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WfteMjt p««j M& fthASTkj GEORGIA, SEPTEMBER 7 RECONSTRUCTION. SPEECH OP HON. AMOS T. AKKKMAN. Attorney-General of tlie United Statea, Delivered in BeprMeatatiTee Han. Atlanta, Sept. 1.1*70. On the Issues of the Day. TUc Doctrine of “State Rights,” as pro- mnlgntcd by the “ Democracy,” An tagonistic to the Government. The Relations between the State and Fed' oral Government. The Rights of Hen paramount to the Rights of States. Reported ftr Uic Atlaata Sew Em by. John w. TVlleou end H. ft Comou. Mr. Chairman, and Fellow CHizeiu : An ob server in tho Southern States sees somo re markable things. He finds about him every evidence of material prosperity. He finds general health prevailing in this port of the world Providence has sent ns sunshine and showers, and the earth is priding her abund ant increase. All branches of labor are well rewarded, capital is increasing, all the other things which men usually consider desirable, seem to be found within our limits. Thera is liberty of friendship; then is liberty of scien tific investigation; there is liberty of political investigation; there is liberty, if that be a precious thing, to oppose one's government, (and it is a liberty of which many of onr fel low-citizens avail themselvesl: there is liberty 9f speech ite Conven- : all thi -all this apparent prosperity, notwithstanding all this ennse of satisfaction by man with his lot and of thankfulness to Providence, we hear from all parts of onr Southern country the voice of murmuring and of complain! Many of onr fellow citizens, otherwise worthy, seem per sistently bent on making themselves unhappy, and endsevor to impress all their neighbors with the same degree of nntmpphicss. They complain that something is going on that is wrong. They are asked what the wrong is. Is it in material things? No. Has Providence been ungracious to yon ? No. Are you not permitted to go through your respective call ings from day to day, and to sleep sweetly night after night when you have earned that nocturnal sleep by healthy labor, or by propor attention to yonr dauy pursuits?. Yes. What is there that disturbs you?— Some (a few yean ago it may have been many now, I am informed, and I sincerely trust it is true, that there are few), may givo as the ground of thoir uneasiness that they ore fearful of violent visitation by lawless men during the dark honrs of night, but these are not tho ones who murmur. Thuuo who murmur seem to beta tbo enjoyment of almost all worldly blessings, dost yonr eye over the world and compare yonr own State of Geor gia with other parts of this globe, and tell me where yon find one million of people inhibit ing contiguous territory who are at this me- 'incut in the epjoyment of more sources of comfort and of happiness ? The wastes of war ore repaired in a great measure, so tar as they are reparable hero on earth. The cities are growing up, our agriculture is assuming its ancient prosperity. The ,’jreat mass of oar people are well led and well clothed, and considering the mildness of onr climate they are well housed. There is bat little pauperism, bat little of distressing poverty, aud WHY IS THIS LAMENTATION ? We are told that the government is not serving its people right. We are told that tho general government has been oppressive; that the State government hpa been op pressive; that corruption prevails at Washing ton; that corruption prevails at Atlanta, and there ore people who have worked them selves into a passion on aoconnt of these evils, whether they be real oi imaginary. To me these oomplaiiita are not new. As tar lock ss my memory goes there has always boon an administration at Washington and a Stats administration at some point in Georgia, and there hot always boen com plaint by a portion of the citizens that there was oppression and corruption at Washington, at MiUedgeville, or wherever the Capitol of the State might be. I am disposed to believe that there is a chronic complaint by certain classes of oar citizens certain other classes of onr citizens. Indeed, I have may be the coso elsewhere, the greater part of the votes that will be cost in the Southern States this autumn, will express the sentiments of the voters on the subject of reconstruction, which includes the lateConsti- d amendments, and all kindred matters. it in wo mV ports of the country is estab lished, and laid np among fundamental rights, is here in controversy. Among ns, there is little discussion of free trade or protection, of heavy, or light taxation, of needy or deferred payment of the pablic debt, of a huge or email public expenditure, of neutrality or intervention, of the repeal or maintenance of the navigation laws, of the enlargement of car territory or adherence to present limits. The opinions of onr citizens on these matters will not control their votes. Upon the reoord, so tar as the record is made up Ire the Democrats, the controversy is about State Rights. In fact, the controversy is in part about State Rights, (so-called,) and in part about human rights— the asserted right of a State to overrate the national authority, to discriminate in politioal rank between the races that compose its own people; the right of a man otherwise qualified to pursue any lawful business, to contract, to testify, to sue, to vote, to hold office, to be educated, without regard to nee, color or pre vious condition of servitude; and to do these things under the protection of law, notwith standing tho adverse humors of those bodies politic called States There is, too, an element the contest which onght to be obsolete, bnt unhappily is not Many a vote will be given for Democratic caudnlaiea from resentment against the power that prevailed in thewnr and crowned its suet- . ! v car.