Conversation with Horatio Seymour, 
 
 ON THE 
 
 NATIONAL DEBT A ND TAXES. 
 SPEECH OF HON. WILLIAM D. KELLEY, 
 
 AT SPRING GARDEN HALL, 
 
 SEPTEMBER 8th, 1868. 
 
 Mr. Kelley, having been greeted with 
 long-continued cheers, said : 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Fellow-citizens : 
 I thank you lor this cordial greeting, and 
 congratulate you upon the happy auspices 
 under which the campaign has opened. 
 The victory is won before the battle has 
 fairly commenced. [Cheers.] Since our 
 last Congressional canvass, availing myself 
 of recesses in public duty, I have traversed 
 twenty-six of Pennsylvania's sister States, 
 to a greater or less extent, and in seventeen 
 of them have addressed my fellow-citizens 
 in public assemblies upon political or eco- 
 nomical topics. I wanted to observe the 
 practical workings of the reconstruction 
 laws of Congress, and, with my own hand, 
 to feel the public pulse in the different sec- 
 tions of the country. I have been twice 
 upon the borders of the Lakes, and once 
 upon the shore and waters of the Gulf, and 
 having mingled with your fellow-citizens 
 and mine on the western banks of the Mis- 
 sissippi, am yet weary from recent labors 
 among our countrymen on the east banks 
 of the Penobscot. I bring you good tid- 
 ings from Maine — from that State that we 
 of the old Democratic party used to call 
 the star of the East. Vermont poured a 
 cold blast of East wind on the Democracy 
 [laughter ;] but when they hear from Maine 
 they will experience the severest Northeast 
 storm they ever encountered. [Renewed 
 laughter and applause.] 
 
 The Gubernatorial election in Maine will 
 practically determine the Presidential elec- 
 tion. Except where there is a hope of 
 carrying honorable or lucrative local offices, 
 there will be no vigorous contest made by 
 the Democratic party after Tuesday next. 
 
 But I am not to speak on general issues 
 now. The campaign presents an unusually 
 large number of issues on which any man 
 familiar with the questions might delight 
 to talk with his neighbors, but having cho- 
 sen for my theme to-night " The Finances 
 of the Country," I am compelled to con- 
 fine my observations within the prescribed 
 limit. 
 
 In his remarkable letter of July 24, to 
 the Hon. C. M. Ingersoll, Mr. Seymour says: 
 
 "I see the Republicans are trying to dodge 
 the financial issues and to sink the ejection iuto 
 a mere personal contest. Our papers must not 
 allow this. They must push the debt and tax- 
 ation upon public attention." 
 
 This letter is very characteristic. Not 
 only does it illustrate your egotism, Mr. 
 Seymour, but impels one to exclaim with 
 Hamlet, " There are more things in heaven 
 and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in 
 your philosophy." The American people 
 are very thrifty ; but they are not devoted 
 to dollars and cents, debits and credits. 
 There is patriotism — love of country ; phil- 
 anthropy — love of mankind ; religion — a 
 reverential consciousness of responsibility 
 to God ! Animated by these ennobling sen- 
 timents, to which your political career 
 proves you to be a stranger, more than a 
 million of our countrymen dared the dan- 
 gers of the battle-field and showed their 
 willingness, if need be, to die, that their 
 country against whose life you were con- 
 spiring might live. [Cheers and long-con- 
 tinued applause.] 
 
 Unfortunate, my friends, for his aspira- 
 tions as is the record of Mr. Seymour, 
 erratic as has been the course and revolu- 
 tionary as are the utterances of Blair, it 
 would indeed belittle the contest, were the 
 Republicans to rest their claims to success 
 upon personal grounds. In view of the 
 characteristics of these gentlemen, it might 
 be dona with perfect safety to the issue, but 
 not with justice to the people. For never 
 were grander issues presented to the con-* 
 sideration of a people than those to which 
 their attention is now invited, and never 
 did the argument all lie so absolutely with 
 one party to the contest. No, Mr. Sey- 
 mour ; it is not the Republicans who are 
 trying to dodge the financial issues. They 
 have no cause to shrink from the discussion 
 of the debt and taxation ; they are willing, 
 and well may they be, that the public shall 
 understand these topics in all their ampli- 
 tude. [Applause.] And now, in opening 
 the campaign in my own district, I propose 
 to follow the course I pursued during my 
 recent tour through Maine, and bring to 
 their calm consideration, fully, freely, and 
 •fairly, the financial questions of the day. 
 More than this, I propose, Mr. Seymour, 
 to disclose to the people in the course of 
 the canvass, in some faint degree the terri- 
 ble necessities of your party, by exposing 
 the flagrant falsehoods required at your 
 hands and at the hands of your party asso- 
 ciates, to invest these troublesome questions 
 with an aspect prejudicial to the cause of 
 Republicanism. 
 
2 
 
 Wlio are responsible for the In- 
 debtedness of the Nation? 
 
 I propose, my fellow-citizens, as a proper 
 preliminary question, to ask first, who are 
 responsible for the present embarrassed 
 condition of the country ; by whose agency 
 the nation has been burdened with debt 
 and taxes, of which the Democracy now 
 complain. You know, that upon the Demo- 
 cratic party rests this responsibility, and 
 that Horatio Seymour bore a conspicuous 
 part in the evil-doings of the leaders of that 
 party. But let not the response to this 
 grave question come from me ; let history 
 answer it. And that it may not be suggested 
 that a snap judgment has been taken on a 
 partial view of the facts, let us give the 
 Democracy the benefit of the history of the 
 thirteen years immediately preceding the 
 inauguration of Abraham Lincoln. What, 
 then, are the facts? The Mexican War 
 was concluded by the treaty of Guadaloupe 
 Hidalgo, in February, 1848. The Demo- 
 cratic party than held every branch of the. 
 Federal Government in supreme control. 
 They had the Executive Department ; they 
 had both branches of the Legislative Depart- 
 ment ; they had the bench of the Supreme 
 Court by an almost unanimous voice — in a 
 word, with the exception of about sixteen 
 months, (from the 4th of March, 1849, to 
 the 6th of July, 1850,) during which Gen- 
 eral Taylor was President, the co-ordinate 
 branches of the Government were in the 
 absolute control of the Democratic party. 
 For whatever of merit there was in the ad- 
 ministration of the Government, during 
 those thirteen years, the credit is due to 
 that party ; but if upon careful inquiry it be 
 found that the administration of govern- 
 mental affairs was productive of evil only, 
 we will carry that fact, Mr. Seyrhour, to 
 your account, and that of the party whose 
 candidate you are. 
 
 What was the financial condition of the 
 country in the month of February, 1848 ? 
 Before the close of the war, the Congress 
 then in session had authorized a loan of 
 sixteen millions of dollars for war purposes, 
 and it had been taken ; nay, more, it had 
 brought half a million of dollars of premium ; 
 and Benton records the fact that more than 
 half the bidders for the loan were much dis- 
 appointed, having under-estimated the credit 
 of the country, and offered too low a rate 
 of premium. We asked for sixteen millions 
 at six per cent., and thirty-five millions were 
 offered, and a premium coupled with the 
 tender of every dollar. Upon the sudden 
 termination of the war, through the inter- 
 vention of a private citizen, N. P. Trist, 
 Esq., (for the politicians had not meant 
 that it should terminate so Speedily,) it was 
 found that the loan had not been required. 
 It was, however, applied to the absorption 
 of Treasury notes, of which considerable 
 amounts had been issued. Let James K. 
 Polk and Senator Benton, whose Demo- 
 
 cracy you, Mr. Seymour, will not dispute, 
 state the financial condition of the country. 
 In his last annual message, speaking of the 
 fiscal year in which the war closed, Mr. 
 Polk used this language : 
 
 " The expenditures for the same period, in- 
 cluding the necessary payment on account of 
 the principal and interest of the public debfc, 
 and the principal and interest of the first instal- 
 ment due to Mexico on the 30th of May next, 
 and other expenditures growing out of the war, 
 to be paid during the present year, will amount, 
 including the reimbursements of Treasury 
 notes, to the sum of 854,195,275.00 ; leaving an 
 estimated balance in the Treasury, on 1st July, 
 1849, of $2,853,094.84." 
 
 Of the next year, and the last of his ad- 
 ministration, he says . 
 
 "The Secretary of the Treasury will pre- 
 sent, as required by law, the estimate of the 
 receipts and expenditures for the next fiscal 
 year. The expenditures as estimated for that 
 year are 833,213,152.73; including 83,799,102.18 
 for the interest on the public debt, and $3,540,- 
 
 000 for the principal and interest due to Mexico 
 on the 30th day of May, 1850; leaving the sum 
 of $25,874,050.35, which, it is believed, will 
 bo ample for the ordinary peace expenditures." 
 
 Mr. Benton, in 1856, commenting upon 
 this message, exclaims : 
 
 "About twenty-five millions of dollars for the 
 ordinary expenditures of the Government, and 
 this the estimate and expenditure only seven 
 years ago — now three times that amount, and 
 increasing with frightful rapidity !" 
 
 Yes, Horatio Seymour, within eight short 
 years of peace had your party increased the 
 ordinary expenses of the Government three 
 hundred per cent. — in that brief interval of 
 peace swollen them, to the horror of, Benton 
 and all other patriots, from twenty-five 
 millions to seventy-five millions per annum. 
 While referring to Benton, let me repeat to 
 you what he says in his " Thirty Years in 
 the United States Senate." His language 
 is pertinent to our discussion of the national 
 debt and taxes. It is as follows : 
 
 " At the return of peace every public security 
 was above par ; the national coffers full of gold, 
 and the Government, having money on hand 
 and anxious to pay its Joans before they were 
 due, could only obtain that privilege by paying 
 a premium upon it sometimes as high as twenty 
 per centum, thus actually giving one dollar 
 upon every five for the five before it was due." 
 
