Full text of "Proceedings at the second annual dinner of the Republican Club of New-York City : held at Delmonico's on the seventy-ninth anniversary of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, February 11, 1888"

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REPUBLICAN CLUB

♦ DINNER ♦

SETENTY-NINTH ANN^IVERSARY OF THE BIRTHDAY OF

ABEAHAM LINCOLK

llTH FEBRUARY, 1888

• • •

PROCEEDINGS AT

THE SECOND AJSTNUAL DIIifKEE

OF THE

EBPUBLICAN CLUB

OF ]^EW-YOEK CITY

HELD AT DELMOITICO'S ON
THE SEVENTY-NINTH ANNIVERSARY OE THE BIRTHDAY OE

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

FEBRUARY 11, 1888

'O^

NEW-YORK

THE DE VINNE PRESS

1888

Lrvv_

INVITED GUESTS.

Honorable John Sherman.
Honorable William B. Allison.
Honorable William M. Evarts.
Honorable John C. Spooner.
Honorable Charles F. Manderson.
Honorable William McKinley, Jr.
Honorable Warner Miller.
Honorable Phineas C. Lounsbury.
Honorable John M. Thayer.
Honorable Thomas C. Platt.
Honorable Alonzo B. Cornell.
Honorable Chauncey M. Depew.
Honorable Fremont Cole.
Honorable Henry R. Low.
Honorable Frank Hatton.
Honorable Francis A. Macomber.
Honorable Charles H. Grosvenor.
Honorable Nathan Goff.

James M. Bundy, Esquire.

A. Thorndike Rice, Esquire.

Robert B. Porter, Esquire.

John A. Sliecher, Esquire.

R. B. Hefford, Esquire.

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MEKU.

HUlTEES.

POTAaES.

Consomm^ hongroise. Creme d'asperges.

Varies. Hors d'ceuvre. Varies.

Timbales 4 la Reyni^re.

POISSON.

Saumon du Kennebeck, sauce homard.

Pommes de terre Viennoise.

RELEVE.

Filets de boeuf a la matignon.
Haricots verts.

ENTEEES.

Poulets sautes a la finnoise.

Petit pois au beurre.

Ris de veau au chancelier.

Tomates a la Trevise.

Sorbet Imperial.

ROTIS.
Canvasback duck. Pigeonneaux au cresson.

FROID.

Terrines de foies gras a la gel^e.
Salade de laitue.

ENTREMETS DE DOUCEUR.

Pouding aux bananes.

Gel6e aux mirabelles. Cornets a la creme.

Pieces mont^es.

Grlace Fantaisies.

Fruits. Petit fours. Caf6.

The Republican Club. delmonico's.

Lell Fevrier, 1888.

Y/mMM'/ffyM'^^ry.

Lit. Bank NoL f'o. KY.

MEHU.

huItees.

POTAGES.

Consomm^ hongroise. Creme d'asperges.

Varies. Hors d'oeuvre. Varies.

Timbales d la Reyni^re.

POISSON.

!ennebeck, s
Pommes de terre Viennoise.

Saumon du Kennebeck, sauce homard.

EELEVE.

Filets de boeuf a la matignon.
Haricots verts.

ENTEEES.

Poulets sautes a la finnoise.

Petit pois au beurre.

Eis de veau au chancelier.

Tomates a la Trevise.

Sorbet Imperial.

EOTIS.
Canvasback duck. Pigeonneaux au cresson.

FEOID.

Terrines de foies gras a la gel^e.
Salade de laitue.

ENTEEMETS DE DOUCEUE.

Pouding aux bananes.

Gel6e aux mirabelles. Cornets a la creme.

Pieces mont^es.

Glace Fantaisies.

Fruits. Petit fours. Caf4.

The Eepublican Club. delmonico's.

Le 11 Fevrier, 1888.

Summoned into existence at tlie call of freedom, trained in tlie
school of unparalleled responsibility, it stands to-day wltli a past that
is glorious and a future filled with, promise.

The imperial commonwealth of the Union,— an undisputed leader in
all that has contributed to our national greatness.

THE UNION SOLDIER.
The Republic that he saved in war, he serves in peace.

. THE TARIFF.

To be adjusted according to the needs of the Government, and so
imposed as to protect and encourage domestic manufactures while it
promotes alike the interests of the wage-payer and the wage-earner.

THE SURPLUS.

The Republican Party smote the rock of the National resources and
abundant streams of revenue gushed forth. Could it now speak the
word of command the flowing tide would cease.

A FREE BALLOT AND A FAIR COUNT.

Unless secured to the whole country the Constitution is set at
naught, the suflfrage impaired, and the Republic imperiled.

'^yj'/fyfi^' 'J^ =lze^i/»iu/jf^/''.

■flmH-imiJjT. BimkNoU C'a AD'

^/)

34 1

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I 2

James S. Lehmaier
H. H. Leavitt
Albert Hoysradt
H. M. Wynkoop
C. N. Tennant
U. W. Tompkins
E. Kilpatrick
New York Tribune
New York Herald
E. O. Perkins
Chas. H. Patrick
William Leary
E. N. Erickson
William Linn
J. A. Greene
L. H. Blakeman
George R. Cathcart
Jacob Hess
Solon B. Smith
Edward Mitchell
S. V. R. Cruger
Wm. H. Elliott

O
o

>
<

Carson Lake
Henry Gleason
Henry L. Stodard

SUPPLE-
MENTAL

M. R. Crow
G. B. Deane, Jr.
Percival Kuhne

!z5

H. W. Albro
Frank H. Ballard
C. W. Ballard
C. M. Benedict
Knight L, Clapp
C. W. Bonfils
W. H. Patten
W. H. Hegeman
City Press
N. Y. Press
Newton Churchill
W. A. Hull
Daniel Lewis
M. B. Bryant
E. D. Hawkins
P. V. R. Van Wyck
William Scott
Mahlon Chance
Simon Stevens
John F. Baker
Cyrus Bussey
Elihu Root

. ^3

■ 12

1 2

William H. Bellamy
Logan C. Murray
David Mitchell
Alphonse de Riesthal
Alexander Caldwell
E. R. Lyon
C. H. C. Beakes
A. B. Bell
C. W. Roxbury
J. R. Doudge
Horace F. Ayres
N. Y. Mail & Express
N. Y. Times
John F. Reynolds
Donald McLean
Job E. Hedges
Richard J. Lewis
Thomas R. Harris
James W. Perry
Charles A. Hess
Marvelle W. Cooper
William L. Strong

iam Brookfield

John F. Plummer

EEPUBLICAN CLUB.

SPEECH OF PRESIDENT EDWARD T. BARTLETT.

Gentlemen : It now becomes my pleasant duty, as President
of the Republican Club, to call you to order. (Laughter.) I
know full well you are impatient to partake of the feast of
intellectual good things that has been spread for you by our
able and painstaking dinner committee, so I shall not detain
you long. The guests of the club, and the stranger that is
within our gates to-night, will kindly bear in mind that, so far
as the club is concerned, this is a family dinner — the only
night in the year when all the boys are at home (laughter) ;
so, if I manifest a fatherly interest and talk a little of family
matters, I am sure you will overlook it, and congratulate
yourselves that you have been received into the confidence
and fellowship of so harmonious and happy a family circle.
(Voice — ^' Good.") Now, it is true that the Republicans of
the country know something of this club and its work, but it
is equally true that some of the plans of its founders have
not been thoroughly understood by the party at large. Some
features of our work have attracted attention. The scheme
of national organization that assembled in this city in
December last, a national convention of enthusiastic workers,
has stimulated party zeal everywhere, and the result of that
convention was a genuine Republican revival. (Cheers and
applause.) That work goes bravely on. Clubs are being

John A. Sleicher
Joseph Pool
Ashbel P. Fitch

C. F. Johnson
Chas. K. Lexow
Geo. A. Seniel

NAMES OF GUESTS AND MEMBERS.

Elmer Smith
Chas. St. John, Jr.
J. J. Flynn
Wm. Strauss
L. J. Reckendorfer
Mathias Rock
Samuel Goodman
Judah L. Taintor
Chas. N. Taintor
Dudley R. Horton
J. M. Mayer
R. B. Highet
J. G. Gardiner
E. A. McAlpin
Wm. J. Easton
A. L. Merriam
J. V. V. Olcott
J. D. Sinclair
S. Huntington
Scott Foster
John O. Mott
Richard C. Morse

■7

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Geo. A. Bowman
Robt. L. Stanton
H. C. Sommers
Wm. R. Montgomery
G. W. Weld
Wm. Tucker
Edwin Tucker
Wm. Rowland
Geo. E. Weed
John H. Wood
Joseph H. Emory
T. A. Wetmore
A. B. Price
James G. Cannon
J. Edgar Leaycraft
Joseph Dowd
Geo. N. Messiter
Chas. Schwacofer
W. M. K. Olcott
M. M. Budlong
Ira H. Brainerd
A. T. Clearwater

C. H. Applegate
Cephas Brainerd, Jr.
Walter Hughson
J. L. W.indling
J. G. McMurray
John A. Grow
T. M. Ives
John W. Jacobus
A. J. Campbell
J. R. Rand

A. C. Rand

B. W. Green
James F. Lewis

C. H. Townsend
Philip Carpenter
John K. Cilley
Robt. M. Gallaway
A. R. Whitney
Fred'k E. Camp
William F. Shaffer
S. B. Elkins
John W. Vrooman

s w s

» X

k: s

I- "

GUESTS AND PRESIDENT.

34 1

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E. Putnam
A. P. Ketcham
G. Bruce Brown
G. W. English
H. I. W. English
W. H. Dyer
H. S. Paul
H. H. Byram
John Beattie
A. Carmichael, Jr.
A. B. Humphrey

E. C. James

F. G. Gedney
Otis B. Boise
Jas. A. Robinson
John C. Hatch
Jesse H. Lippincott
Howard M. Smith
Eugene G. Blackford
William M. Isaacs
George H. Robinson
Jas. H. Breslin

James A. Blanchard
Joseph G. Gay
Wm. L. Findley
S. M. Milliken
John E. Brodsky
Duncan H. Currie
E. H. Moon
Associated Press
N. Y. Sun
W. H. Chapman
Horatio G. Knight
Chas. H. Langdon
A, B. Knapp
Jolin Davidson
Geo. C. Batcheller
J. R. Tressider
Noah C. Rogers
John S. Smith
J. D. Campbell
Thos. F. Wentworth
Robert P. Porter
Charles E. Coon

34 1

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Cephas Brainerd

A. C. Cheney

Geo. A. Nourse
C. Von Witzleben
A. Freeland
Henry Melville
J. E. Kendrick
James P. Foster
W. W. Farmer
Homer Lee

C. H. Dennison
Joseph Ullman
Ira B. Wheeler
Hal Bell

D. Kensett Wheeler
A. J. Cammeyer
Henry W. Hayden
Henry L. Sprague
Harwood R. Pool
T. H. Evans
James Stokes
Jefferson Clark
J. W. Hawes
S. L. Woodhouse

Addoms

R. R. Hefford
Lucius C. Ashley
Frank M. Leavitt
Ralph N. Ellis
Walter B. Tufts

C. H. Cromwell
George Fairman
New York World
J. J. Little
Floyd Clarkson
Charles F. Homer
R. A. Kathan
Orson Adams
Henry R. DeMilt

D. B.St. John Roosa

E. F. Coe
Nicholas L. Cort
E. R. Holden
Jay O. Morse
Samuel Thomas
J. Milton Goetchius
W. W. Flanagan

Will

34 1

35 I

'12

1 2

James S. Lehmaier
H. H. Leavitt
Albert Hoysradt
H. M. Wynkoop
C. N. Tennant
U. W. Tompkins
E, Kilpatrick
New York Tribune
New York Herald
E. 0. Perkins
Chas. H. Patrick
William Leary
E. N. Erickson
William Linn
J. A. Greene
L. H. Blakeman
George R. Cathcart
Jacob Hess
Solon B. Smith
Edward Mitchell
S. V. R. Cruger
Wm. H. Elliott

:z:

>i3

Carson Lake

M. R. Crow

Henry Gleason

SUPPLE-
MENTAL

G. B. Deane, Jr.

Henry L. Stodard

Percival Kuhne

■?

►tj

iam Brookfield

H. W. Albro
Frank H. Ballard
C. W. Ballard
C. M. Benedict
Knight L. Clapp
C. W. Bonfils
W. H. Patten
W. H. Hegeman
City Press
N. Y. Press
Newton Churchill
W. A. Hull
Daniel Lewis
M. B. Bryant
E. D. Hawkins
P. V. R. Van Wyck
William Scott
Mahlon Chance
Simon Stevens
John F. Baker
Cyrus Bussey
Elihu Root

Joh

■5

34 1

, '3

35 I

■ 12

I 2

William H. Bellamy
Logan C. Murray
David Mitchell
.\lphonse de Riesthal
Alexander Caldwell
E. R. Lyon
C. H. C. Beakes
A. B. Bell
C. W. Roxbury
J. R. Doudge
Horace F. Ayres
N. Y. Mail & Express
N. Y. Times
John F. Reynolds
Donald McLean
Job E. Hedges
Richard J. Lewis
Thomas R. Harris
James W. Perry
Charles A. Hess
Marvelle W. Cooper
William L. Strong

^^^^^^^

MSa^^^^^^^^mml^S^^^^^^^mm^^^M

REPUBLICAN CLUB.

SPEECH OF PRESIDENT EDWARD T. BARTLETT.

Gentlemen : It now becomes my pleasant duty, as President
of the Republican Club, to caU you to order. (Laughter.) I
know full well you are impatient to partake of the feast of
intellectual good things that has been spread for you by our
able and painstaking dinner committee, so I shall not detain
you long. The guests of the club, and the stranger that is
within our gates to-night, will kindly bear in mind that, so far
as the club is concerned, this is a family dinner — the only
night in the year when all the boys are at home (laughter) ;
so, if I manifest a fatherly interest and talk a little of family
matters, I am sure you will overlook it, and congratulate
yourselves that you have been received into the confidence
and fellowship of so harmonious and happy a family circle.
(Voice — ^' Good.") Now, it is true that the Republicans of
the country know something of this club and its work, but it
is equally true that some of the plans of its founders have
not been thoroughly understood by the party at large. Some
features of our work have attracted attention. The scheme
of national organization that assembled in this city in
December last, a national convention of enthusiastic workers,
has stimulated party zeal everywhere, and the result of that
convention was a genuine Republican revival. (Cheers and
applause.) That work goes bravely on. Clubs are being

Z REPUBLICAN CLUB.

formed in almost every township ; the clubs of each State
are under the control of a State League, and the State
Leagues are subordinate to a national league, and the gen-
eral result is a degree of organization and efficiency sur-
passing anything in the party history of this country.
(Applause.) Gentlemen will bear in mind that these clubs
do not interfere with or antagonize the regular organization
in any locality, but are its efficient allies in all that is honor-
able, straightforward, and manly in politics. (Applause.)
The mission of the clubs, gentlemen, is to proclaim the
principles of Republicanism, to instruct the voter in political
knowledge, and to bring organization to that degree of
efficiency that every man on election day casts his vote, if
physically able to leave his house. Now this work of the
club is not confined to the campaign, but is continued
throughout the whole year. But of course I have not time
for details now. We were of opinion that this national plan
would give us the opportunity not only to do a work that
was of unspeakable advantage and benefit to the Republican
party, but would tend to introduce us as a club to the Repub-
lican workers of the country, thereby giving force and effect
to the warning cry which we now give to the party at large :
that work is to be done here in the city of New -York (ap-
plause) and that the real field for the exertion of this club is
here, to do what we can to build up and strengthen the Repub-
lican party in this Democratic stronghold. Dwelling as we
do habitually under the shadow of defeat, so far as our local
ticket is concerned, the tendency has been to neglect that
perfection of organization that is found in localities where
victory is the normal condition of the party. But, gentlemen,
we can suffer this thing no longer. The result of the solid
South has been to make the State of New-York the political
battle-field of the Union ; and, impressed with that idea, this
club, in December last, resigned its national undertaking to the
leagues organized for that purpose, and has made haste to
resume its city tasks. Two weeks ago we raised, as many of
you know, a committee here of twenty-five, to be known as
the Committee on Club Organization in the City of New- York.
That committee has been selected with great care, and those
methods of organization that are working so admirably
throughout the country at large, we propose to apply here to

SPEECH OF EDWAED T. BAETLETT. 6

the city of New- York vigorously and at once, and we hope
with telling results. (Applause.) Now, gentlemen, the plan
that I have spoken of as not appreciated by the party at large,
is this : We propose, if possible, to found here, on the basis of
the club that we now have, a great national Republican Club,
whose political influence shall be felt not only here but
throughout the entire country ; while we hasten to disclaim
the intention of trenching upon the ground now occupied by
any existing club.

