ZSCH, CHANDLER'S

LAST SPEECH ON EARTH.

THE GREAT STALWART'S
Dying Warning,

DELIVERED IN

McCORMlCK'S HALL, CHICAGO,
On the Night of his Death, October 3ist; 1879.

The only verbatim report in existence — reported by Ritchie & Williston,
Stenographers, Room 23, How/and Block, Chicago.

Issued by authority of the Illinois Republican State Central Committee
and the Cook County Republican Central Committee.

PUBLISHED BY
LFnA-isrz; GriisriDEiiE, Pbinteb,
191—197 Randolph Street,

Chicago, 1879.

THE

Dying Speech

OP MMIGAN'S ILLUSTRIOUS SON,

Senator Zach. Chandler

DELIVERED AT

MCCORMICK HALL, CHICAGO,
OCTOIBrES. 31, 1879.

Published by authority of the Illinois State Republican Central Committee and
the Cook County Republican Central Committee.

<
REPORTED VERBATIM BY
RITCHIE & WILLISTON,
Stenographers, Room 23, Howland Block, Chicago.

FE.AWZ G3- 1 3ST Z3 E Ii El , PlTBLISHEE,
191—197 Randolph Street,
Chicago, 1879.

Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1879, by
Ritchie & Williston,
In the office of tho Librarian of CongresB, at Washington^ D. C.

SENATOR CHANDLER'S DYING SPEECH.

HIS LAST AND GREATEST EFFORT.

On the night of October 31st, 1879, an immese audience
gathered in McCormjck Hall, Chicago, to listen to Michigan's
greatest son, Senator Zach. Chandler. The long campaign was
drawing to a close. Blotting out all minor issues, the great ques
tions before the country were State supremacy, as embodied in a
" Solid South," and the nation, not a confederacy of States, but
ONE HARMONIOUS WHOLE.
During the progress of the hotly-contested struggle Senator
Chandler had thrown the weight of his voice and influence into
the breach, and with no uncertain effect. In Ohio and in "Wis
consin his speeches had re-awakened the enthusiasm of the war
days, and now he came to the metropolis of Illinois tp make cer
tain the victory of which many of the faint-hearted were doubtful.
Long before the hour appointed for the opening of the meet
ing the spacious hall was filled, the aisles were crowded, and all
available sitting and standing room was occupied. In addition to
this hundreds who applied for admission were turned away from
the doors.
At 8 o'clock Senator Chandler was escorted upon the platform
by the local committee, and as the form and features of the grand
old man came into view the immense audience rose and welcomed
him with a deafening cheer. Handkerchiefs fluttered, hats were
flung in the air and the enthusiasm was uncontrollable.
Worn down by his previous labor in the campaign, Senator
Chandler, looking down into the sea of upturned, glowing faces,
seemed to receive new vigor. His eye flashed, color came into his
pale cheek, and his determined mouth brightened into a smile.
The cheering, long-continued, subsided, and the audience re
sumed their seats with eyes turned lovingly on the man who had
so often wrenched victory from defeat.
The meeting was organized by the election of Sam. Collyer,
son of the widely-known Rev. Robert Collyer, as chairman.
Mr. Collyer came forward, and in a brief but eloquent speech,
introduced the distinguished Senator to the audience. Then fol
lowed a repetition of the enthusiasm with which his first appear
ance was greeted.
Standing on the brink of the grave, with an indefinable some
thing in his manner which invested his words with an additional
significance, Senator Chandler addressed the vast audience as fol
lows:

Mr. Chairman and Fellow-Citizens : It has become the custom of late
to restrict the lines of citizenship. In the senate of the United States and in the
halls of Congress you will hear citizenship described as confined to states, and it
is denied that there is such a thing as national citizenship. I to-night address
you, my fellow-citizens of Chicago, in a broad sense as fellow-citizens of the
United States of America. [Applause.] A great crime has been commit
ted, my fellow-citizens, — a crime against this nation; a crime against repub
lican institutions throughout the world ; a crime against civil liberty, and the
criminal is yet unpunished, — that is to say, he is not punished according
to his deserts. [Applause ] And I shall to-night devote myself chiefly to the
history of a crime, and shall endeavor to hold up the criminal to your execration.
[Renewed Applause ]
But first it is proper for me to allude to certain matters of national importance,
which are at this present moment living issues. Twelve years ago an idea was
started in the neighboring state of Ohio called the "Ohio Idea," which
spread and bore fruit in different states. That idea was to pay something
with nothing. [Laughter, and a voice, "Where is the Ohio idea now?" and
another voice, louder and more emphatic, "Shut up."] From this Ohio idea
sprung up a brood of other ideas. For example, the greenback idea, an un
limited issue of irredeemable currency, and a party was inaugurated in different
states called the greenback party. It took root in Michigan last year, had a
vigorous growth, put forth limbs, blossomed liberally, bore no fruit, and died.
[Laughter and cheers.] Therefore, I shall pay no attention to the greenback
party. It is not a living issue. [Laughter.] But the Ohio idea is still a living
issue, and even during the last session of congress a demand was made, and per
sistently made, to repeal the resumption act that had been in existence for years.
The resumption of specie payment was virtually accomplished when, in 1874-6,
that resumption act became a law. For at that time we made that act so strong
that there was no power on earth that could defeat the resumption of specie pay
ments after it had once been inaugurated. [Applause.] We authorized the
Secretary of the Treasury to use any bonds ever issued by the Government, and
in any amount that was necessary, to carry forward to success specie payments,
so soon as the time arrived for the resumption. We carefully guarded that law.
True, we are under an obligation to the man who executed the law, but the
resumption of specie payments was as much a fixed fact when that law was signed
as it is to-day, and all the powers on earth combined could not break that resump
tion when it had once been inaugurated. No combination of capital, no combi
nation of nations could break it, for they butted against the credit of the United
States of America. [Applause.]
But this Ohio idea, as I said, was to pay off your bonds with greenbacks.
"Well, my fellow-citizens, we have paid off $160,000,000 of your bonds in green
backs within the last sixty or ninety days, and what more do you want ? Ah I
But the Ohio idea was something different to that. It was as I said before, to pay
something with nothing, and up to the final adjournment of the last regular
session of Congress the attempt was still made to issue irredeemable paper and
force it upon the creditors of the nation.
Now, if this paper which they propose to issue in paying off the bonds of your
government were properly and truthfully described, it would read thus: "The
government of the United States for value received " — for it was for value
received. No greenback was ever issued except for value received ; no bond of
the government was ever issued except for value received — "for value received the
government of the United States promises to pay nothing to nobody, never."
[Applause and laughter.]
That was the paper with which it was proposed by these men, entertaining
then, and now entertaining the " Ohio Idea" to redeem the bonds of your
government. Now, you have heard, I presume, here in Chicago, the denunciation of the
holders of your government bonds.