 Would time permit I would gladly review 
 the general legislation of the period of which 
 
 1 am speaking, but I cannot stop to consi- 
 der even its leading features — not even the 
 infamies of the Kansas-Nebraska transac- 
 tions, nor the repeal of the Missouri compro- 
 mise, which, having been a concession to the 
 South by the North, had for more than 
 thirty years preserved the peace of the 
 country, and secured the cold but fertile 
 Northwest to freedom and paid labor, while 
 giving to the South the amplest room for 
 the extension of its system of unpaid labor* 
 
3 
 
 Passing these and other kindred topics I 
 hasten to those which have a direct rela- 
 tion to the debt and taxes which you, 
 Mr. Seymour, would have the Democratic 
 papers press upon the attention of the 
 country, and therefore pass at once to 
 the 17th of November, 1860, on which 
 clay South Carolina adopted an ordinance 
 of secession. Mississippi adopted a like or- 
 dinance on January 9, 1801 ; Florida on 
 January 10; Alabama, January 11; Geor- 
 gia, January 19 ; Louisiana, January 25, 
 and Texas, by her convention, adopted 
 such an ordinance on the 4th of February, 
 1861, and on the 23d of the same month 
 endorsed it by an overwhelming vote of 
 the people. Three days after Texas had 
 thus ab&olved the ties which bound her as 
 a State to the Union, three days after the 
 last of these seven States had severed, in 
 the language of the lamented Lincoln, 
 44 their practical relations with the Union" — 
 three days after the Democratic leaders 
 of those States had, to quote the words 
 of Andrew Johnson, 44 by the rebellion 
 which has been waged by a portion of 
 the people of the United States against the 
 properly constituted authorities of the Go- 
 vernment thereof, in the most violent and 
 revolting form," deprived the people, of 
 those States "of all civil government," 
 representatives from each of them assem- 
 bled as a Southern Congress at Montgo- 
 mery, Alabama. On the 8th of that month 
 they adopted the provisional constitution of 
 a Confederacy, and elected Jefferson Davis 
 President, and Alexander H. Stephens 
 Vice President thereof. On the eigh- 
 teenth of that month Mr. Davis was in- 
 augurated, and on the twenty -first, an- 
 nounced his Cabinet. Meanwhile the re- 
 presentatives of these and other States had 
 withdrawn from their seats in the Senate 
 and House of Representatives of the Na- 
 tional Congress. Allow me, Mr. Seymour, 
 just here, to put one question : Pray, tell 
 me, was there a single Republican among 
 the large number of members thus retiring 
 from either House? Was there among 
 those who represented those seven States 
 in that Southern Congress a single Repub- 
 lican ? Were Mr. Davis and Mr. Stephens 
 Republicans ? Or did Mr. Davis invite any 
 Republican to a seat in his Cabinet? No, 
 sir ; they were Democrats all ; and their 
 action in thus dismembering the Govern- 
 ment was the action of the Democratic 
 party. [Great applause.] Every man to 
 whom I have referred, who has survived 
 the shock of arms and flow of time, is to- 
 day a Seymour and Blair man, and is as 
 devoted to your fortunes, Mr. Seymour, as 
 were the murderers of men, women, and 
 children, whom you harangued as your 
 44 friends" in the New York Park. [Ap- 
 plause. J Shake not your gory locks at us, 
 Horatio Seymour ; thou canst not say that 
 we, the Republicans of the country, did 
 this. But you are a plausible and an elo- 
 
 quent man, say your friends. "Would that 
 they could add, a frank and trushfu! man. 
 But your last utterances upon the financial 
 questions of the country preclude any man 
 from applying these honorable titles to you, 
 Horatio Seymour ! But, with your usual 
 plausible dexterity, you may suggest that 
 these were Southern men ; that they viewed 
 questions from a peculiar standpoint ; that 
 they were impelled by the influence of 
 habit, early education and peculiar position, 
 and that the Democratic party must not be 
 held responsible for their deeds. If you 
 raise that issue, I invoke history to settle it, 
 with the confident assurance that all men 
 who listen to her voice will say that it was 
 the work of the Democratic party, and that 
 you and other leaders of the Northern De- 
 mocracy are no less responsible for the 
 course of events than were Jefferson Davis 
 and the men who called him to the 
 Presidency of the bastard government 
 over which he presided. [Applause.] 
 
 How Buchanan's Adm in ist ration 
 Promoted the Rebellion. 
 
 The Thirty-sixth Congress, overwhelm- 
 ingly Democratic in both branches, assem- 
 bled on Monday, the 3d of December, 1860 ; 
 but one State (South Carolina) had then 
 seceded. Her ordinance of secession was 
 not the first treasonable ordinance she had 
 adopted. In 1832 she had adopted an or- 
 dinance of nullification, and the President 
 of the United States had made known his 
 purpose of hanging her leaders as high as Eta- 
 man, and laying Charleston, her chief city, 
 in ashes if she attempted to enforce it ; and,- 
 like a pouting child, she had abandoned her 
 unholy purpose, but continued to snarl and 
 fret and plead for sympathy in her evil 
 moods. So now, on the 3d of December, 
 1860, had the representative of the then 
 dominant party, in the Executive el air, 
 followed the example of Andrew Jackson, 
 her ordinance of secession would have 
 proved a mere brut em fulmeii, as the ordi- 
 nance of nullification had been. 
 
 Other States waited for official assurance 
 of the proposed course of the President 
 and the Democracy of the North. From 
 the 17th of November, when South Caro- 
 lina acted upon the question, until the 
 9th of January, when Mississippi adopted 
 her secession ordinance, was, in a crisis 
 like that, a very long period. And it is a 
 fact that but for the bold avowal of sympa- 
 thy with the seccders by you, Horatio Sey- 
 mour, and the other leaders of the Democ- 
 racy of the North ; but for the official as- 
 surance given by President Buchanan that 
 he would not exercise coercion or use any 
 other power than moral suasion to save the 
 unity and life of the nation, no second 
 ordinance of secession would have been 
 adopted ; and there would have been no 
 bonds and no debt for Horatio Seymour and 
 the papers of his party to press upon the 
 
CLM' 
 
 4 
 
 attention of the people of the United States 
 for electioneering purposes. [Cheers, and 
 cries of "That's true."] 
 . But let history speak. Congress assem- 
 bled on the 3d of December, and on the 4th 
 Mr. Buchanan delivered his annual mes- 
 sage, in the very preface to which he asks 
 the question : 
 
 "Has the Constitution delegated to Congress 
 the power to coerce a State into submission 
 which is attempting to withdraw, or has ac- 
 tually withdrawn, from the Confederacy ?" 
 
 And what was his answer to that ques- 
 tion ? It was in these words : 
 
 "After much serious reflection, I have ar- 
 rived at the conclusion that no such power has 
 been delegated to Congress, nor to any other 
 department of the Federal Government." 
 
 The body of Mr. Buchanan's message 
 was little else than an amplification of this 
 fatal answer to that pregnant question. 
 Kay, more than that, as if fearing that this 
 assurance of impunity to the Democratic 
 leaders in their war upon our Government 
 might prove insufficient, he appended to 
 his message the elaborate opinion of his 
 Attorney General, Jeremiah S. Black, of 
 Pennsylvania, enforcing his own views. 
 That opinion bears date November 20, 1860, 
 and had unquestionably been submitted by 
 its author and his recreant chief to the 
 leaders of the incipient rebellion. I need 
 not remind you, Mr. Seymour, that Mr. 
 Black leads your forces in Pennsylvania. 
 " But that," you answer with your accus- 
 tomed plausibility, "does not prove that 
 I entertain these opinions." Oh, no, Mr. 
 Seymour ! And while it is true that "birds 
 of a feather flock together," we will admit 
 that this proof is not conclusive, and permit 
 you to speak for yourself on this subject. 
 
 Mr. Seymour Personally Respon- 
 sible. 
 
 On the 31st of January, 1861, a Demo- 
 cratic State Convention assembled in Twed- 
 dle Hall at Albany, to consider the impend- 
 ing perils of the Union. No man in that 
 convention was more prominent than you, 
 Mr. Seymour ; no man addressed it with 
 more potential voice. Did }'0U demand the 
 maintenance of the Union at whatever 
 cost, and warn the rebels that they were 
 involving the country in war and thern- 
 » Ives in ruin ? Did you denounce the im- 
 becility of Buchanan, the treasonable craft 
 of Black, the bloody recklessness of the 
 Southern leaders? Oh, no! your denun- 
 ciations were not for these, your political 
 friends; they were hurled at the liberty- 
 loving and la w-abiding people of the North. 
 You denounced the resistance of the North 
 to ilie unconstitutional, unholy, and insa- 
 tiable demands of the slavery extensionists 
 as "senseless, unreasoning fanaticism ;" 
 and exonerating the rebels from all blame, 
 
 you added the assurance of your con- 
 viction that we could not conquer thexU, 
 and advised your friends that to attempt it 
 would be as revolutionary as secession it- 
 self. Your words were : 
 
 "It would be an act of folly and madness in 
 entering upon this contest to underrate our op- 
 ponents, and thus subject ourselves to the dis- 
 grace of defeat in an inglorious warfare. Let 
 us also see if successful coercion by the North 
 is less revolutionary than successful secession 
 by the South." 
 
 Do not, my fellow-citizens, history and 
 his own words thus bring home to the 
 Democratic party as a party, and to Mr. 
 Seymour as one of its leaders, the responsi- 
 bility not only for the debt with which we 
 are burdened, for the taxes so annoying, 
 but also for the anguish we have endured 
 and for the still fresh and green graves on 
 once bloody fields, covering the bones of 
 brave patriots in whose valor we glory 
 while mourning their loss? [Applause.] 
 
 The Condition of tlie Finances 
 tvhen Mr. Lincoln was Inaugu- 
 rated. 
 
 On the 4th of March, 1861, Abraham 
 Lincoln was inaugurated, and by the re- 
 tirement of" Democratic Senators and Repre- 
 sentatives the Republican party found itself 
 responsible for the executive and legislative 
 branches of the Government. Had the 
 Southern Democratic members not with- 
 drawn, the Republican Executive would 
 have been powerless, for while they re- 
 mained in their seats the Democracy had a 
 clear working majority in both houses. 
 Nor could the political complexion of the 
 Senate have been changed during the four 
 years for which Mr. Lincoln had been elect- 
 ed. Had every State election gone against 
 the Democracy during his term, and every 
 Senator whose term had expired been sup- 
 planted by a Republican, the Democrats 
 would still have retained a large working 
 majority in the Senate ; so that no law 
 could have been passed without the consent 
 of the Democratic party, and no official ap- 
 pointment requiring confirmation been made 
 that was not acceptable to the Democracy. 
 But having withdrawn, and the mainte- 
 nance of the Government being in question, 
 the Republicans assumed the responsibility 
 thus unexpectedly devolved upon them. 
 That Mr. Lincoln was constitutionally 
 elected has never been questioned. He 
 was inaugurated on the 4th of March, very 
 nearly a full month after the establishment 
 of the •Confederate government, and more 
 than a fortnight after the inauguration of 
 Jeff Davis as its President. 
 