We propose to -enter upon a field of labor entirely new and
uncultivated, and we desire to place upon the rolls of this
club from 2000 to 3000 names of leading Republicans resid-
ing here and throughout the country, selected from official and
private life. We should realize, gentlemen, that the city of
New- York is the political as well as the social and business
center of the country. It may well be said that all roads
lead to New- York, and under this system of National club
organization that we have adopted, a central point of con-
trol is absolutely essential, and that point is naturally the
city of New- York ; and so we come, gentlemen, to the dis-
tinction existing between this proposed club and any exist-
ing club. We would make this proposed club a part of the
working machinery of the party, and the rallying point of
Republicans everywhere, both politically and socially. We
have given this matter careful consideration, and believe if
this great club can be organized that it will become a most
important factor in the working machinery of the party.
Of course, details cannot be dwelt upon here. Suffice it to
say that we would confer upon this club one of the best
political libraries in the country, and install it in a house,
which for appointments and location would be second to no
club in this city. (Applause.) I realize, gentlemen, that our
present organization is but the nucleus for all this, and it
rests with the wealthy and influential Republicans of this
city and the country to determine whether this dream of ours
shall ever become reality. But, gentlemen, we may well profit
by the example of our friends in the Democratic party in this
matter of organization. In no part of the country is the
Democratic party so splendidly organized as here, in this city
of New- York. You are all familiar with the names of its
working organizations, and you all know that its party dis-

4 REPUBLICAN CLUB.

cipline is equal to that of an army in tlie field. Who ever
heard of such a thing as a Democratic Mugwump 1 (Laughter.)
Why, if such a thing existed it would be taken out and shot
at sunrise. (Applause.) And furthermore, gentlemen, the
Democratic party never goes outside of its own lines for can-
didates. (A Voice : " Good.") Now, let us resolve from this
time on that the way to make the Republican city ticket win
here is to nominate it straight every year (applause), and
work for it through evil report and good report, realizing
that defeat within party lines is better than success outside.
(Applause.) But I am quite free to admit, gentlemen, that
some of us have not always followed this good advice, and
that the party itself has nominated Democrats as candidates
on the city ticket when they supposed they were acting in the
interest of reform and good government.

But we have recently been taught the lesson that the aver-
age Democrat votes his own ticket at all times and under all
circumstances. Those of us who waited for a tidal wave of
reform last autumn are waiting yet. (Laughter.) Now, gen-
tlemen, reform in the Democratic party is good enough
material for newspaper editorials and declamatory campaign
speeches, but on the morning of election day reform is folded
up and laid aside for use next year, and the boys all vote the
ticket. (Laughter.) We are told that at the present time
we have a reform national administration in Washington,
and that while the question of the surplus may be a little too
much for its financial ability, yet morally it is truly good.
(Laughter and applause.) Now, gentlemen, we ought not to
be too severe in this matter of the surplus, for it has been a
very long time since the Democratic party has had to deal
with such a thing. (Laughter.) When we came into power
in 1861 we were confronted by many and serious difficulties,
but the question of the surplus did not trouble us. (Laughter.)
This administration, with all its pious proclivities, has suc-
ceeded in preaching the gospel of civil service reform, and
at the same time removing, in a little over two years and a
half, eighty per cent, of the office-holders of the Government,
and is now wrestling diligently with the other twenty per
cent. (Laughter.) The cares of state, gentlemen, did not
prevent the Chief Magistrate of this great country from
shamelessly interfering in our local canvass last autumn, and

SPEECH OF EDWABD T. BAETLETT. 5

throwing the weight of his great office against the cause of
reform and good government. (Applause.) But possibly,
gentlemen, we ought not to be harsh with one to whom
we owe so much as a party, for he has abolished the
thimble-rigging, ^' now you see us and now you don't "
policy of the Democratic party (applause), and has succeeded
in nailing them to the free-trade plank of their platform
(applause), and there they are to-day, gentlemen, a spectacle
to angels and to men (laughter), and there we propose to keep
them, and join issue with the President in his message, re-
joicing that we are at last to have a political campaign fought
out on the basis of great principles, without descending to
personal abuse and slander. (Applause.)

Gentlemen, we may well leave the question of the protection
of the industries of this country to the American people,
and any party that stands in the way of their righteous
verdict will be ground to powder. (Applause.) Now, gentle-
men of the Republican Club, permit me in concluding to con-
gratulate you on your having assembled again at this board
to commemorate the birth of Abraham Lincoln. (Cheers and
applause.) I know of no more fitting act for you to engage
in after a year of successful and unremitting labor on behalf
of the Republican party than to celebrate the historical event
that has called into being this brilliant scene. The result of
your work is that to-night, on the eve of the greatest political
struggle that has ever taken place in this country, we behold
upon every mountain-top the blazing watch-fires of the clans
kindled by you, summoning all able-bodied Republicans to the
conflict. A year ago you went forth to a field of untried and
anxious labor, but to-night, gentlemen, crowned with suc-
cess, you come here to do homage to the babe whose feeble
cry seventy-nine years ago was first heard in the humble home
of Thomas Lincoln, of Kentucky, to the statesman and ruler
who stood at the helm of State in the crisis of our history, to
the martyr whose soul went up to God amid the sobs and the
prayers of a stricken people. If there be a spot on earth
where the sincere Republican worker can renew his strength
as the eagle, it is here in this presence, resting under the
shadow of a great name, and recalling the heroic incidents of
a life that have become the precious possessions of a free
people. (Applause and three cheers for President Bartlett.)

6 REPUBLICAN CLUB.

President Bartlett : Gentlemen, the next order of business
will be to listen to the reading of letters by Mr. James S. Leh-
maier, of the Dinner Committee, from gentlemen who are
unable to attend to-night.

LETTERS OF REGRET.

Washington, D. C, January 28, 1888.
Mr. James S. Lehmaier.

Dear Sir : I am greatly obliged to the RepubHcan Club for the invi-
tation it has so kindly extended me to be present at its second annual
dinner on Saturday, February 11th, but it is quite impossible for me
to accept. Our court is in session and I cannot be away. Saturday,
unfortunately, is not an oH day with us, as that is the time taken by
the justices for consultation. I shall look with interest for the report

of your gathering. Sincerely yours,

M. R. Waite.

Mr. Jai^ies S. Lehmaier. Fremont, January 31, 1888.

My Dear Sir : I thank you for your kind invitation to attend the
second annual dinner of the Republican Club of New- York City, on
the anniversary of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, and regret
that I cannot be present. Sincerely,

Rutherford B. Hayes.

James S. Lehmaier, Esq. Bangor, February 6, 1888.

My Dear Sir : I was in due receipt of your favor of the 1st inst.
in which you honor me with an invitation to attend a dinner to be
given by the Republican Club of New- York at Delmonico's, on
February 11th, the anniversary celebration of President Lincohi's
birthday.

Being in full sympathy with your Club and deeming the event
eminently worthy of commemoration and that it should be made a
national holiday, it is with deep regret I have to say that I am so
situated that I cannot be with you upon the occasion. I cannot
control the reasons which compel me to decline your invitation. I
would be truly glad to be at your dinner, but it will not be possible.

Yours truly, H. Hamlin.

Los Angeles, California, January 28, 1888.
James S. Lehmaier, Esq.

My Dear Sir : I received yesterday your letter of the 18th instant,
inviting me on the part of the Committee of Arrangements to dine
with the Repubhcan Club of the city of New- York on the anniver-
sary of Lincohi's birthday.

LETTEKS OF BEGEET. 7

It would have given me pleasure to join in your tribute of grati-
tude and respect to the first President of our great party in its suc-
cessful struggle to fulfil] the promise which this country made to the
world when it took its place among nations. But I have to regret
that I cannot have the pleasure to be with you on this interesting
occasion. I sincerely thank you for the kind expressions in your
letter which do me so much honor. But not only the huge breadth
of country which intervenes, but also considerations of health, for
which I came to this climate, forbid my returning to the East at

this season. Yours truly,

John C. Fremont.

Washington, January 29, 1888.
My Bear Sir : I have withheld for some days an answer to your
courteous invitation to attend the dinner of the Republican Club of
New- York, hoping to accept it. But I find it will not be in my
power without neglecting other duties.

I am, faithfully, yours, George F. Hoar.

Washington, D. C., January 30, 1888.
Mr. James S. Lehmaier.

My dear Sir : 1 acknowledge receipt of an invitation to attend the
second annual dinner of the Republican Club of the city of New
York, at Delmonico's, on February 11, 1888, and regret that duties
here compel me to decline your cordial invitation.
Thanking you for the courtesy, I am, with great respect,

Frank Hiscock.

Washington, D. C, January 18, 1888.
Mr. James Lehmaier.

My dear Sir : 1 have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the
invitation to attend the second annual dinner of the Republican
Club at Delmonico's, on the evening of February 11th.

In reply I would say that it would give me very great pleasure to
be present were it possible -, but I regret that my public and social
duties here are such that I shall be unable to attend.

With thanks for the courtesy of your invitation, very respectfully
yours, John J. Ingalls.

Washington, D. C, January 30, 1888.
James S. Lehmaier, Esq.

My dear Sir : I thank you very much for your kind invitation to
the dinner on Lincohi's birthday, though I shall not be able to
attend. Nevertheless, I would like to be heard for a moment.

The RepubHcan party is not greatest in its history, however illus-
trious, but in itself. It has the same capacity for great achieve-

8 EEPUBLICAN CLUB.

ments which it always had, for it is made up now, as it always has
been, of men who believe in progress. In the past we established
and maintained sound ways of doing things. The Government to-
day is running on the impetus of our twenty-four years' rule. The
Treasury is, for the most part, conducted on the very principles for
the denunciation of which no Democratic tongue could be blistering
enough only three years ago.

When you catalogue the great deeds of our party, do not forget
one of the greatest, the education we have given the democracy in
finance.

But nothing can run long on impetus. Education soon fades out
when confined to a few chiefs. Conrad Jordan has departed, and
Manning is dead. Already the President has concentrated his whole
message capacity on the industries of the country, and only the
severest pressure last year made the Secretary pay out the surplus
for the national debt. He thought it better to use it in the con-
spiracy against protection. Some real force, born of sound sense,
has got soon to be again applied to keep both Grovernment and busi-
ness in motion. That force must come fiom the party which sup-
ported Abraham Lincoln while he lived, and carried on his work
after his death. Very truly, T. B. Reed.

Executive Chamber, Springfield, III., January 28, 1888.
Mr. James S. Lehmaier.

Bear Sir: Accept my thanks for your letter of the 23d inst.,
inviting me to the second annual dinner of the Republican Club of
the city of New- York, on the 11th of February next, on the occasion
of observing the anniversary of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln.

I would be delighted to be present on the occasion, knowing from
a personal participation on a similar occasion last year how dehght-
ful and interesting it will inevitably be. The truth is, however,
unavoidable engagements will compel me to remain at home and
regretfully forfeit the pleasures of the day, and the company of the
men who are to be present, whom I should delight to see eat, and
hear speak. Yours respectfully, R. J. Oglesby.

Executive Chamber, Brandon, Vt., January 30, 1888.
Mr. James S. Lehmaier.

My Dear Sir : Your letter and card by which you extend to me
an invitation to be present at the second annual dinner of the
Repubhcan Club of the city of New- York, on February 11, 1888,
has been received, and I beg to assure you that were it possible for
me so to do, I should avail myself of the opportunity offered to meet
the members of the club and other distinguished gentlemen. That
the cause of the Republican party may be advanced, and the memory

LETTEES OF BEGRET. 9

of the lamented Lincoln honored by this proposed meeting is made
certain, and I would gladly be with you to give to it the approval
and best wishes of the Republicans of the Green Mountain State,
but present engagements prevent.

I am, very truly yours, Ebenezer J. Ormsbeb.

Harrisburg-, January 30, 1888.
James S. Lehmaier, Esq.

My Bear Sir : Your kind letter of the 24th instant, inviting me to
be present at the second annual dinner of the RepubUcan Club of
New- York on Saturday evening, February 11th proximo, has been
received. I have already accepted the invitation of the Ohio Repub-
lican League to be present at their gathering at Columbus on the
13th of February, to celebrate the birthday of Lincoln, and do not
see how it will be possible for me to attend both. It would give me
very great pleasure, I assure you, to join with you in the commemo-
ration of the bu'th of one so illustrious as Abraham Lincoln, and to
meet the distinguished gentlemen who will gather about your table.
My previous engagements, however, will prevent this.

I hope the custom which you inaugurated a year ago, and which
you intimate your determination to continue, will become general
throughout the country, and that Lincoln's birthday will be cele-
brated hereafter in a manner befitting his character and services to
the country.

With thanks for the invitation extended on behalf of the Club,

I am, very cordially yours,

Jambs A. Beaver.

Executive Chamber, Columbus, Ohio, February 9, 1888.
James S. Lehmaier, Esq.

Dear Sir : Other engagements make it impossible for me to accept
your kind invitation for Saturday evening. I can assure you, how-
ever, that the Republicans of this part of the country are ready for
the approaching contest with respect to which they will reject all
advice that comes to them from those who claim to be Republicans,
yet vote with the Democrats ; they are without quahfication or
apology for a protective tariff, a free ballot, the Constitution as it is,

and the flags where they are. Yours truly,

J. B. Foraker.

Executive Chamber, Lansing, Mich., January 30, 1888.
James S. Lehmaier, Esq.

Dear Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of an invita-
tion from you in behalf of your committee to attend the second
annual dinner of the Republican Club of your city, to be held on
February 11, 1888.

10 REPUBLICAN CLUB.

The same is highly appreciated, and would be accepted, were it
not that Ohio, with its usual moving proclivities, were ahead with
an invitation to be present with their Republicans at Columbus on
the 13th of February, and which I have already accepted. The
proximity of the two dates wUl prevent my attending at New- York.

May the party from the people, of the people, and for the people
of the United States continue to sound notes that will bring to them
contentment and prosperity, and may the mufflers be removed from
the free-trade clappers that are now sounding a menace, and would
toll a death-knell to American industry and enterprise.

Our country and its homes, first and forever, is the sentiment of
yours, sincerely, C. G. Luce.

Chicago, January 31, 1888.
James S. Lehmaier, Esq.

Dear Sir : I have your kind favor of the 24th instant transmit-
ting to me the invitation of the Committee to be present at the an-
nual dinner of the Republican Club on the evening of February 11th
next. I very much regret that my engagements here, at so great a
distance from New-York, make it impossible for me to accept the
invitation. As I have had occasion to say before, I appreciate highly
the compliment which is done to the memory of my father in dis-
tinguishing his birthday in this marked manner, as is done by the
New- York Repubhcan Club and several other prominent associa-
tions in the country, and I very much hope that I will have the op-
portunity at some time of expressing this appreciation personally
to the members of the Club. Believe me, very truly yours,

Robert T. Lincoln.

Detroit, Mich., January 30, 1888.
James S. Lehmaier.

My Dear Sir : Will you please convey to the Committee of Arrange-
ments of the Republican Club my sincere thanks for the invitation to
be present at the second annual dinner on the 11th prox., and regrets
that I cannot accept the same, as I have arranged to leave for Cali-
fornia on the 13th. Yours, very truly, R. A. Alger.

