F 606 • R42 1867. Copy l 'HE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN ,. \iflvtes ADDRESS OF THE REPUBLICAN STATE CENTRAL COMMMIT.TEE TO THE REPUBLICANS OF MINNESOTA. rooms of the Republican State Central Committee, St. Paul, Minn., Oct. 12, 1867. TO THE REPUBLICANS OF MINNESOTA : There has never been a time in the history of our party when the interests of the government, the national honor and the public safety have so im- peratively demanded the entire energies of every member of the party. In the light of recent events, the campaign in Minnesota becomes of national importance. The late elections in Ohio and Pennsylvania repeat the lessons taught us in 1862. In that year the loyal North was astounded by Democratic victories in Ohio, New York, Indiana and Pennsylvania, as unexpected as they were disastrous. In that year the Democracy carried New York by a majority of 10,752 : Pennsylvania by a majority of 3,524; Ohio by a majority of 5,577, and Indiana by a majority of 9,643. Those reverses were not occasioned by Democratic gains, but by the simple fact that Republicans by scores of thousands neglected to go to the polls and vote, and ia Pennsylvania by the additional fact that the Democratic Supreme Court of that State disfran- chised the defenders of the country in the field, by declaring unconstitu- tional the law under which they voted. The following table, compiled from official sources, shows conclusively that the Republican party owed its defeat in that year purely to itself: NEW-YORK. 1860, 1862, Falling off in vote, VIA. 1860, 1862, Falling off in vote, 1860, 1862, Falling off in vote, 1860, 1862, Falling off in vote, Republican. 362,646 295,897 Opposition. 312,570 307,649 5,921 208,412 219,140 9,272 Dem. 133,110 128,100 Rep. Maj. 50,136 59,618 gain. 5,923 20,779 Dem. Maj. 10.752 PENNSYLVA' 66,749 268,030 215,61Q 3,524 INDIANA. 52,414 139,033 118,517 20,516 231,610 178,755 fl.643 OHIO. « 4,9.50 211.831 184,332 27,499 5,577 52,855 Two facts are demonstrated by this table : — 1st. That in none of these States was there any gain by the Democracy over their vote in 1860, excepting in Pennsylvania, where the gain is only equal, to less than one- fiftk of the Republican majority in 1860. 2nd. That all those elections were demonstrably lost by neglect of Republicans to perform the first of all the duties of a citizen. In New York in 1862 the Democracy polled their full vote of 1860 within six thousand, while sixty-six thousand Re- publicans in that State who voted in 1860 did not vote in 1862. In Penn- sylvania, where the Democracy made their only positive gain, they polled in 1862 about ten thousand more votes thau they did in 1860, while more than fifty-two thousand Republican votes were lost to the party through its own supineness and the decision of a Copperhead Court. Similar re- marks would be true of Indiana and Ohio, as an inspection of the table will show. The Republicans of Ohio and Pennsylvania have failed to profit by the experience of that year when, with superior forces, we suffered two defeats — one on the Chickahominy and the other at the polls. Our reverses then on the battle field and at the ballot box, resulted from the apathetic sense of security arising from superior strength. The inadequate victory which the party has just gained in Ohio, has been won in spite of the defiiult of scores of thousands of Re- publicans who thought the election would result favorably without their vote, and who consequently never went to the polls. Though we have elected a Republican Governor, it is more than probable that the Democracy have been permitted to obtain a majority in the Legislature of three or four upon joint ballot. The election of Vallandigham to the United States Senate by this Democratic Legislature, of the really Repub- lican State of Ohio, is a predestinated fact. Let it never be said that Minnesota, with the redoubled experience of her sister States, has made a similar record. We ask Republicans to give their attention to the following considerations : A return of the Democratic party to power, is a virtual overthrow of every Republican principle adopted by the party since 1862. It means the destruction of the national credit. The Democracy of Ohio have, throughout the canvass just closed, advocated the payment of the national debt by compelling the holders of our bonds to take therefor green- backs to the amount of $2,500,000,000, and the Democratic speakers in Minnesota repeat the same arguments. The consequences of an adoption of this policy would be most disastrous. Every five cent scrip would shrink in a moment to the value of less than one cent. Every pension of eight dollars per month which the government pays to the widows and orphans of those " who died that the nation might live," would become worth to them less than one dollar a month. Every little hoard of savings would become as.valueless as if fire had consumed it. The measure would strike at the substance of the poor— and at the poor alone. Those con- trolling large means, taking the alarm, would hastily convert them into the necessaries of life — food and clothing — and hold at their mercy those whose surplus would be soon exhausted. Prices are high now, gold is at* a premium because our currency is of too great volume. For the same reason prices in the South became so great during the war that the poor could not subsist. Such is the inevitable result of an expansion of the currency beyond the necessities of trade. We experienced it once, and only escaped it because we funded in these securities that very surplus which the Demo- eratic party now proposes to create. The South experienced it to the bitter end, and did not escape its evils because their Democratic statesmen did not fund this surplus. The policy would leave the North in the midst of profound peace precisely where we found the South at the close of the war. Hundreds of millions of dollars in these bonds are held in Europe. Do the Democracy expect to compel these holders to exchange their bonds, containing a definite promise to pay at some time, for a worthless currency never payable so far as its terms are concerned ? Or do they mean to invite a foreign war on the result of repudiation ! Again, the Pacific Railroad, the crowning physical achievement of man in