 Mr. Seymour, will you have the frankness 
 to tell us the financial condition of the 
 Government when the Republican party 
 assumed its administration ? Remember, 
 Benton tells us that the credit of the Govern- 
 
5 
 
 ment had been so good that, even during a 
 foreign war, our loans had commanded a 
 premium, and that when we had asked 
 for a loan, more than two dollars had 
 been tendered, with a premium, for every 
 one asked. Remember that he also tells 
 us that, in the interim, our Treasury had 
 so abounded that we had gladly paid 
 8 1*20 for every hundred we owed for the 
 privilege of anticipating the maturity of the 
 debt. Did your party, Mr. Seymour, hand 
 over a full treasury to Mr. Lincoln ? No, 
 sir. The 4th of March, 1861, the day of 
 Mr. Lincoln's inauguration, found the debt 
 of the Government to be more than $70,- 
 000,000 ; and during the last month of the 
 administration of the Treasury by that 
 earnest friend of yours, Howell Cobb, who 
 is now stumping Georgia with such enthu- 
 siasm for your cause, attempted, as Secre- 
 tary of the Treasury, to borrow five mil- 
 lions of dollars. In order to obtain this 
 small loan, or professedly for that purpose, 
 Mr. Cobb visited New York and other 
 Eastern cities. No bids were made at the 
 rate of six per cent., and when he offered 
 twelve per cent, per annum in gold, it 
 brought bat half the required amount, only 
 $2, 1 500,000 ; the whole of which sum was 
 necessary to pay the current salaries of the 
 President and his subordinates. Call you 
 this good financiering, Mr. Seymour ? Can 
 you rind reasons in this record which ought 
 to induce the people of this country to re- 
 entrust the administration of its financial 
 affairs to you, and those who with you thus 
 bankrupted it, and deprived it of credit in 
 a season of prosperity ? 
 
 But, my f llow-eitizens, a bankrupt and 
 discredited Treasury was not the only ca- 
 lamitous result of Democratic rule. The 
 6eceding States had taken possession of 
 forts, arsenals, mints, hospitals, and every 
 form of public property within their limits, 
 and had handed them over to the Confede- 
 rate government. By the consent of Mr. 
 Buchanan and his Secretary of War, John 
 B. Floyd, (as is proven by the letter-book 
 of General Twiggs, now in the possession of 
 his executor, Edward Shippen, Esq., of 
 this city), our army, stationed by Floyd in 
 Texas and New Mexico, had been surren- 
 dered to the forces of the Confederacy ; 
 and while the forts and arsenals of the North 
 had been emptied and those within the 
 Confederate limits had been gorged with 
 arms and munitions of war, our navy had 
 been sent to the most distant stations or 
 laid up in ordinary at Norfolk and Pensa- 
 cola, by the direction of that now leading 
 light of Seymourism in New England, 
 Isaac N. Toucey, Democratic Secretary of 
 the Navy — so that when the Democracy of 
 the South, under its new government, fired 
 upon Fort Sumpter and plunged the coun- 
 try into war, Abraham Lincoln, the Repub- 
 lican President, could command but four 
 of the vessels of the navy, and they among 
 the smallest. 
 
 Thus, Mr. Seymour, having bankrupted 
 the country, destroyed its credit, robbed it 
 of the means of self-defence, you and your 
 party handed it over to your Republican 
 successors manacled, and, save in its great 
 spirit, which you have never been able 
 to comprehend, impotent even for the work 
 of self-defence. [Applause.] 
 
 The Republican Party Assume 
 Po wer. 
 
 The inaugural address of Mr. Lincoln 
 was a plea for peace. His Cabinet was 
 composed of men of the most moderate 
 councils. He still hoped that better con- 
 clusions would prevail with the South, and 
 that the Union might be preserved without 
 the horrors of war; but on the 12th of 
 April, the first fort, Sumpter, was fired on ; 
 and on the loth of that month, not as the 
 representative of the Republican party, but 
 in his official character as President of the 
 United States, Abraham Lincoln issued a 
 proclamation calling forth the militia of the 
 several States of the Union, to the aggre- 
 gate number of 75,000. His language was 
 this : 
 
 " I deem it proper to say that the first serviee 
 assigned to the forces hereby called forth will 
 probably be to repossess the forts, places, and 
 property which have been seized from the 
 Union." 
 
 How inadequate for the work were these 
 75,000 men, we all know. How the num- 
 ber swelled to millions, and the dead on 
 either side to more than thrice 75,000, alas ! 
 we know too well ! But the life of the 
 country, its unity, and the supremacy of the 
 Constitution were worth these sacrifices a 
 thousand-fold over. The sorrows and 
 agonies of the war were for a generation, 
 but our Uniqn is for all time, and our ex- 
 ample for all men ; and when the names of 
 all but the most distinguished leaders of our 
 cause shall be forgotten, generation after 
 generation will still rise to call them blessed 
 who did this great work. But you, Mr. 
 Seymour, and your friends who organized 
 the rebellion, who encouraged and sustained 
 it, are responsible not only for every dollar 
 spent in the war, but for every life laid 
 down in the contest. [Applause.] And, 
 if the debt and taxes be a burden, to 
 the Democratic party, as represented in 
 the convention that nominated you, does 
 the responsibility attach. [Cries of " That's 
 true," " That's a fact."] 
 
 What expenditure it required to create a 
 navy ample enough to maintain our honor 
 on the seas and to blockade our extended 
 coast ; to put into the field millions of men, 
 arm, equip, feed, and transport them ; to 
 provide pensions for the wounded and crip- 
 pled, and widows and orphans, time will 
 not permit me to state. But let its mag- 
 nitude be what it may, I repeat the 
 assertion that it was called for by the tor- 
 
6 
 
 pitude of the Democratic party, which was 
 
 approved by you in your Tweddle Hall 
 speech and by all your subsequent public 
 acts and utterances. 
 
 What is the Debt? 
 
 Now, my fellow-citizens, what is this 
 debt V It is the unpaid balance of the cost 
 of maintaining the life and unity of your 
 country. It is the comparatively small sum 
 remaining due of the cost of preventing 
 the establishment on the American conti- 
 nent of two great military republics, each 
 of Avhich would have drafted the first-born 
 of every household for its standing army 
 or navy. It is the unpaid balance of the 
 cost of securing to the American people 
 perpetual peace in lieu of what the Democ- 
 racy proposed — incessant war or armed neu- 
 trality, such as the States of Europe main- 
 tain. 
 
 Mr. Seymour, you prove that you little 
 know the American people by the expression 
 to Mr. Ingersoll of your belief that while 
 remembering the great price they have 
 already paid for the execution of this benefi- 
 cent work, they will regard the debt and 
 taxes to which they find themselves sub- 
 jected as grievances to be deplored. Ah, 
 sir, yonder tottering old man walks in pov- 
 erty and adversity because your Southern 
 rebellion required him to send forth to die in 
 battle or in pestilential prisons of the South 
 the stalwart sons whose presence would 
 have made the close of his life calm and 
 roseate. And yonder pale-faced woman, au 
 American mother, whose husband sleeps in 
 an unrecognized grave in the far South, and 
 who, while he lived, knew not toil — her 
 struggle is now that the children of her 
 hero husband shall have the advantages of 
 our free institutions, and be prepared to die, 
 if other Davises and Seymours arise, as 
 their father died, in defence of country, 
 Constitution, and the rights of man. These 
 myriads of men with empty sleeves, or who 
 lean on crutches— think you that they mur- 
 mur at the taxes they pay? No! They 
 glory in having performed their duty like 
 men, and rejoice that the privilege was 
 given them of proving their readine&s to die 
 in so sacred a cause. * 
 
 But, sir, these and such as these can tell 
 you of the real cost of the war, and shame 
 even you, Mr. Seymour, mto believing that 
 in comparison with what has been gained, 
 the total of the debt incurred in the sup- 
 pression of your Democratic rebellion is too 
 insignificant to influence the vote of a single 
 American patriot. You desire to discuss 
 this little balance, Mr. Seymour; but when 
 we point out the real and terrible cost of the 
 war and justly hold its authors responsible, 
 you write to Mr. Colin M. Ingersoll that we 
 tf are trying to sink the election into a mere i 
 personal contest." [Cheers and applause. ] [ 
 
 Relation of Debt and Tax's to 
 Population, — and Incidentally of 
 Greenbacks and JBonds. 
 
 What, Mr. Seymour, are the relations of 
 this debt to the population of the country, 
 to its realized wealth, and to its future re- 
 sources ? To enlighten us on these ques- 
 tions we must ascertain the amount of the 
 debt and its character, and happily the 
 papers of the day bring us the last monthly 
 statement of the Secretary of the Treasury. 
 By reference to it you will find that the total 
 debt, less money in the Treasury, is $2,535,- 
 014,313.03; of this sum $425,650,125 <01 
 bears no interest, $112,984,911.37 being 
 greenbacks, fractional currency or gold cer- 
 tificates of deposits, and the balance ma- 
 tured debt not presented for payment, and 
 much of which never will be presented, the 
 bonds and other obligations representing it 
 having been lost or destroyed. I also invite 
 your attention to another item of $35,314, 000, 
 upon which the Government is not called 
 to pay interest. I allude to the six per cent, 
 bonds issued to the Pacific Railroad Com- 
 pany, the interest on which is, and the 
 principal of which will be paid by the com- 
 pany. Thus you will perceive that there 
 are $400,304,125 of this amount upon which 
 the people are not taxed for interest, and a 
 considerable percentage of which they do 
 not really owe. 
 
 Thus, it appears from the last official 
 statement that the total interest-bearing debt 
 amounts to $2,075,250,188.02. Of this sum 
 more than $(55,000,000 is at three per cent., 
 and $221,588,480 at five per cent. So that 
 it requires the collection of about $120,000,- 
 000 annually to pay the interest. Let me 
 allude to the $400,000,000 of currency.— 
 Whether that portion of the debt be a bur- 
 den or a blessing, no man can decide, for 
 upon that question the ablest and the purest 
 men in the country differ. It is in your 
 pocket and mine, and in that of every sober 
 and industrious man and woman in the 
 country, and it will imperceptibly disappear 
 under the operation of natural laws, when- 
 ever the neglected branches of our industry 
 shall be adequately protected and the bal- 
 ance of trade be turned in favor of this 
 country. 
 
 However opinion may divide on the 
 question, whether the national currency is 
 now a blessing or a burden, no man, who 
 believes that the Union was worth preserv- 
 ing, will deny that it was authorized in 
 compliance with an overwhelming neces- 
 sity. Even you, Mr. Seymour, dare not 
 and cannot dispute this proposition. Your 
 friend, Jefferson Davis, had ordered the re- 
 duction of Fort Sumpter, and the rank and 
 file of your party had executed his order. 
 Your friends and supporters in the conven- 
 tion over which you presided, and which 
 nominated you for the Presidency, Wade 
 Hampton., Forrest, el id om>i<\ were al- 
 ready in the field at the head of lebel 
 
7 
 
 armies. They must be beaten or the Union 
 be lorever sundered. 
 