— 5 —
The "Bloated Bondholder" was a term of reproach. Both on the floor of Con
gress and in the streets of Chicago and all over these United States the " bloated
bondholder" was a term of reproach. Did it ever occur to you to inquire who
were the bloated bondholders ?
Why, my friends, every single man who has a dollar in the savings-bank is a
bloated bondholder, for there is not a savings-bank in the land, which ought to be
intrusted with a dollar whose funds are not invested in the bonds of your govern
ment. [Applause.] There is not a widow or orphan who has a fund to support
the widow ih her widowhood and the orphan in its orphanage, in a trust com
pany, who is not a bloated bondholder ; for there is not a trust company in the
land that ought to be trusted which has not a large proportion of its funds in the
bonds of your government. Every man who has his life insured, or his house
insured, or his barn, or his lumber, or any insurance, is a bloated bondholder, for
there is not an insurance company, life, fire, marine, or any other class of insur
ance, that ought to be trusted, that has not its funds invested in bonds of your
government. You may go to the books of the Treasury to-morrow and inquire
and you will find ninety-nine men who own $100 and less of the bonds of your
government, directly or indirectly, where you will find one man who owns
$10,000 or more.
And these men, entertaining the Ohio idea, would ruin the ninety-nine poor
men for the possible chance of injuring the one-hundredth rich man. And yet
you may destroy the bonds of the rich man and you do him no harm, for he has
but a small amount of his vast wealth in the bonds of your government, while
the poor man, owning $100 or under as his little all, is utterly ruined. [Applause]
You would not find a man, woman, or child in America who would touch that
kind of paper if proffered to them.
Tou say you would stop ihe interest on your bonded debt. Very well. The
holder of your bond would say :
" Tou do not propose to pay any interest. I hold a bond for value received,
with a given amount of interest payable on a given day. Now I will hold your
bonds until you men entertaining the Ohio idea are buried in your political
graves, and then I will appeal to an honest people, to an honest government, to
pay an honest debt." [Applause.] "But," say these men, "pay off your
foreign bonds. " I see men before me who remember the days of Gen. Jackson,
and they likewise remember that in the time of Gen. Jackson the government of
France owed to the citizens of the United States $5,000,000, which France did
not refuse to pay, but neglected to pay. It ran along from decade to decade,
unpaid. General Jackson sent for the French minister and said :
"Unless that §5,000,000 due to the citizens of the United States is paid, I
will declare war against France." [Applause] Gen. Jackson was remon
strated with. It would disturb the commercial relations, not only of this country
but the world. Said he, " Unless France pays that $5,000,000, by the Eternal, I
will declare war against France," [Applause.]
Every man, woman and child and the King of France knew that he would
do it, and the $5,000,000 was paid to the United States. ,
It is not $6,000,000 that your government owes to the citizens of the world,
but it is more than fifty times five million, and it is scattered' all over God's earth,
in every nation with which we have commercial relations, or where money is
found to invest in your bonds.
Tou say you will stop the interest on those bonds. How long do you think
it would be before a British fleet would come sailing up your coast, followed by a
French fleet, and a German fleet, and a Russian, and an Austrian, and a Spanish
and an Italian fleet, and the British Admiral would step ashore and say :
" I have $50,000,000 of the bonds of this government belonging to the citi
zens of Great Britain, which I am ordered to collect I "
Up steps Tom Ewing and says : " Tour account is correct, sir. The govern
ment of the United States owes just $50,000,000 to the citizens of Great Britain,
and here is your money^ sir."
[Senator Chandler, suiting the action to tbe word, held out a sheet of paper
with $50,000,000 written upon it, representing the " Ohio Idea," and the audience
recognizing the point burst into loud and long continued laughter. When the
commotion had subsided Senator Chandler proceeded as follows :]