-iag the eman cipation of slaves. Though this feeling is weaker than it was two years ago, it has not yet disappeared from onr Southern country. In s great measure, then, the controversy is between the spirit of the late Confederacy and the spirit of the Union. The Republicans take the side of the Union. Some of ns adhered to the Confederacy, but when it fell we gave it up wholly. We thought that honor required us, when we surrendered, to Bartender all that had been involved in the contest When we submitted to the national authority, after the temporary alienation, wo carried back to that authority onr allegiance, onr attachments and oar patriotic devotion. We resolved that even if onr submission to it had bean from neoesaity, we would henceforth be faithful to It from ehoice. We thought that so tremendous a war should settle some thing ; and conceiving that it had established onion and liberty, wo took union and liberty with all their comeqnenees. Hence we have no hankerings after a separate government, alter apolity with slavery for a corner stone, the domination of master over slave, of the white rabe over the colored'race. given it up os a hopeless task'ever to bring - those who are oat of offloe to be satisfied with the demeanor of those who are in. (Applause and laughter.) There wasoomplaint at an early period. In the days of Washington there were charges of oppression and corrup tion against the government over which ns presided, and daring the administrations of all his successors those charges have been re- iieated, and no doubt, in many coses,* honestly ltelieved. The same complaint has been made of all State administrations with which I have any acquaintance. Is there anything peculiar in onr circumstances? In Older to present those distinctly it is nccessaiy that I should recur briefly to OUR RECENT POUTICAI. HISTORY. At the close of the late war, two momentous questions were in the minds of the Southern people. First, What should be our relations to the Government of the United States; Sec ond, What should be the political relations bo- tween those ot our own people who had always been free and those who had just become free. Before these questions could be answered. right of settling thaw relations belonged. This preliminary question was soon practically answered. The Government of the United States assumed the task of reconstruction ; and reconstruction, in effect, involves onr litical relations to the United States and political relations between the different classes of onr own people. A few found toe authori ty for this assumption by the General Govern ment in its right ns a conqueror. Many found that authority ta its doty to guaranty Rcpnb- lican Governments to the States. At first, bat few persons of any consideration denied .this authority to the General Government Oar State Rights politicians raised no objection when President Johnson directed the call of State Conventions and prescribed the qualifi cations of members and constituents, enfran chising those whom ho chose to.enfranchise, and disfranchising those whom he chose to disfranchise. Such politicians contentedly sat in the con vention thus called and obediently voted to conform to the directions Which the President from time to time transmitted. Such ]»li- ticians accepted office in the State Govern ments formed by those Conventions, and Rood ready to take seats in Congress, by virtse of elections under those governments, and all without the least disturbance to their tender consciences from State The raleartHdi -tart- bbSMiifeti -under that reconstruction,,was that no man should suffer political disabilities for participation in the rebellion,' and (fast fbe emancipated should have no political rights. This reconstruction tailed. A grave Con stitutional question agitated the country; not a question between the National Government and tbo States, bnt between different depart ments of the National, Government, One party contended that the President bad as sumed unlawful powers in tho matter of re construction; that when the government is charged with a duty ta its nature requiring a‘ law, that law must be enacted by the Legisla ture and not by the Executive in tho form of a proclamation. This party prevailed, and pro vided by law in 18117, for the reconstrnetion of the Southern States. The roles of this latter reconstruction were that