Foraker Talks

Nearly twenty-five thousand enthusiastic Republicans gathered at Richmond on August 23 to hear Governor Foraker on the issues of the day. The crowd surrounded him to such a radius that it was impossible f or some to hear a word. The cheering when his name was mentioned at the bcjginning of an introduction was so deafening that nothing was heard of it, and when it had subsided the introducer provokod a laugh by asking: ''Did anybody get away?" Mr. Foraker's speech, which throughout met with frequent outbursts of applause, was as follows: Fbllow Citizens of Indiava: You have done a number of good taings this year. You have done a good thing in making your nomination of your candidate for Governor. It is a great pleasure to me to aid in the election of so gallant a soldier, distinguished a statesman, and splendid a gentleman fis General Hovey. It was my fortune to be ono of his coinrades in Sherman's march to the sea. He was a terror to Democrats at that time. He will prove equally so now. But you are to be espeeiaily congratulated because, in addition to choosing sueh a leader for the party in the Stato, you have the distinguished hnor of giving a leader to the Republicans of the whole country. We are all in love with and proud of General Ha-rrison. Onio, the State of his birth, has a peculiar pride in his distinguished succcs. It is far more gratifying to us than I can express to _ witness the many manifestations which you have given that you appreciate the great honor that has been conferred upon you, and that you appreciate also the grave responsibilities that rest upon you in consequence. The contest involves more than the mere preference of one man over another for President. If we would correctly measure the results of the struggle in which we are engaged, we must not f orgct it3 effect upon the Senate and the Supreme Court. Both have been and stiü are Republican, but in the Senate we have a bare majority of two votes, and after next March 4 it will be a tie. Should Cleveland be re-elected Thurman would have the casting vote, and that of itself would make the Senate Democratie, but doubtless the same influence would make it decisively so. With Cleveland re-elected, and thus both vindicated and encouraged, and isrith both the Senate and House Democratie, there would be no further hesitation, such as there has been during this administration, about free trade or any other kind of Democratie legislation. They would hold the reins of Government as to the executive and legislative departments absolutely, and without any power anywhere to prevent or restrain. He would have another and most potent encouragement in the Supreme Court. Our political differences are largely based on a different opinión as to the relations of the States to the general Government, the validity of the war amendments, and the reconstruction legislation. To say of a man that ha is a Democrat is to say of him that his views on these subjects are opposed to those entertained by Republicans. It does not change his viows to make him a judge. The Supreme Court is constantly passing upon questions involving a construction of the Constitution, these amendments, and this legislation, and henee our right to have a care for the politics of the Supreme Court. With only the same number of changes during the next four years that have occurred during the last four the Court would be Democratie. It is not reasonablo to calcúlate upon any other result. Every man should understand.therefore, that the contest in which we are engaged involves not only the election of a President, but also the Senate, the House of Representativos and the Supreme Court of the United Statea THE ISSfES. Henee, I want to talk to you about the issues that havo been joined What are these issues? They are, in the flrst place, whether we are to have a free ballot and a fair count; and, in the second place, whether we are to continue the policy of a protective tarifl. The Republican party holds the afflrmative as to both these propositions; the Democrats say no to both. The question as to a free ballot and a fair ount comes flrst, both in order and imDortance. It goes before every other question, for the simple reason that it goes directly, and in a vital way, to the foundar tion idea of our Government. By reason of the enfranchi sement ofothe colored people the political power of the Southern States in the matter of choosing a President was increased to the extent of thirty-eight Electoral votes. The people these votes represent are Republicans. They were Republicans in 1884, but in 1884 (rover Cleveland got every one of them, and he expects to get every one of them in 1888, and will if the shot-gun and tissue ballots hold out. He doesn't expect to get them by argument, by persuasión, by fairly and legitimately inducing them to agree with him, but by fraud, by violence, by intimidation, by suppression, by false counting and by false returns. I will teil you what we are going to do about it. We are going to stop it; and what is more, I think we shall be able to make the Democratie party help us stop it. We have already stopped it in Ohio and Indiana and Illinois. The perpetrators of such outrages in these States are in the penitentiary, and the party to which they belong is in the minority in all these States, and we propose to keep it there, not only in these States, but in every other State where wc can get at it, until such practices are abandtmed, and if in the meantime we regain control of the Government, and they are too slow about coming to their senses, we shall be found taking such steps as may be necessary to reach and punish and break up their miquity. 1 cail attention to this matter for tho purpose of appealing to tho loyal, patriotic, Union-loving and constitution-loving people of Indiana to rise in their might and rebuke the party that seaks and holds office by such methods. Let us make it distinctly underatood that so long as the Democratie party of tho country will allow the Democratie party of Alabama or Georgia or any other State to perpétrate such crimes against the ballot, it shall not be allowed to succeed or hold office in Indiana or New York, or any other Northern State where we can make an appealto public justice and obtain a f air and honest response. If we can not punish or stop Democratie f rauds in Mississippi, we can at least make the Democrats of Indiana, Ohio and other State9 bear the burden of the crime by keeping them out of power until they will join with us, for their own good 89 well as their country' s. In righting the wrong. One other idea I want to present in connection with it, and that is, that in contending for a free ballot and a fair count at the South, we are not üghting over again the war. THE TAKIFP. Now, I want to talk about the tarifl ques;ion. In political economy protection means exactly what is meant by the term n its ordinary use. Protecting homo industries and home labor is tho same thing n principie as protecting health, or life, or 1 property. We dou't noed protection now for the same reason that our fathers needed it when the Government