Wood County reporter. [volume], September 09, 1880, The Republican - Supplement, Image 3

About Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923

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THE REPUBLICAN-SUPPLEMENT.
THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM.
Full Text of the Platform Adopted by the
Kepublican National Convention.
The Republican party in National convention
assembled, at the end of twenty years since the
Federal Government was first committed to its
charge, submits to the people of the United
States this brief report of its administraton:
It suppressed a rebellion that had armed
nearly a million of men to subvert the National
authority. It reconstructed the Union of Stales
with freedom instead of slavery as its corner
stone. It transformed four millions of human
beings from the likeness of things to the rank
of citizens. It relieved Congress from the in
famous work of hunting fug,live slaves, and
charged rt to see f hat slavery did not exist. It
has raised tbe value of our paper currency
from 38 per cent, tc the par of gold. It has
restored, upon a solid basis, payment in coin of
all National obligations, and has given ns t cur
rency absolutely good and equal in eveiy part
of our extended country. It has lifted the
credit of tbe Nation from the point where
six per cent, bonds sold at 86, to where four
per cent bonds are eagerly sought at a pre
mium.
Under its administration railways have in
creased from 31,000 miles in 1860 to more than
82,000 miles in 1879. Our foreign trade has
increased from §700,000,000 to §1,150,000,000
in the same time, and our exports, which were
§20,000,000 less than our imports in 1869, were
§264,000,000 more than our imports in 1879.
Without resorting to loans, it has, since the '
war closed, defrayed the ordinary expenses of
government besides the accruing interest on
the public debt, and has disbursed annually ,
more than §30,000,000 for soldiers' pensions.
It has paid §888,000,000 of the public debt,
and, by refunding the balance at lower raies.
has reduced the annual interest chai ge from
nearly §151,000,000 to less than §89,000,000. |
All the industries of the country have revived,
labor is in demand, wages have increased, and j
throughout the entire country there is evidence I
of a coming prosperity greater than we have
ever enj :iyed. Upon mis record the Republi- .
can party asks for tbe continued confidence ;
and support of the people, and the convention
submits for their appr oval the following state- j
ment of tho piiuciples and purposes which |
will continue to guide and inspire Its efforts.
First— We affirm that the work of the Re- j
publican party for the last twenty years has
been such as to commend it to the favor of the I
Nation ; that the fruits of the costly victories !
which we have achieved through immense diffi j
culties should be preserved ; tnat the peace re- ;
gained should be cherished ; that the Union !
should be perpetuated, and that the liberties i
secured to this generation should be transmit
ted uudiminuhed to future generations ; that 1
the order established and the ore.-it acquired
should never be impaired ; that the peus.ons
and promises should be paid ; that the debt so j
mucu reduced should be extinguished by the
full payment of every dollar thereof; that the
reviving industries should be further promoted,
and that the commerce already so great should i
be steadily encouraged.
Second— The Constitution of the United
States is a supreme law and not a mere contract.
Out of confederate States it made a sovereign
Nation. Some powers are denied to the Nation,
while others are denied to the States, but the
boundary between the powers delegated and
those reserved is to be determined by the nati
onal, and not by the State tribunals.*
Third —The work of popular education is one
left to the care of the several States, but it is
the duty of the National Government to aid that
work to the extent of its constitutional ability.
The intelligence of the Nation is but the aggre
gate of the intelligence in the several States,
and that the destiny of the Nation must be
guided not by the genius of any one State, but
by the average genius of all.
Fourth —The constitution wisely forbids
Congress to make any law respecting an
establishment of religion, but it is id.e to
hope that the Nation can be protected
against the influence of sectarianism while
each State is exposed to its domi
nation. We therefore recommend that the
constitution be so amended as to lay the same
prohibition upon the legislature of each State,
and to forbid the appropriation of public funds
to tbe support of sectarian schools.
Fifth —We reaffirm the belief avowed in
1876 that the duties levied for the purpose of
revenue should so Discriminate as to favor
American labor ; that no further granisof rhe
public com am should be made to any railway
or other corporation ; that slavery having
perished in me States, its twin barbarity,
polygamy, must die in the Territories; that
everywhere the protection accorded to a citizen
of American birth must be secured to citizens
by American adoption ; that we deem it the
duty of Congress to develop and improve our
water courses and harbors, but insist that
further" subsidies to private persons or corpor
ations mutt cease ; that the obligations of ihe
Republic to the men who preserved its integrity
in me hour of battle are uudim nished by the
lapse of fifteen years since their final victory.