Chicago, January 30, 1888.
James S. Lehmaier, Esq.

Dear Sir : I am just in receipt of your letter of the 27th inst.,
inclosing an invitation from the Republican Club of the City of
New- York to attend its second annual dinner to be held on Satur-
day, February 11th, at Delmonico's.

I shall be busy at that time hearing cases which have already been
assigned, and which could not be postponed without serious incon-
venience to counsel, and am, therefore, obliged to decHne your polite

LETTEKS OF EEGEET. 11

invitation. Appreciating the courtesy, and hoping that the meeting
will be agreeable to all present and that it will result in good to
the party, Yours, very truly, W. Q. Gresham.

Pittsburgh, February 3, 1888.
Jajies S. Lehmaier, Esq.

Bear Sir : I regret that I cannot accept your kind invitation to
attend the second annual dinner of the Repubhcan Club of New
York, in commemoration of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln.

While we cannot emulate the great and good Lincoln, may we not
with honor to his memory and with profit to ourselves bear in mind
and repeat his wise sayings ; and, in view of the recent acts and
utterances of those in high places, which threaten the peace and
prosperity of our country, by the attempt to foist upon us the
vicious fallacies of free trade with rival nations, what can be more
appropriately repeated than his declaration regarding the protection
of American industries, when he said, *^ If we are to be a better fed,
better clothed, and better educated people than those of other
nations, and if we are to have more of the comforts of this life, we
must be better paid. I can conceive of no other defense against
the invasion of our territory by the products of cheap labor of other
countries than a protecting tariff that will make up the differences
in cost, and reserve our markets, thereby enabling us to enjoy our
marvelous heritage."

Very truly yours, B. F. Jones.

New- York, February 1, 1888.
James S. Lehmaier, Esq.

Dear Sir : I am extremely sorry to find that before the receipt of
your courteous invitation of January 27th for the second annual
dinner of the Republican Club, to be held on February 11th, another
engagement for that evening had been made, and with sincere
regret that I am thus unable to accept the invitation with which you
have honored me, I am, very truly yours,

Whitelaw Reid.

President Bartlett : Grentlemen, the first regular toast of
the evening is '^Abraham Lincoln ; the fame of such a char-
acter, broadening with the progress of humanity, can be
measured only by the limits of a world's gratitude, and the
bounds of time." G-entlemen, in reading this toast, things
present fade away, and we look once more upon a scene
enacted nearly a generation ago in the National Republican
Convention assembled in Chicago, in 1860. A Republican

12 BEPUBLICAN CLUB.

delegation, led by one of New- York's most brilliant sons,
had made a gallant flgbt in the interests of William H.
Seward for the presidency, and they tasted the bitterness of
defeat when the presiding officer of that convention an-
nounced that Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, was the choice
of the delegates. Then it was that the chairman of this
delegation with knightly courtesy stepped forward, and in
eloquent sentences moved that the nomination of Abraham
Lincoln be made unanimous. Gentlemen, what could be
more fitting than that the mover of that resolution should
respond to the toast of Abraham Lincoln to-night? (Ap-
plause.) Such is the case, and I have the honor to present
to you one who needs no introduction here, the Hon. William
M. Evarts, of New-York. (Applause and three cheers for
William M. Evarts.)

SPEECH OF MR. EYARTS.

Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Bepublican Club : I am
quite sure that you will allow me to count myself with the
Club, and as one of its members, and not as a stranger by
invitation entitled to the special courtesies we pay to our
invited guests. We are all at home here in New- York, we
honest and earnest Republicans of this Club, and we rejoice
to have the opportunities and the means of spreading an
inviting feast to eminent public men of our party to join in
the celebration of that party in its homage to the name and the
fame of Abraham Lincoln. (Applause.) Your overflowing
tables and your animated faces and exuberant spirits teach me
as well as our visitors to look upon you as the examples and
the leaders engaged in a renovation of the Republican party,
and not in any lamentation at any of its disasters. (Ap-
plause.)

How great a thing it is that in our generation a political
party should have furnished to the admiration of the world
so great a character, so great a conduct, so great a fame,
so great an influence in this wide world of ours as Abraham
Lincoln. (Applause.) Accustomed to look upon the over-
spreading fame and influence of Washington as incapable
of appropriation, in our later politics, to the just preten-
sions and pride of any one party, how great a thing it is
for our party, — an actual living, leading party of our day, —
that we have produced in the secular order of time a name to
match that of Washington, and to give a new word to con-
jure by for American liberty and American independence.
(Applause.) The great State of the old thirteen had claimed,
perhaps, as the chief est glory of its own greatness, that it was

14 REPUBLICAN CLUB.

the birthplace of Washington 5 that its great son, the Father
of his Country, slept on the banks of their own river, the Poto-
mac. Now one of the new States since added to the old thirteen,
the great State of Illinois, has been lifted up out of the whole
body of the thirty-eight States and put on the same plane and
height with old Virginia as the home and growth and scene
of the triumph of Abraham Lincoln ; and Illinois, in the long
ages, shall stand out as the State identified with him, as Vir-
ginia is with George Washington. (Applause.) This glory
of these two great names, thus now diffused over the whole
nation and shared between the old and the new States, is to be-
come henceforth, let us hope, a new security against discords
between North and South, East and West, for all alike shall
worship at these shrines of liberty and justice. (Applause.)
I cannot, Mr. President, speak as in narrative, nor even as
in illustration, of the wonderful career of this most remark-
able American. I can only ask your attention to the very
brief span of years which covers his first introduction to the
general knowledge of his countrymen, and the great stages,
so few and so vast in their upward rise, to the last solemn
culmination of his life in our sorrow at his death. Mr.
Lincoln, in 1856, was spoken of in the Republican party as a
candidate for the Vice-Presidency, and received, I think, some-
thing over one hundred votes for that place j but I do not
think it is saying too much, as to the country at large, that,
except among his neighbors in his own State and in the
neighboring States, this was the first mention of that name
on the wide theater of public fame of the United States. Two
years afterward he was made a candidate, in the purposes of
the Republicans of Illinois, as their leader and champion in
the campaign then opening, to send him to the Senate of the
United States to displace the power and favor held by Mr.
Douglas with the people of Illinois. Out of that great con-
test, in which this somewhat new champion of Republican
principles, and of the great principles of liberty and of duty,
was matched against the Democratic purposes represented by
Mr. Douglas, came the name of Abraham Lincoln to be known
almost as fully, and as clearly, and as warmly throughout
the land, as was the young stripling David throughout Judea,
after the smooth stone from his sling had smitten the giant
Groliath. (Applause.) And from that step forward you will

SPEECH OF MK. EVARTS. 15

find in sacred or profane history no more wonderful and no
more rapid advance in human affairs, than this of Abra-
ham Lincoln's, since the elevation of the young shepherd to be
king of Judea, the king that this religious people honor and
admire as the great king of ancient times.

Now, wonderful, is it not, that from that first step taken in
1858, but two years afterward he became the leader and the
candidate, not of a party in the ordinary contests and compe-
titions of our politics, but as the leader of an aroused, and
indignant, and resentful nation against the evil shames into
which we had been plunged by the Democratic party j and thus
he was made the leader, not of a party, but of a nation that
was rising in its power to shake off the manacles and fetters
that had bound its limbs. (Applause.) Then, from the opening
of his authority of rule under the Constitution, see how every-
thing that he had to do and everything that he did was
great and noble, and wonderful and new. In the first month
following his inauguration what more wonderful bugle-note
was ever blown by human breath than that which called up
the people of the United States who loved their country and
were loyal to its institutions to come out in arms to suppress
a rebellion that expected to be triumphant by our negligence
and indifference ! (Applause.) Upon this same great sum-
mons, behold how swiftly, covering this great coast of ours
from the capes of Delaware to New Orleans and Galveston,
and on the Pacific coast the whole sea was crowded with
ships to enforce a blockade that the world had never dreamed
of as possible of enforcement. And so on, step by step, the
great army of citizen soldiers grew, and the zeal and the
fervor and the patriotic sacrifices of the nation marshaled the
manhood of the country, and marshaled the wealth of the
country, all to be poured into the lap of the great Govern-
ment and placed at its service to preserve for all this peo-
ple, the American nation, with its constitution unpolluted
and its territory unmutilated. (Applause.) Great occurrences
in the history of the world ! The example is set, and here-
after the people may rest secure without an army and with-
out a navy when it is known that a people like this, when
their honor or their interests are struck at by intestine or by
foreign foes, is able to array on battle-fields and to display on
the wide ocean enough of warlike power to meet the warfare of

16 EEPUBLICAN CLUB.

the world. (Applause. ) But see how all this material pride and
power was but the attendant and the servant, as it has been
from the beginning, but the minister of the great design of
Providence, of whom Abraham Lincoln was the trusted instru-
ment. Then we come to the greatest act in the history of
our world of personal influence in its affairs, the emancipation,
by the pen of a ruler, of the millions of the enslaved fellow-
countrymen of ours. (Applause.) And to crown all, to make
that fact permanent and constitutional, that had been justified
and was needed as a step in the war, he lived to see a pro-
claimed peace not over a subjugated people, but over a sup-
pressed rebellion. (Applause.)

By a happy inspiration given to few orators, Abraham Lin-
coln did what no orator since Pericles's time has been able
to do — that is, to add one exhilarating and ennobling thought
to the ever-memorable oration which Pericles delivered over
the dead of Greece that died for Greece. Every scholar that
has read that perfect piece of patriotic feeling and eloquent
truth of the Greek orator, must admit that Abraham Lincoln's
single phrase, at Gettysburg, ^^ The world will little note, nor
long remember what we say here, but it can never forget
what they did here," will live with the splendid rhetoric of
Pericles. (Applause.)

Now, what was there, in the future of his life, of great
historic fame, of great and arduous yet completed and tri-
umphant duty, left for Abraham Lincoln to live for and to
do? There might be much else for this country that he
should have survived for, but who that looks at a rounded
and complete character and fame but must recognize that
there was nothing left for him in the stages of human great-
ness and of grades of perpetual homage from mankind, but
that this great chosen and triumphant leader should be made a
martyr. Was there anything left in the r61e of human glory
to crown that of Abraham Lincoln after he had received the
surrender of the rebellion and the acclaim of the nation as its
savior, but that he should receive the consecrating crown of a
martyr ? (Applause.) And this consecration came about, this
blow of malice and of treason struck down Abraham Lincoln,
on the day of all the year, the day which we celebrate as Good
Friday, the day the Saviour fell. Can we then fail to asso-
ciate— who in Christendom, in the hearts of the religious and

SPEECH OF MR. EVARTS. 17

Christian people of the world but must associate — this death
of Lincoln, the martyr for liberty and the hopes of civil
institutions for man, with this dreadful day of the crucifixion.
That was a sad night for this country to be sure, when, in a
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, he lost all consciousness
to things of earth. He slumbered through that long, sad
night,

^' But when the sun in all his state,
Illumed the Eastern skies,
He passed through Glory's morning gate,
And walked in Paradise."

But it is not wholly to-day that we are to celebrate the
memory of Lincoln. This marvelous history of an American
boy, ended at the age of fifty-six, tells a story that belongs to
the whole world. For us, gathered here, his example, his lessons
are to be accepted for practical duties and practical objects
by the great political party that shares with him the glories
of his achievements as he did of ours. It is in that name and
by that sign that the Republican party expects now to take
up and carry forward the great and continual, and let us
hope perpetual, growth and elevation, and exaltation of the
American people (applause), purged of all that human nature
below the skies may hope to miss, as it goes on step by step ;
but not, let me remind you. Republicans of New- York, by
belittling or explaining away the greatness of Lincoln and
the greatness of the Republican party. Who would think
that, under the exigencies of political agitations and political
aspirations, we should come to find in great numbers of our
countrymen a disposition to belittle and defame the greatness
of those achievements and the wonderful credit that attends
them all ? Or, that the nation in the next following genera-
tion should think that it was irksome and tedious to renew
and perpetuate those feelings, which arouse and animate us in
the discharge of our duty ?

Let us then be true to ourselves. By our next election we
are to launch our Government, with a new President for the
first term, upon our second hundred years. We are bound
to trust it only with men and with principles, and with cour-
age, and with patriotism that can be followed in the coming
century, and long after, in the path that is illuminated by the

18 EEPUBLICAN CLUB.

public virtues of Washington and of Lincoln. (Applause.)
Does not every Republican that deserves the name, kindle
with new feelings and with new purposes whenever the name
and the birthday of Lincoln is mentioned? Have we any-
thing to explain or to explain away? Do we want to put
any new glosses and any new interpretations on the triumph-
ant period of the Republican party and the culminating
fame of Abraham Lincoln ? Do we wish to send it out to
European nations that the sober second-thought of the Ameri-
can people is a little disposed to call that a period of enthusi-
asm which all Republicans know was, from the beginning to
the end, and from the common soldier and the common voter
up to Abraham Lincoln and the great generals and the great
statesmen about him, an honest, and a noble, and an unflinch-
ing, and an inflexible purpose that this country of ours
should be independent and free, able to take care of our
industries, our prosperity, our character, and our conduct in
the face of the world ? (Applause.) Where are those idle and
frivolous trumpeters of the subsequent fame of another party ?
(Cries of ''Nowhere,'^ and laughter.) Some unwise but appar-
ently well-wishing friend of the President has thought it a
good thing to bring the two names of the President of the
day and the great President of our time, Abraham Lincoln,
together, for comparison. Who raised this comparison ? Did
any Democrat ever think it worth his while to put those two
names together ? (Laughter.) Did any Republican ever wish
to do it ? (Cries of ^^ No, no.'^) Who under Heavens dared to
do that injury to the living President, thus to reinflame the
enthusiasm for the great dead whose birthday we celebrate ?
(Cries of " Grood, good.")

Now, the solemn character of Lincoln, shown by his pious
phrases and his sober reverence, brings us to this as the wis-
dom of the sacred Scripture : " A man^s heart deviseth his
way, but the Lord directeth his steps." Abraham Lincoln, in
his honest heart, devised his way that he would serve his coun-
try — that he would serve humanity, that he would serve it in
peril, serve it in prosperity, serve it for the country, serve it
for the world J but the Lord directed those steps that he
could not foresee, could not imagine ; the Lord directed his
steps, and there was no crown for him but that which should
lift him into the higher sphere of nearness to the Grod whom

SPEECH OF MK. EVABTS. 19

he revered and worshiped. (Applause.) And, now, the undis-
covered country which the steps of Abraham Lincoln now
traverse, and toward which all our steps tend, is crowded with
heroes and martyrs, servants of their time, prophets and great
captains in the service of truth 5 but we must all reverently
feel that among those majestic shades there is found, and not
the least among them, the august form and glory of Abraham
Lincoln. (Applause.)

President Bartlett: Gentlemen, there could be but one
toast immediately succeeding that of Abraham Lincoln, and
that is the toast of ^^ The Republican Party. Summoned into
existence at the call of freedom, trained in the school of un-
paralleled responsibility, it stands to-day with a past that is
glorious and a future filled with promise.^^ (Applause.) The
sentiment of this toast, gentlemen, is brief, but it conveys in a
sentence the past and the future of the Republican party. We
listen to the story of its magnificent achievements and illus-
trious deeds with increasing interest. Our Committee to-
night have summoned here to respond to this toast one of
the brilliant orators of the North-west. I have great pleasure
in presenting to you one of the United States senators from
Wisconsin, Hon. John C. Spooner. (Three cheers for Senator
Spooner.)

SPEECH OF MR. SPOONER.