comrnenced, but we need it just as much as they needed it. ïhev could not maintain their industries without it ; neither can we. But our trouble, unlike theirs, is due to the differenco in wages paid here and abroad. If other countries paid as high wages as we do we could have froe trade and hold our own markets and tako most of theirs away trom them. But they do not pay the same wages. Engiand pays better than any other, but she pays from twenty-flve to fifty per cent, lesa than we do. It did not seem possible that we should have to flght over again the merits of this controversy. That we are doing so is due to the fact that we have a President who has reached only the theorefical stages in his studies of political economy. But he knew enough to know he was at the head of the Democratie party, and that he owed all he was to the Solid South. The statesmen from that section were free traders. As the first great preparatory step in this direction they opened a school of instruction in the summer of 1887 at Redtop. They called the President homo from his fishing excursions and put him under a course of study. They surprised and Btartled him with what was to him "a big lot of new stuff." They told him of thi3 great question, of how, by virtue of the protection policy, the enterprising people of the North had built up great manufacturing establishments; had gathered in them for their management and operation hundreds of thousands of honest, toiling wage-workers, who wera constituting a great home market. They told him of how the farmers had been in. creasing their flocks of sheep, improving the quality and yield of wool, and recounted to him how the North had in consequence been rapidly multiplying her wealth and power and inaking her peeple happy and prosperous, while the States oí the South, who would nol engage in any such enterprises, were practically standing still. Such crimes must not longer go unnoticed. They mu3t be stopped. Like every other Northern Democrat who has ever occupied the Presidential chair he bowed the kneo to Southern diotation and did the best he could to comprehend the subject and give efficiënt aid to prosecute the purposes of the conspiracy. They formulated a plan. He was first to crack the f trade whip. He was to lead off witn a message attacking the protective policy. Carlisle, the free-trade Speaker, was to appoint a Bouthern free-trade Ways and Means Committee. They were to formúlate a bilí in the interest of free trade and pass it, if possible; but if they could not pass it, they could at least commit tho party to its support, flght this battle on the issue so raised, and then make the bilí a law in the nest C'ongress. So far the plan has been strictly adhered to. THE REPÚBLICAS CANDIDATE. Let mo say to all who want to know who Harrison is, think of the Kepublican party. Think of its patriotism, its heroism, its sacriflees ; think of its humanity, its morality, and its matchless statesmanship. Think of its great leaders - of Lincoln, Seward, Chase, Sumner, Morton, Thaddeus Stevens, Grant, Garfield and Blaine. Recall their exalted characters, their learning, their culture and reflnement, thoir great powers of intellect, their love of iiberty, and their zeal for human equality. Remember what they and their party have done to preserve National unity, maintain inyiolate our National honor, and to promoto human welfare, FUI your mind with this splendid chapter of our history, and then conceive of a man who has been one of the prominent controlling fa itors and chief inspirations in it all, and you have Benjamin Harrison. Sueh a man needs no other or further eulogy; for when you say of him that he is typical of all the broad humanity, noble generosity, devoted Christianity, unflinching patriotism, soldierly heroism and unexampled magnanimity that the Republio! an party has displayed, you have.accorded him the highest virtues he can possibly possess. All this can be said of Benjamin Harrison truthf ully and without exaggeration. That's the kind of a "bigot" he is. But what kind of a "bigot" is Grover Cleveland Paint his party and you have him, too. He is a Democrat ; was bom a Democrat; he will die a Democrat. He was a Democrat when Democracy meant human slavery. He was a Democrat when Democracy meant, in the language oí Judge Taney, "that a black man had no righís which a white man was bound to respect." He was a Democrat when Democracy meant the slave pen, the whip ping-post and the auction-blocka He is a Democrat vvho is without any part whatever in any of the glorious achievements of his day and generation. The Union was eaved without him. Our armies were raised without him. Our battles were fought without him. Slavery was abolished without him. Secession was shot to death without him. Suffrage was made universal without him. The grand systems of finances that have made our country the wonder and the admiration of the world were all conceived and executed without him. Recall, if you can, the worst days and the lowest depths and most infamous practices of Democracy, and then paint you a man who has lived through it all, been part of it all, and in sympathy with it all, and you havo Grover Cleveland as he entered upon his Administraron. From then until now he has been himself the Democratie party. He ha ruled it with a rod of iron. He has led it whither he would. He has not allowed it to have any will inconsistent with his own. Cleveland has done more to stir up a spirit of sectionalism than any other man who has figured in the politics of this country since Appomattox. Every body had settleil down to the conclusión that the Union side had triumphed and that the war was settled according to the terms prescribed in the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, and that these provisions must be, in good faith, accepted and upheld. But how stands the case to-day. Let me answer by reading you a few extracts f rom recent utterances of representative Southern men. Thoy show cloarly that the mind of thatpeople has been turned back to where it was dur ing the war with respect to the right of the doctrine of secession, and that we are to have another spell of the flaunting of that heresy in our faces. But consider further how there is no longer denial or apology for nuilifying and trampling under foot the constitutional amendments conforring suffrage on black men. For years, ever since 1875, this work has been going on, b,ut not until Cleveland's Administration has thero been an open avowal and attempted justification of it In the language of Senator Voorhees, let us hopo and pray that God Almighty may avert such a calamity to this land as the re-election of Grover Cleveland. St Louis Qlobe-Democrat: The Ropublican creed is the samo now that it has always been, and the Democratie creed is equally unchanged. It is the party of Lincoln, Grant and Logan on one sido of the pending National contost, and on the other sido the party of Jeff Davis, Lee and Vallandigham. One or the other is to rula the country in accordanco with its wellknown views and dosires ; and it is for the American people to decido which it shall be.