To do them honor is and shall forever be the
grateful privilege and sacred duty of the
American people.
Sixth —Since the authority to regulate im
migration aud intercourse between the United
States aud foreign nations rests with the Con
gress of the United States and the treaty
making power, the Republican party, regard
ing the unrestricted immigration of Chinese as
a matter of grave concernment, under tee
exercise of both these powers would limit aud
restrict that immigration by the enactment of
such just, humane and reasonable laws and
treaties as will produce that remit.
Seventh —That me purity and patriotism
which characterized the earlier career of Ruth
erford B. Hayes, in peace aud war, and which
guided the thought of our immediate prede
cessors to him tor a presidential candidate,
have continued to inspire him in h;s career as
chief executive, aud that Ins Dory will accord to
his administration the honors which are due
to an efficient, just aud courteous discharge of
the public business, ami will honor his vetoes
interposed betwe eu the people and attempted
partisan laws.
Eighth —We charge upon the Democratic
party the habitual sacrifice of patriotism aud
justice to a supreme aud insatiable .ust for
olfice aud patronage; mat to obtain posses
sicn of the National and State Governments
aud the control of place and position they
they have obstructed all efforts to promote
the* purity aud to conserve me freedom of
suffrage, and have devised fiaudnlent ballots,
aud invented fraudulent certification of re
turns; have labored to unseat lawfully elected
members of Congress to secure at all hazards
the vote of a majority of States in the House
of Representatives; have endeavored to oc
cupy v>y force and fraud the places of trust
given te others by the people of Maine, rescued
oy the action cf Maine's patriotic
sons : haw me thods vicious in principle
and tyrannies j a practice, attached partisan
legislation to vjp ro p na - lOU t,m ß U pon whose
passage me movemt . Q t Q f government
wished the rights of the
mdivrd , l ocated the principles and
sought the favor of s rebellio £ against the
2SSvSiS?“3>S‘ and *■> -*
its inestimably valuable naSS
personal freedom, and * eoitSitv * ’
‘ Ninth— The equal, and steal* 1 JJdcoS'btete
enforcement of the laws, and rotect ionof
all our citizens in the enjoyment ~f ai | pn i .
leges and immupity guaranteed by w e
tution, are the first autres of theNa ros.
Tenth— The danger of a l4 solid South" can
only be averted by a faithful performance of
every promise which the Nation has made to the
citizen. The execution of the laws, and the
punishment of all those who violate them, are
the only safe methods by which an enduring
peace can be secured and genuine prosperity
established throughout the South. Whatever
promise tbe Nation makes,the Nation must pre
form. A Nation cannot with safty relegate this
duty to the States. The “ solid *South ” must
be divided by the peaceful agencies of the bal
lot, and all honest opinions must there find free
expression. To this* end the honest voter must
be protected against terrorism, violence or
fraud.
Eleventh — And we affirm it to be the duty
and the purpose of the Eupublican party to use
all legitimate means to restore all the States of
this Union to the most perfect harmony which
may be possible, and we submit to the practical,
sensible people of the United States to say
whether it would not be dangerous to the
dearest interests of our country at this time
to surrender the administration of the National
Government to a party which seeks to overthrow
the existing policy under which we are so pros
perous, and thus bring distrust and confusion
where there is now o tier, confidence and hope.
Twelfth —The Republican party, adhering
to the manciples affirmed by its last national
convention of respect for The constitutional
rules governing appointments to office, adopts
the dec aration of President Hayes that the
reform of the civil service should be thorough,
radical and complete. To this end it demands
rhe co-operation of the legislative with the ex
ecutive departments of the Government, and
that Congress shall so legislate that fitness,
ascertained by proper practical tests, shall
admit to the public service.
IRISH REPUBLICANS.
An Address to the Irish Voters of
the United State?.
Adopted at the Convention of the Irish
Republicans, Held at Indian
apolis, July 14-19.