— 6 —
The British Admiral looks at Tom Ewing and says :
"What's that?"
" Why, money. Don't you see? Why, it is a flrst mortgage on all the prop
erty of all the citizens of all the United States." [Laughter and applause.]
" Don't you see the stamp of the government?" [Laughter.]
Says the Admiral :
" Where is it payable ?"
" Nowhere." [Laughter and applause.]
" To whom is it payable ?
" Nobody." [Laughter.]
" When is it payable?
" Never." [Renewed laughter and cheers.]
" Why," says the Admiral, " I don't know any such money. My orders are
to collect this $50,000,000 in the coin of the world, and unless it is paid in the
coin of the world my orders are to blockade every port of these United States,
and here are all the navies of the earth to assist me, and to burn down every city
that my guns will reach."
Ah, Tom Ewing, you will find that honesty is the best policy with nations
as well as with individuals. [Cheers.]
" Well," they say, "perhaps you are right about this bond business. It is an
open question anyhow, and we will abandon that, but the national banks — down
with the national banks I [Laughter and applause.] Abolish national banks and
save interest."
What do you want to abolish the national banks for? That is another living
issue now to-day — a present proposition of the Democratic party that I propose
to hold up to your abhorence before I get through to-night.
" Down with the national banks I" What do you want to " down with the
national banks " for ? I was in the Senate of the United States when that
national banking law was passed. I was a member of that body and voted upon
every proposition made in it upon that bill . I had had a little experience in State
banks myself. [Laughter and applause.] Michigan had a very large State bank
circulation at one time [loud applause], and we called that "money" in those
days — wild cat money [laughter], and it was very wild. [Renewed laughter and
applause.] Chicago also had a little experience in those days as well as Michigan.
In those days it was necessary for any man liable to receive a five dollar note to
carry a counterfeit detector with him for three purposes. First, to ascertain
whether there ever was such a bank in existence. [Laughter and applause.]
Second, to ascertain whether the bill was counterfeit, and third, to ascertain
whether the bank had failed [laughter] — and as a rule it had failed. [Laughter
and applause.] Now we had two objects in view in getting up that national banking law.
First, we wanted to furnish an absolutely safe circulating medium so that no loss
could ensue to the bill-holder. Second, we wanted to furnish a market for our
bonds which had become somewhat of a drug. Now we might just as well
have put in State bonds as security for those bank notes. It would have been
just as legal, just as right, but we didn't know which one or how many of those
rebel States would repudiate their bonds, and therefore we didn't put in any.
[Laughter and applause. ] We might just as well have put in railroad bonds,
but we didn't know how many railroads would default in their interest.
We might just as well have put in real estate, but we didn't know whether
the neighbors of the banker would appraise the real estate at its actual cash
selling value. [Applause and laughter.] And therefore we put in the
bonds of your government at 90 cents on the dollar; so that to-day for
every single 90 cents of national bank notes afloat there is 100 cents —
(worth 102J cents) — of the bonds of your government deposited with the Treas
urer ofthe United States for the redemption of the 90 cents. [Applause.] And
you don't know and you don't care whether the bank is located in Oregon, in
Texas, in South Carolina, Mississippi, New York or Illinois because you know
there is 102J cents to-day of the bonds of your government deposited with the
Treasurer of the United States for the redemption of every 90 cents of national
bank notes you hold. Tou don't know and you don't care whether the bank
whose note you have in your pocket failed yesterday, last week or last year,
or never failed, and you never find it out ; for the bonds are sold and your bank

notes are redeemed the day after or the week after, or the year after your bank
has failed, precisely the same as though it had never failed and you never find it
out. [Applause.]
Now you say, "call in your bonds ; abolish the national bank notes." Very
well. Tou pass a law to-morrow repealing the charters of all your national
banks. Call in the national bank notes. Every national Bank in America takes
90 cents — the exact amount of the circulation which it has, either in silver or
gold or greenbacks — to the treasury, leaves it there to redeem its money, takes
the bonds and distributes them among the stockholders of that bank, and the day
after you have called in every national bank note that you have out, you pay the
self-same amount of interest on your bonds that you paid the day before ; not one
farthing more or less. Tou don't gain one cent, but you loose $16,500,000 of
taxes paid this year and last year and every year upon the stock of the national
banks to national state and municipal governments. [Applause.] Tou gain
nothing, and you loose $16,500,000. Tou distress the whole community of these
United States by compelling your banks to call in $850,000,000, now loaned and
now being used in commerce, manufactures and all the industries of the nation.
Tou distress, I say, the people by forcing a recall of that amount. Now, my
friends, in my judgment you had better devote yourselves to something you
understand, and let the national banks alone. [Applause and laughter.]
But they say, "There is one thing that we know we are right on, and that is
the free coinage of silver." Every man who holds 85 cents worth of silver, shall
go to the Treasury or the mints of the United States and take a certificate of
deposit for 100 cents, which shall pass as money. This was the Warner bill. This
the Democratic party as a party was committed to and is committed to, and the
very last day of the extra session by a majority vote of one, and only one, in the
Senate of the United States we substantially laid that bill upon the table, every
Republican voting aye, and every Democrat, except four or five, voting no.
[Applause.] Now, to-day the laboring man can take gold or silver or paper, as he chooses
for his day's labor. I am in favor of thB dual standard, 1 am in favor
of a silver dollar with 100 cents in it. I am in favor of an honest dollar
anywhere you can find it, [Cheers], and I stand by an honest dollar.
To-day the laboring man can take gold or silver or paper, and they are
all of equal value, because they are all interchangeable into each other. The
paper dollar costs nothing ; a silver dollar costs the government 85 cents — a
fraction more now; it has been a fraction less. But all three are of equal value.
Now the very moment you commence issuing those certificates of deposit freely
to every man having bullion you banish gold from your circulating medium and
make it an article of traffic and nothing else; and you have but a single standard
and that is a depreciated standard.
Now there is paid out in these United State3 every day for labor alone
$4,000,000. By compelling the substitution of the silver dollar alone, you swindle
the laboring man out of $600,000 a day. The laboring man who receives a dollar
gets but 85 cents. The man who receives $10.00 a week, gets $8 50, and no more.
The farmer who sells a horse, or the man who sells a load of lumber, or a load of
wheat, or anything else amounting to one hundred dollars, receives but $85.00,
and no more, instead of $100.00. Tou have but one single standard, and that the
silver standard, which having banished gold is worth precisely the metal that is
in it. Now, who is benefited by this substitution ? Why, my friends, not a living
mortal man on God's earth is benefited, except the bullion-owner and the bullion-
Bpeculator. Now,- 1 do not charge these men with being bribed to pass that law, because
I have no proof of it; but I do say, and I say it boldly, that the bullion-owners
and the bullion-speculators can afford to pay $10,000,000 in bullion for the privi
lege of swindling the laboring men of the country out of 15 per cent, of all their
earnings. [Applause.] They say " That may all be true ; we don't know how it
is ; we have not been bribed" — and I never knew a man that would own up that
he was bribed in my life. [Laughter.] I don't say that they are, but I do say
that they are engaged in a mighty mean business. [Laughter and applause.]
But there is another question which is of vital interest to every man, woman
and child in America, and that is this question of the enormous rebel claims