any age, depends for its construction upon United States bonds issued to its corporaters for every mile of the road built. Yet the Democracy strike a fatal blow at this enterprise, whose successful development will within twenty years so increase the resources of the nation as to alleviate by one half the burden of taxation which the present wealth of the country endures and prospers under at the same time. The Democracy of Minnesota declare themselves in their platform ' ' as opposed to the so-called reconstruction measures of the Thirty-Ninth and Fortieth Congresses." They are undoubtedly opposed to them all ; and yet among those measures of reconstruction is the amendment proposed to the Constitution of the United States, that no person who, having taken an oath of office to support the Constitution of the United States, and afterwards engaged in rebellion, shall hold office. Against this amend- ment the Democracy of Minnesota have recorded themselves. Another amendment proposed by the Thirty-Ninth and Fortieth Con- gresses as a condition of reconstruction, is that one declaring that the validity of the public debt, including debts incurred for payment of pen- sions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection and rebellion, shall not be questioned ; 'and that the United States or any State shall not assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion, or any claim for loss or emancipation of any slave. Yet the Democracy of Minnesota are opposed to this "so-called" measure of recon- struction ! They propose to submit to the chances of party ascendancy the power to repudiate the debt — to repudiate the obligation to pay pensions — to allow the Southern interest, should it ever again become dominant, to saddle the Confederate war debt upon the United States, and to cap the climax of party profligacy, to allow them to add to this enormous mountain of obligation the power to pay four thousand millions of dollars, the esti- mated value of the former slave property. The Democracy of Minnesota, represented on their State ticket by men of whom not one ever drew a sword or levelled a musket against the rebellion, declare themselves in their platform as opposed to universal suffrage. The Republican party of this State claims that any man, white or black, who was called upon to fight for the preservation of his country derives from that very facj, the right to cast his vote upon questions where the interests of all citizens are identical. We claim that no man can be protected by the ballot of any person save himself. We are opposed to those invidious class distinctions which have been the destruction of all free governments. Such a distinction, pushed to its consequences, was the occasion of the rebellion. Such a distinction retained will be fruitful 016 094 888 7 ,L2SfL.°f ...CONGRESS of catastrophes more dangerous than that which we s We believe that there is a duty as binding upon peop to do justice : that a nation who can do justice and pay a penalty proportionate to the injustice done, and its denial will be fruitful of years of retribution. We recognize in our own national experience that every right denied lessens immeasurably the value of such rights as are conferred ; that rights are only secure when completely possessed in all respects ; and that any denial to one class of citizens will, if persisted in, destroy those rights which are held by the favored citizen to the exclusion of his fellow. Are the people of Minnesota prepared to look with complacency at the spectacle of Vallandigham taking a seat in the Senate of the United States, as the successor of Benjamin Wade? or to see sent from Minnesota to the United States Senate a Democrat to make the triumph of that expatriated traitor more impressive ? Have we so soon forgotten the fact that Vallandigham, in whom Democracy triumphs, in 1863 advised the Confederate leaders at Richmond to persevere another year, promising them that defeat to the Union armies and prolongation of the war would create such despondency at the North that the Democracy would, in his language, "sweep the Radicals from power?" Shall we be accessary by inaction to the plot to make Horatio Seymour the next president of the United States ? — the man who was the master spirit of the Convention which declared the war a failure — whose election ias Governor of New York in 1862 we felt to be more disastrous than would have been twenty defeats upon the battle-field- — who endeavered to stop the draft in the Democratic city of New York, to enable him to engage in an endless negotiation about its quota — who found "his friends" among that mob in that city, which massacred Union soldiers in the discharge of their duty, and peaceful citizens in their homes — who combines in his person every sentiment, purpose and policy which made the Democratic party the coadjutors of the South, before, during and since the war. Congress, in the firm assurance of the support of the Republican party, has prescribed a policy of reconstruction believed by all Republicans to be the only efficacious plan yet proposed. Every Democratic advantage permitted by inaction, impedes the work which must be fully done before the country can be made secure. There is now as much necessity for promptitute, vigilance and work as there was in 1861 when the nation was first threatened. It were better to have failed then in our duty than to fail now. Now, as then, there is strength enough in the Republican party for the salvation of the nation. The scanty results of the last election in Ohio and Pennsylvania are, as they were in 1862, the effects of negli- gence on the part of individual members of the Republican party. Let the men who were once willing to give three years to their country, giye but one day to it now. Let every Republican remember those principles in which he has believed and enforce them by his vote. We call upon every Republican to vote, to see that his neighbor votes, to see that the purity of the ballot box is maintained, and to give all his energies that those principles may prevail through which the nation has been preserved. LEVI NUTTING, Chairman Kepublican State Central Committee. \ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 016 094 888 7 Conservation Resources Lig-Free® Type I DL a e r»_.*r_