Fellow-Countrymen : With a high sense
of the necessity ol placing before the world in
their true light the motives which actuate
us in avowing our support and co-operation
with the principles of the Republican party by
a distinct organization under the title of Irish-
American Republicans, we feel called upon to
state briefly the reasons which prompt ns there
to. For many years in this country the sup
port of the Irish for any cause or party was
sought through the channel o* pr judice or af
fection. Instruction was out of the question,
and thus an unreasoning adherence was given
to the Democratic party for a period of years
long numbered with the past. With the advent
ana rise of the Republican party in American ■
politics anew era was reached. Inteligence
and a cr tical examination into the arguments
why the other party should receive j
a manly support became the guides of
political action, and the Irishman, alike
with his fellow-citizens of -other nationalities,
no longer give his adherence to party action
because of the leadership of those whom they
had previously trusted and followed. This
convention, therefore, has for its object the
initiatory action, which, with dimness and en
ergy, followed by promptness and industry in ;
sustaining the cause, principles, ; nd policy of
the Republican party, shall show to the world
that the Irish of to day are capable of some
thing more than being treated as mere political
slaves, and they are capable of independent
and intelligent thought and action, and that
they are friends of that party which most truly
represents that liberty, equality and equal
rights which they have only found in |
the land of their adoption. The claim !
of the Democratic party that it is the |
only true friend of foreign-born citizens i
is not susceptible of proof, as all students of
American history are well aware that, during
the entire administration of the Democratic
party it utterly failed to compel the acknowl
edgment of those rights wnich the constitution
guarantees to all who swear to support and
maintain it. The infamous and despotic doc
trine “once a su: ject always a subject”was per
mitted to exist as a principle of international
law until the accession to power of the Re
publican party. Then, and not until then,
England was compelled to recede from that
insulting assumption, and thus the adopted
citizen for the first time was clothed with j
all the rights and guaranteed the same pro- !
tection outside the United States as the citizen
born on American soil. So, also, to the Re
publican party do we owe the enactment of !
that most beneficial law which Las thrown open j
the public domain to all actual settlers, thus I
furnishing free and happy homes to thousands j
of our oppressed countrymen, whe are fleeing
from the horrors of British oppression. You
are aware, fellow-countrymen, of the successful
ingenuity with which tbe English Government
labored to destroy the manufacturing inter
ests of Ireland, wnich had grown up in the
midst of our desperate and persistent strug
gles for freedom. You cannot have forgotten
the heroic efforts made for their preser
vation by the great and patriotic statesmen of
the last Irish Parliament, under whose fostering
care these industries arose to such a state of
perfection as to rival the best efforts of the most
skillful artisans of Europe. Nor can you for
get that the act of the Union contains among
its other various principles one clause which en
tailed mor misery and destitution in our coun
try than all the cruelties of Elizabeth or Crom
well. That cl mse provides for absolute free
trade between Ireland and all outside countries.
Nothing more was needed to complete the fell
work. that blighting legislation all our
industries, save and except the linen trade
alone, perished, never to appear again; reduc- 1
mg us to the condition of mere agricultural la- j
borers, and leaving us to be the helpless vic
tims of British rapacity and insatiable greed. I
Compelled by such merciless laws to abandon 1
the hemes of our fathers, we again encountered |
here in America the same foe in the Democratic
Party, whose ceaseless and persistent attempts !
to engraft in our free institutions tbe same i
English free-trade and, ctriae wh.cn wrought such j
disastrous results to our own country should :
quicken the indignation of every consistent
Irishman.
In marked contradistinction, we invite your
earnest consideration to the policy of the Re
publican party on this subject, showing that
under its fostering care, in less than a quarter
of a century, America has created and brought
to perfection manufactures of all the products
which enter into the profitable industry of a
people arid their consequent prosperity and
happiness. Thus has the Republican party
shown itself to be the champion and protector
of American industry, to the discomfiture of
the avarice of British capitalists.
We appeal to you, fellow-countrymen, whose
history is a long record of desperate struggles
for freedom, if your proper affiliations are with
a party which sustained for many years human
slavery in its most degrading form, and only
relinquished that relic of barbarism when the
Republican party, by the hands of our martyred
president, struck the shackles from the limbs
c f the slaves, wiped out the only blot on the
otherwise stainless escutcheon of America, and
extended the glorious principle of free lands
for freemen over every acre of our great re
> public.
' We ask you also whether you are prepared to
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 2.
turn over the Government, with ail its bright
anticipations of the future, to the tender mer
cies of the very men who exerted their best
ability for years to <. ffect its destrm tion. The
accession of the Democracy to full power in all
the departments of the Government, in the
light of its past record of treason and re
bellion, cannot but be regarded as a calamity,
tbe magnitude of which can scarcely be im
agined.
RESOLUTIONS.
The following resolutions were adopt
ed at the Irish-American Republican
National Convention at Indianapolis :
Resolved, That we hereby accept and ratify
the platform and resolutions adopted by the
Republican National Convention assembled at
Chicago, in June, 1880.