— 8 —
against your government. I hold in my hand a list of the claims now before the
two houses of congress, and being pressed; cotton claims, claims for the destruc
tion of property, for quartermaster's stores, for every conceivable thing that war
could produce. My old friend here, General Logan, has gotten up more claims
than you can shake a stick at in a week. [Laughter.] His boys burned fence
rails, and they have got bills before Congress for the fence rails that Logan's
boys burned up. [Laughter and applause.] I have a list of claims right here
(holding up several sheets of paper containing names and amounts) aggregating
more than $2,000,000,000. And the only thing to-day— the Senate and the House
both being under the control of those Southern rebels — the only protection, the
only barrier between the treasury of the United States and those rebel claims is
a presidential veto, [Cheers], and thank God for the veto I [Renewed Cheers and
long continued applause.]
But these claims are not all. There are claims innumerable which they dare
not yet present. Tou may go through every state in the south, and somewhere,
hidden away, you will find a claim for every slave that ever was liberated. In
the files of the senate and the house you will find demands for untold millions of
dollars to improve streams that do not exist — where you will have to pump the
water to get up a stream at all. [Laughter and applause.] Demands for untold
millions to build the levees of the Mississippi river. 1 tell you that all the govern
ments of the earth could not erect and maintain these levees, seventeen hundred
miles long, through a hostile population ; for whenever they want an expenditure
of a hundred thousand or a million dollars, all they have to do is. to cut a crevasse.
One man with a hoe can do it in a night, and all the governments of the earth
could not maintain those levees.
We have already given the southern people thirty-two millions of acres of
land which would be reclaimed by those levees and now they propose to bankrupt
your treasury, by telling you, people of the North, to build the levees to make
the lands which you gave them valuable. To show you that I am not overstating
this idea of southern claims, I will read you a petition which is now being cir
culated throughout the South and which has now hundreds of thousands of
signatures. "We, the people of the United States, most respectfully petition your honor
able bodies to enact a law by which all citizens of every section of the United
States may be paid for all their property destroyed by the governments and
armies, on both sides, during the late war between the states, in bonds, bearing 3
per cent, interest per annum, maturing within the next one hundred years."
Every soldier who served in the northern army has been paid. Every
dollar's worth of property furnished to the northern army has been paid for.
Every widow or orphan of a wounded soldier entitled to a pension has been pen
sioned, so that there is no claim from the north ; but this means that you shall
do for the south precisely what you have done for your own soldiers.
But I have not yet reached the meat in this cocoa-nut. [Laughter.]
" And we also petition that all soldiers or their legal representatives, of both
armies and every section, be paid in bonds or public lands for their lost time, —
[laughter] — limbs, and lives while engaged in the late unfortunate civil conflict."
[Laughter and Applause.]
That all soldiers be paid for their lost time while fighting to overthrow your
government I That they shall be paid for their lost limbs and their lost lives
while fighting to overthrow your government !
Ah, my fellow-citizens, they are in sober, serious, downright earnest. They
have captured both Houses of Congress, and the only obstacle to the payment of
these infamous claims is the Presidential veto, and there is not a man before me
who has not a personal, direct interest in seeing to it that the Rebels do not
capture the balance of Washington. [Applause.] These Rebel States are solid —
solid for repudiating your debt, solid for paying these Rebel claims ; they have
repudiated their individual debts through the bankrupt law; they have repudiated
their State debts by scaling, and then refusing to pay the interest on their scales ;
they have repudiated their municipal debts by repealing the charters of their
cities, towns, and villages. And do you think they are more anxious to pay the
debt contracted for their subjugation than they are to pay their own honest debts ?
I tell you no. They mean repudiation, and do not mean that your debt shall be
of any more value than their own. When you trust them you are making a

— 9 —
mistake, and I do not believe you will ever do it again. [Laughter and applause
and voices : "We won't!"]
But we have a matter under consideration to-night of vastly more importance
than all the financial questions that can be presented to you, and that is, Are you
or are you not a Nation I We had supposed for generations that we were a nation.
Our fathers met in convention to frame a constitution, and they found some diffi
culty in agreeing upon the details of that constitution, and for a time it was a
matter of extreme doubt whether any agreement could be reached. Acrimonious
debate took place in that convention, but finally a spirit of compromise prevailed,
and the constitution was adopted by the convention and submitted to the people
of these United States. Not to the states, but to the people of the United States,
and the people of the United States adopted the constitution that was framed by
the fathers, and for many long years the whole people of the United States believed
that we had a government. The whiskey rebellion broke out in Pennsylvania,
and was put down by the strong arm of the government, and we still believed
that we had a government. We continued in that belief until the days of Gen.
Jackson, when South Carolina raised the flag of rebellion against the government.
Armed men trod the soil of South Carolina and threatened that unless the tariff
was modified to suit their view they would overthrow the government. This was
under the leadership of John C. Calhoun, in carrying out his doctrine. Old Gen.
Jackson took his pipe out of his mouth when he was told that Calhoun was in
rebellion against the government, and said : " Let South Carolina commit the first_
act of treason against this government, and, by the Eternal, I will hang John C.
Calhoun 1" and every man, woman, and child in America, including Calhoun,
knew that he would do it, and the first act of treason was not committed against
the government, for even the state of South Carolina, under the leadership of
John C. Calhoun, had bowed to the power of this government.
We remained under that impression until I first took my seat in the senate
on the 4th day of March, 1857. Then again treason raised its head upon the
floors of congress. Treason was threatened on the floors of the senate and
on the floor of the house, and John Wentworth, my friend here, was there to
hear it. [Applause.] They said then: " Do this or we will destroy your govern
ment. Fail to do that, and we will destroy your government," One of them in
talking to brave old Ben Wade one day repeated this threat, and the old man
straightened himself up and said: " Don't delay it on my account." [Laughter.]
Careful preparations were made to carry out these treasons. Jefferson Davis
stepped out of the cabinet of Franklin Pierce, as secretary of war, into the senate
of the United States, and became chairman of the committee on military affairs.
There-was an innocent looking clause in the general appropriation bill which read
. that the secretary of war might sell such arms as he deemed it for the interest of
tbe government to dispose of. Under that apparently innocent clause, your
arsenals were opened ; your arms and implements of war went together with your
ammunition ; your accoutrements followed your arms ; your navy was scattered
wherever the winds blew and sufficient water was found to float your ships, where
they could not be used to defend your government.
The credit of the Government whose 6 per cent, bonds in 1 857 sold for 122 cents
on the dollar was so utterly prostrated and debased that in February 1862 — four
years afterwards — bonds payable principal and interest in gold, bearing 6 per cent.
were sold for 88 cents on the dollar, and no buyers for the whole amount. Careful
preparations were made for the overthrow of your Government, and when Abra
ham Lincoln [cheers] took the oath of office as President of the United States,
[cheers] you had no army, no navy, no money, no credit, no arms, no ammuni
tion, no nothing to protect the National life. Yet with all these discouragements
staring us in the face, the Republican party undertook to save your Government.
[Applause.] We raised your credit ; we created navies ; raised armies, fought
battles, carried on the war to a successful issue, and finally, when the Rebellion
surrendered at Appomattox, they surrendered to tho Government. [Applause.]
They admitted that they had submitted their heresy to the arbitrament of arms
and had been defeated, and they surrendered to the Government of the United
States of America. [Applause.] They made no claims against this Government,
for they had none. In the very Ordinance of Secession which they had signed
they had pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to the
overthrow of this Government, and when they failed to do it, they lost all