certain classes of political offenders should lie disqualified for office until relieved, and that' the emancipated class should have the some civil and political rights as other citizens. -•state rights. " When these rules weisannonnced, the genius of State Rights awoke from its slumber. As sumptions of unauthorized power by a Presi dent bad passed uncensured. But assump tions of power by Congress, precisely the same in principle, and folly warranted by the Constitution, were received with a cry that alarmed the land. There was danger now to the rights of the States. Aa soon as some gentlemen were ta danger of losing a prsecrip- tivo right to office and the colored man IUU OUV7CM1UUIBL VI lOUl, UCUili 1U I political forum, and flowed fluently from 1 mouth of the'oenatcvaltae of 1SC7, who v I likely to „l:aro in the government of his coun try, 'the light of ilie Statergiea 1 iiwtasusin 1 the eves of our Dcinociatjtttaflspjtiwyta The cant—to be respectful, I will constrain myself j to say, the reasoning—of tho nnllificr o[-~1833, of the Southern Rights man of 1850, and of the Secessionist of 1861, was again heard in the - -- -■» - - n,,, was soon transformed into the Democrat oi 1868. This interest in State -Rights, thus re tired l,y two notablo circumstances— the depression of the old politician and '■■■• vliwatiou of the. "colored man—is ■Ml (refused by our DemocreHe friends, and they assert that the doctrine of State Rights is the prihw'dsjtai at their -creed. They $nd fault in Congressional reconstrnetion, became it has denied office to tho old politicians when unrelieved; because it has established the political equality of the colored men, and be cause, os they say, it has encroached on the rights of the States. the nsrcnniCAS! rARir Confronts than, and is .bound to meet them in the coming campaign upon all the issues which are really, involved. I say really in volved, for we are under no obligations to con sider questions which exist only in Democratic ■•stats sights Somo of os were tumble to command any admiration for the doctrine of State Rights, when we saw it reduced to practice in a State Rights Government, so-called. We were prom ised wealth, and we found poverty. We were promised liberty, and we experienced tyranny. At this day we have a reminiscent horror of Confederate conscription, of impressment, of enormous taxation, of discrimination in tavor of the most prosperous classes of society, of a depreciated cutrency, swarms of useless mili tary dandies lounging nbout onr towns and cities, and upbraiding the people lor not en gaging more heartily in a cause, from the lordships of which they were themselves un fairly exempted, of military guards ta every railroad car, of the necessity of parere when ever a man left bis neighborhood, of arbitrary and causeless arrests. These memories do not endear to ns the State Rights doctrine. We cannot embrace it in tho Confederate sense, and we cannot see that it is much modified or improved in the Democratic sense, ta which it re-appeare amongst ns. (Applause.) What is it ta the Democratic sense? I have a definite con ception of it no lor ms Democracy is identical with the doctrines upon which the late Confederacy was founded, for those doctrines were intelligible and. distinct It was one of those doctrines that the American nationality is represented by the government that is seated at the capital of a State, and not by the government that is seated in Ibc capiiol of the nation. It was one of those doctrines that whenever the people of any State choose to be dissatisfied with the general government, or their sister States, they rare a right to dissolve the connection and throw, at their own will and pleasure, a whole oontinont into confusion; it was a dootriuo of some,though injustice I should say not all, that any State has a right, whenever it chooses, to enjoy all the blessings, and at the same time reject all the burdens of the gov ernment to which it professes to belong. Some ofonr democratic friends tell ns that they have abandoned some of these doctrines. They tell us they have abandoned secession, tor the war has crashed secession Bnt they tell you that they still adhere to every particle of the doctrine of State Rights except the doctrine of secession. They keep the tree, root, stem, branch and all; and say that this terrible war has merely lopped off one of the fruits that I pew on that tree. The difference between i hem and ns is this: We do not quarrel so much with the fruit as we do with the tree that bore the fruit We do not quarrel ao much with one consequence ns we did with the gen eral cause from which oil these pernicious consequences flow. But utaUradr exact I have watched carefully to M if .our Dem ocratic friends have any definite ideas of State Rights which they are willing explicitly to tell totimpSbple, andnp. :i vbnh ii. to go distinctly before the people, and have watched ta vain. There is a vague talk about State Rights, the some sort of talk that we have heard over forty years, but it is hard to find oat what they mean by it