I have not, my fellow-citizens, attempted to discuss those questions
which divide the people in the larger domain of national politics. It
has seemed to me that, on an occasion of this character, I should
confine my remarks to a discussion of State affairs. But I am not
indifferent, I could not be indifferent, to those issues of principle or
of policies on which the Republican party bases its action and its
faith. I am before you as a candidate of the Republican party. I have
been a Republican from boyhood—an earnest, enthusiastic, loyal
Republican; a Republican from conviction; a Republican who believes that
the Republican party embraces in its ranks the best brain, and heart,
and conscience of the American people. On every great question presented
during the past thirty years, the Republican party has taken the side of
justice, liberty, and eternal right. Never ashamed or afraid to espouse
the cause of the poor, the ignorant, or the alien, and make their wrongs
its own, it has never, on the other hand, pandered to vice or crime or
cupidity for support. When it took control of the General Government,
this country was a weak collection of discordant States on the verge of
civil war and disunion. It crushed armed rebellion, brought the old flag
back to the places from which it had been driven, and made the American
Republic the greatest of civilized nations. It struck the shackles from
4,000,000 slaves, lifted them up, and enfranchised them. It opened the
public lands to the people under the beneficent provisions of the
homestead act. It spanned the continent with railways. It gave to the
people a sound financial system and a stable currency. It revived and
fostered American manufactures. It encouraged public education. It
enriched our history with a long list of imperishable names that will be
an inspiration and an example to our youth for generations to come—the
names of Lincoln, and Grant, and Seward, and Thomas, and Garfield, and a
host of others. And finally, when fraud and terrorism in the South and
vilification and falsehood in the North had accomplished their ends, and
this great party surrendered the trusts it had so long controlled, did
its opponents and traducers, after the most patient and careful
investigation, discover any facts or evidence to justify the ignorant
and brutal accusations they had made against Republican honesty and
competency? Not a single fact. Not a shadow of evidence. They “counted
the money,” and it was all there—every penny of it. They investigated
the books, they scanned every account, they scrutinized every item and
figure, and they found nothing to criticise. And at last, one of the
most prejudiced Democrats in the country was compelled to declare, and
did declare, that he had been amazed at the perfect system, accuracy and
integrity with which the business of his department had been conducted
by the Republicans.