— 10 —
they had pledged. .[Applause and cries of "Good."] They made no claims
against the Government because they had none. They asked, and asked as
a boon from the Government of the United States, that their miserable lives
might bo spared to them. [Applause.] We gave them their lives. They
had forfeited all their property — we gave it back to them. We found them
naked and we clothed them. They were without the rights of citizenship,
having forfeited those rights, and we restAed to them those rights. We took
them to our bosoms as brethren, believing that they had repented of their sins.
We killed for them the fatted calf, and invited them to the feast, and they gravely
informed us that they had always owned that animal, and were not thankful for the
invitation. [Great laughter and cheers] By the laws of war, and by the laws
of nations, they were bound to pay every dollar of the expense incurred in putting
down that Rebellion. Germany compelled France to pay $1,000,000,000 in gold
coin for a brief campaign. The seceding states were bound by the laws of war,
and by the laws of nations to pay every dollar of the- debt contracted for their
subjugation, but we forgave them that debt, and, to-day, you are being taxed
heavily to pay the interest on the debt that they ought to have paid. [Applause]
Such magnanimity as was exhibited by this Nation to these Rebels has never been
witnessed on earth since God made it [applause], and, in my humble judgment,
it will never be witnessed again. [Cheers.]
Mistakes we undoubtedly made, errors we committed, and I will take my
•full share of responsibility for the errors, for I was there, and voted upon every
proposition, — but, in my humble judgment, the greatest mistake we made, and
the gravest error we committed was in not hanging enough of these Rebels to
make treason forever odious. [Prolonged cheers.] Somebody committed a
crime. Either those men who rose in rebellion committed the greatest crime
known to human law, or our own brave soldiers, who went out to fight to save
this government, were murderers. Is there a man on the face of the earth who
dares to get up and say that our brave soldiers, who bared their breasts to the
bullets of the Rebels, were anything but patriots? [Cheers.] And now, after
twenty years — after an absence of four years from the Senate — I go back and take
my seat., and what do I find ? The self-same pretensions are rung in my ears
from day to day. I might close my eyes and leave my ears open to the discus
sions that are going on daily in Congress, and believe that I had taken a Rip
Van Winkle sleep of 20 years. [Applause.]
Twenty years ago they said : " Do this or we will shoot your government to
death I Fail to do that or we will shoot your government to death I" To-day I
go back and find these paroled rebels who have never been relieved from their
parole of honor to obey the laws, saying : " Do this I obey our will, or we will
starve your government to death I Fail to obey our will, and we will starve your
government to death !" Now, if I am to die, I would rather be shot dead with
musketry than be starved to death. [Laughter and applause.]
These rebels, — for they are just as rebellious now as they were twenty years
ago, — there is not a particle of difference ; I know them better than any other
living mortal man ; [Applause.] I have summered and wintered with them —
these rebels to-day have thirty-six members on the floor of the House of Repre
sentatives, without one single constituent, and in violation of law those thirty-six
members represent 4,000,000 people lately slaves, who are as absolutely disfran
chised as if they lived in another sphere, through shotguns, and whips, and tissue
ballots; for the law expressly says wherever a race or class is disfranchised they
shall not be represented upon the floor of the House. [Applause.] And these
thirty-six members thus elected constitute three times the whole of their majority
upon the floor of the House.
Now, my fellow-citizens, this is not only a violation of law, but it is an out
rage upon all the loyal men of these United States. [Applause.] It ought not
to be. It must not be.v [Applause.] And it shall not be. [Tremendous cheers.]
Twelve members of the Senate — and that is more than their whole majority —
twelve members of the Senate occupy their seats upon that floor by fraud and
violence, and I am saying no more to you people of Chicago than I said to those
rebel Generals to their faces on the floor of the Senate of the United States.
[Enthusiastic applause.]
Twelve members of that Senate, and that more than their whole majority
were thus elected, and with majorities thus obtained by fraud and violence in