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Republican Club : Coming
to you to-night a stranger (Cries of "No, no''), I am quick
to recognize with grateful sensibility the warmth which per-
vades your welcome. An unmarred tribute on such an occa-
sion to the memory of Abraham Lincoln must inevitably
include the sentiment which you now propose to the party
whose flag he carried, and at whose head he fell. (Applause.)
Measured by what it has wrought for the public weal, the
Republican party is centuries old. Tested merely by the
lapse of years, it is still young. Think of it. Only thirty-
three years ago its first convention assembled in Ohio (ap-
plause), declaring its principles in ringing words that still
stir one's blood ; it placed its standard and its fortunes in the
hands of one whose name is very dear to us, and the record of
whose life is one of our jewels — Salmon P. Chase. (Applause.)
I refer, gentlemen, to that convention partly to remind you of
the pleasant fact that it is well represented here to-night. Its
presiding officer, a brave and devoted leader, everywhere hon-
ored for wise and consummate statesmanship, happily still
clothed with vigorous manhood, is a guest at this banquet
board and sits at the right of your president. (Prolonged ap-
plause at this reference to Senator Sherman, and three cheers
for John Sherman.) Its secretary, carrying with him to a
frontier state the spirit of that convention, and the principles
which it adopted, has long been the pride of Republican Iowa
and lives very near to the popular heart. He, too, is your
guest to-night. (Referring to Senator Allison). (Applause.)
Over two centuries before the organization of onr party there
had been planted on this continent two ideas predestined to

SPEECH OF ME. SPOONEB. 21

eternal conflict. The one proclaimed from the " Mayflower " at
Plymouth Rock the civil and religious liberty of all men.
The other proclaimed from the Dutch ship on the James the
right of the white man to own the body and the labor of the
black. The battle between these hostile forces, insidious but
alert, unseen but always existent, went on, each seeking and
finding in the land its natural abiding place, and strange to
say, the evil one finding at last a home in the Constitution.
By the indulgence given to the slave trafiic and the recog-
nition of slave ownership as an element in the basis of repre-
sentation, the framers of the Constitution set the squadrons
of freedom and slavery in the field, and projected between
these forces a political conflict to end only with the survival
of the fittest. (A voice : '^ Good.-') From that day forth that
one must struggle to increase its power, and that the other
must struggle to resist it, was but simple obedience to a law
of nature. It is of no profit here to dwell in detail upon the
great struggle which preceded the coming of the Repub-
lican party. This party sprang into life to obstruct the path
of human slavery (applause) and to vindicate the dignity of
human labor (renewed applause), and these central ideas of
its being run like a golden thread through its whole career.
From the day of its birth it stood God's instrument upon
this continent to fight the battle of liberty. It found the
slave power intrenched in the Constitution, dictating the
policy of the country, controlling the administration of the
Government, piling with insolent industry statute upon stat-
ute in derogation of human rights, degrading with the sanc-
tion of the Supreme Court the free people of free States into
mere slave-catchers, until it tendered to the country at last the
dreadful alternative to surrender the right of majority rule,
or to submit to a dissolution of the American Union. With
what sublimity of patient, prudent courage the Republican
party met that test ,• with what splendid confidence it appealed
to the people ; with what superb fealty did the people respond.
An empty treasury, a stained and dishonored credit, a scat-
tered and disloyal army, a distant and weakened navy — these
were trifies light as air. Animated by patriotic purposes,
strong in national spirit, devoted to the Union of States,
oflicered by members of the Old Guard, beset by enemies at
the front, weakened by enemies at the rear, embarrassed by

22 REPUBLICAN CLUB.

the jealousy of hostile nations over the sea, the Republican
party broke from its environment, and pressed onward to the
end. (Applause.) It asked for no quarter ; it sent out from
its front no white flag of truce ; it consented to no armistice;
it recruited from the ranks of the people over two millions of
citizen soldiers, and sent them forth under the leadership of
Grant, and Sherman (applause), and Sheridan (applause), and
Thomas, and Logan (applause), and the long line of illustrious
heroes who gathered about them to defend the life of the
Republic ; and amidst the shock of contending armies, in the
molten fire of battle, the shackles of slavery melted forever
away, and the Union of States stood redeemed, regenerated
and perpetual. (Applause.) The capacity of this party for
government acknowledged no limit. In the midst of the
tumult, and waste, and trouble of war, it trod with phenom-
enal energy the paths of peace. It organized new territories,
it added new stars to the flag, even while the army bore it
from Atlanta to the sea. (Applause.) It promoted education
among the people; it encouraged immigration; drove back
the frontier, and filled the North with prosperous homes, free
gifts out of the public domain ; it inaugurated public improve-
ments; it protected and dignified American labor. (Applause.)
It built up and diversified American industries ; it won and
declared the industrial independence of this nation. Then, in
the flush of victory, crowned with the wonderful success of its
policies, it turned with a magnanimity and charity never
known in any other land, or among any other people, to bring
back a scattered family into the house which the fathers had
builded, and to repair the waste and ravages of war. It main-
tained the national faith ; it burnished the public credit, dear
to a nation as honor is to a man, or chastity to a woman, until
it shines as bright as the stars in the sky above us. (Applause.)
It wrote in the Constitution the proclamation of freedom, and
made all men equal before the law. In short, it crowded into
the years from 1861 to 1885 — only a day in the life of a people
— more of devotion to liberty, of wise legislation, of perfect
administrative methods, of creative statesmanship, of military
glory, and of magnanimity and forbearance, than the world
had seen in a thousand years. (Applause.) And among other
things it did which ought not to be forgotten, in its own good
time and in its own way, it gave to our truculent neighbor.

SPEECH OF MB. SPOONER. 23

Mr. John Bull — always the industrial enemy of this country —
an excellent opportunity to settle or fight. (Prolonged ap-
plause.) And he settled. (Laughter and applause.) In 1884,
in the midst of a campaign the like of which for cowardly de-
traction and slander I hope may not come again, marshaled by
leaders as gallant as any whose plumes ever waved at the
front of a column (Great cheers again and again renewed),
the Eepublican party encountered its first defeat in a quarter
of a century. (A voice : " That was done by the Mugwumps.")
Yes, and the alliterative oratory which from that time forth
ought to be punished by imprisonment for life. (Laughter
and applause.) The Democratic forces marched back into the
citadel, and to-day this ancient adversary of ours which has
had a look at the books (laughter), which has counted the
money (renewed laughter), which has turned on the light —
a Pan-Electric included (laughter and applause) — stands
before a deluded people, daily fulfilling Republican prophesies
of its governmental incapacity, and bearing dumb, unwilling,
but unimpeachable testimony to the rectitude of Republican
administrations, and to the perfection of Republican methods.
(Applause.)

But, gentlemen, the bugle call of duty never rang out more
clearly to the Republican party than it does this night. (Cries
of '^ Good.") Its work is not half done. We may linger lov-
ingly over its shining past only to gather inspiration for the
conflicts yet to come, as the soldiers in the war time used to
sing around the camp-fires the sweet songs of home to nerve
them to higher effort in the next day's fight. (Applause.) Be-
fore this anniversary day shall come again a supreme battle is
to be lost or won. (Cries of "Won.") Won it shall be. (Ap-
plause.) Great issues challenge the party's best effort, and
demand the party's best leadership. One of the parallels of
history confronts us. Minority rule has come again into the
Government. By a strange fatuity the negro race, always
kindly and inoffensive, is still, in the hands of a Southern
democracy, a factor of danger and outrage in our political
system. The Republican party clad the former slave in the
raiment of citizenship, and placed in his freed hand our only
badge of sovereignty, the ballot ; with too charitable faith
in the developments of the future it changed the basis of rep-
resentation without adequate safeguards, and to-day its mag-

24 EEPUBLICAN CLUB.

nanimity and trustfulness are turned like weapons of death
against it. (Applause.) The Southern Democracy accepted
with alacrity the enlarged basis of representation, and pro-
ceeded by fraud, and bloodshed, and threats to stamp out the
franchise upon which it was based, and is back again to-day
in control of the Government, stronger as a dominant element
than ever before. Tell me what higher issue could summon the
Republican party to a great effort than the protection of the
ballot, the integrity of the suffrage, the enforcement of consti-
tutional rights, the redemption of the pledges of the past, and
the maintenance of constitutional equality among the States ?
Now and then some demoralized leader of the party sends out
his note of warning that the people have grown weary of this
issue ; that we must take from our banner the legend," A free
ballot and a fair count,'^ and fight the battle of 1888 upon eco-
nomic issues solely. What does this mean 1 Is the Republican
conscience to be quieted into slumber by the soothing spirit of
profitable trade ? Is this violent wrong upon the people, this
gross usurpation of power no longer to inspire the party of
freedom, because, forsooth, the men who perpetrate and those
who profit cry with uplifted hand, " Bloody Shirt " -, or be-
cause, here and there, an old-time Republican turns wearily
and complacently away to worship at the shrine of a Civil
Service Reform, which invented trial by affidavit upon charges
of partisanship (laughter), which folded Eugene Higgins to
its bosom (laughter), which has divorced the offices from
politics by bestowing them all upon the members of one
party (laughter), and which has thrown the great weight of
executive influence into a county election, against the protests
of decency? (Cheers and applause.) No, gentlemen, the peo-
ple may well have grown weary of sentimental gush about the
New South and the spirit of love and the era of reconciliation,
as the basis of a demand which seeks to hush the Republican
party into acquiescence in a national crime. We long for the
coming of a New South ; the Republican party has not been
and will not be backward in aid to her up-building or in hasten-
ing her advent. (A voice : "G-ood." Applause.) But, sir, we
can recognize no South as a New South in a political aspect
when she comes to us with her heel upon the negro's neck, with
a desecrated ballot-box in her hand, and usurping dispropor-
tionate power in the affairs of this Government. (Loud ap-

SPEECH OF ME. SPOONEE. ' 25

plause.) If there is nofhing in all this longer to arouse the
Republican party, to stir its blood, and quicken its heart-beat,
then, Mr. President, turn the pictured, pathetic face of Abra-
ham Lincoln to the wall and let his old party die. (Applause.)
The protection of American industry, the elevation of Ameri-
can labor — who shall be the fit guardian of these but the
Republican party ! (Cries of ^^ Good.'O But I beg you to
remember that these issues of gravest concern are much in-
volved in the vital issue of a pure, free, and honest ballot.
(Cries of " Grood, good.^^) The spirit of Southern Democracy,
dominant in control of its party, dictating the industrial policy
of the Government, is the spirit incarnate of free trade. (Ap-
plause.) Is this not so? Professor Carlisle's summer School
of Philosophy at Red Top had scarcely entered upon its vaca-
tion when the hand of a Democratic President from New- York,
amid the huzzas of all England, pressed the poisoned cup of
free-trade to the lips of this people. (Applause.) The distin-
guished Democratic orator from Kentucky, speakitig in this
wonderful city of the Continent, amid the deafening plaudits
of a complacent Northern Democracy, calls that the " painted
harlot of protection," which another distinguished son of Ken-
tucky, whose name has given to that commonwealth more of
fame than all else in her life besides, Henry Clay (applause),
christened in glowing pride ^' The American System." Glance
over the ^'Congressional Directory '^ at the organization of
committees of the House of Representatives in which body
must originate all bills relating to the revenues, and tell me
if the Southern Democracy be not again the potential factor
in the legislation of that body. Glance at the make-up of
the Committee on Ways and Means, charged with the prepa-
ration and given the primary control of tariff legislation.
The great '' manufacturing " State of Texas (derisive laugh-
ter) furnishes its chairman. Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky,
West Virginia, and Arkansas contribute to its membership
(more derisive laughter) ; and the Northern Democracy is
fitly represented in proportion to its independent political
strength by one member. (Voices : " Oh, oh.") The great
State of New- York has no voice on that committee. Mind
you, I do not say that these gentlemen and their colleagues
from that section are not honest in legislation, loyal to the
flag, and devoted to the union of States. I do not say that if

26 * REPUBLICAN CLUB.

either were assailed they would not march with alacrity to
its defense. I do not say that the heresy of secession conies
again to any one of them even in his dreams } but I do say,
and I speak a solemn truth when I say it, that by tradition,
education, prejudice, and the teaching of their lives, these
men are not fit men to take into safe guardianship the inter-
ests of our labor and the protection of our industries.
(Applause.) Treason is forgiven ; rebellion is well-nigh for-
gotten ; it is well. But it is the blindest of folly for our
people to forget that only a little while ago these men swore
allegiance to another Government, and struggled to perpet-
uate its existence, which was based on degraded labor 5 which
looked with hostility upon growing industries, a part of whose
very organic law declared ^' but no bounties shall be granted
from the treasury, nor shall aoy duties or taxes on importa-
tions from foreign nations be laid to promote or foster any
branch of industry." It is for the Republican party to rescue
the interests of our people from such guardianship as this.
(Applause.) The census of 1890 will show the Southern basis
of representation immensely swollen by the fecundity of the
tropical colored race, and you will see that atrophy of the suf-
rage keeps pace with the growth in the basis of representa-
tion. There is but one remedy for this menace to our welfare.
Statutes will not reach it. It is to be found only in a good
old-fashioned Republican majority which will render such
methods no longer efficient for national control in this country.
This remedy we prescribe, and we propose to try to ad-
minister it. (Applause.) It is for the Republican party, once
more restored to administration, to provide for the defense of
your coasts, to improve your rivers and harbors, to enlarge
and extend your commerce, to open the door to Dakota and
the outlying territories, and to bring back into legislation
that principle which the Democratic party never can learn —
that true economy lies in the direction of liberal expenditures
for wise public purposes; to teach the world again, what
from 1861 to 1885 it was never permitted to forget, that the
American flag means something, whether it floats over an
army in line, or from the mast of a lonely fishing smack out
on the restless sea. (Applause.) Our party is ready for the
fight. Its lines are forming. Its drums are beating. Its flags
are rustling in the air about us. It demands, and it will

SPEECH OF MB. SPOONEK. 27

have, a courageous and self-denying leadership that shall hold
the interests of the party and the success of its principles
infinitely above all other things. (Applause.) The logic of
events makes New- York the battle-ground, and assigns to you
the position of honor j and, with the position of honor, the
burden of the battle. Be well assured that the Republican
States of the West and the North-west will not fail you.
(Applause. A voice : ^' We will fight it out on this line if it
takes all summer.") Lead on, New- York ; lead on to victory !
(Continued applause, and three cheers for Senator Spooner.)

President Bartlett : Gentlemen, owing to the slight in-
disposition of one of our distinguished guests, I shall vary
the order of the toasts so that he may speak at once, and I
call the last toast on the list — "A free ballot and a fair
count : unless secured to the whole country the Constitution
is set at naught, the suffrage impaired, and the republic
imperiled.'' Now, gentlemen, when the Constitution is defied
and the suffrage is assailed, we naturally look for some cham-
pion to stand forth and defend those sacred things that lie at
the foundations of our political superstructure, and it is my
very great privilege to-night to call upon one whose name has
been for a generation a household word. As one of the great
finance ministers of the Government, and as a defender of
Republican principles, in Congress and out, he has endeared
himself to the whole American people. I have great pleasure
in presenting to you the Hon. John Sherman, of Ohio. (Three
cheers for John Sherman.)

SPEECH OF MR. SHERMAN.