 In response to President Lincoln's call 
 for 75,01)0 troops, more than 100,000 had 
 offered and been accepted, and sent to the 
 front, and the atmosphere -was vocal with 
 the American Marseillaise, "We arc coming, 
 Pal her Abraham, Three Hunted Thousand 
 more." To provide for the demands upon 
 the treasury, which your party had not only 
 bankrupted, but burdened with a bonded 
 debt of $70,000,000, Congress was called 
 together in extra session. You will pardon 
 me, Mr. Seymour, if in response to your 
 infamous suggestion to Mr. Ingersoll, that 
 your papers 44 must press the debt and tax- 
 ation upon public attention," I ask you 
 personally where the money was to come 
 from, with which to pay, feed, clothe, arm, 
 and transport these patriot soldiers ; to 
 estabKsh hospitals and a medical corps to 
 care for them when sick, or wounded by 
 your friends ; and to provide pensions for 
 the crippled, and the widows and orphans 
 of the killed? 
 
 It could not be borrowed in gold from 
 foreigners, because you in your Tweddle 
 Hall speech, had, when speaking for your 
 party, told them we were "to subject our- 
 selves to defeat in an inglorious warfare," 
 and that if you were mistaken in this, the 
 debt would not be paid, as coercion by the 
 North would be no 44 less revolutionary 
 than successful secession by the South;" 
 and your friends Vallandigham, Voorhees 
 and Pendleton, the organs of your party in 
 Congress, were not only refusing to vote a 
 dollar or a man to the army, but in oft-re- 
 iterated and widely-circulated speeches, 
 denouncing the war as unconstitutional and 
 any debt contracted in its support as un- 
 holy and void. 
 
 In view of these facts I repeat the ques- 
 tion, Mr. Seymour, what were we to do ? 
 There was but one thing you left us the 
 power to do, which was to create a National 
 currency — make it a legal tender, and thus 
 compel you and every other ally of the re- 
 bellion in the North to sustain the credit of 
 the government by taking its notes in pay- 
 ment of debts and for goods sold. (Immense 
 and continued cheers.) But, Mr. Seymour, 
 you are a plausible man, and I think I hear 
 you say, 44 What has this to do with the 
 bonds? It was of the bonds and the taxes 
 necessary to pay the interest that I requested 
 Mr. Ingersoll to complain." You under- 
 stand the question thoroughly, but for the 
 benefit of those who are listening to us, let 
 me show why the bonds were as necessary 
 as the currency. 
 
 You know that the laws of tr?.de deter- 
 mine the relations between the volume of 
 circulation required by the business de- 
 mands of a country ; and that the danger 
 of an irredeemahle currency is that the 
 volume may be carried to such an excess as 
 to impair its value and unsettle business. 
 This was the case you remember with the I 
 
 French A ssignats, of which such an amount 
 were issued that they ceased to be worth 
 one cent on the dollar. That experiment 
 ruined every business man in France. 
 You know, too, Mr. Seymour, that our Con- 
 tinental money, which was irredeemable, 
 and for the funding of which no provision 
 was made, produced the same disastrous 
 consequence?, and is still unpaid. I will not 
 wound your sensibilities by an elaborate 
 reference to the late of the Confederate 
 currency, but will simply remind you that 
 when your friend General Lee surrendered 
 to Grant, you could buy $1000 of Con- 
 federate currency with a §1 greenback. 
 (Laughter and applause.) 
 
 It was the duty of a Congress charged 
 with the salvation of the nation to avert 
 such fearful consequences as these, and in 
 spite of the eloquent resistance of your 
 friends Voorhees, Vallandigham and Pen- 
 dleton, and the fillibustering efforts of their 
 followers, Congress, having limited the 
 volume of currency to an amount suffi- 
 cient to quicken the industry of the people, 
 and the development of the resources of 
 the country, and enable our own looms and 
 spindles, and forges and furnaces to supply 
 the wants of the army and navy, provided lor 
 the issue of bonds, in which patriotic people 
 could invest their earnings and prevent the 
 undue expansion of irredeemable currency 
 by lending the government its own notes. 
 (Applause.) Of the effect of this wise 
 legislation on our wealth anfl industry I 
 have not time to speak, but my hearers 
 will remember how ^quickly every un- 
 employed man was offered steady work, 
 and an increase of wages beyond any 
 former rate. (Cries of 44 That's so.") And, 
 Horatio Seymour, should that hive of 
 presidential aspirants, the judges of the 
 supreme court, ignore that cardinal maxim 
 of puhlic law which recognizes the health 
 of the nation as the supreme law of the 
 land, and pronounce the legal tender clause 
 unconstitutional, history and the people 
 will vindicate the wisdom and patriotism of 
 Congress in thus compelling such men as 
 you to contribute to the public credit. (Pro- 
 tracted cheers.) 
 
 But, fellow citizens, to return from this 
 digression ; as I have said, the interest bear- 
 ing debt is .$'2,075,000,000, and the annual 
 interest on it is $120,000,000. 
 
 Mr. Seymour and his satellites would per- 
 suade you that you are burdened and borne 
 to the earth by this debt and the taxes it 
 exacts from you. I apprehend that you are 
 like the man who disturbed the court by 
 his sobs as his case was stated by counsel. 
 His lamentations becoming unbearable, he 
 was addressed by a tipstaff : 44 Sir, you 
 must quit crying or leave the court." 44 Oh! 
 sir," said the weeping man, 44 1 can't re- 
 strain myself; I knew I bad been wronged, 
 but I did not know how terribly I was hurt 
 till I heered Lawyer Jones just tell my 
 story to the jury." (Laughter.) 
 
8 
 
 Now, you don't know, my fellow-citizens, 
 how you are suffering, how terribly this 
 debt is oppressing you, and these taxes are 
 depriving you of food and raiment. Why, 
 my dear sirs, were they assessed upon us 
 per capita ; did each man, woman and child 
 in the country have to pay his or her pro- 
 portion of the interest, it would amount to 
 the fearful sum of nearly six cents per week 
 upon each. Yes, my fellow-citizens, this 
 debt and taxes, the discussion of which, ac- 
 cording to Horatio Seymour, the Republi- 
 cans are so anxious to avoid, would, if it 
 were specifically assessed on each person, 
 amount to the enormous sum of three dol- 
 lars per year upon each American citizen. 
 (Laughter and applause.) 
 
 Why do you not weep, men of the Fourth 
 Congressional District ? Can each of you 
 Stand so terrible an exaction ? But the 
 debt is not imposed upon the people ; it 
 makes few if any exactions upon labor. 
 Republican wisdom and patriotism, ex- 
 pressing the wishes of the people of the 
 country, have relieved labor from most of 
 this burden, and imposed it upon wealth 
 and luxury. There are many of our wor- 
 thy people who scarcely pay a tax in the 
 course of the year, while the luxurious and 
 intemperate feel the restraining burdens of 
 the Government. (Cheers.) 
 
 Now, my friends, having stated the 
 amount of the debt and the exactions it 
 makes, let me ask you a question : Is 
 there in this large assemblage a man who, 
 if assured that it would require him to pay 
 six cents a week for life to preserve the cem- 
 eteries in which our soldiers are buried and 
 the monuments erected to their memories, 
 would hesitate a moment before pledging 
 himself to pay it. (Cries of "No, no; 
 not one," and cheers.) 
 
 Relation of the debt to the capital 
 or realized wealth of the people — 
 Census statistics. 
 
 The people of this country now number 
 40,000,000, and you divide $2,000,000,000, 
 the sum of our bonded indebtedness, by 
 40,000,000, and you have fifty dollars as 
 each citizen's portion of the bonded debt 
 of the United States. Why, if the people 
 of this country who own more than $1,000 
 ea«h, clear of the world, were to determine 
 to pay the debt before the first of next Jan- 
 uary, and each contribute his portion, no 
 man would realize on that day that he had 
 parted with any of his possessions. 
 
 I h ave the current labor of the country 
 out of the calculation ; I exclude the crop 
 of the year, whether it come from the labor 
 of the agriculturist, the miner or the me- 
 dian ic, the fisherman or the sailor ; I regard 
 Bfcerely the realized wealth, the taxable prop- 
 erty of the country, that of which the cen- 
 sus properly takes account. W ere lens than 
 one year's interest upon this contributed, 
 not only would the whole debt bo extin- 
 
 guished, but there would be a balance hi 
 the treasury so large as to puzzle the people 
 and statesmen of the country how to make 
 a wise disposition of the surplus funds of the 
 Government. 
 
 In order to settle this question we must 
 ascertain what the realized wealth of the 
 country amounts to, and to do this wa 
 must look fairly at facts. What, my fel- 
 low-citizens, do you believe to be the ag- 
 gregate wealth of the American people — not 
 the property of the Government, not the 
 more than one million and a quarter of 
 square miles of territory upon which State 
 governments have not yet been organized — 
 but the property owned and held by indi- 
 vidual citizens of the United States ? 
 
 As the census reports show, it was, in 
 1789, $019,977,247.92 ; in 18,50 it had reached 
 $7,135,780,228 ; and in I860, as was shown 
 to the Superintendent of the Census by in- 
 dividual returns of real and personal estate, 
 private property had reached the sum of 
 $19,089,156,289— being an increase of 170 
 per cent, within ten years. Now, fellow- 
 citizens, the law of the aggregation of pro- 
 perty is that it augments in a steadily in- 
 creasing ratio. The increase upon the 
 $7,000,000,000 of 1850 was not 17 per cent.; 
 in 1851 it was at a much smaller rate, and 
 at a greater rate in 1859. 
 
 Wealth, like the snow-ball, accumulates, 
 gathers volume and momentum as it rolls 
 forward, and in the last year of that decade 
 the increase was at a rate much higher than 
 20 per cent., and at that rate begun this 
 decade, of which eight years have passed. 
 No fair statistician, if governed exclusively 
 by the laws of statistics, would estimate the 
 rate of increase from 1860 to the present 
 day, at less than 170 per cent. And add 170 
 per cent, to the $19,089,156,289 of 1860 and 
 you have considerable over $51,000,000,000. 
 
 Six per cent, on this amount would be 
 considerably over $3,060,000,000, so that if 
 those who owned $1,000 clear of the world 
 would give on each such dear and unen> 
 barrassed $1,000 four-tenths of one year's 
 income, at six per cent., the entire debt 
 would be paid off. Now, gentlemen, would 
 the man who is worth $100,000 be ruined 
 by foregoing two-thirds of one year's inter- 
 est? Would the man who is worth $50,000 
 be ruined by foregoing two-thirds of one 
 year's interest ? Would the man who owns 
 but a single $1,000, over and above the re- 
 sults of his labor and his business, feel that 
 he was ruined if, on the first of next year, he 
 should find that his tenant had cheated him 
 out of $40, or that some company in which 
 he had invested his $1,000 had from purely 
 temporary reasons paid him but $20 instead 
 of $60 dividend. Yet this operation would, 
 as I have said, extinguish within the year 
 1868 the debt over which the Democracy 
 groan. That it is a burden is unfortunately 
 true. But, Mr. Seymour, it is not for yon 
 and your friends, its authors, to reproach the 
 Republican party with its existence. 
 
9 
 
 WJiat Railroad Statistics Prove. 
 