Resolved, That, in the nomination of the Hon.
James A. Garfield for president, and the Hon.
Chester A. Arthur for vice president, the Re
publican party presents for our suffrage candi
dates eminently worthy of our support, which
we hereby unqualifiedly pledge them.
Resolver]., Tnat, while holding American citi
zenship to be a general designation under which
we perform our duties to the Nation, we yet be
lieve that, as Irishmen and the sons of Irish
men, it is not only proper but our bounden
duty to act specially as Irish-American Repub
licans, organized m every State and district, and
to that end organize a National Executive Com
mittee to aid in coping with and defeating our
Democratic opponents.
Resolved, That the Democratic party by its
past record, many changes of front, unpatrioiic
and pantisan legislation in the late ana preced
ing Congresses, and by acquiescing in tne use
of fraudulent tissue ballots, r.fie and shotgun
c übs, intimidating American atizensin the
enjoyment of their constitutional rights, has
snown itself a foe to good government and to
the cause of freedom.
Resolved, That the members of the conven
tion proceed at once to organize themseives into
a national organization to be known as the
Irisu-American Republican League, and that
the members of this league now present pledge
themselves to proceed, immediately upon their
return to their respective homes, to organize
Irisn-Amencan Republican clubs wherever at
all praot-Cable, and that upon the organization
of auy such club its officers be msu ueted to re
port the same to the Secretary of the National
Executive Committee, to tne end that a correct
record may be kept of the progress ef oar or
ganization.
Resolved., That these resolutions and the ad
dress adopted ny the convention be prepared
ana placed everywhere possible in tne nands of
Irish-Amencan Republican citizeas.
THE GAG LAW IN TEXAS.
How Freedom of Speech is Proliikited
in Texas—lnspector Bisseil Threatened
with Death and Forced to Leave tor
Making a Republican Speach.
Dispatch to Cincinnati Gazette,
w ASHii-GTON, 1). C., July 22.—The
attorney-general has received the official
report ot the United States district
attorney of Texas, who was instructed
to investigate the case of Customs In
spector Bisseil, who was driven from his
post of duty and forced to leave that
vicinity under threat of death for mak
ing a Republican speech. Ail the facts
in the case are given in the following
statement of Mr. Bisseil;
Galveston, Tex., July 13.
The lion. J. R. Burns , Assistant United
States Attorney :
Sir—Having boon referred to you by Gov. E.
M. Peace, the collector of customs, I would re
spectfully communicate for your t fficiai con.-id
erat.on the following facts, which I think
to state in my own way. I am, and have been
for the past twa yeirs, i:a the service of the
Government as a mounted inspector of customs
on the coast of Texas from Velas co to the San
Barnard. On the Bth of May last, by request
I addressed a Republican meeting in the to wu or
Brazoria. I made no assault upon the Demo
cratic party or its leaders, and only said wba",
as a man. I had an undouoted right to say. 1
was born and raised in Berks county, Denney 1-
vania, served during the rebellion mi the flag
ship Beaton, of tne Mississippi squadron, and
am, I think, old enough and intelligent enough
to understand the ordinary rights of an Ameri
can citizen. 1 gave the colored people some
advice as to how to improve then - condi
tion generally. I advised them that though
having a majority of 800 to 4,000 in tne
country, they should defer as muen as passible
to the claims of intelligent white men who
were known to be good Republicans, and not to
be misled into the election of Democrats who
are professed Republicans only for office. I
complained that, while ample provisions were
made for the education of the white children,
only pa. tiai provision was made for the colored;
that the assessment for taxes was two or three,
times as much on the property o? colored peo
ple as on the same kind of property belonging
to white people, and fmther, that, while colored
persons confined in jail were hired out for the
benefit of the county treasury, white men in the
same fix were not interfered with. 1 advised
the colored people to strive to elevate and im
prove their condition, and in particular I urged
them to stop the practice of their women being
prootkuted by white men, as had been the cus
tom in times of slavery.
I said nothing but what I would public'y re
peat auywheie. I ly took pains to im
press upon the colored voters to be certain not
to receive their tickets from any but those
known to be Republicans.
The next day, on my way home, I was met
in Barzoria by Dr. Asctam and a crowd of eight
or ten Democrat?, who had been waiting for me,
as I was informed, to call me to acconut for my
speech tf the day before. Dr Aacham was
spokesman, and told me if I did not wish to
follow Santee (meaning the Kepubucan county
clerk recently assasinated in his office on account,
of his politics) I had better stay at home, and
that .f 1 attempted to come to Brazoria again i
w T oold be put out of the way.
