney of tin
dice by him, while the actual powers
the government arc to be exereistal by do
men who haven policy, and who have ex
hibited that policy before you. Therrien
it is that WO are always, during this canvass
called upon to di.-eti , s Congto,ionalp. , lioy,
and we are not called upon particu larly tt
discuss candidates. Perhaps never heron
in the history of this country, where a Pres
idential eleetiou has becu contested, ha: ,
there been so little said about the candidate.
on either side, except by sonic little peoplt
who do Radical talking, and who, not tan
detstanding public quest i ons , w ill go b ite
and recite the history of the war, and en
deavor to make out General Grant to b
what nature never intended, and what Prey
itlence never vouchsafed, a great General
[Laughter.]
It is a good thing, a very proper thing
that the people should discuss measures 0
government, rather than individuals, in at
election canvass. It is a good thing,. anal
proper thing, that in this campaign m
should discuss the 'obey of Congress, wide'
has ruled the country for years, and volt
with reference to it. and that we should no.
have much debate about candidates. I hay
no doubt that both the Presidential candi
dates are honorable men. That is the gen
eras) judgment of the country. Our canal
date is well qualified for the Ake, and tin
ether is not, and we regard that as an ire
portant consideration. But if we are ft
consider a Presidential election with refer
enee to the merits or elaints of' candidates,
there is another consideration to be taker
into wont.
GRANT'S RANI: AND PAY
in the middle of the war Congress vote,
the rank of Lieutenant General to genera
Grint and called bun East. He ha,
achieved success at Chattanooga. mainly b
the coming to his aid of lietteral Sherman
who struck the enemy nt Missionary Ridge
and in fact extricated nenerul Grant from
L of great danger. Ile was wade Lieutenant fleneral and given enntrol ove,
the operations of our armies. Why ? No
because there was any wonderful opinion it
Congress with referenee oehis capacity fo
conducting the war. but Leentsse it had be
come all absolute neeessity that the man
avement of the war should be taken out
the hands of Mr. Stanton and ClOn. Hal
leek. They had been mismanaging it fo
years, protracting it. wasting our resource.
and our energies, losing one point etc
tlllolLor of folvoutoge, whie6 we shoot
CONCLC lAD ON youtatt