 "Ah, but," says Seymour the plausible, 
 "you rest your calculations on the census 
 figure, and you assume that the ratio of in- 
 crease has followed the general law of de- 
 velopment and statistics. I deny your prop- 
 osition and dispute your conclusion." — 
 Well, then, Mr. Seymour, let us confront 
 the general facts ; let us look for ourselves, 
 and see whether the wealth of the country 
 has not increased more rapidly since the 4th 
 Of March, 1861, when Abraham Lincoln 
 became President, and the Republicans re- 
 sponsible for the management of the Gov- 
 ernment, than it had ever increased before, 
 or than the wealth of any other people had 
 ever increased. 
 
 Let me invite your attention, Mr. Sey- 
 mour, to the condition of the railroad sys- 
 tem of the country. I have here Poor's 
 Manual of the Railroads of the United 
 States, an authority in which all railroad 
 men acquiesce. I find by it. that in 1850, 
 We had 9,021 miles of railroad in operation, 
 and that in 1867 (seventeen years thereaf- 
 ter) we had in operation 39,244 miles. 
 Here, sir, is an increase vastly beyond my 
 ratio of computation, and it grew thus in 
 spite of the fact that your Democratic re- 
 bellion suspended the building of railroads 
 throughout the Southern States for five 
 years, and reduced it for four years, to wit : 
 from 1861 to 1865, to about 80 per cent, of 
 the average amount constructed per annum 
 before the rebellion in the Northern States. 
 
 But let us not stop with this ; let us in- 
 quire what were the earnings of these roads, 
 for that tells the story of the development 
 along the lines ; tells us what fields have 
 been cleared and cultivated, what mines 
 have been opened, what forges, factories 
 and foundries have been built, and what 
 amount of the results of human industry, 
 iu a virgin country, have required transpor- 
 tation to promote the wealth and comfort 
 of communities. 
 
 Turning to another page of Mr. Poor's 
 book, I find that the New York Central 
 road carried in 1857, 8:58,791 tons, and in 
 1867, 1,667,926 tons, being an increase of 
 98.85 per cent. That the Erie road carried 
 in 1857, 978,069 tons; in 1867, 3, 484, 546 tons, 
 being an increase of 256.26 percent. ; that 
 the Pennsylvania Central carried in 1857, 
 530,420 tons, and in 1867, 4,000,538 tons, 
 an increase of 654.24 per cent. ; or, in 
 other words, that the increase of tonnage 
 on t hese three roads in ten years was 289.98 
 per cent. — within a small fraction of 300 per 
 cent, increase in ten years. 
 
 And no surer index can be found of the 
 ratio of the wealth than the statistics here 
 given ; for, as I have said, they denote new 
 fields of labor and the labor of new men. 
 Would you get at the law which governs 
 this matter ? Let me give it to you from 
 the lips of one of the ablest railroad men in 
 America, Thomas A. Scott, Esq., Vice 
 president of the Pennsylvania Central 
 
 Railroad. That gentleman was examined 
 last year before a committee of the Senate 
 of Pennsylvania, who were authorized to 
 inquire into the rates of local and through 
 railroad freight. Having explained why lo- 
 cal freights are higher than throug h freights, 
 Mr. Scott, a sworn witness, was asked : 
 " What is the effect of this system upon the 
 towns along the road ?" He replied : " I 
 can only answer this question by stating the 
 results. Our local business has increased 
 very largely every year since the opening 
 of the line. The following table, showing 
 the actual increase of local tonnage moved 
 during the past ten years, will perhaps give 
 the committee some of the data they de- 
 sire : 
 
 In the year 1857, the total num- 
 ber of tons local traffic moved 
 was 901,226 
 
 In the year 1861, the number of 
 tons local traffic moved was... 1,412,214 
 Showing that within that period of five 
 
 years the increase had amounted to 50 per 
 
 cent. 
 
 In the year 1866, the total num- 
 ber of tons local traffic moved 
 was 2,906,205 
 
 Showing that within the last period of 
 five years the increase was more than 100 
 per cent, in the one year as compared with 
 the other, and that the local tonnage moved 
 in 1866 was over 300 per cent, greater than 
 the movement in 1857." 
 
 Petroleum, Coal and Iron. 
 
 Let me, fellow-citizens, as a matter of 
 just local pride, bring to your attention the 
 fact that since 1863 the northwestern poF- 
 tion of our State, until then known as "the 
 wild-cat region," the home of lumbermen, 
 a region in which it was regarded as a 
 calamity to own large tracts of land during 
 the days that the State taxed real estate, 
 has become one of the wealthiest and most 
 productive portions of the country. Since 
 then that great artery, the Philadelphia 
 and Erie Railroad, has been constructed. 
 
 We find now upon national maps the 
 names of cities and towns where five years 
 ago the winds howled through the wilder- 
 ness ; all the valleys of that mountain re- 
 gion are penetrated by railroads ; New 
 York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore are 
 competing in lavish expenditures of capital 
 to connect themselves with its wealth. 
 And even old Mother England sent a depu- 
 tation of her enterprising capitalists to see 
 how she could bring herself into the closest 
 relations with the wealth of the old lumber 
 regions of northwestern Pennsylvania. 
 
 Mr. Seymour, will you tell me what 
 amount of petroleum was transported over 
 the New York and Erie road prior to 1860 ? 
 You can with your accustomed plausibility 
 answer the question easily with an eloquent 
 sneer. You can say that petroleum was 
 
10 
 
 then a thing unknown. But I ask, is it un- 
 known now? Sir, 1 am speaking of the 
 extraordinary development of the wealth of 
 the country, and your answer clinches my 
 argument. 
 
 Being a little curious on this point, I 
 begged the officers of the Pennsylvania and 
 the Philadelphia and Erie roads to give me a 
 memorandum of petroleum transported over 
 their roads from August 1st, 18(37, to Aug- 
 ust 1st, 18G8, to the cities of Philadelphia 
 and New York. I find it was as follows : 
 
 To New York, 314,829 barrels, per Penn- 
 sylvania and Philadelphia and Erie Rail- 
 roads ; to Philadelphia, per same roads, 
 854,259 barrels. Total, 1,169,088 barrels. 
 About three-fourths of this, say 876,816 
 barrels, was refined oil, worth to-day, in 
 the markets of Philadelphia and New York, 
 $11,416,144. 
 
 The remaining fourth was crude oil, 
 worth in the same markets $2,485,733, 
 making a total value of $13,901,917. The 
 railroads transportiug this oil from Pitts- 
 burg and Correy received for freight alone 
 $1,698,688. And the best estimate that can 
 be obtained of the amount carried to New 
 York by the Atlantic and Great Western, 
 the Erie and New York Central Railways 
 combined, give about the same amount, 
 showing a production in the last year of 
 about $28,000,000 worth of this hitherto 
 unknown but valuable mineral product of 
 our State, exclusive of what was sent West 
 and South. 
 
 Do you reply further, Mr. Seymour, that 
 this is an exceptional instance? If so, I 
 reply, that it is, in comparison with others, 
 a most insignificant exception. Stretching 
 under the northwestern part of Kentucky, 
 southwestern Indiana, and almost eveiy 
 mile of Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and 
 Iowa, lie nearly 130,000 square miles of 
 coal beds, which the pick of the miner had 
 scarcely penetrated in I860, but which, in 
 1868, is being utilized in every home and 
 workshop of the west. The coal statistics 
 of this country cannot be obtained ; it is a 
 thing impossible, the quantities, increase 
 from day to day so rapidly, and the field of 
 operations widen so rapidly, that the facts 
 cannot be grouped and marshalled. 
 
 In the autumn of 1866, 1 visited the beau- 
 tiful capital of Illinois, Springfield, and 
 found its people consuming coal on which 
 they had paid $2.60 freight per ton. But 
 when I returned to that city last autumn, 
 they were receiving their fuel from one 
 shaft within the city limits, and from an- 
 other just beyond those limits, and there 
 was active competition between the pro- 
 prietors of the two shafts for the supply of 
 the market. In 1866, observing the con- 
 centration of railroads at Bloomington, in 
 the same State, I predicted a future of great 
 manufacturing power for that rising city, 
 but was met with the reply that there was 
 no water power for manufacturing. 
 
 One year later, when there, I found that 
 
 the enterprising people of that city had also 
 penetrated to the coal bed underlying it, 
 and were exulting in the fact that while 
 the men of enterprise in Philadelphia had 
 been required to expend $50,000,000 to con- 
 nect their city with the coal fields of their 
 State, they drew the fuel from its native 
 bed at the door of the forge and the fur- 
 nance. In 1866 Indiana made no iron, and 
 the ores of Pilot Knob and Iron Mountain, 
 Missouri, were, by reason of the sulphurous 
 character of the Missouri coal beds that 
 had then been opened, regarded only as 
 a matter of export. To-day, under tlie 
 influence of the newly-tested coal of the 
 Big Muddy and almost pure carbon of Clay 
 county, Indiana, a great iron centre 16 
 arising in and around St. Louis, and one 
 that promises to rival not only Pennsyl- 
 vania, but England, Belgium, and Prussia, 
 is growing with marvellous rapidity in the 
 neighborhood of Brazil, Indiana. Thus the 
 marvels of northwestern Pennsylvania are 
 fairly rivalled by those of southwestern In- 
 diana, Missouri, and the Mississippi valley 
 gen erally . 
 
 Nor are these without competitors. Come 
 with me, Mr. Seymour, to the shores of 
 Lake Erie. When abroad you doubtless 
 traversed the Rhine, and revelled in the 
 beauty of her vine-clad shores, but you saw 
 no vineyards there to vie in breadth or 
 luxuriance with those which crown the 
 islands and shores of Lake Erie. The 
 owners of these wide ranges of country — 
 broader than our vision can embrace — are, 
 in the language of your party friends, 
 "bloated bondholders;" the success of 
 grape culture having increased the value 
 of their land from an average of $10 or $12 
 per acre, to an average of from $1200 to 
 $1500 per acre within a decade or little 
 more, and the magnificent annual return 
 for their luscious crops has enabled them 
 to lend the Government millions of green- 
 backs. 
 