Gentlemen : I thank you for your enthusiasm, but I admire
more your courage. You demand an honest vote and a fair
count. You seem not to have any fear of the Mugwumps.
(Laughter and applause.) You do not fear the sneers of men
calling themselves Democrats, who fly in the face of the first
principle of democracy truly interpreted : equal rights impar-
tially secured. In this great city you have been taught by
your newspapers that a demand for an honest vote and a
fair count is something terrible — so terrible as to be called
Bloody Shirt. (Laughter.) Why, my countrymen, your demand
is unreasonable. (Cries of " Oh !") It is almost as bad as that
of Oliver Twist, when he wanted more soup. When your sec-
retary sent me this toast, I did not know but that you were
all crazy — heedless of the ''World," the "Herald," and the
" Times." Still, I believe in an honest vote and a fair count,
and I trust in Grod I will always have the courage to express
this opinion anywhere. North or South, East or West. (Ap-
plause.) What is this demand you make? I almost feared
to utter it, lest it would shock you ; so I thought I would
fortify myself by looking into the books ; and I found in
every primer in our schools, in many statutes of all our States,
in every law-book of our land, that an honest vote and a fair
count was the very basis and foundation of Republican insti-
tutions. (Applause.) I looked a little further, and I com-
menced reading those wonderful documents called the Mes-
sages of the Presidents of the United States, and I found in
every one of them, from the time of Washington, down, that
an honest vote, and a fair coant, and a ready acquiescence in
the will of the majority was the fundamental law of the re-

SPEECH OF ME. SHERMAN. 29

public (applause) — not only of our republic, but of every
republic that was formed by man, and that when the voice
of the people was fairly spoken by an honest vote and through
an honest count, it was the voice of God, and every citizen
was bound to obey it as the supreme will of the people. I
found even a faint reference to this old doctrine in one of
the messages of Grover Cleveland — not the last message (a
voice: ^^No." — laughter and applause) — that was devoted to
one topic — to an attack upon the industrial interests of our
country. He had not time enough to say anything about an
honest vote or a fair count in that message ; but he took care
when he expressed his opinion about the honesty of a vote
not to make the application of his text, because if he had
done so it is as plain as Holy Writ that the very foundation
of his title to his office would have been destroyed. (Ap-
plause.) Because, gentlemen, if there had been a fair vote
and a fair count in 1884, James G. Blaine would this day have
been President. (Three cheers for Blaine.) Cheer again;
no more gallant leader ever led the Republican party. (Ap-
plause.) But, the Democratic party has a patent right, an
exclusive privilege to disregard an honest vote and a fair
count. (Cries of ^^That is true.'^) It is the only party in
this country that ever did commit an organized fraud upon
the elective franchise. (A voice: '^ That is so.") And it has
done it against the greatest and noblest men of our history.
The first fraud was practiced in Louisiana, in order to defeat
the gallant Harry Clay of the West, the man for whom I first
cast my vote. (Applause.) There a few men gathered
around a house, not more than 20 or 30 in number, polled
over 500 votes for Mr. Polk, the Democratic candidate. That
was called the Plaquemine fraud. The next case was
brought to my attention very forcibly, and I thought a
little too forcibly — I thought I was to be killed among
them. It was when the border ruffians of Missouri went
over into Kansas to control elections by force and fraud.
Then for the first time those border ruffians were brought
face to face with the stern courage of the Northern people,
and they were told, '^ Thus far shalt thou go and no farther,"
and the State of Kansas is an immortal exemplar of the power
and benefit conferred by this demand for a free vote and a fair
count. (Applause.) Another case that occurred within the

30 EEPUBLICAN CLUB.

history and recollection of many here: in this very city of
New-York, where in the election of 1868, under the regime
of a man by the name of Tweed — whom I suppose you have
heard of before (laughter) — a fraud was committed which
changed the result of the vote of the State of New- York.
That was proven by conclusive and absolute testimony taken
by a Committee of Congress. And what was the purpose of
that fraud? To defeat General Ulysses S. Grant (applause)
when he first ran for President. That is not all, my country-
men. Only three years ago, when the greatest volunteer sol-
dier of our army was running as a candidate for Senator of
the United States in the State of Illinois, this same Democratic
party organized a fraud to beat John A. Logan. (Applause. )
Thank God there was virtue enough among the people of
Chicago to arrest the men guilty of this crime, and to send
them to the penitentiary, and they are now appealing to Gov-
ernor Oglesby of Illinois to extend mercy to those true Demo-
crats. We have had some little experience of this kind in Ohio.
(Laughter. Voices: '^Everywhere.") I want to give you in-
stances so that no man will gainsay it. Two years ago, in the
election in Ohio, this same Democratic party, operating through
the criminal classes in Cincinnati and Columbus, endeavored
to prevent my reelection to the Senate of the United States.
Well, that would not have been much loss. (Voices : " Yes,
it would.") The result was that those frauds were exposed,
the men charged with those crimes were arraigned, indicted,
and convicted, and some of them are now in the penitentiary.
(Applause.) A similar fraud was attempted in the city of
Columbus, where, by absolute forgery of returns, they pro-
posed to change the result of the election, and to-day, while I
am enjoying your hospitality, some of the men charged with
these crimes are now on trial, and, if guilty, I have no doubt
will be convicted. I will say nothing in regard to them.
But I wish to say that all Democrats have not been guilty
of these things, and I am glad to say that there is one man in
Ohio, as great as any man that ever sat in the Senate of the
United States, called sometimes by the Democrats '^ The Old
Roman '^ — too much of a Roman for them (applause) — who
is now prosecuting these alleged offenses.

So, gentlemen, you see that election frauds have been com-
mitted by the Democratic party not only South but in the

SPEECH OF MB. SHEEMAN. 31

North. But what shall be said of the greater fraud that has
been practiced in the Southern States ? I do not wish to dis-
cuss it at length, but only to bring before you the results of
that fraud. It is admitted that in six of the Southern States
there are less than 3,000,000 of white people, and considerably
more than 3,000,000 of black people. It is known as abso-
lutely as any demonstration in Euclid, that the colored people,
from a sense of gratitude, from an instinct of what is right,
always vote the Republican ticket, when they are allowed to
do it. (Applause.) And besides that, there is a large body
of men in the South, Confederate soldiers as well as Union
men, who are Republicans — more heartily Republicans than
probably many of us are — so that if there was a fair elec-
tion in those six States (they elect forty members of Congress
and forty-eight electors) it would reverse the majority in the
House of Representatives, it would reverse the vote in the
electoral college, and the Republican party would in 1884
have been triumphantly successful. (Applause.) I have a
list of thirty-nine Democratic members of Congress who
are now serving in Congress from districts that are as
thoroughly Republican as the State of Iowa — thirty-nine
districts in which the blacks are in the majority, and they
are reenforced, if there was a fair vote and an honest count,
by a large portion of the white people. It is these thirty-nine
votes that now threaten your industrial interests, will endanger
your tariff, break down your protection, involve us in new
questions of finance j and the question is, whether the Repub-
lican party has courage enough to meet this difficulty and
danger. (Voices: '^We have.*') The remedy, I know, is
difficult to point out, but I know also that the Constitution of
the United States declares that Congress may regulate the
mode and manner of electing members of Congress. The
Republican party has been kind and forbearing, but I believe
that in not exercising this power in the past it has done wrong.
(Voices : " It has.^') Every man of sense must see it. It may
be difficult now to repair that error. Again it is within
the power of each House of Congress to pass upon the elec-
tion returns and qualifications of its members ; and here again
I believe the Republican party has been somewhat derelict in
its duty. When these cases of palpable fraud are brought to
them, as they have been by proof as clear as can be made in

32 KEPUBLICAN CLUB.

any court of justice, Congress ought to have exercised that
power, but it has not done it. But, gentlemen, there is a
more hopeful view of this matter. There is a remedy that
I believe will yet correct this evil, if the Republican party is
only true to its principles. There is a growing feeling in
the Southern States among men engaged in new industrial
enterprises, especially in Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia, West
Virginia, and perhaps in North Carolina, where there is a
rebellion against the old Bourbon Democracy (voices : ^' Good^'),
where the white men of the South, if they had a fair chance,
and the honest support of the Northern Republicans, and had
the benefit of a fair vote and a fair count, each of those
States would be added to the Republican column. (Ap-
plause.) Now, gentlemen, this is only one, but not the least
important, of the issues that are presented. I do not want
to say anything more about it except to emphasize what has
been said by Mr. Spooner, that if the Republican party has
not got the courage to repair this wrong and injustice to the
negro, let them do it for their own protection, for if they do
not, this political power wrongfully usurped will undo all
that has been done by the Republican party, will break down
our protected industries, and add new troubles to the future
life of the Republic. Now, I have the courage to say that to
you, and you know that what I say is true. The only ques-
tion is, how shall we go about it, and that I will not discuss
to-night. Perhaps I ought to confine myself to my text —
but there are other questions of great importance. The
question of the surplus will be fully discussed by my friend
here on my left (Mr. Allison), our duties to the Union soldier
by my friend on the right (Mr. Manderson), but there is one
vital question that is supreme at this moment, and that is,
whether the Democratic party shall tamper with our industrial
system and invite into this country the products of foreign
nations, produced by unpaid or poorly paid labor, into com-
petition with the labor and capital of our own country. This
city of New- York is more interested in that question than
any other. I have been amazed that in this great city of New-
York — which has now more manufacturing industries than
Philadelphia, and is the largest manufacturing as well as com-
mercial city on our continent — why you have not taken this
question of the tariff home to the people, discussed it in their

SPEECH OF ME. SHERMAN. 33

primaries, in their wards, and in their assemblages, let them
understand the length and breadth of this great question ; and
I do believe if that is done we will no longer have any doubt
about the success of the Republican party in New- York.
(Voices : " Good.") Indeed, I believe it is fore-ordained ; we
have been punished by one term of Democracy, and I think
that God will forgive us from any further punishment on that
score. (Applause.) Now, gentlemen, with these remarks, I
will close, as you see I am somewhat broken in voice and
strength by speeches up in the cold New England, in Boston
and Providence, and I am not in a very good condition to talk
to you longer. (Continued applause, and three cheers for
John Sherman.)

President Bartlett : Gentlemen, the next regular toast is
the '^ State of New- York : The imperial commonwealth of the
Union, an undisputed leader in all that has contributed to our
national greatness." In selecting a gentleman to respond to
this toast, our Committee have called upon one who.has recently
represented us in the United States Senate, and who long ago
not only demonstrated his ability to defend his native State
against all comers, but to stand in that galaxy of statesman-
ship that we as a commonwealth delight to honor. I take
great pleasure in presenting to you the Hon. Warner Miller,
of New- York. (Three cheers for Warner Miller.)

SPEECH OF MR. MILLER.

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Bepublican Club : Some
one has said that neither the character nor the acts of a great
man can properly be judged until at least a century has passed,
in order that the light of events may test whether they were
great and whether his achievements were such as to bring
good to his race. However true that may be, the American
people, within less than a quarter of a century of the death of
Abraham Lincoln, have passed a judgment upon his character
and career which untold ages will not reverse. That judg-
ment is that no more unselfish man and patriot ever gave
his life for the good of his country. (Applause.) Mr.
President, your Club has done well in being first to recog-
nize and to establish in this country the observance of the
birthday of our great liberator (applause) ; and, when this
club, having accomplished its purposes and its organization,
shall have passed into history, this one act will remain through
all time to come ; for I do not hesitate to predict that another
generation will not pass by when the 12th of February, like
the 22d of February, will be a national holiday wherever our
flag floats. (Applause.) You have asked me to respond to
the toast of the ^' State of New- York." I scarcely know why
you have done so, Mr. President, unless perhaps it should be
true that I am the only native-born New-Yorker at this board.
(Laughter.) But, Mr. President, our State is so generous and
so great that it adopts its children from all other countries
and from all other States. Why, sir, we permit our senior
senator to live in an adjoining annex at the north, in Ver-
mont, and we find no fault with that, for if he can live there
during the summer solstice we know that he can better repre-

SPEECH OF MR. MILLER. 35

sent the greatness of New- York during the winter at Wash-
ington. Mr. President, I cannot speak of the physical charac-
teristics of our State : I cannot portray its wonderful growth
and progress, or the beauties of its landscape. Orators have
grown eloquent upon this subject j poets have sung of itj
painters have attempted to delineate its beauties upon can-
vas, and all have failed. Ours is called the Empire State.
Before Henry Hudson had turned the prow of his good
ship, the Salf Moon, up the great river which perpetuates his
name and daring, or Champlain had penetrated our northern
boundaries, the territory now occupied by the State of New
York was the seat of empire. The Five Nations occupying
the center and the interior of this State, upon a plateau which
gave the only natural communication between the sea and the
great lakes, were a people who by their prowess had conquered
more than haK this continent ; and, coming down the water-
ways which flowed to the ocean here at New- York, and into
Chesapeake Bay, and into the St. Lawrence and the great
lakes, they had demanded and received tribute from a vast
majority of their brethren who occupied this country. They
held the sources of power in holding the courses of intercom-
munication. Those natural advantages which they enjoyed
have been to us the sources of our great growth and prosperity,
and added to by the wisdom of our early fathers who gave us
the water communication between the ocean and the great
lakes, they have made us the Empire State of the Union and
have given us to a great extent the control of the commerce of
this country. But since engineering skill has found out other
means of intercommunication by tunneling the Alleghenies,
whether we shall be able in this great industrial and commer-
cial contest which is upon us to hold the supremacy which
our fathers bequeathed to us, or no, is to be the paramount
test of our worthiness of the inheritance which has come to
our hands ; but so long, Mr. President, as we shall number
among our native sons a man (Mr. Depew) who is able to
control and manage two great arteries of trade through our
State, where an ordinary individual would think one was
sufficient, and to make them successful, Mr. President, I
think we may congratulate ourselves that we shall forever
hold the supremacy. (Applause.) A people and their institu-
tions are of far greater interest and importance than the mere

36 EEPUBLICAN CLUB.

physical surroundings of their habitation. As a people we are
a mixed race — principally Dutch and English, but we have
drawn our blood from all the races of the civilized world, and
I think I may say, without fear of contradiction, that in line-
age if not in politics, we are naturally all half breeds ; but the
Dutch imprint put upon our institutions during the time that
Holland held control of this colony was of such a character
that no amount of immigration from other nations, or any of
the revolutions or changes which have taken place in our
government have been sufficient to efface it. (A voice:
'^ Grood.") Indeed, sir, we owe to our Dutch ancestors the
chief institutions of our civil and religious liberty as we know
them to-day, and these remain as the chief glory of our State
and nation. (Applause.) Holland, at the time that she estab-
lished the colony of New Netherlands, was a nation famous
for the ability of its citizens for self-government, for religious
tolerance, for education, for skill in handicraft and manufact-
ures, and especially for their renown in maritime and com-
mercial success. These qualities were bestowed upon this
colony at its settlement, and they remain to-day the chief
characteristics of our people. Although New Amsterdam
was established as a trading colony, yet the good Dutch peo-
ple brought with them their love of civil and religious liberty,
and they at once proceeded to establish schools, and churches,
and the ordinary forms of free civil government. History
tells us that when one of the early Director-Generals of this
colony called upon his good people for men and money to
carry on a war against the Indians, that the sturdy burghers
met in convention and demanded of their ruler that they
should have a representative assembly, and that neither money
nor men should be used save it was first voted by a free assem-
bly. (Applause.) This was the essence — this was the fun-
damental principle upon which years later all the colonies
united in their opposition to the aggressions of England,
that was ^^ No taxation without representation.'^ (Applause.)
It may not be amiss at this time, Mr. President, to remind
these worthy descendants of those Dutch settlers and to call
the attention of my worthy friend from Ohio who is to address
us upon the tariff question that, so far as history tells us, the
first movement in this country for a protective tariff was made
by our Dutch ancestors. At the same time, sir, that they de-

SPEECH OF ME. MILLEE. 37

mauded a free legislative assembly they also demanded pro-
tection against Connecticut, whose governor I have here at
my right (Grovernor Lounsbury). Those Dutch farmers had
found that our Yankee friends then occupying the foreign
country of Connecticut were interfering with the production
of live stock in their colony, and they called upon the Director-
General to prohibit their importation from Connecticut. He
assented ; but history tells us that smuggling at once became
a fine art. Our Yankee friends were too much for our Dutch
forefathers. They drove their cattle across the line upon
Sunday, when our ancestors believed that under the laws of
Connecticut they were quietly at home attending church.
(Laughter and applause.)

When this colony passed from the control of Holland to that
of Great Britain, the spirit of our people, for the maintenance
of civil liberty, in no way abated, and the contests between
the colony of New- York and the royal governors were very
frequent. Many of the safeguards which are now thrown
around our legislative assemblies, both at Washington and
in the several States, owe their origin to the Legislature of
the colony of New-York under English rule. When the royal
governor undertook to say who should sit in the assembly of
New- York, the New- York Assembly put forth this doctrine,
which is in the Constitution of our Federal Government and
of all our States, that a legislative assembly shall be the sole
judge of the qualification of its own members. (Applause.)
And when the royal governor of this State would have inter-
fered with the liberty of the representatives of the people,
they went further, and they proclaimed another doctrine,
which remains to this date, and that was that no legislator
should be called in question for words spoken within an
assembly chamber, save by the legislative body itself. To-
day, when we read these words in our Constitutions, we may
not pause to think that they were the result of the fortitude,
of the courage, and of the perseverance of our forefathers.