— 11 —
both houses, they dare to dictate terms to the loyal men of these United States.
[Applause.] With majorities thus obtained they dare to arraign the loyal men
of this country, and say they want honest elections. [Laughter and applause.]
They are mortally afraid of bayonets at the polls. We offered them a law for
bidding any man to come within two miles of a polling place with arms of any
description, and they promptly voted it down ; [Laughter and applause,] for
they wanted their Ku-JKlux there. They were afraid not of Ku-Klux at the
polls, but of soldiers at the polls.
Now, in all the States north of Mason and Dixon's line and east of the Rocky
Mountains there is less than one soldier to a county. [Laughter.] There is
about two-thirds of a soldier to a county. [Laughter and applause.] And of ¦
course about two-thirds of a musket to a county. [Laughter.] Now wouldn't
this great county of Cook tremble if you saw two-thirds of a soldier parading
himself up and down in front of the city of Chicago. [Loud and long continued
applause and laughter.]
But they are afraid to have inspectors. What are they afraid to have inspec
tors for ? The law creating those inspectors is imperative that one must be a
Democrat and the other a Republican. They have no power whatever except to
certify that the election is honest and fair. And yet they are afraid of those in
spectors, and then they are afraid of marshals at the polls. Now while the
inspectors cannot arrest, the marshals under the order of the court can arrest
criminals ; therefore they said: " We will have no marshals." When we told
them that we could not have courts without marshals, they said they didn't want
marshals at all, and they don't. Marshals interfere with their " moon-shiners " —
the men who distill illicit whisky in the mountains of North and South Carolina
and Georgia — and hence they didn't want any marshals ; and they do not want
any courts because the courts interfere with their Ku-Klux at the polls. It is a
false assumption on their part. What they want is not free elections, but free frauds
at elections. They have got a solid South by fraud and violence. Give them per
mission to perpetrate the same kind of fraud and violence in New Tork City and
in Cincinnati and those two cities with a solid South will give them the Presi
dent of the United States ; and once obtained by fraud and violence, by fraud and
violence they would hold it for a generation. To-day eight millions of people in
those rebel States as absolutely control all the legislation of tbis government
as they controlled their slaves while slavery was in existence. Through caucus
dictation here I find precisely what I found twenty years ago when I first took
my seat in Congress. In a Democratic Congress, composed of twenty-eight
Southern Democrats and sixteen Northern Democrats, they decreed that Stephen
A. Douglas, of Illinois, should be degraded and disgraced from the Committee on
Territories, and there were but just two Northern Democratic Senators who
dared even to enter a protest against tbe outrage. To-day there are thirty-two
Southern Democratic Senators to twelve Northern, and out of the whole twelve
there is not a man who dares protest against anything. [Applause.]
I say, that through this caucus dictation, these eight millions of Southern
rebels as absolutely control the legislation of this nation through caucus dictation
as they controlled their slaves when slavery existed.
Now, if every man within the sound of my voice should stand up in this
audience and hold up his right hand and swear that a rebel soldier was better
than a Union soldier, I would not believe it ; [laughter and applause] for. I
would hold up both of my hands and swear that I didn't believe it. [Cheers.]
And yet to-day in South Carolina, in Alabama, in Louisiana, in Mississippi and
several other states the vote of a rebel soldier counts more than two of the votes
of the brave soldiers of Illinois ; for they vote for the negro as well as for them
selves, and their vote weighs just double the weight of that of tlie brave soldier
in Illinois. It is an outrage upon freedom, an outrage upon the gallant, upon
the noble soldiers of Illinois and Michigan. [Applause.]
Now, my fellow citizens, I have undertaken to show you the condition in
which the country was placed when the Republican party assumed the reins of
power. When the Republican party took the reins of power, as I have shown
you, the country had no money, no credit, no arms, no ammunition, no navy, no
material of war. When the Republican party took the reins of power in its
hands, there was no nation on God's earth poor enough to do you reverence. Tou
were the derision of the nations of the earth. Tou had but one ally and friend

— 12 —
on earth and that was little Switzerland. [Applause.] Russia sent her fleet to
winter here for her own protection, but there was not a nation on God's earth
that did not hope and pray that your Republican government might be over
thrown, and there was no nation on earth poor enough to do you reverence.
We fought that battle through ; we raised the nation's dignity, and the nation's
honor, the national power and the national strength until now, to-day, after
eighteen years of Republican rule, there is no nation on earth strong enough not
to do you reverence. [Loud and continued applause.]
We took your national credit when it was so low that your bonds were selling
at 88 cents on the dollar, bearing six per cent, interest and no takers, and we
elevated your credit up, up, up, up, up until to-day. Your four per cent, bonds
are selling at a premium in every market of the earth. [Applause.] So your
credit stands higher than the credit of any other nation on God's earth. [Applause.]
We saved the national life and we saved the national honor, and yet notwith
standing all this, there are parties who say that the mission of tbe Republican
party is ended and that it ought to die. If there ever was a political organization
that existed on the face of this globe, which, so far as a future state of rewards
and punishments is concerned, is prepared to die, it is that old Republican party.
[Cheers.] But we are not going to do it. [Laughter and applause.] We have
made other arrangements. [Renewed laughter and cheers.]
The Republican party is the only party that ever existed, so far as I have
been ableto ascertain — so far as any history or any record can be found, either in
sacred or profane history — it is the only party that ever existed on earth which
had not one single, solitary, unfulfilled pledge left — [cheers] not one, [Renewed
cheers] and I defy the worst enemy the Republican party ever had to name one
single pledge it gave to the people who created it, which is not to-day a fulfilled
and an established fact. [Cheers.]
The Republican party was created with one idea, and that was to preserve our
vast territories from the blighting curse of slavery. We gave that pledge at our
birth, that we would save those territories from the withering grasp of slavery,
and we saved them [Cheers, and voices, "Yes, we did."] It is our own work.
We did it. [Cheers.] But we did more than that ; we not only saved your vast
territories from the blighting curse of slavery, but we wiped tbe accursed thing
from the continent of North America. [Tremendous cheering.] We pledged
ourselves to save your National life, and we saved your National life.
We pledged ourselves to save your National honor, and we saved your
National honor. [Applause.] We pledged ourselves to give you a Homestead
law, and we gave you a Homestead law. [Applause.] We pledged ourselves
to improve your rivers and your harbors, and we improved your rivers
and your harbors. [Applause.] We pledged ourselves to build you a Pacific
Railroad and we built you a Pacific Railroad. [Applause.] We pledged our
selves to give you a college land bill and we gave it to you ; and not to weary
you, the last pledge ever given and the last to be fulfilled was that the very
moment we were able we would redeem the obligations of this great government,
in the coin of the realm, and on the first day of January, 1879, we fulfilled the last
pledge ever given by the Republican party. [Cheers and long continued applause.]
Notwithstanding all this, you say, " Your mission is ended and you ought to
die." [Laughter and applause.] Well, my fellow-citizens, if we should die to-day,
or to-morrow, our children's children to the twentieth generation would boast that
their ancestors belonged to that glorious old Republican party [applause] that
wiped that accursed thing slavery from the escutcheon of this great Government.
[Cheers.] And they would have a right to boast throughout all generations.
Senator Ben Hill of Georgia said, in my presence, that he was an "ambassador"
from the sovereign state of Georgia [laughter] to the senate of the United Stapes.
Suppose Ben Hill should be caught in Africa or India, or some of those Eastern
nations, and should get into a little difficulty, dp you think he would raise the
great flag of Georgia over his head, [laughter] and say: "That will protect me."
[Renewed laughter and applause.]
My fellow-citizens, you may take the biggest ship that sails the ocean, put
on board of her the flags of all the states that were lately in the rebellion against
this government ; raise to her peak the stars and bars of the rebellion, start her
with all her bunting floating to the breeze, sail her around the world, and you