 Come with me again to the shores of Lake 
 Michigan and Lake Superior, and behold 
 those wondrous deposits of copper. This 
 interest is not prosperous now. The unpaid 
 labor of the Peons of Chili has. under the 
 English system of free trade, closed most of 
 the copper mines of Cornwall and Devon- 
 shire, and is preventing these beds of ore, 
 from being worked. But, you see, the copper* 
 is there. But look at what will surprise you 
 even more — the concentration of popula- 
 tion, and the increase of wealth in the iron 
 region of Marquette. In 1857, a few strag- 
 glers who had gathered on the woody 
 shores of Lake Superior, took from the 
 earth 26.184 tons of iron ore, but in 1861, 
 there were exported from the port of Mar- 
 quette, by these same men, and those who 
 have grown rich by coming to dwell among 
 and around them, more than 525,000 tons 
 of that better than Swedish ore. Nor, do 
 these figures even faintly indicate the ratio 
 in which wealth is increasing in the dense 
 
11 
 
 forests on the shores of the upper lakes. 
 The propeller, the wreck of which was 
 announced in the papers of this morning, 
 was freighted with ten thousand bushels of 
 peaches, from the young orchards of this 
 prosperous agricultural country . The young 
 vineyards that crown the cleared lands, 
 are rivalling those of the islands and shores 
 of Lake Brie ; and the rapidly increasing 
 number of miners, smelters, and other work- 
 ers in metals, afford a home market for the 
 productions of the farm. Marquette does 
 not export all her ore ; for, Mr. Seymour, 
 she produced of charcoal iron, the most 
 vuiu.ible of all irons, in 1866, 35,44S ; and in 
 1867, 55,743. 
 
 IIow significant, too, are these general 
 facts ! The. entire production of iron by 
 anthracite coal, in this country, under free 
 trade, Democratic rule, in 1858, was 361 ,830 
 tons, but in 1867, under a protective tariff, 
 and with a limited volume of greenbacks as 
 currency, it was 798,638 tons. The entire 
 production of that metal by raw bituminous 
 coal and coke, in 1858, was 58,351 tons, but 
 in 1867 it was 318,647 tons; and by a 
 note received yesterday from Mr. McAl- 
 lister, the accomplished Secretary of the 
 American Iron and Steel association, I am 
 informed that the value of the finished iron 
 (the product of our forges, foundries, and 
 rolling mills) manufactured in our country, 
 in 1860, was about $40,000,000, and that in 
 1867, it was, as ascertained by reports to 
 the Association, $170,492,240. (Immense 
 applause.) 
 
 The Southern States—Slave Prop- 
 erty. 
 
 Unable to dispute the facts I have thus 
 brought to your notice, Mr. Seymour, you 
 admit that there has been a great in- 
 crease in the wealth and prosperity of the 
 people of the North and the Pacific States ; 
 but with your usual plausibility, you assert 
 that the South has been impoverished, and 
 that in view of her loss of property, we are 
 poorer than we were in 1861, when she 
 made war upon us. .Well, sir, I accept 
 the issue, and stand prepared to prove that 
 the people of the Southern States — the old 
 slave States— are richer now than they ever 
 were. (Applause**) What ! you ask, will 
 you make that assertion, in view of the fact 
 that they lost nearly, or quite two thousand 
 millions of dollars in slave property alone ? 
 Yes, sir, I do ; for I deny your fact. The 
 statement involves one of your crafty plausi- 
 bilities. The slave property of the South 
 was not destroyed. It is all there now, and 
 in more effective working condition than 
 ever before. (Applause.) Every man, 
 woman, and child who would have been 
 there had there been no war, are there now, 
 except those who, having enlisted in the 
 Union army, were killed by the South- 
 ern Democracy — those whom your distin- 
 guished friend, or General N. B. Forrest, 
 
 whom you so cordially welcomed as a del- 
 egate to the convention over which you 
 presided, and who voted for your nomina- 
 tion, murdered in cold blood after their sur- 
 render, at Fort Pillow, or such as your 
 other friends, of the Ku Klux Klan, have 
 hung, shot, burned, or otherwise murdered. 
 Yes, sir, with these exceptions, the former 
 slaves of the South are all still there, ready 
 to exchange honest toil for fair wages, 
 (Applause.) And we must, therefore strike 
 this item from your debit to my account. 
 
 The Diversification of Southern 
 Employment. 
 
 Bear in mind, Mr. Seymour, the fact 
 that it is not the wealth that lies buried in 
 the earth which gives to land its market 
 value, or to its owners income, but the en- 
 terprise and energy by which its mysterious 
 depths are penetrated and their rcsourcea 
 brought forth for use ; the secret of value 
 consists not in the latent capabilities of un- 
 cultivated lands, unwrought mines, or un- 
 used machinery, but in the use and annual 
 product of these. The war added nothing 
 to the natural wealth of the South, but ft 
 taught her people the possibilities of their 
 country and their ability to develop them. 
 In 1860, they bought their food for man and 
 beast, stupidly clinging to the belief that 
 their soil and climate would not produce 
 the grains and cereals which are the ordi- 
 nary elements for the sustenance of man 
 and beast, and while thus purchasing grain 
 and fodder, they kept no reproductive stock ; 
 mules and oxen were their beasts of burden. 
 The system of labor of the South and its 
 theory of government for the country, were 
 identical in their tendency. The effect of 
 each was to lock up in the earth the rich 
 mineral wealth of the country. The South 
 aimed to produce great staples and to trade 
 with foreign nations. It suppressed the 
 small farm and extended the large planta- 
 tion. It ignored the mechanic arts and 
 strove to prevent the development of its own 
 mineral resources, by 11 keeping its work- 
 shops and shipyards beyond the sea," and 
 the result was, that while a few of its na- 
 bobs rolled in wealth, the masses of its peo- 
 ple endured a degrading poverty unknown 
 not only to the people of the North, but to 
 the peasants of Europe. But the exigen- 
 cies of the war threw her people on their 
 own resources, and compelled them to rec- 
 ognize the mighty capabilities of the South ; 
 and to raise their own food and produce 
 their own iron, salt, and cloth. Chattanoo- 
 ga, Atlanta and Lynchburg are iron centres 
 whose furnaces, forges and rolling mills are 
 rivalling those of the most favored States 
 of the Union. And tho Superintendent of 
 Industrial Resources, of Alabama, after an- 
 nouncing the extent and variety of her tido- 
 water,iron and coal fields, boldly enters her 
 as a competitor in the race for supremacy 
 among the iron-producing States of the 
 
12 
 
 country. By the way, Mr. Seymour, it may 
 not be inappropriate in this connection to 
 remind you that this office of Superintendent 
 of Industrial Resources is not one of the 
 old institutions of Alabama. It was created 
 by the constitutional convention that was 
 held under the reconstruction acts, and 
 which also ordained a system of common 
 schools for the State. Your friends call 
 it the "black and tan" convention, because 
 among the "carpet-baggers," "scalawags," 
 and " white trash " who made up the bulk 
 of its membership, were a few patriotic men 
 to whom God had given the dark complex- 
 ion and "kinky hair" of Joseph Williams, 
 of Nashville, Tennessee, the only soldier 
 from the Union army who represented a 
 southern constituency in the convention 
 over which you presided, and which nomi- 
 nated you for the Presidency. [Laughter 
 and applause.] 
 
 No, Mr. Seymour, the South sustained 
 no loss, except of lives, by the war, which 
 has not been more than abundantly compen- 
 sated, and I beg you to note my prediction 
 that notwithstanding the devastations of 
 the war the Census of 1870 will show her 
 to be far richer than she was in 1860. I 
 have indicated some of the causes that will 
 promote the rapid augmentation of her 
 wealth, but the most important remains to 
 be stated. Her old system denied alike to 
 the poor white and the slave the chance 
 to accumulate capital. To the one class 
 culture and self-improvement were denied 
 by the habits of society as absolutely as 
 they were prohibited to the other by statute 
 law. The whole policy of her governing 
 class was adverse to the establishment of 
 cities and towns ; they did nothing to pro- 
 mote social intercourse, intelligence, or 
 emulation among the laboring classes of 
 the people. In the rude agricultural pur- 
 suits of the South, no appropriate or re- 
 munerative employment was furnished to 
 youth, to womanhood, or to feeble man- 
 hood ; no diversity of pursuits invoked the 
 ingenuity of the people, and, save the 
 slave on the plantation, indolence was the 
 prevailing characteristic of all the people. 
 During the eighty years that the Demo- 
 cracy governed the country, that beneficent 
 institution, the Homestead Law, was with- 
 held from the people because it was incom- 
 patible with the large plantation and slave- 
 labor system ; but during the eight years 
 of Republican government it has been en- 
 acted and carried into effect, and, by ele- 
 vating the freedmen and poor whites into 
 independent farmers, is producing marvel- 
 Ions results throughout the South. There 
 is not a State in the South that is not now 
 advertising for immigrants and proclaiming 
 to the people of the world its mineral 
 wealth, its water power, and its suscepti- 
 bility for diversified employments. Ere 
 long, the railroads and rivers of the South 
 will be, as it were by magic, dotted with 
 villages, towns and cities, and its small 
 
 farms, blooming like gardens, will presenta 
 strange contrast to its past poverty, igno- 
 rance and squallor. [Applause.] The 
 crop of cotton for this year will not equal 
 in bulk that of 1860, but it will yield more 
 money at present prices than did that larger 
 crop; and of the proceeds more will remain 
 with the people of the South than ever be- 
 fore remained from the proceeds of the crop 
 of a single year. This will be because this 
 year the South has raised not only cotton 
 but food for man and beast — and not only 
 enough of the latter to supply the wants of 
 its own people, but sufficient to enable them 
 to export with their cotton immense quanti- 
 ties of corn and wheat. Indeed, Mr. Sey- 
 mour, the South is richer than she was 
 when she fired on Fort Sumpter. 
 
 Cotton and Woollen Goods, 
 
 Time will not permit us, Mr. «Seymour, 
 to collate and compare the statistics of the 
 production of Cotton and Woollen goods. 
 I regret this exceedingly, for the compari- 
 son in either case would be as striking and 
 as conclusive in support of my estimate as 
 any of the facts I have adduced. I will 
 only invite your attention to the fact that 
 every Western State is now producing 
 woollen cloths, and that we are competing 
 successfully with England with our cotton 
 fabrics in the markets of China, Mexico, 
 and South America. 
 
 The Pacific Railroads, 
 
 In concluding this branch of our collo- 
 quy, Mr. Seymour, let me bring to your 
 notice the wealth created by the construe*- 
 tion of the Pacific Railroads. They pene- 
 trate, and are connecting with the commer- 
 cial ports of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans 
 an empire more than twice as large as the 
 combined states, kingdoms, and empires of 
 Western Europe, including the British 
 Islands, and far richer in mineral and agri- 
 cultural resources than they. One of them, 
 the Union Pacific, will be completed and 
 ready to carry through freight and travel 
 before the close of next year. It is already 
 in use for eight hundred miles west of 
 Omaha, through what two years ago was 
 " the wilderness ;" along its whole line are 
 cultivated farms, for much of the land is 
 prairie, thriving villages and populous 
 cities ; in the cities of Omaha and Cheyenne 
 town lots and stores command almost _ as 
 high a price as they do in the city of Phila- 
 delphia ; and all this wealth is but the ag- 
 gregation of two years of human industry 
 upon territory which had previously been 
 unproductive and had never felt the tread' 
 of the tax-gatherer's foot. [Applause.] 
 