But New- York, sir, has a greater claim still upon the
liberty-loving people of this country. In this city was first
achieved the absolute freedom of the press. In 1737, by the
trial and acquittal of Peter Zenger, the then publisher of the
'^ Journal " of this city, the doctrine was forever established,
so far as this country was concerned, that it was no longer a

38 EEPUBLICAN CLUB.

crime to print the truth regarding the Government. That
doctrine, sir, went very far toward giving ns our liberties, as
we have them to-day; for if the press had then been sup-
pressed, who can tell how many more years would have rolled
by before the colonies, scattered along this Atlantic coast,
without any ready means of communication, could have been
united in one body, and could have achieved their liber-
ties. Our young friends of the press here to-night should
give thanks to the old burghers of New- York. (Applause.)
To-day they have full liberty not only to publish the truth
about the Government and about its public men, but, sir,
they have full liberty to publish anything they please.
(Laughter and applause.)

New- York has still another claim upon our people. It was
the Assembly of New- York — and, sir, we give full credit to
Massachusetts and to Virginia, and even to little Connecticut,
for all their glorious work in the cause of achieving our lib-
erty 5 but I must claim for New- York, sir, the honor of having
originated the first movement for the union of the colonies.
By an Act of the Assembly of New- York, in 1764, a commit-
tee was appointed, whose duty it was to correspond with the
Assemblies of all the other colonies, to impress upon them the
danger of submitting to taxation under laws passed in Eng-
land, where we had no representation. That was the begin-
ning of the glorious cause which led on to the achievements
of our liberties, and which sees us to-day the perfect Union
and Eepublic that we are.

In the war of the revolution New- York bore its full share,
if not more. Its soil was never free from the tread of the
army of the invader, and when the captains of the British host
planned a strategic campaign which would have crushed us
by dividing all New-England from the South, by holding the
line of the Hudson River and Lake Champlain, New York, by
the glorious victories of Oriskany and Saratoga, thwarted that
stratagem and saved the nation. (Applause.)

Passing over the intervening time, let us come down to the war
of the rebellion. The State of New- York was second to none
in its efforts and its labors to sustain the cause of the Union.
I need not go into any lengthy remarks upon that ; its history
is known. We put into the field during those four bloody years
nearly five hundred thousand able-bodied soldiers. (Applause.)

SPEECH OF ME. MILLEE. 39

"We were constantly singing that old song, which I cannot
repeat, but which contains certain words addressed to Father
Abraham, that " we are coming, three hundred thousand more."
We not only furnished those men, but we furnished other
sinews of war. New- York poured out her treasure in untold
millions as free as water, and I believe that Abraham Lincoln
leaned more thoroughly and more securely upon the states-
men and upon the people of New- York during that long and
bloody conflict than he did upon any other equal number of
our people. If we were to turn, Mr. President, to the political
history of our State, we would find it equally interesting, but
I shall not presume upon the time or patience of this Club to
go into any lengthy discussion upon that topic. But it may
not be out of place that I should refer to the position of the
Republican party during that struggle, and during all the
years that have followed. Although, sir, we cannot claim to
have within our borders the birth-place of the Republican
party, yet we do confidently claim that we furnished the man
who by his brilliancy and by his power of intellect did more
to mould the forces of libertv into one coherent mass which
became the Republican party, than any other man. I need
not say that I refer to that matchless politician and wise
statesman, William H. Seward. (Applause.) As I read our
history, it seems to me providential that he came upon the
stage of action at the time he did. You will remember
that Mr. Webster, who had given his whole life to the main-
tenance and defense of our Constitution, had finally, in his
declining years, so far yielded to the opposite forces that he
was prepared for compromise. You will also remember that
that brilliant son of America, Henry Clay, who had never
cherished but one love, and had never known but one en-
thusiasm — that was a love and enthusiasm for the union of
the States — had spent the later years of his life in attempting
to bring about a compromise between the forces of liberty
and slavery, where there could be no compromise ; and when
these two giants had laid down their arms and had put off
their armor, William H. Seward came to the front in the
Senate of the United States and took up the fight ; and it was
his word, his proclamation to the people of a higher law, of a
law of justice and right, of a divine law — it was his sum-
mation of the case, when he pronounced the conflict between

40 EEPUBLICAN CLUB.

liberty and slavery to be irrepressible (applause), that the
forces of liberty throughout the length and breadth of this
country recognized that they had found a leader who was
competent to organize them and to lead them to glorious
victory 5 and he did it, Mr. President, most gallantly. (Ap-
plause.) Along with him, sir, there was a host of giants who
were aiding in this wonderful work — day by day in the pub-
lic journals of this country, two men were forging the
thunderbolts of liberty and hurling them at the forces of
slavery. Those men were Horace Greeley and Henry J. Eay-
mond. (Applause.) At last, when the struggle came, it found
a sturdy Roman at the head of this State, in the person of our
great war governor, Edwin D. Morgan. (Applause.) But,
Mr. President, time fails me to even rehearse the names of
the galaxy of heroes who were in the Republican party in
those days. We were a united party then ; we stood upon a
common platform; that was the preservation of the Union
and the destruction of slavery; and so long as we stood
shoulder to shoulder fighting the battles of liberty, we were
invincible ; and if defeat has come to us in any of the later
days, perhaps it is not surprising. Our party was made up
from all the parties; we had gathered into our hosts all
liberty-loving Democrats and Whigs of the past, and all other
questions and issues were put aside. As that one great issue
has passed out of politics, it has been but natural, perhaps,
that we should divide upon some of the minor questions, and
division has sometimes brought us defeat; but I appeal to
the Republicans of this Club, and through them to all the
Republicans of this State, to say whether we are not now
confronted by a danger second only to the danger which con-
fronted us in 1860 down to 1865, and to say whether or no
we should not close up the ranks, and regain by united effort
that which we have lost by division in the ranks. (Applause.)
If there have been jealousies and rivalries in the past, is there
not enough of patriotism to put these one side, and to declare
that the good of the country and of the cause is greater than
the success of any man? (Applause.) I believe it can be
done, and I believe it, because I believe that the danger now
threatening us of the breaking down of our great industrial
system, which, as the senator from Ohio has told us, has
come to a higher development and a broader range in this

SPEECH OF ME. MILLEE. 41

State than any other State in the Union, is one that carries
with it such terrible results to our people that if we are all
patriots we will all be found fighting in the same ranks and
under the same flag. Since the war has closed, in the develop-
ment which has taken place in this country, and particularly
in this State, in our diversified industries, and in our carrying
trade and commerce, we have come to a condition of affairs,
Mr. President, which, if the men who are now in control of this
Government, and who still hold on to the false philosophies
of Calhoun and his coadjutors, are to enact their theories into
law, the loss which will come to the American people will be
greater than the entire cost of the late civil war. (Applause.)
I believe that can be proved as clearly as can any problem in
mathematics. If our protective system shall be broken down
and shall be made a free-trade system — I do not hesitate to
say, Mr, President, that the suffering which will come to our
people, in their impoverishment, by the breaking down of their
industries, will not be surpassed by all the woes which came
to our people by the waste and destruction which took place
during the late war; for I can imagine nothing more terrible
than that 60,000,000 of people, who have been lifted up to a
scale and standard of living never yet equaled or reached by
any other people in the world, if they shall be cast down from
that height to the depths of degradation which are to be found
in other portions of the world — no man can measure it, and I
have no desire to lift the veil and look upon it.

I say then, finally, to the Republicans of this club and of this
country, we are in the face of an issue and of a danger which
should make us as one man in the coming contest, and which
I believe will make us as one man and will give us a glorious
victory. Finally, Mr. President, I trust that the strangers
who are within our gates to-night will not think for a moment
that we are boasting of our greatness and of our imperial
strength. I am very sure that my worthy friend at the right,
the governor of Connecticut, will forgive us New-Yorkers for
boasting a little, for I know he has not been in the habit of hear-
ing any boasting, save such as referred to New England; and
these other strangers who come from the land of the setting
sun. — Ah, Mr. President, they do not begrudge us any of our
greatness 5 they do not begrudge us any of our history, for they
are our children, one and all. (Applause.) The Western States

42 EEPUBLICAN CLUB.

have borrowed more of their Constitutions, more of their juris-
prudence, more of their institutions of civil and religious
liberty from New- York than they have from all of the other
thirteen colonies combined. (Applause.) And in addition to
that, Mr. President, we have given them our best blood and
our best enthusiasm ; only those who did not dare to go out
and venture in the broad world have remained at home
(laughter), and here to-night we have examples of what I
esteem to be the most wonderful development of the human
race ever known in the history of mankind — that is, an origi-
nal New-Yorker by blood, turned into a Western man. (Long-
continued applause.)

President Bartlett : While we have yet the pleasure of
listening to two United States senators and one member of
Congress, I am requested to announce to the guests who may
tarry in town over to-morrow, that the Club-house, 32 W.
Twenty- eighth street, will be open, and all will be very welcome
there. The next toast of the evening is ^^ The Union Sol-
dier : The Republic that he saved in war, he serves in peace."
The committee, in looking after a gentleman to respond to
this toast, felt that he must have very peculiar qualifications.
They wished a man who had heard the bullets whistle on the
field of battle, and who had occasionally stopped one with his
own person ; and so it happened that they found a grave
Senator, sitting in the United States Senate, who went to the
war from Ohio, who was desperately wounded on the field of
battle, who recovered by reason of his indomitable pluck, and
moved west, and is now engaged in governing the country he
helped to save. I have great pleasure in presenting to you one
of the United States Senators from Nebraska, Hon. Charles
F. Manderson. (Applause and cheers.)

SPEECH OF MR. MANDERSON.

Mr, President and Gentlemen of the Republican Club of New
YorJc : The toast is ^' The Union Soldier : the Republic that
he saved in war, he serves in peace.'^

No sentiment more fitting could be devised for this, the
celebration of the natal day of Abraham Lincoln. Prior to
April 15, 1861, the Union soldier had no existence. Revolu-
tionary soldiers there had been, soldiers of 1812 and of the
Mexican war there were, but no soldiers of the Union. No
impious hand had been raised to strike at the existence of the
Republic until the first Republican president had been inaugu-
rated. In his wonderful inaugural address, on that momentous
March 4, 1861, Lincoln said ;

'^ In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not
in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Govern-
ment will not assail you. You can have no conflict without
yourselves being the aggressors. You have no oath regis-
tered in Heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall
have the most solemn one to preserve, protect, and defend it."
(Applause.)

The dissatisfied became the aggressors. There came the
insult to the flag, and the marshaling of the armed hosts of
treason and rebellion. The pen of Lincoln signed the call to
arms. The electric wire carried it to every town and hamlet
in the broad North land. It proclaimed the birth of the
Union soldiery. (Applause.) They sprang to arms, all eager
for the fray — determined to save the Republic from the hand
of treason. From the fertile fields of the farm they came :

" They left the plow-share in the mold,
Their flocks and herds without a fold."

44 EEPUBLICAN CLUB.

From storeroom and counting-liouse, from factory and
workshop, from school-house and office they came. (Ap-
plause.) Their wonderful uprising has been told in story,
and sung in song; needless to repeat it here. Nor need I tell
the story of their prowess. In camp and in field, on the
march and in battle, amid disease, and wounds, and death,
they did their full duty — actuated by no desire for conquest,
true to the cause for which they fought, ^' pressing forward to
the mark of their high calling " — they saved the Eepublic.
(Applause.)

They added to the list of the world's great battles Vicks-
burg and Shiloh, Antietam and Grettysburg ; but, beyond this,
they saved the Republic. They inscribed high upon the roll
of fame Sedgwick and Hancock, Thomas and Logan, Sher-
man and Sheridan (applause) ; but, beyond even this, they
saved the Republic.

They seated in the highest place in the world as worthy
successors of Abraham Lincoln the martyr of liberty (ap-
plause), Hayes (applause), and Garfield (applause), and their
great leader, chief est of earth's captains, Ulysses S. Grant
(long-continued applause) ; but, beyond all this, they saved
the Republic. Oh, that Abraham Lincoln could have lived to
see the great results of their labors, the rich fruitage of the
seed sown by himself ! He was the volunteer soldiers' best
friend. When others detracted, he was quick to commend.
When others condemned, he was apt to defend. When others
doomed, he came to save.

I love to dwell on the language of his first message to Con-
gress, on July 4, 1861. He said: '^So large an army as the
Government has now on foot was never before known, with-
out a soldier in it but who has taken his place there of his
own free choice. But, more than this, there are many single
regiments whose members, one and another, possess full
practical knowledge of all the arts, sciences, professions, and
whatever else, whether useful or elegant, is known in the
whole world; and there is scarcely one from which there
could not be selected a president, a cabinet, a congress, and
perhaps a court, abundantly competent to administer the
Government itself.'^ (Applause.)

Let the modern detractor of that grand old Union Army
say what his small soul may prompt him to say, this meed of

SPEECH OF MK. MANDEESON. 45

praise from the martyred chief is enough for the Union sol-
dier who, having done his share toward saving the Republic,
yet survives. (Applause.)

As I listened when the orchestra played those patriotic
tunes, the old war songs, to that involuntary accompaniment
that came from you, when, notwithstanding the tempting
viands upon the table, you joined in singing the battle-hymns
of the Eepublic, I felt that in this presence there was no need
that anyone should apologize for the part he may have taken
for his country, in the war of the Rebellion. (Applause j
Voices : '^ Good, good.") I felt that in your hearts there was
the living conviction that the men who fought to destroy the
Government were eternally wrong, and those who fought to
defend it were forever right. (Applause.)

If the springing to arms of this host, numbering in all tw^o
and a half millions, excites remark, their quiet, peaceable
return to civil life excites our wonder and admiration. The
world stood amazed at the spectacle, while these vast armies
disappeared as does the morning mist before the rising sun ;
their work performed, their warfare o'er, the Union restored,
the Republic saved, the bronzed and worn survivors crowded
all the avenues and haunts of civil life. (Applause.) The
Union armies achieved their last and greatest victory — they
conquered themselves. The hand that carried the musket soon
grasped the plow or held the plane. The deft fingers that had
gripped the saber and wielded it with destructive force seized
the pen, which in the counting-house, the office, and the
councils of the nation, was to become mightier than the sword.
As citizens tried and true, in the language of the toast, "They
served in peace the Republic they had saved in war." (Loud
applause.)

Not to all, however, has been vouchsafed the privilege of
service. Over half a million of the soldiers of the Union per-
ished during the four years of strife. Many killed upon the
fields their heroic deaths had made holy ground j many, many
more dying from wounds and disease at home, in camp, in hos-
pital, and in the prison pen ; hundreds of thousands of others
doomed to a living death. Sorely disabled by wounds and
disease contracted during the war, or by that which came after
its close to their worn and enfeebled bodies, the struggle to
exist has been a hard one.

46 REPUBLICAN CLUB.

It has become a habit of the times, especially in this great
metropolis of the nation, to which all parts of the country pay
daily tribute, to speak flippantly of these disabled veterans.
The increase of the pension list is denounced, and the metro-
politan press gives bitter denunciation or sneering slight to
the man who demands fair fulfillment of the Republic's pledges
to those who have fought its battles. True, they have high
example and abundant precedent in the action and the words
of him who, filling the highest station to-day, was in the
past patriotic by proxy (laughter) and by purchased substitute
only followed the flag, and who from very inability from
personal experience to appreciate true patriotism, sneeringly
says of the wretched ex-soldier who had received a pittance
through a private pension bill, " Whatever else may be said
of this claimant's achievements during his short military
career, it must be conceded that he accumulated a great deal
of disability" (laughter), and who from very ignorance of
war's experience, slightingly says, as to another disabled
veteran, " The number of instances in which those of our sol-
diers who rode horses during the war were injured by being
thrown forward in their saddles indicate that these saddles
were very dangerous contrivances.'' (Hisses.) Could the force
of heartlessness further go ?