I said I saw no cause of complaint, as I had
given no offence.
He replied : “We don’t propose to have any
Yankees interfering with oar county af
fairs.”
I answered that, having lived in Texas two
years, and in the county of Brazoria for nearly
two, and being a taxpayer, I claimed the right
of free spteon, upon wh’.cn Ascham remarked:
“If you wisu to save your life, stay at home.”
These threats were participated in by the
crowd, some of whom sa;d they had sent a peti
tion to the collector, Gov. Pease, demanding my
removal : which I subsequently learned was
fa.se. One of the crowd swore “he would wade
through oiood up to Ins neck to kill the d—d
Yankee.”
Some weeks afterward I was reliably in
formed that Dr. Ascham had said that I wou.d
be killed, but that he would not do it himself ;
that he would be tony miles away when it was
done. About two weeas ago, Mr. Joe Bryan, a
wealthy j lanttr, and his sou and nephew, called
on n.e, I was absent when he called. On my
return in the evening he sent for me to came
down to the village store ; a number of people
were garnered dime. Mr. Bryan gave vent to
his feeling? in regard ta my speech, and wanted
to know •* What business i bad making a Re
publican speech ? ” He told ma that if ever I
attempted .o make any more speeches in that j
county (Brazen?) or take any more part in poll- ;
tics there, I would “ slide off like Sautee, or
forget to wake up some mornirg.‘’
I iiiformtd him that I did not ho: 3 myself
responsible to him or auy other Democrat for
making a Republican speech. I know a number
of the persons wno witnessed this affair.
Lately I learned that a band had determined
to kill me, and I was urged to leave the county,
which, to save my life, I did, and came on to
Galves'on to lay the matter before the collec
tor. Tnough a' poor man, I will be compelled
to give up my place to avoid assassination.
The character of this man Ascham is well
cal. ula’.ed to satisfy anyone that he and his
partisans sre fully equal* to the job of assassin
ation. He has lately murdered three men, the
last one a poor, inoffensive man, who had but
a few days before nursed him through an at
tack of delirium tremens. Without a word of
provocation whatever, this Ascham shot him
down like a dog, and was acquitted by a Bra
zoria county jury on the ground of insanity.
Amos T. Bissell.
Subsc.ibed and sworn to before me this, the
14lh day of July, A. D. 1880.
George C. Rives,
Clerk United States District Court.
By James T. Spann, Deputy.
Mr. Barns in Lis report says; “If the
courts of the National Government can
not protect the right of freedom of
speech, there will soon be no such right
tolerated in the South.”
Several other confirmatory statements
accompany the report, one being a news
paper cutting, saying that the property
of colored people is taxed two or three
times as much as that of the whites.
THE NEXT PRESIDENT.
fien. Garfield on Iris way to Sew York.
—Enthusiastic Receptions along tire
Line of Route.
Cleveland, Aug. 3.— Gen. Garfield
left his home at Mentor this afternoon
for the East, traveling in a special car
placed at his disposal by the Lake
Shore Railway Company. He was met
at Geneva by Congressmen Conger, of
Michigan, Ben Harrison and Orth, of
Indiana, and Gen. Streight, of Indiana.
The party went to Buffalo, where they
i will wait over one train, then go to New
York, attend the conference of the Na
tional Republican Committee and dis
tinguished men of that party, including
prominent journalists.
A soldiers’ monument was dedicated
to-day at Geneva, 0., with imposing
ceremonies. Speeches were made by
Gen. Garfield, Congressmen Conger,
Orth and Harrison, Gen. Streight and
others. Gen. Garfield’s speech, as re
ported in shorthand, is as follows :
Fellow Citizens: These gentlemen had no
right to print in a paper here that I was to
make a speech, for the types ought to always
tell the truth and they have not done it in this
case. But I cannot look out upon a great
audience in Ashtabula county, recognizing so
many old faces and old friends,without at leatt
making my bow to them and saying good-bye
before I go. I cannot either hear such a speech
as that to which I have just listened without
thanking the man who made it and the people
who enabled him to make it; for, after all, no
man can make a speech alone. It is the great
power that strikes up from a thousand minds
that act on him and makes the speech. It
originates with those outside of him. If he
makes one at all and every man that has stood
on this platform to-day has had a speech
made out of him by you and by what is yonder
on your square. That is the way speeches |
are made, an* 1 , if I had time to stay j
here long enough these forces with you j
might maze one out of me. Ideas are the only
thing in this universe that are immortal. Some
people think that soldiers are chufly renowned
for courage. That is one of the cheapest and ;
common qualities. We share it with the brutes.