— 13 —
would not get a salute of one pop-gun from any fort on earth. [Loud and con
tinued laughter and applause.]
Take the smallest ship tnat sails the ocean, mark her "U. S. A." — United
States of America — raise to her peak the stars and stripes, and sail her around the
world, and there is not a fort or a ship of war of any nation on God's foot-stool
that would not receive her with a national salute. [Cheers.] And yet the
Republican party has done all this. We took your government when it was
despised among the nations, and we have raised it to this high point of honor —
and yet you tell us we ought to die. [Laughter and applause.]
What would you think of a manufacturing concern here in Chicago that
failed about the year 1857, and the citizens of Chicago thought it very important
that it be reorganized and resume business ? So you would buy the property for
fifty cents on the dollar and reorganize it under your general laws, elect officers,
look about for a competent man to manage it, and finally you find what you
believe to be the very man for that business and put him into possession. He
finds that the machinery is not up to the progress of the age, and he goes and buys
new machinery. He brings order out of confusion; he manages the business so
that the stock of the concern rises to par ; dividends are paid semi-annually and
they grow larger and larger. The stock rises to two hundred and none for sale.
After eighteen years of successful management the manager comes in with his
account-current and his check for the half-yearly dividend, and lays it before the
president and the directors. The president has had a little conversation with his
directors, and says :
" This statement is very satisfactory, but we have concluded that after the 1st
day of July next we shall not require your services any longer."
" Why," says the manager, " what have I done 1"
" Nothing that is not praiseworthy. We will give you a certificate that we
think you have managed this establishment with great ability and great success.
We will certify that we think you have no equal in the city of Chicago or State
of Illinois. Everything you have done is praiseworthy, and we give vou full
credit for it ; but eighteen years ago one of our employes was caught stealing and
sent to the penitentiary. He has now served his time out, and we propose to put
him in your place." [Prolonged laughter and cheers.] Wouldn't you say that
'the President and all of the directors should be put into a lunatic asylum on sus
picion at once ? [Applause and laughter.]
Now, I tell you, Mr. Chairman, the mission of the Republican party is not
ended. [Cheers.] I tell you furthermore, Mr. Chairman, that it has just begun.
[Cheers.] I tell you furthermore that it will never end until you and I can start
from the Canada border, travel to the Gulf of Mexico, make Black Republican
speeches wherever we please — [applause] — vote the Black Republican ticket
wherever we gain a residence — [cheers] — and do it with exactly the same safety
that a rebel can travel throughout the North, stop wherever he has a mind to, and
run for Judge in any city he chooses.
This local hit at the Democratic candidate for Judge of the Cook County
Superior Court, who was a rebel soldier during the war, set the audience wild,
and they howled and yelled and swung their hats and handkerchiefs frantically,
After the commotion subsided Mr. Chandler proceeded as follows :
I hope after you have elected him Judge he won't bring you in a bill for loss
of time. [Laughter.] »
You are going to hold an election next Tuesday which is of importance far
beyond the borders of Chicago. The eyes of the whole nation are upon you. By
your verdict next Tuesday you are to send forth greeting to the people of the
United States saying that either you are in favor of honest men, honest money,
patriotism, and a national government — [cheers] — or are you in favor of soft
money, repudiation, and rebel rule. [Cheers.] lt is a good symptom, Mr. Chair
man, to see six hundred young men like you in line, prepared to carry the flag of
the Republican party forward to victory. [Cheers.]
It is a good symptom to see six hundred young men, like my friend, the
Chairman here, in the front ranks, ready to fight the battles of their country
now, and vote as they shot during the war. [Cheers.]
Now, I want every single man in this vast audience to consider himself a com
mittee of one. to work from now until the polls close on Tuesday next. [Cheers.]

— u —
Go to the polls early and stay late, and let every mother's son of you vote.
[Laughter.] Decide that you will take one man besides yourself to the polls who
would not otherwise go.
Find a man who might stay away, who has gone away and might not return ;
secure one man besides yourself to go to the polls and vote the republican ticket ;
and if you cannot find such a man, try to convert a sinner from the error of his
way. [Applause.] Tou have got too much at stake to risk it at this election.
The times are too good. Iron brings too much. Lumber is too high. Tour
business is too prosperous. Tour manufactories are making too much money for
you to afford ,to turn tbis great government over to the nands of repudiating
rebels. Tou cannot do it. Shut up your stores. Shut up your manufactories.
Go to work for your country, and spend two days, and on the night of election,
Mr. Chairman, send mea dispatch, if you please, that Chicago has gone over
whelmingly republican. [Loud cheer3.]

— 15 —

THE DEATH OF SENATOR CHANDLER.