Is it matter for surprise that the high Democratic ofiicial
who could thus willfully and thus ignorantly write should, in
another cold-blooded and vindictive veto message, one of those
strange exhibitions of lack of appreciation of the Executive
duty, in which he seems to consider himself in the nature of a
third house for the performance of legislative power, declare,
speaking of pension legislation : '^ I am thoroughly tired of
disapproving gifts of the public money to individuals who,
in my view, have no right or claim to the same, notwith-
standing apparent Congressional action."

Grifts, indeed ! The pittances fairly voted and cruelly vetoed
were in correction of that general law which, by reason of its
universality, was deficient, and were the paltry sums that might
save the widow of some dead soldier — or the disabled veteran,
unable to prove his case under the strict rules of law — from
becoming objects of public and private charity. (Applause.)

Time will not permit me to speak of the Executive action
that destroyed that beneficent piece of legislation, prayed for

SPEECH OF ME. MANDERSON. 47

by 300,000 ex-soldiers, known as the "Dependent Pension
Bill/' the effect of which would have been to take the 12,000
or 15,000 Union soldiers out of the almshouses of the country
they helped to save. (Voices : " Hear, hear.") The pension list
of the nation is its ^' Roll of Honor," and constitutes its only
patent of nobility. (Applause.)

It is a long list, but it does not contain the names of as
many men as were killed or died during the four years of
bloody war. There are upon it not 12 per cent, of those who
served, and less than 30 per cent, of those who yet survive.
The survivors seek nothing unreasonable. They do not ask a
service pension, but they do demand that when a comrade is
disabled he should be fairly cared for by the Republic he
saved and served. (Applause. Voices : '^ That is right.")

My friends, I close by presenting for the sharp contrast it
affords with the utterances of the first Democratic President
since the rebellion, and I hope the last (applause), the closing
sentence of the last inaugural address of the first Republican
President :

" With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firm-
ness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive
on to finish the work we have commenced, to bind up the
nation's wounds ; to care for him who shall have borne the
battle, and for his widow, and his orphans; to do all which
may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among our-
selves and with all nations." (Long-continued applause.
Three cheers for Senator Manderson.)

President Bartlett : Gentlemen, the next toast is " The
Tariff : Adjusted according to the needs of the Government,
and so imposed as to protect and encourage domestic manu-
factures, while it promotes alike the interests of the wage-
payer and the wage-earner." Gentlemen, this toast brings us
face to face with the vital issue of the next campaign. The
President of the United States has thrown down the gage of
battle, and the leaders of the Republican party have picked it
up with alacrity. Our committee have selected to-night a
gentleman who long ago won his spurs in Congress as the
defender of American industries and American wage-earners.
I take pleasure in calling upon Hon. William McKinley, Jr.,
of Ohio. (Applause.)

SPEECH OF MR. McKINLEY.

3fr. President and Gentlemen of the Republican Cliib of New
YorJc : Having heard now for more than three hours just and
well-merited reflections upon the Democratic party, I have be-
come satisfied that that party needs revision a good deal more
than the tariff does (laughter); and I am satisfied, too, that
there will be no reduction of the surplus revenues now in the
treasury, and the surplus revenues now collected, until the
Democratic majority in the House of Representatives shall be
reduced to a hopeless minority (applause) ; and to secure that
gentlemen of the New York Club, is one of the great duties
devolving upon the Republican party to-day. We have some
very singular exhibitions of inconstancy among the people
touching this question of the tariff, and the relation of the
Congress of the United States to this important subject. We
have petitions immediately after each Congress is elected from
Democrats praying to be saved from the work of the Demo-
cratic Congress (laughter), and there is in the Ways and Means
Committee to-night thousands of petitions from merchants,
from laboring men, from farmers, from our fellow-citizens
generally, who contributed to make the Fiftieth Congress
Democratic — their petitions are now on file in the Committee
of Ways and Means, praying to be saved from the work of
their own hands. The way to save themselves from the neces-
sity of petitioning against a Democratic Congress is not to elect
one — that is the place to begin (laughter), and I would not
assume to speak here to-night upon the subject of the tariff at
all, and I am only going to speak a moment — I am going to
take my watch out at the beginning (laughter; one of the
speakers had drawn out his watch after speaking half an

SPEECH OF MR. McKINLEY. 49

hour) ; I say I would not assume to speak upon the subject of
the tariff to-night except that there is a good deal of ignorance
upon that subject everywhere, and a good deal of it in the
Congress of the United States. (Voices : " Good.") A gentle-
man rose in his place on the floor of the House less than ten
days ago, reporting back a resolution for the investigation of
the strikes in the anthracite regions of Pennsylvania, and the
strike of Reading railroad employees, and he confessed there
in open House, that he had had to revise his speech 5 that he
had originally prepared it to show that the iniquitous and
oppressive tariff upon coal had been the cause of the strike,
and that fortunately he had discovered that very morning
that there was no tariff or duty upon anthracite coal at all.
(Laughter.) Now, I say, if there is so much want of knowl-
edge upon that subject in the House of Representatives,
among the gentlemen chosen to make your industrial laws,
then I must assume that even in the great city and State of
New- York there may be some little want of information even
among Republicans. Now, these gentlemen have all talked
to you a good deal about the tariff — the fact is, they have
poached on me — all of them. (Laughter.) They knew I was
sick (for I have been suffering all day). I have been follow-
ing Senator Sherman for three days, and I want to tell you
it is as difficult to follow him as it was to follow his illus-
trious brother, old Tecumseh, during the war. (Applause.)
He sweeps everything before him, and leaves nothing behind
for those who follow. (Laughter.)

Now, what is the exact line of difference between the Demo-
cratic and Republican parties upon this question of the tariff !
The Democratic party is in favor of a revenue tariff — that
is, a tax or a duty put upon foreign goods imported into the
United States which do not compete with what we produce
here. That is a revenue tariff; a tariff which dismisses all
other consideration save and except revenue, and selects out
from the group of imported articles those which with the
smallest tax will raise the largest amount of revenue, and
upon those they put the duty. Now, that is a revenue tariff.
What is a protective tariff? It is a tax or duty put upon
foreign merchandise and foreign products, whether of the
field, or the factory, or the mine ; upon those articles which
come in competition with what we produce here ; and the

50 KEPUBLICAN CLUB.

Eepublican idea is to let everything from abroad, save and
except luxuries, come in free, if we cannot produce tliem
in the United States, but put the tax or the duty upon the
competing foreign product, and thus encourage our own
industries and our own people in their chosen avocations
(applause) ; and that is the way we impose duties under the
policy of the Republican party. The fact is, that it is the
national policy, and has been from the foundation of the gov-
ernment to collect revenues from import duties, and if we would
to-day repeal all our internal revenue laws, or so much thereof
as might be safely spared, the question of the surplus which
now faces us would vex us no longer, and we could raise all
the revenues needed for the current expenses and obligations
of the Government easily from customs duties, and I believe
that is what the Republican party ought to do. (Voices :
" Good J good.^') That is, to repeal so much of the internal
revenue laws, or all if not needed, and let the protective tariff
stand. (Cheers and applause.) Now, who are they, gentle-
men of the Republican Club, who complain against this in-
iquitous tariff ? It is not the farmer ; it is not the wage-earner j
it is not the manufacturer; it is not the capitalist, whose money
is invested in protected enterprises; it is not the consumer.
The complaint comes from some other source. I say to you
here to-night that there is not a single American interest, or
a single American citizen injured by the protective pohcy of
the Republican party. (Voices: "Good.'') Not one. Who
in New- York is complaining of our protective system 1
(Voices: "Mugwumps — importers.'') Importers — yes, and
Mugwumps. This agitation comes from the importers and
from the foreign merchant and foreign manufacturers, as
Henry Clay put it fifty-six years ago. He said the opposi-
tion came from British factors ; came from the reviewers,
came from the literary speculators — just the kind of Mug-
wumpery we have now. (Applause. A voice: "Good.") This
agitation comes from the school, so called, from the poets
(laughter), whose poetry may be good enough, but whose
political economy we must decline to accept. This opposi-
tion comes from the dilettante and the diplomat, from the
men of fixed income — from those "who toil not, neither do
they spin" (applause), "nor do they gather into barns" — fol-
lowing up the quotation.

SPEECH OF ME. McKINLEY. 51

This agitation comes from that class of people — those men
who want everything cheap but money; everything hard to
get but coin ; who prefer the customs, the civilization of other
countries to our own, and who think nothing so wholesome
as that which is imported, whether it be merchandise or
whether it be manners (applause) 5 and they want no tariff to
prevent the free and unobstructed use of both. They want
their clothes a little cheaper j they want their hats a little
cheaper; they want their French boots a little cheaper. A
college-bred American — not a New-Yorker — whose inherited
wealth had enabled him to gratify every wish of his heart,
who had spent very much time abroad, said to me a few years
ago, with a sort of listless satisfaction, that he had outgrown
his country. (Laughter.) What a confession ! Outgrown
his country ! Outgrown the United States ! Think of it.
(Laughter.) I thought at the time it would have been truer
had he said that his country had outgrown him, but he was in
no condition of mind to have appreciated so patent a fact.
(Laughter.) He had had no connection with the progressive
spirit of the country; he had contributed nothing to her
proud position, and to the uplifting and welfare of her people ;
he had had no share in the onward march of the Republic ;
the busy, pushing American boy, of humble origin, educated
at the public schools, had swept by him, as effort and energy
always lead, and left the laggard behind. His inherited
wealth was not invested in protected enterprises, nor was his
heart located where it had any sympathy with the people
with whom he was bred and reared. The fact is, his coun-
try had got so far ahead of him that he was positively lone-
some and out of line of the grand procession. He was a free-
trader, for he told me so, and he complained bitterly that
the tariff was a trammel upon the progressive men of the
country, and that it severely handicapped him. When I
pushed him to say in what particular the tariff was a burden
upon him as one of sixty millions of people, he raised his hand
— which had never been touched by honest toil (laughter) —
which had never been soiled by labor, and said to me, " Mr.
McKinley, these gloves come enormously high by reason of
your tariff ; the duty of 50 per cent, is actually added to their
foreign cost, and it falls heavily upon us consumers." What
answer could I make? (Laughter.) Life was too short.

52 EEPUBLICAN CLUB.

(Laughter.) If I had pointed him to the trophies of the pro-
tective system he would not have understood them, and I
could only gaze upon him in speechless silence, with a feeling
of mingled pity, sorrow, and contempt. And, gentlemen, I
learned later that he became a Mugwump. (Laughter.) That
was the newest manifestation of protest against our iniquit-
ous tariff law. And, then, it was not a large company, nor a
promiscuous one; he had opportunity of leadership in that
organization, for all are leaders, and in the companionship of
congenial spirits he found a restful home, a suitable asylum
for the man who had outgrown his country. (Laughter.)
There is another class of our citizens, and then I am through.
(Voices : ^^ Go on ; go on.") What time do you close your
performance? (A voice: '^Morning.") There is another
class of our fellow-citizens who are free-traders; who have
been so long out of the country that they have so lost the
aims and purposes of parties that they have not been able
for twenty years to cast a vote which expressed their views,
or even a fraction of them. I believe I quote correctly from
Mr. Lowell. (Laughter.) There have been no ideas ; a per-
fect absence of ideas, for which these gentlemen could give
their support or their suffrages for a period of twenty years.
Think of that. The honest payment of the public debt
against threatened repudiation — that was a great issue less
than twenty years ago ; you will remember the battle that
we fought. That was beneath their thoughtful concern.
(Laughter.) The resumption of specie payment, led by the
distinguished financier, Mr. Sherman, who sits at this table
(applause), who put our finances upon a solid foundation, and
who made that old greenback lift its head in its pride and glory
and declare that it knew '4ts redeemer liveth." (Applause.)
That issue was wholly unworthy of these gentlemen. And
not only have there been no ideas worthy of their support,
but there have been no statesmen ; there have been no repre-
sentative Americans; there have been no typical American
citizens since Lincoln was snatched from us — snatched by a
cruel bravo from the theater of things, to become a saint of
nature in the Pantheon of kings (applause), and there has
been nobody like Lincoln until we got Cleveland. (Voices :
" Oh, oh.") That is what Mr. Lowell said. There has been an
absence of representative Americans. If so, what a national

SPEECH OF MRi MCKINLEY. 53

humiliation ! Grant, who closed his lips on the word victory
at the Wilderness and refused to speak, but fought it out on
that line and in that spirit until the final grand surrender at
Appomattox Court House (applause) ; General Sherman, who
delved into the mountains of Cumberland, and made that
magnificent march from Atlanta to the sea (applause) f that
gallant little Irishman, Phil. Sheridan (applause), who never
stopped to unbuckle his spurs from Harper^s Ferry to the
rebel rout at Cedar Creek, and who made the scene of Stone-
wall Jackson's fame his field of glory (applause) — those
three grand men, in the estimation of Mr. Lowell (hisses), be-
long to the lower type, or else have been entirely forgotten.
We have come to regard those gentlemen as representative
Americans, whose matchless courage and intense Americanism
had saved America to the world, the freest and best govern-
ment to mankind, forever and forever. (Applause.) Garfield
and Sumner, Wilson and Wade, Hayes and Arthur — the latter
your own feUow-citizen, who made one of the best Presidents
we ever had — (applause) John Sherman and James G. Blaine
(applause, three cheers for James G. Blaine, and three cheers
for John Sherman, of Ohio), ex-Senator Warner Miller (ap-
plause) and Senator Evarts, and Senator Allison (applause),
any one of whom lightning may strike, God only knows whom
(applause) ; and it does not make any difference which one it
does strike, for whichever one it does (voices : " We will stand
by him '') he will lead the grand old Republican party to vic-
tory, and this New- York Club will stand by him and follow him
to glorious triumph. These gentlemen, Mugwump gentlemen,
cannot find any ideas that suit them ; and I thank God it is
so ; I thank God that such ideas cannot thrive and live on
free soil and among free men, and that it is so is the proudest
monument of our intelligence, our civilization, and our pa-
triotism. I wish I might talk the tariff to you to-night, but I
cannot. (A voice : " Go on.") I can only appeal to you to stand
by the protective system (voices : '^Amen"), and thus preserve
the dignity and independence of American labor, and main-
tain the American schoolhouse, and the American home, and
American possibility, to the present and to the future genera-
tions. I thank you, gentlemen. (Continued applause, and
three cheers for Mr. McKinley.)

54 REPUBLICAN CLUB.

President Bartlett : The last toast of the evening is, " The
Surplus : The Republican party smote the rock of the national
resources and abundant streams of revenue gushed forth ;
could it now speak the word of command, the flowing tide
would cease." I will not, owing to the very late hour, detain you
with any extended introduction, but will present to you Sena-
ator William B. Allison, of Iowa. (Applause and cheers.)

^^^^H

SPEECH OF MR. ALLISON.

Mr. President and Gentlemen of this Club : I thank you as
others have, for the cordiality of your greeting. At this
late houi' of the evening I shall occupy your time only for a
few moments. I would take out my watch if I chanced to
have one, but I assure you that I shall not ask you to break
the Sabbath for me.

It gives me pleasure to have an opportunity of meeting the
Republicans of the city of New- York on this occasion, made
sacred by the tributes to our great leader of a quarter of a
century ago. With you I wish to add my tribute of venera-
tion to his memory. My friend, Warner Miller, seems to
think that Senator Manderson and myself live near the setting
of the sun. He is greatly mistaken. We dwell in the heart
of the continent, — in that broad and expansive region of our
country called the Mississippi valley. We rejoice in your
prosperity as, we are sure, you rejoice in ours. (Applause.)
Ours is a broad land —

*' No pent-up Utica contracts our powers.
For the whole boundless continent is ours." (Applause.)