1 can find you dogs and bears and lions that
will light to tae death, and will tear each other.
Do you call that waifart ? They are as coura
geous as any of these soldier?. If mers brute
courage is what wo are after, the difference i
between them and us is this: Tigers never
hold reunions to celebrate their victories.
When they have eaten the creature they have
killed, that is the only reunion they ever hold.
Wild beasts never bund monuments over the r
slain comrades Why ? Because ihere are no
ideas behind their warfares. Our race nas
ideas, aud because ideas are immortal, it
they be true, we build monuments to them.
We hoid reunions not for the dead,
far there is nothing on all the earth that you
and I can do for the dead. They are past our
help and past our praise. We can add to them
no glory and we can give to them no immor
tality. They do not need us ; but forever and
forevermore we need mem. The glory that
trailed in the clouds behind them after their
sun had set falls with its benediction on us
who are living, and it is to commemorate the
immortality of the ideas for which they fought
that you assemble to-day and dedicate your
monument that points up toward the God who
leads them in the glory of the great world
beyond, and around those ideas. Under
the leadership of the immortality of these
ideas we assemble to-day reverently to fol
low, reverently to acknowledge the glory
they achieved and the benediction they
left behind them, lhat is the meaning of
an assembly like this, and to join in it, to
meet you, my old ne ghbors and constituents,
to share with you the memories that we have
heard rehearsed and the inspiration that this
day points to that this monument celebrates,
is to me a joy, and for it I am grateful. Be
fore I go I want the pleasure and to give the
pleasure of hearing a few words from some dis
tinguished gentlemen who are on this plat
form. I would t had time to introduce them
til to yon, but I ask you to hear for a moment
what you will, I know, be dignified to hear—a
wo:d from a descendant of that great Ohio
man that we so honored forty years ago this
year. I ask you to listen to Gen. Ben. Harri
l. on, of Indiana.
Erie, Aug. 3.—About 2,500 people
assembled at the depot to meet Gen.
Garfield and party. They were received
with music, firing of cannon, and other
demonstrations of delight. A stage
had been erected a short distance from
the depot, to which the party was con
ducted. Gen. Garfield briefly thanked
the crowd for the cordial reception,
and introduced Hon. O. D. Conger, of
Michigan, who spoke about ten min
utes. Gen. Benj. Harrison, of Indiana,
was about to make a speech when the
depot bell rang for the departure of the
train, and he simply said: “We are
advised that the train on which we are
traveling is about to start, and speecn
making must be deferred for the pres
ent, as Gen. Garfield is a man who
never gels left.”
Buffalo, Aug. 3.—Gen. Garfield re
ceived a grand ovation at the hands of
the Republicans of this city on his
arrival this evening. Gen. Garfield at
the conclusion of the procession spoke
as follows:
Fi llow Citizens : The spectacle I have
witEeased in your city io-uight is far graade
than any pageantry that can be crea.cd by
anything except the entl.u-i&sm and the Lea’s
and faitn of men emhatktd in a great and
worthy cause. It does not mean any man in
the world. It means yonr faith, your hope,
your purpose. So far as lin any sense rep
resent these, I accept your congratulations
with thanks, and I give you all that is best in
my mind in reply for magnificent demon
stration I am passing up through your city,and
for a few hours stopping,not to discuss politics,
not to make speecnes, but I stopped this
moment long enough to rec. gnize your great
meeting and greeting, and thank you for it
with all my heart.
A Glimpse of Bank Losses.
The New York Times.
No notion is more strongly rooted in
the minds of inflationists and the non
thinking than that the national banks
are petted favorites of the Govern
ment, fattening upon the blood of the
people. Refuting this notion is a sisy
pheau task, as far as the multitude are
concerned, for whom it is enough to
know that banks have heaps of money,
and refuse to part with it to those who
most need it; but for legislators who
try to settle the taxation problem off
hand, by putting another turn of the
screws upon banks, conviction of the
facts ought not to be hopeless. It is
rather too late for anybody having a
pretense to intelligence to talk of bank
ing as a monopoly; neither charter nor
permission is required in order to enter
the field; the law is open to everybody
on equal terms; a fixed minimum of
capital and the disposition are requisite,
but there is no exclusion. It should,
therefore, follow, that competition
would keep down the profits, and that
there being visibly no especial compe
tition to get in, the supposition of espe
cial profitableness i* disproved. Rut
we are not restricted to this general
conclusion, for if profits are large sur
plus must grow, inasmuch as ine growth
of surplus is not left entirely at choice,
but is required by the law at a fixed
minimum proportion of earnings. The
following shows the aggregate surplus,
in case of all national banks, from tho
origin of the system :
Date. Surplus. Increase.