Upon the conclusion of the meeting Senator Chandler retired to his rooms
at the Grand Pacific Hotel, attended by several intimate friends. After some
conversation touching political and personal matters, his friends bade him good
night, and as the door closed upon them he was seen alive for the last time.
Instructions had been left at the office to have the Senator called at 7 in the
morning in order that he might take the 9 A. M. train for Detroit. At the time
appointed one of the hotel porters knocked on the door of his room, but received
no responce. Becoming alarmed at the silence within, the porter procured a
chair and looking over the transom saw the Senator lying upon the bed in an un
natural position, with his feet off the bed nearly touching the floor. Under his
shoulders was his coat, which suggested the idea that he had risen, thrown the
garment around him, and fallen back in the embrace of death.
The porter entered the room, and placing his hands on the Senator's heart,
discovered that he was dead.
The house was speedily alarmed. One of the day clerks, Mr. Frank Gaskill,
went up to the rooms to investigate. He placed his hands on those of the senator
and found them icy cold. There was still some warmth on one side of the body,
but the pulse had ceased to beat. Dr. McVicker was called from tlje Palmer
House. He arrived at a quarter past 7, but all he could do was to declare what
was already known — that the great Michigan Senator was dead.
The coroner was immediately notified and the friends in Chicago of the
deceased statesman wero sent for. Those gentlemen were quickly on the spot and
took charge of the body. The question of a post-mortem examination was left to
Mr. Chandler's friends and a party of physicians, and they, as there was every
appearance of death from natural causes, decided against such an examination.
Telegrams were sent in various directions announcing the sad event, and from
almost every section of the Union there came expressions of regret.
All day the hotel was crowded with distinguished citizens of Chicago and the
State who came to take a last look at all that remained of the grand old republi
can. His body, during the early part of the day, rested on a humble bier in the
bedroom and was covered with a sheet. There was a placid look on the face
which indicated that the last moments had been peaceful. His hands were
crossed on his breast. His eyes were partially open, and the lips were parted suffi
ciently to show the teeth. The corpse had a natural appearance, and many who
had heard the eloquent words issue from those lips the night before could scarcely
realize that they were closed forever.
An external examination of the remains, by the physicians, led to the belief
that the cause of death was the bursting of a blood vessel in the brain, which
might easily have been brought about by his long continued labors in the hotly
contested campaign, at the close of which he laid down his life.
Every possible mark of respect was paid tothe distinguished deceased. The
flags on the vessels in port and on the principal buildings in the city were flying
at half-mast during the day. Telegrams of condolence from the eminent men of
the country were received minute by minute. Political friends and political foes
joined in a tribute of respect to the great qualities of the eminent Union Senator.
The tears of friends, who had known him and stood by him through long years,
mingled with those of strangers and political opponents as side by side they gazed
on the face upon which had fallen the ashy paleness of death.
And it was a fitting time to die ; his life had been a determined struggle with
injustice and oppression. He had been a prominent actor in events upon the
issue of which hung the weal or woe of the Nation. Every act of this life had
been on the side of right and justice; and no more appropriately could he have
come to the close of his lofty career than at the termination of a struggle the
results of whieh vindicated the principles he so ably advocated.
The remains of the distinguished statesman were conveyed to his home in
Detroit where the obsequies were celebrated on the 5th of November.

— 16 —
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.
Zachariah Chandler, the eminent statesman and patriot, was born at Bedford,
N. H.,Dec. 10, 1813, and was nearly sixty-six years of age at the time of his
death. He came of a long-lived and highly-distinguished family ; his father, Samuel
Chandler, having died in Bedford within the past two«or three years, aged nearly
ninety. His uncle, John Chandler, was a member of the lower house of Congress,
and also a Senator from Maine. This uncle also served with distinction in the
revolutionary war. He died in 1841 at an advanced age.
Another uncle, Thomas Chandler, was for a long time a member of Con
gress from New Hampshire. He died in 1866, aged 94. The ages of his father
and two uncles averaged ninety years.
The Chandlers have always been devotedly attached to the Congregational
Church. Two brothers of Zachariah were studying at Dartmouth College in
1836, one of whom graduated shortly after and became a Congregational clergy
man. Both of the brothers died shortly after leaving college. A sister ofthe
dead^Senator is now living at Bedford, who has been the wife of three distin-
guisheH Congregational clergymen. His mother's maiden name was Margaret
Orr. She was the descendant of one of the oldest New England families.
Mr. Chandler removed to Detroit about 1834, and with his remarkable busi
ness tact, was soon firmly established.
He had received a by no means liberal education, but there was something
in the man which distinguished him above his fellows, and it was not long before
he had taken a commanding position in the politics of his adopted State. At
this time*he was a Whig, and the head of that party in Michigan. He continued
to lead the Michigan Wbigs until the slavery agitation began, when he joined
the Republican party. He always took an active part in politics, and fought for
his side with a zeal and force which never failed to attract attention. Such was
his capacity for leadership that with him at the helm, his party always felt safe.
He was elected Mayor of Detroit in 1851, and from that time forward his ad
vance in politics was rapid. He fought Democracy so successfully that he was
elected to the Senate to succeed Mr. Cass, in the winter of 1856-'67, and took his
seat in March, 1857.
From that time on, during his eighteen years of service in the Senate, he
was prominently connected with the Kansas question, the stirring scenes of the
war, and the no less exciting questions connected with reconstruction. His Sena
torial career is familiar to every American, and it is sufficient to say that his
record is one to which any lover of his country may point with gratitude and
veneration. In consequence of circumstances which it is not necessary to mention here, he
was retired from the Senate in 1875. On October 19, 1875, he was appointed Secre
tary of the Interior, which position he held until the accession of President
Hayes, in 1877.
During the stormy scenes connected with the Presidential election of 1876,
Mr. Chandler was the one bulwark upon which the Republican party leaned for
support, and to him more than any other man is President Hayes indebted for
his occupancy of the Presidential chair. When all others doubted and hesitated,
the ringing voice of Senator Chandler rose clear and strong : " R. B. Hayes is
elected President of the Dnited States— 185 to 184 ]" And the result proved him
right. In 1878 he was re-elected to the United States Senate, to succeed J. P. Chria-
tiancy, resigned.