The sentiment just read, originally uttered by Mr. Webster
as respects that great citizen of New- York, Alexander Hamil-
ton, is now aptly applied to the Republican party as para-
phrased in the toast. When Alexander Hamilton took the
place of Secretary of the Treasury under George Washington,
the finances of our country were in a deplorable condition.
By his skillful management ample revenues were soon flow-
ing into the treasury, and the credit of the United States was
established upon a permanent and enduring basis. It is a

56 EEPUBLICAN CLUB.

curious commentary upon our present situation, that by his
advice the second act passed by Congress, in its preamble
stated that it was " necessary for the support of the Govern-
ment, for the discharge of the debts of the United States and
for the encouragement and protection of manufactures," that
duties should be levied upon imports. (Applause.) Now, it
is not only unconstitutional but unwise to encourage and
protect manufactures. No constitutional scruples then, as
respects the power to protect American labor and American
industries. By advocating this protection ^' he smote the
rock of the national resources, and abundant streams of rev-
enue gushed forth," as, also, abundant prosperity to the peo-
ple. The principles thus enunciated by the fathers of the
Republic, under the lead of Mr. Hamilton, and followed by
the first Congress that assembled under the constitution, were
maintained substantially by this Government, with infrequent
and brief intervals, of approaching free trade, from that time
until Grover Cleveland took the oath of office in 1885, or I
should say rather until the last annual message. The task of
the fathers, so successful and beneficent, was comparatively
easy to that imposed upon the Republican party when it came
into power, in 1861. At that time there was not a dollar in
the treasury for current expenses, and the United States was
practically without credit as it had borrowed money during
the last month of Mr. Buchanan's administration, at a rate of
interest in excess of ten per cent, per annum. It was neces-
sary immediately to place in the field a large army to suppress
the rebellion and to organize a navy sufficient to blockade
thousands of miles of sea-coast, so that our expenditures,
immediate and pressing, were greater than had been dreamed
of before. President Lincoln had called to the Treasury that
great citizen of Ohio, Salmon P. Chase, whose recommenda-
tions as respects financial legislation were practically adopted
by Congress, and thus was inaugurated a system of revenue
and credit which carried us safely through the war, though
often strained to the utmost. It is the marvel of our history
that the second year after the close of the war the system of
taxation thus inaugurated yielded a revenue of $558,000,000,
a sum equal to more than half of our public debt of to-day.
These measures so necessary in the midst of war yielded
abundant streams of revenue after the war closed, and thus

SPEECH OF ME. ALLISON. 57

enabled our Government to rapidly reduce the war debt and
maintain unimpaired the public credit. It was the Eepubli-
can party through its splendid leadership supported and sus-
tained by the people that "touched the dead corpse of the
public credit '^ and caused it again to spring to its feet; so
that finally on the 10th day of January, 1875, the resumption
act was passed which later on by the masterly hand of the
then Secretary of the Treasury (Mr. Sherman), now an hon-
ored guest with us, specie resumption was accomplished
quietly and without disturbance of our great business inter-
ests. These achievements, interesting in detail and highly
honorable to the Republican party, have resulted in a pros-
perity and growth such as no nation has ever achieved before.
It is a curious incident in this history of the restoration of
the public faith and the public credit that, just after it was
accomplished by the legislation of 1875, the Republican party
partially surrendered its power, our opponents having secured
by the election of 1874 a majority in the House of Represent-
atives, which majority twice tried to repeal the resumption
act without success. The House is recognized as the popular
branch of the legislative power and which has committed to
it under the constitution the sole right, in the first instance,
to inaugurate measures relating to the revenue, whether for
reducing or increasing taxes. This great power of taxation
has, through the House, been under the control of the Demo-
cratic party continuously from 1875 until now, with the excep-
tion of two years, from 1881 to 1883, or for a period of twelve
years. During all this time we have heard continuous denun-
ciations of our tariff system, of its injustice, and of its
oppressions J and yet during all the time of their power in
the House they have not sent to the Senate from the House of
Representatives a single measure or bill looking to the reduc-
tion of taxes or changes in our tariff laws. In marked con-
trast with this failure on their part is the record of the
Republican party during the years of its power. As soon as
the pressing necessities of the war had passed away, the
Republican party began to revise our tax laws so as to reduce
taxation, and during nearly every recurring Congress after-
wards some reduction was made. None, however, was made
from 1875 to 1881 during the six years of Democratic control in
the House. In 1881 the Republicans again secured a majority,

58 EEPUBLICAN CLUB.

and during these two years, 1881 to 1883, reduced taxes to
the extent of fifty millions of dollars, considered our internal
revenue system, as also our tariff system, and reduced both.
In 1883 the Democrats again came into power in the House,
and they hold that power now. They were prolific in prom-
ises in 1884 of reductions and changes, because, notwithstand-
ing the reductions of 1883, the prosperity of our country was
so great that our revenues were kept up to such a point as to
yield each year a considerable surplus beyond the necessary
expenditures of the Government. But, now, three years of
this administration have passed away and one Congress passed
into history, and these promises are as the passing wind — gone
forever, and nothing has been done upon the question of sur-
plus. So, I ask, who is responsible for the situation of
to-day ? Certainly it is the Democratic administration and
the Democratic House of Representatives. They both have
clearly shown that they cannot reduce revenues, and do not
know how to manage the surplus or deal with these ques-
tions. (Voices : '''' Good.") Does any one doubt that if the
Republican party could speak the word of command 'Hhe
flowing tide of this surplus would cease '^? Does any one
doubt that this surplus in the treasury should be reduced %
No Republican has expressed such doubt.

This large surplus in the treasury may fairly be separated
into two classes : one an accumulating surplus that has run on
from year to year and remains in the treasury, not being
expended during the year; the other is that surplus which
comes from an excess of revenue over the expenditures of the
Government for any given year. Grover Cleveland, great
man as he is according to Mr. Lowell (laughter), seems to
have confused this accumulating surplus with the ordinary
excess of receipts over expenditures during each year. This
confusion in the public mind arises from the fact that all prior
administrations had applied the annual surplus regularly to the
purchase or redemption of the interest-bearing debt during
each year, so that this accumulation is of recent growth. The
true way to get rid of this accumulating surplus is to apply to it
the common sense of e very-day life, that is, use it in the pur-
chase of the interest-bearing debt. When that is done and the
accumulation thus disposed of, it is not difficult to ascertain to
what extent taxes may be reduced in order to prevent another

SPEECH OF MK. ALLISON. 59

accumulation. This should be done by such change of our
revenue laws as that our receipts will be substantially equal to
our expenditures for every lawful purpose.

What should that reduction be ? Taking the statements of
the message and the report of the Secretary of the Treasury,
a reduction can be made equal to fifty-five or sixty million
dollars, although we must bear in mind that in the reports to
Congress this year the necessary appropriations for next year
have been largely under-estimated and the receipts have been
over-estimated, so that expenses will be greater and our
receipts will be less than the estimates. This is the situation
to-day. Now who has the responsibility? The Democrats
have a majority in the House of Representatives and control
of its committees — it is their duty to formulate a measure.
Nearly three months of this session have passed away and no
such measure yet appears. When it will appear I do not
know ; nor can any one tell when such a measure will pass
the House even if reported soon, and be sent to the Senate for
its consideration and action.

You naturally ask why this condition has so long continued
and who is responsible for this failure for so long a period. I
answer, Because the controlling majority in the House insists
that when revision and reduction is made, it shall be done
upon a theory which would disturb all the great industries of
our country, and put our public financial policy, as respects
tariff taxes, on the path- way toward free trade. That is what
they insist upon ; and that is the pith and substance of Presi-
dent Cleveland's last message ; and because the sentiment of
the country is against this theory ; and because the people
favor the protection and preservation of our industries, the
controlling majority of the House do nothing. The magni-
tude of the interests involved is shown when it appears that
we annually produce of manufactured articles in this country
$7,000,000,000 in value. It is not a light thing to enter upon
a change which may involve the great interests engaged in
this production, whether of labor or capital. Does any one
doubt if the Republican party was in power, in both Houses,
that there would be delay in reducing this surplus, or difftculty
in so reducing it as not to create a disturbance in our business,
and our manufactures, and in our railway transportation, and
in our agricultural productions, all involved more or less in

60 EEPUBLICAN CLUB.

the changes now proposed, or that niay be proposed ? Surely
there would be no such disturbance if we had a majority in
both Houses, because the country would know that the Repub-
lican party would reduce this revenue without disturbing a sin-
gle industry in our country, and the manufacturers as well as
the laborers in the shops and in the fields, would go about their
work without any feeling that their representatives at Wash-
ington were secretly plotting to disturb, if not destroy, the
great fabric of industry and of production in our country.
The remedy for this just cause of alarm is the sure reliance
of the Republican party, and a firm determination that the
small Democratic majority now in the House of Representa-
tives shall, in the elections which are to take place this fall,
be swept away, and that there shall be a Republican House of
Representatives elected this year, and with that Republican
House, a Republican President. Then whatever changes are
necessary in our revenue laws will be so made as to promote,
encourage, and protect our diversified industries and employ-
ments and, at the same time, reduce our revenues to a point
equal to our expenditures, from year to year, as nearly as
may be.

If the Democratic party in the House of Representatives
shall awaken to the importance of this question and, within
a reasonable time at this session, send to the Senate a bill
reducing taxes, so that the Senate can take up this question
during this session of Congress, I will promise you on behalf
of the Republican Senate, that we will promptly and fairly
deal with it, and we will reduce the revenues so as to stop
their accumulation and at the same time we will so treat this
subject as to protect and preserve our great industries, and
see that labor engaged in production shall receive ample
reward. In the mean time, it is for this administration to get
rid of the existing accumulation. They have ample authority
of law for the purpose, notwithstanding the doubt expressed
by the President in his message. I have yet to hear of a single
Republican, or Democrat except the President, who expresses
a doubt as to the power and authority of the Secretary of the
Treasury to go into the markets and purchase bonds of the
United States. This should be done, because I cannot con-
ceive that any holder of a United States bond can afford to
hold it at a price beyond that which the people of the United

SPEECH OF ME. ALLISON. 61

States can afford to pay for it rather than pay interest upon
the debt with money lying idle in the treasury, or in the hands
of pet banks of the treasury, drawing no interest.

I ought however to mention another incident or factor in
this problem of the surplus, that is, our expenditures from
year to year. The Republican party for many successive
years, and especially in Presidential canvasses, has been
charged with extravagant expenditures of public money, and
the Democratic party promised when it came into power that
these extravagant expenditures should cease and the Govern-
ment should be placed upon a footing of economy as respects
the expenditures of public money. Now three years of exper-
iment in this direction of economy discloses that our expendi-
tures are increasing from year to year, and in no branch of
the service have expenditures been reduced. Look at the
situation to-day. The estimates of this year are made out on
the basis of the appropriations of last year, and yet this Gov-
ernment to-day is running on deficiency bills, practically.
They have introduced three already in the House, and how
many will follow before July no one knows, to make up
deficiencies for the failure of necessary appropriations last
year to carry on the Government this year 5 small appropria-
tions having been made in the regular bills, so they might
show that the expenditures of the Government have not been
largely increased under Democratic rule. They spent twenty-
three millions last year more than in any year during Presi-
dent Arthur's administration, and for this current year we
appropriated more than they expended last year, and as I
have said we are already burdened with deficiency bills
amounting to many million dollars. The Republican party is
not a cheese-paring party — it believes in expending whatever
sums may be reasonably necessary to carry on the operations
of a great Government of sixty-five millions of people, not in
an extravagant way, but so as to develop our internal growth
and our commerce both domestic and foreign. This policy
will inevitably require from year to year an increase of appro-
priation and expenditure, as with the growth of our country
will come the necessity for increased expenditure in carrying
on the affairs of the Government. It is probable that our rev-
enues on the basis of any system of taxation will keep pace
with these necessary increasing expenditures, so that what-

62 KEPUBLICAN CLUB.

ever reduction is made on this basis will continue for some
years.

Now I believe that this great question of the revenue can
best be treated by the Republican party and on the basis of
protection to American labor and American industry, rather
than upon the basis of approaching free trade under the guise
of a '^ tariff for revenue only/^ whereby our markets will be
opened to the cheaper labor and cheaper capital of other
countries. This question cannot be discussed now. I wish I
could go, as Senator Sherman and my friend Spooner have
gone, into the question of relative power and influence of the
different sections of our country as respects these great ques-
tions as shown by our production in these sections. This
imperial State of New- York, as my friend Miller calls it, in
1880, manufactured more than four times as many articles of
utility, having ten times the value, as were manufactured in
the eleven States lately in rebellion. They manufactured one
thousand millions in this State, in 1880, and undoubtedly
have increased largely since that time. It so happens that in
the eleven States of the South which were in rebellion, manu-
facturers have made but little progress until recently. I am
glad to see now a revival and growth of manufactures there,
and I believe the time will come, and that not very long in the
future, when this region will be filled with manufactures of
iron, of steel, of cotton, and of wool. In the mean time these
questions will be discussed and will be settled, whether this
year or next, as I believe, upon the theories advanced by the
Republican party. No man can certainly tell how the Demo-
cratic party will deal with these questions this year in the
House of Representatives, or whether they will deal with them
at all. Why, think of it for a moment, President Cleveland's
message was delivered on the day after the assembling of Con-
gress in December. You would have supposed from that
message and from the imperative requirements of it that the
Democratic party would not give sleep to its eyes nor slumber
to its eyelids until they had removed the great burdens com-
plained of by the President. Speaker Carlisle took a month
to appoint committees, and now if the Ways and Means Com-
mittee having charge of this question are having any meet-
ings at all they are meetings, not in the committee-room but
somewhere else, and in this way they are dealing with Indus-

SPEECH OF ME. ALLISON. 63

tries producing seven thousand millions in value and extend-
ing over nearly all the States of the Union. Is that a fair,
open and manly party way to deal with these questions ? It
was my misfortune to be for six years a member of the Ways
and Means Committee in the House, and during all that time
the committee-room was open to hearings to any great inter-
est to be affected by proposed legislation, but now such oppor-
tunity, I am told, is not given. So that whether any measure,
or if so any just measure, will be presented to the House no
one can say.

Taking all these questions into consideration as respects
our material interests it seems to me that the Republican
party should be restored to power, not only for the protec-
tion of these material interests but also for the protection and
preservation of a great republican principle that in a republic
every man shall have opportunity of casting his ballot with-
out molestation and hindrance, and when cast that it shall be
fairly counted. That may be now, and doubtless is, so far as
Congressional legislation is concerned, a mere sentiment, but
it is a sentiment founded upon a principle which lies at the
very foundation of republican government.

I have faith that we will be successful this year. I see
upon yonder walls an old banner of ^60 declaring that " it is
written in the book of fate that Abraham Lincoln shall be the
next President of the United States.'^ So I believe that this
year it is written in the book of fate that the nominee of the
19th of June next shall be President of the United States.
(Cheers and applause.) It is for you here, men of New- York,
guided by a just Providence, to make that prophecy certain of
fulfillment, and if you will do it in this imperial State, I repeat
what was so well said by my friend Spooner, we in the west
will rally to you and to the banner of that nominee from
every State west of the city of Chicago until we reach the
Pacific Ocean.

Mr. McKinley : You can move that line further east.

Mr, Allison : We will not only move it east but move it north
as well. If we carry this State we will carry the States that
surround it ; and if we cannot carry the country upon the
principles of the Republican party, I say, God help us.
(Applause and three cheers for Senator Allison.)

64 REPUBLICAN CLUB.

President Bartlett : Before I declare this banquet closed I
desire to express to our distinguished guests the thanks of
the Club for their presence here to-night, and we can only
express the hope that in the campaign next faU when we lift
up the Macedonian cry, we shall see them under very dif-
ferent circumstances. The banquet is closed. (Continued
cheering.)

•71,^^c•f.o^.D?l

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Full text of "Proceedings at the second annual dinner of the Republican Club of New-York City : held at Delmonico's on the seventy-ninth anniversary of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, February 11, 1888"

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