 How substantial these new riches are, 
 and how they are made to reproduce their 
 own kind is well shown by the following 
 description of the companies 1 shops at 
 
13 
 
 Omaha; duplicates of which are now in 
 process of construction 500 miles west of 
 that city at Cheyenne. 
 
 41 The buildings are of brick, 200 feet by 
 80, with wing 80 feet by 40. Paint shops 
 160 ft. by 35, with wing 40 ft. by 16. As 
 we entered the buildings the noise of t wenty 
 or thirty different machines all in motion— 
 the brawny workmen wielding ponderous 
 sledge hammers— the endless whirr of 
 swift-rolling wheels— the glowing metal, as 
 it was taken at a white heat from the fur- 
 naces, scattering its bright sparks on every 
 side— all spoke of a busy, active life spring- 
 ing up here on these Western plains, where, 
 m our imagination, we fancied we should 
 see nothing but herds of cattle and Indian 
 encampments. In the buildings above enu- 
 merated I noticed several circular saws, 
 planers, three boring machines, two mor- 
 tice machines, one turning lathe, one bolt 
 cutter, one drill-press, one jig-saw, one 
 shaping-machine, two tennouters, and two 
 tennon-niachines, and these all driven by a 
 single stationary engine of the very finest 
 workmanship. In the main building were 
 several locomotives of immense power and 
 fine finish, most of them having been manu- 
 factured at the East, but put together here 
 in the shops of the Union Pacific Railway, 
 where all repairs are done also. 
 
 u Thecompany manufacture most of their 
 own cars, both freight and passenger cars, 
 twenty-four flat cars are being turned out 
 each week, besides one first-class and one 
 second-class coach, and one or two bag- 
 gage cars and cabooses each month. The 
 first-class cars manufactured here are equal 
 to any cars to be found on any of the East- 
 ern railways, and indeed the whole rolling 
 stock of the company will compare with 
 that of any other road in the country. The 
 lumber used is of three kinds, oak, ash, and 
 pine, and cut into proper lengths and thick- 
 ness for the object designed. The car fin- 
 ished is transferred to the painting depart- 
 ment, receives its different coats and stripes, 
 and is then run back to the drying-room. 
 In this department there are three hundred 
 and fifty men employed, which, in addi- 
 tion to the cars manufactured, turns out a 
 large amount of furniture and cabinet 
 work for the use of the railway offices and 
 buildings along the track. In the forging 
 and casting departments there are about 
 the same number of workmen employed." 
 
 The other road, known as the Eastern 
 Division, is now completed to a point 700 
 miles west of St. Louis. From Fort Wal- 
 lace, on Smoky Hill, its course is nearly 
 south to the 35th parallel at Albuquerque, 
 and it will run on that line nearly due west 
 to the Coast Range of mountains. It will 
 thus not only connect us with San Fran- 
 cisco, but with San Diego and the railroads 
 of Mexico. The earnings of this road are 
 already immense, and those of the Union 
 Pacific were last year over four millions of 
 dollarsingold. (Long-continued applause.) 
 
 Now, Mr. Seymour, you are familiar with 
 all these facts, and I submit to you wiiether 
 it is honest, truthful or patriotic, to charge 
 as you habitually do the advance of the 
 government credit to these beneficent enter- 
 prises which has not and cannot cost the 
 country one cent, as a corrupt expenditure 
 by a Republican Congress of nearly $40,- 
 000,000 of the people's money. (Ap- 
 plause. ) 
 
 Sow the debt will be paid — A glance 
 at the future. 
 
 Though my remarks have been discurs- 
 ive, have they not, my friends, served to 
 convince you that my estimate of the wealth 
 of the American people is moderate ? Do 
 you not believe that it amounts to more 
 Ihan $50,000,000,000? (Cries of "Yes," 
 
 We do," and " That's so. ") Then four per 
 cent, on eight months interest at the rate 
 of six per cent, per annum would pay the 
 whole bonded debt, and settle the claims 
 of the "bloated bondholders" upon the 
 government. (Laughter and applause.) 
 My over-burdened people, how can you 
 exhibit such levity ? Why do you "not 
 weep with Mr. Seymour, who feels that 
 you cannot pay this enormous sum even 
 as the price of the salvation of your coun- 
 try ? But let us look at the future, and see 
 if we cannot discover something cheering 
 to soothe our agitated nerves. 
 
 The census reports from 1790 prove that 
 our population doubles every 20 years. It 
 is increasing more rapidly than ever be- 
 fore. Hitherto immigrants came only from 
 Europe. But now they are pouring into 
 the Pacific States from China, whose people 
 number 500,000,000, or double the popula- 
 tion of Western Europe. 10,000 Chinese 
 are employed in building the Pacific end of 
 the Union railroad of which I have spoken, 
 and every steamer that arrives brings from 
 800 to 1,000 of these industrious people. 
 But to return: our population doubles in 20 
 years, and if not another dollar of our debt 
 be paid till then, the share of each American 
 citizen in 1888 will be $25, and his share of 
 the interest involve a tax of a dollar and a 
 half per year, or less than three cents a week. 
 But what will the wealth of the country 
 then be ? If we may judge from its pro- 
 gress since 1850, it will have attained the 
 almost inconceivable sum of $800,000,- 
 000,000. It would therefore be unwise to 
 tax the present generation to extinguish 
 the debt. The Democrats have clamored 
 for the payment of the debt by the gen- 
 eration that contracted it. Such was 
 the theory of Andrew Johnson and Sec- 
 retary McCulloch. But the Republican party 
 in Congress, beholding our marvellous 
 progress in population and the rapidly 
 increasing wealth of the country, felt 
 that the generation that had been har- 
 assed by the war, should not be op- 
 pressed by the burden of extinguishing a 
 
14 
 
 debt incurred in its successful prosecution as 
 it had been waged for posterity. They there- 
 fore sought, to so apportion the taxes as to 
 merely provide each year for the current 
 expenses and the payment of the interest. 
 But they have been unable to reduce them 
 safely with sufficient rapidity to accomplish 
 this, and the debt has gone on paying itself. 
 Our experience in this behalf reminds me 
 of the story of the school-boy who uncon- 
 sciously emitted a whistle while working 
 out a difficult sum. Upon being reproached 
 by the teacher, he denied the fact. 1 ' John, ' ' 
 said the teacher, "don't add the crime of 
 falsehood to your misdemeanor in violating 
 a rule of the school." "Master," was the 
 reply, " I didn't whistle ; it whistled itself ; 
 I was at work at my sum." [Laughter and 
 applause. ] And while our policy has been 
 to relieve industry and capital of all unneces^ 
 sary burdens until the country should be 
 restored to its normal condition, and the 
 Southern States be in the full enjoyment of 
 their productive power, we have paid more 
 than $250,000,000 of the principal of the 
 public debt, and have paid in back pay, and 
 bounties and pensions to our soldiers, and 
 their widows and orphans, nearly $700,- 
 000,000 more. During the height of the 
 war every thing was taxed ; during the 
 three years since the war, taxes have been 
 removed from more than ten thousand dis- 
 tinct articles. On no one of the questions 
 now at issue may the policies of the two 
 parties be contrasted with greater advantage 
 to the Republican party than upon this 
 question of taxation. But I am detaining 
 you too long. [Cries of " No, you are not," 
 "Go on."] 
 
 No, my friends, I will devote no more 
 time to this point to-night. Other opportu- 
 nities for discussing it will occur during the 
 campaign. But there are two other points 
 to which I will hastily allude. 
 
 A Plank in the Democratic Plat- 
 form, 
 
 The fourth section of the Democratic 
 platform reads as follows : 
 
 " Equal taxation of every species of property 
 according to its real value, including Govern- 
 ment bonds and other public securities." 
 
 Mr. Seymour, you were a member of the 
 Convention. You assisted in framing the 
 platform, and endorse.d it in your accept- 
 ance of the nomination ; and the toiling 
 men who constitute nine-tenths of my con- 
 stituents, will hold you responsible for this 
 proposition to impose the burden of the 
 taxes of which you complain upon labor 
 and the necessaries of life. [Applause.] 
 
 My fellow-citizens, let us examine this 
 proposition. It proposes to tax at their 
 real value the farmer's farm and stock, the 
 mechanic's shop and tools, the laborer's 
 home, and the manufacturer's machinery 
 and the power that moves it. This is bad 
 
 enough. But this modern Democratic doc- 
 trine goes much farther. It proposes to tax 
 the furniture in every working man's homo, 
 the hat on hi3 head, the shoes on his feet, 
 and the food he and his family eat. Against 
 this blow at the laborers of the country, the 
 Republican party interposes its power. It 
 resists with all its force this aristocratic sug- 
 gestion. It says "the barrel of flour is a 
 necessity for every man, woman and child, 
 and therefore it will not tax it ; but the 
 barrel of beer is a luxury and it will tax it ; 
 the clothes you wear are necessary, there- 
 fore it relieves them from taxation ; the 
 whiskey you drink is a luxury, therefore it 
 taxes it even more heavily than it does 
 beer ; the tobacco you chew, the segar you 
 smoke, and the snuff you take are luxuries, 
 aud it taxes them ; but food for man and 
 fodder for cattle are prime necessaries of 
 life, and must not be taxed at their real or 
 any other value." Thus, the Republican 
 party has relieved from taxation the ele- 
 ments of life. But it has done more. To 
 the laboring man it says, "you may own 
 and use forty ounces of silver in your fam- 
 ily and the Government takes no heed oi it ;" 
 but to the man of wealth whose tea and 
 dinner sets are of silver, it says, " for every 
 ounce over forty we require you to pay a 
 tax to the Government." It make.-; a dis- 
 tinction between the dining table and the 
 billiard table. It has no tax for the for- 
 mer, but as the latter is a luxury it imposes 
 a tax upon it. It imposes no tax upon the 
 farmer's or laborer's cart or wagon, hut 
 upon the pleasure carriage worth more than 
 $300, it does put a tax. It makes no draft 
 in the way of income tax upon the results of 
 the laboring man's toil, or on the trader or 
 shopkeeper who has not $1000 clear annual 
 income, above house rent, repairs, clerk 
 hire, and such expenses. And surely the 
 man who has more than a thousand dollars 
 clear annual income, cannot call the Govern- 
 ment oppressive because it calls upon him 
 for a slight contribution for protecting him 
 in his rights and property. [Applause.] 
 
 It is natural, Mr. Seymour, that your 
 party, . controlled as it is by the old slave- 
 holding oligarchy, with their contempt for 
 labor and the "mudsills of society," should 
 now, that the slave is a freeman and demand- 
 ing wages for his work, wish to tax him and 
 all who labor. During the war, -w^en your 
 southern friends were making the army and 
 navy cost hundreds of millions annually, 
 every species of property was taxed. But 
 thanks to the rapid increase of our wealth, 
 and the vigorous system of retrenchment 
 instituted by Congress, this is no longer 
 necessary, and more than 10,000 distinct 
 species of property involving the labor of 
 American mechanics have been relieved of 
 taxation. Yes, sir, a reduced scale of taxa- 
 tion on capital and articles of luxury is 
 now furnishing funds ample to pay interest, 
 current expenses, and an instalment of the 
 principal of the debt each year. And it ia 
 
15 
 
 the purpose of the Republican party to 
 further reduce those taxes at each suc- 
 ceeding session. [Cheers and cries of 
 "Good."] 
 