I July 4,1864 $1,129,910
i Julv 3, 18G5 31,303,566 $30,173,656
July 2,1866 50 151,992 18,848,426
Julv 6,1868 75,840,119 25,588,127
June 9, 1870 91,689,834 15,849,715
June 10, 1872 105,181 943 13,492.149
June 26, 1874 126,239,3(8 21,057,365
June 30, 1875 133,169,195 2,683,454
Decrease
Dec. 17, 1875 $133,085,422 $ 83,673
June 30, 1876 131,897.197 1,188 225
Dec. 22, 1876 131,390,665 506,532
June 22, 1877...124,714,t73 6,676,592
Dec. 28. 1877 121,568,455 3,145,618
June 29, 1878 118,178 531 3,389 924
Jan. 1, 1879 116,200,864 1,977 667
June 14, 1879 114,321,376 - 1,879,488
Dec. 12, 1879 115,429,031 *1,107,655
June 11, 1880 118,102,014 *3,327,017
♦lncrease.
The figures at the later date are
swollen somewhat by including the gold
banks, whose surplus is probably not
far from $300,000. It appears, how
ever, that the surplus, after increasing
up to June, 1875, has been steadily
decreasing up to the past year, during
which it has made a gain that is yet far
from restoring the nearly twenty mill
ions which disappeared during the pre
vious four years. This movement, too,
being a net one, the decline as well as
the increase is the result after sub
tracting from the profits of the com
paratively few prosperous institutions
the losses of the majority; moreover,
as surplus becomes immediately a part
of working capital, it should naturally
increase on an increasing scale, as
accumulation by compounding interest
does.
But as the law requires only one
tenth of earnings to be set aside for
surplus, perhaps this diminution of the
latter is due in part to excessive divi
dends. We find that capital stock as
well as surplus has declined from about
$504,000,000 March 1, 1876, to $456,-
000,000 at the present time; net earn
ings during half-ye’arly periods have
fallen from $33,122,000 during the half
year ending Sept. 1,1873, to $16,873,000
during that ended Sept. 1,1879; divi
dends have fallen from about $25,000,-
000 for the half-year ending Sept. 1,
1874, to $17,401,000 for that ending
Sept. 1, 1879. The ratios of earnings
and dividends have declined thus:
/ Ratios of
Earnings D.vidend?
to Capital Dividends to Capital
Half-year and to and
Ending— Surplus. Capital. Surplus.
Sept. 1, 1869.., .6.C4 542 4.50
Sept. 1, 1870.... 5.19 4.96 4.08
Sect. 1, 1872 5.36 5.12 4.17
Sept. 1, 1873.... 5.46 5.09 4.09
S?pt. 1. 1874... .4.86 509 403
Sept. 1, 1875... ,4.56 4.88 385
Sept. 1, 1876... .3 25 450 3.57
March 1. 1877 ..3.12 4.39 3.47
Sept. 1, 1877.... 2.50 4 54 3.62
March 1, 1878 ...2.83 3 99 3.17
Sept. 1, 1878.... 2.31 3.81 3.04
March 1, 1879 ...2 53 3.78 3.02
Sept. 1, 1879.... 2.93 * 3.82 3 05
The earnings were 10.96 per cent, of
capital and surplus in 1870; in 1879, i
5.49. Dividends were 8.35 per cent, of
capital and surplus in 1870; in 1879,
6.07. Dividends were 10.12 per cent,
of capital alone, in 1370; in 1879, 7.60. ;
The following number of banks and
volume of capital, for the years named,
paid no dividends at all: 1876, 254{
and $39,174,000; 1877,266 and $40,809,-
000; 1878, 343 and $53,767,000; 1879, j
304 and $49,210,000. Thus, during the
four years, 1876-9, more than one-tenth
of the the total bank capital, distribu- i
ted in about one-seventh of the whole i
number of banks, brought its owners
nothing whatever. During 1876, more
over, the banks charged off $19,716,000
of losses ; during 1877, $19,933,000 ;
1878, $24,467,000 ; 1879, $21,725,000.