 Taxing the Bonds, 
 
 Mr. Seymour, practical men regard com- 
 mercial honor, unbroken faith, and un- 
 doubted credit as among the richest posses- 
 sions of men or nations. Having these, a 
 poor man or embarrassed country can bor- 
 row capital on easy terms, but when the 
 want of these elements of character is 
 known, extortionate rates of interest must 
 cofcipensal e the greater risk of the lender. 
 You understand this, Horatio Seymour, 
 not perhaps instinctively, but Blackstone 
 and others have impressed it on your mind, 
 and I charge that your appeal to Mr. In- 
 gersoll to induce your party press "to push 
 the debt and taxation upon public atten- 
 tion," was a deliberate effort on your 
 part to tarnish the honor and impair the 
 credit of the country, and to maintain the 
 high rate of interest at which you and your 
 friends compelled us to contract the war 
 debt, by depreciating the price of our 
 bonds. (Immense cheering.) Yes, sir, the 
 assaults of the Democracy upon the credit 
 of the country have had the effect of com- 
 pelling us to pay the high rate of interest 
 which we are paying, just as their s} r m- 
 pathy during the war strengthened the 
 rebels when, but for the hopes it inspired, 
 the war would have ended. (Cries of 
 "That's so.") 
 
 You know that Congress cannot authorize 
 State or municipal authorities to tax the 
 bonds or other securities of the National 
 Government I You know, Horatio Sey- 
 mour, that the Supreme Court of the United 
 States so long ago as the days of Washing- 
 ton and Marshall, decided that sucli an act 
 would be unconstitutional. When those 
 who had sympathized with Benedict Ar- 
 nold attempted to destroy the credit of the 
 Government by taxing the first bonds the 
 Government was compelled to issue, that 
 court interposed the aegis of the Constitu- 
 tion; and now, when you, Mr. Seymour, 
 amd Forrest, and Pendleton, and Wade 
 Hampton, are conspiring to ruin our credit 
 by the same inglorious trick, Congress 
 calmly says to the public creditor, "Have 
 faith ! you shall be paid every dollar you 
 lent our country. We saved the Union, and 
 we will maintain the Constitution." (Ap- 
 plause.) 
 
 Congress may tax such of the bonds as 
 are held by American citizens ; and it exer- 
 cises the power. Income derived from 
 bonds pays precisely the same rate of 
 taxes as income derived from any other 
 species of property. Thus far Congress 
 dare go, and thus far it has gone. (Ap- 
 plause.) J 
 
 Democra tic Hypocrisy— The 
 Funding Hill, 
 
 During the last session of Congress we 
 passed a funding bill, by which we offered 
 four and four and a-half per cent, for long 
 loans, the interest payable in gold semi- 
 annually, and the principal in gold at the 
 maturity of the bond. Against that bill 
 the Democrats in both Houses spoke, fili- 
 bustered and voted, but we finally passed 
 it. It may be that it was not the wisest 
 bill that could have been framed, but its 
 adoption would have given us the advan- 
 tage of some experience upon an untried 
 question. It was an experiment, and if 
 but a few millions of our six per cent, loan 
 had been taken at four or four and a-half, 
 the taxes could agaiu have been reduced as 
 the interest of the debt was thus diminished. 
 But, rallying around our recreant President, 
 your friends, Mr. Seymour, in both Houses 
 and throughout the country induced him 
 to withhold his signature from the bill 
 and prevent it from beeoming a law. Are 
 you honest in your outcry against the debt 
 and taxation ? If so, why not permit tile 
 experiment of offering to those who, in 
 spite of Pendleton's ingenious plan of repu- 
 diation, are eagerly buying our six per 
 cent, bonds, an assured gold bond at four 
 or four and a-half per cent. In the light of 
 these facts, Mr. Seymour — the resistance of 
 your friends to every honorable effort for 
 the reduction of these burdens — how impu- 
 dently hypocritical are your expressions of 
 sympathy with the debt and tax-burdened 
 people ! (Applause, and cries of M Hit him 
 again.") 
 
 The Democracy want to Pay tlie 
 Confederate JJebt, or Jiepudiate 
 Ours, 
 
 In conclusion, I will consider one other 
 point. The history of that article of the 
 Constitution known as the 14th Amend- 
 ment is most significant. Their course on 
 this question alone should doom to per- 
 petual infamy the Northern leaders of the 
 Democratic party. The 4th section of that 
 amendment reads as follows: 
 
 "The validity of the public debt of the 
 United States, authorized by law, including 
 debts incurred for payment of pensions and 
 bounties for services in suppressing insur- 
 rection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. 
 But neither the United States nor any State 
 shall assume or pay any debt or obligation 
 incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion 
 against the United States, or any claim for 
 the loss or emancipation of any slave ; but 
 all such debts, obligations, and claims shall 
 be held illegal and void." 
 
 This provision, you perceive, gives ex- 
 press constitutional sanction to the public 
 debt and the soldiers' pensions, and pre- 
 
16 
 
 eludes the possibility 4 of the Government or 
 
 any State ever assuming any debt con- 
 tracted in aid of insurrection, or rebellion, 
 or for the loss, or emancipation of any slave. 
 The Confederate debt amounted to $1,700,- 
 000,000 of dollars. The estimated value of 
 the slaves of the South ranged from $1,- 
 200,000,000 to $2,000,000,000; the two 
 combined thus make a debt larger than 
 the national debt, amounting to at least 
 $3,000,000,000. The credit of our country 
 was damaged by the suggestion that these 
 debts would one day be assumed, and 
 consequently the adoption of some such 
 amendment was imperatively demanded. 
 Now, what has been the attitude of Mr. 
 Sejunour and the Democracy of the country, 
 with reference to this amendment ? They 
 resisted it in Congress ; they resisted it in 
 each State Legislature. And when, in ac- 
 cordance with His inscrutable providence, 
 the Almighty permitted -them to obtain 
 temporary possession of New Jersey and 
 Ohio, they made eager and unseemly 
 haste to withdraw the consent of those 
 States which had previously been given 
 by Republican Legislatures. Why is this, 
 my friends ? If they wish to relieve the 
 people of their burdens, if they wish to 
 diminish the rate of interest and reduce the 
 debt, why is this ? Is it that they object 
 to the payment of bounties and pensions to 
 •the soldiers and their suffering widows and 
 orphans ? or is it that, regarding the debt 
 as unconstitutional, as having been con- 
 tracted in what they still regard as an 
 unholy war, they desire to so swell it as 
 to necessarily involve its repudiation ? Mr. 
 Pendleton's theory of greenbacks is repudia- 
 tion scarcely qualified. Issue two thousand 
 millions of greenbacks, with which to ex- 
 tinguish the bonded debt, and would you 
 have paid the debt by that operation? Who 
 would pay the greenbacks ? Would not each 
 one of them be an obligation for a 
 dollar payable by the country ? Look at 
 it, my friends. You owe the man who 
 loaned you the money to build your house 
 a mortgage, and you propose to pay him in 
 your promissory note. Would you not 
 still, if he were fool enough to accept it, 
 owe him the same amount on your promis- 
 sory note, and would not the law attach 
 legal interest thereto ? Mr. Pendleton and 
 Mr. Seymour are not such fools as to mis- 
 understand this; 'but they know that the 
 effect of the emission of such an amount of 
 currency would be to render it worthless 
 as French assignats or Continental money, 
 and thus wipe out the debt. Two thou- 
 sand millions added to our volume of cur- 
 rency, and you would require a market- 
 basket in winch to carry your money to 
 market, but vour marketing could be car- 
 ried in a butter-kettle. Add $2,000,000,000 
 to the paper currency of the country, in ex- 
 change for the bonds, and every savings' 
 
 bank in the country would be bank- 
 rupt, no insurance company in the country 
 could pay its policies, the industry of the 
 country would be paralyzed, labor would 
 have no employment or reward, and prop- 
 erty no security! "The bloated bond- 
 holder," says Mr. Pendleton. Who are 
 the "bloated bondholders?" I find that 
 the bonds were issued in small amounts to 
 millions of people. While there Were 
 issued 1,474,940 of the amount of $10Q, 
 there were but 8,821 of the value of $5,000. 
 Let me invite your attention to an official 
 statement of the number of each denomina- 
 tion : 
 
 Number, of bonds of $50 902.580 
 
 Number of bonds of $100 1,474,940 
 
 Number of bonds of $ o00 436, 792 
 
 Number of bonds of $1,000 370,376 
 
 Number of bonds of $5,000 8,821 
 
 The masses of the people hold these 
 bonds. Many of you are bondholders. The 
 estates of widows and orphans, whether of 
 soldiers or of citizens, are invested in these 
 bonds, and their future depends upon their 
 honest redemption. Every one of you 
 who has a deposit in a savings' bank, who 
 owns a share in a bank or in an insurance 
 company, or whose life or place of busi- 
 ness or little home is insured by any of the 
 insurance companies of this or neighbor- 
 ing cities, has an interest in the faithful 
 payment of the bonds of the Government, 
 of which they are heavy holders. The 
 blows of Mr. Pendleton and Mr. Seymour 
 are aimed at you, and it is you they 
 denounce as " bloated bondholders." 
 
 Without detaining you longer, let me say, 
 my friends, that you have fought for the 
 honor of your country, you have labored 
 for it, or you have perilled whatever of 
 fortune you had in its cause. Its honor is 
 your honor ; the lustre of its proud name 
 is your glory. And could I hold out to 
 you no selfish inducements, such as those 
 I have presented, the honor and glory of 
 your country would be sufficient to induce 
 you to stand by the Republican cause, and 
 say to those who, within three years, have 
 repealed taxes to an amount that, if unre- 
 pealed, would yield the Government two 
 hundred and fifty millions of dollars per 
 annum, and who, while doing this, have 
 squared accounts with and paid the back 
 pay, bounties, and pensions of the soldiers 
 and sailors of the country, and extinguished 
 more than $250,000,000 of the principal of 
 the bonded debt of the country, go on, 
 good and faithful ; guide us into history, 
 and by the continued splendor of your 
 course add to the obloquy that covers the 
 Seymours, the Lees, the Pendletons, the 
 Jeff. Davises, and other rebels of the coun- 
 try, North and South ! [Long-continued 
 cheers.] 
 
 King & Baird, Printers, 607 Sanson* Street, Philadelphia*