I Of this, $8,639,000 stands for the oblit
■ eratiou of premium on United States
bonds during two and a half years. The
| total for four years,nearly $86,000,000,
; exceeds 19 per cent, on the total capital,
and exceeds by more than $8,000,000
the net earnings from March, 1877, to
September, 1879. These losses have
been distributed in part by charging
them off the surplus, and in part by
diminishing or suspending altogether
dividend payments during this term.
In this city alone the capital of
1 the associated banks declined $6,500,-
000 in 1876, $10,500,000 in 1877,
$4,727,300 in 1878, and $2,007,700 in
1879, making total decline of $23,735,-
000 in the last four y oars and $23,945,-
000 since 1872, while bank capital in
Boston has increased $1,500,000 during
the same term.
This withdrawal of banking capital
means a reduction of several times
twenty-three millions inability to lend
—it is so much destruction of the ma
chinery of exchanges, and is one not
readily repaired, because capital once
driven out of banking by force returns
very slowly to it. Dull times, scarcity
of good borrowers, a stream of losses
by failures, and, piled upon the rest, a
burden of taxation relatively much
larger than it was during prosperous
years, have wrought this result. The
tax-rate in this City is just about double
that in Boston. Can legislators see no
connection between this fact and the
comparative movement of banking cap
ital in the two cities ? And now the legis
lature has given us anew tax, laid upon
the outside corporations which have in
part made good the withdrawal of do
mestic bank capital. The result of it
cannot precisely be foretold ; its imme
diate effect, together with the rest of the
batch of tax bills, is already to make the
taxation muddle in this State worse
than ever.
A Monumental Fraud.
New York, Aug. 4. —A Montgomery
special says: The result lias been that
while the Republicans polled a larger
vote at this election than at any election
I for years, they were deliberately counted
out by men occupying responsible posi
| tions in the world, who think it no
offence to steal a vote of a negro or
Republican. The election in this coun
ty, which in former years registered
Republican majorities ranging from
30,000 to 40,000, is a fair sample of the
conduct of the election elsewhere. At
McGhee’s switch, in this, county, the
Republicans polled about GOO votes and
the Democrats 50. While the votes
were being counted the candle was
turned over and put out and the room
left in darkness for several minutes.
When the colored Republican inspector
put out his hand to preserve the ballot
box he found that it was gone. Con
siderable confusion ensued, and on the
caudle being relighted it was observed
that the box had been filled up with
new tickets and that the ballots were
all over the floor. The colored man
protested against the fraud and was
driven from the room with curses, and
was not permitted again to enter and
observe the count. The votes have
been returned as giving 450 Democratic
majority. Duiing the count at this
precinct, a military company and a
large posse of armed citizens under the
command of a deputy sheriff appeared
at the polling place to protect the in
spectors, although no trouble or threats
of trouble had occurred at the polls.
They were determined to force through
their nefarious scheme at all hazards,
j even to have Democratic bayonets at
the polls. The above-mentioned De
publican colored inspector made an
affidavit to those facts. At Kendall’s
Beat the proportion of Republican and
Democratic votes was the same. At
McGhee’s the inspectors deliberately
changed the votes in the presence of
the ignorant, timid old colored man,
who finally detected the inspector with
a large roll of bogus tickets. They
then tried to bulldoze him into signing
the returns, but he would not do so. I
might relate similar experiences at each
polling-place in this county, because the
| history of one is the history of all.
But it would not add anything to the
force of the statement. Five thousand
Republican votes in this county were
deliberate ly counted for the Democratic
nominees, and to render the injury
irreparable, the Legislature a; its last
session provided that tickets should no
longer be numbered. Thus all possi
bility of tracing the ballot of the voter
and of the offije, showing that it Las
been changed, is taken away. The
monumental fraud of the age was the
pretended election of Aug. 2, 1880, a
fraud tbe Democratic papers prepared
for weeks by parading in their columns
the lie that thousands of negroes were
joining tne Democratic clnba. Here
they cor.id not musts r 50 colored Dem
ocrats out of 8,000 colored voters.
A gentleman who was visiting Gen
eral Hancock’s headquarters a few days
ago fell into conversation with an ex-
Confederate, and asked him how the
Southern people could support Han
cock, who had taken a hand in whip
ping them. The Southron answered :
*• We will overlook that. We wish now
to lick tlie Yankees. His sympathies
are with us, and it we get in we will
show what we will do.”