Recently there assembled ta this Hall a num ber of gentlemen who were styled i democratic stats contention or Georgia. Those gentlemen submitted to the remarkable constraint of silence. (Laughter.) They.laid before the people what they called a platform. That platform is before me. I have bestowed upon it a careful study, and will venture, not npon a criticism of it, but to ask some questions os to its iheaning, and suggest to yon ss a profitable exercise, one that is calcu lated to quicken the mental faculties, a simi lar investigation, and if yon succeed in find ing out definitely and practically what it means, you will have accomplished au intel lectual teat that ought to give you prompt ad mission to any college in the land. (Laugh ter) AU 'those who ore able to perform that foot wfll stand the test of any competitive ex amination- far political skill which may be imposed anywhere on earth. •'Resolved, That the Democratic party of the State of Georgia stand npon the principles of the Democratic party of the Union.” What are they? There is a parallel to this in what is said to be a Hindoo legend. According to the cosmogony of the priests of the oriental country the earth came into being in some mys terious way ages upon ages ago, and the world rests upon the book of an elephant, and the elephant upon the back of a tortoise; but what does the tortoise stand npon? Aha, there it tails, there is the end of the chain, and it ends ta nothing. Tbe Democratic party of Georgia stands on the bock of the Democratic party of the Union, and that, like the tortoise, studs on nothing. (Applause and laughter.) Let ua go on. “Bringing intosperial promineace ms applicable to the present extraordinary con dition of the country, tbe unchangeable doc trine that this is a union of the States, and the indestructibility of the States and of their rights and of their equality with each other, is an indispensable part ofour political system." “And the indestructibQity of tbe States is au indispensable part of onr political system.' That language is not original with the Demo crats of Georgia; they quote the distinguished Chief Justice of the United States, and as far as grammatical propriety would allow, have adopted language which ho has lately used in a judical decision. But they have left ont something. The Chief Justice’s ut terances contained two propositions. The ut terance of tho Democracy of duces ono of them and omits the other. Says Chief Justice Chase: “This is an indestrueti- blo union of indestructible States.” We hear from the Democracy or Georgia that the States are indestructible, but. they don't tell us that the Union is indestructible. That omission was not ■iiMAiM'MBta^|kltjjli« Aha tendency and bearing of these gentlemen so for as they dare to cxprcstl it Tho indestruc tibility of the States is prominently presented, snd the indestructibility of the Union is care fully omitted when they quote the learnod Chief Justice’s language. Bat there is'some thing more. The indestructibility of the States is one of those doctrines which are to be brought into special prominence, and their equality with each other is another; and here I confess that I am perplexed. The States ore declared to be equal with each other. How are they equal? Tho equality of the States is no new phrase. We heard it 20 years ago, and then it nod an appUehflbn which meant some thing. Then it meant that a citizen of any one of the States had, in all the territories of the United States, the rights of property that he had in the limits of his own State: That definition of the phrase is entirely obsolete now. It does not fit these times. Then tell me in what other sense the States are equal to each other? “the equality or the states!’’ The word "State” is sometimes used ta a geographical sense. I can hardly suppose that our Democratic friends, when they toed this phrase, were talking geography, and meant to assert that Delaware is geographically equal to Missouri. How, then, areStptesequal? Per haps some will say they are'politically equal; And what do you mean by that ? - Look at the ports that States play in onr complex form of government: In one place they are politically equal ta representation ta the United States Senate. They ore not equal in represent ation in the House of Representatives; they are not eqnal in voting for President We have no controversy with the Democrats in re gard to equal representation in the Senate, bnt I will remind them that there is one politician in the United States who. for about eighteen yean, on every fit occasion, has been com plaining of that equality. There is one gentle man, and an eloquent and distinguished one, too, who has not missed on opportunity of con trasting tbe equal representation of little Rhode Island with the eqnal representation of great New York; and that politician is Horatio Seymour, who, two yean ago, was the candi date of these very Democratic gentlemen, for ths Presidency of the United States. [Applause and laughter.) I know of no man wno im pugns the doctrine of the equality of States in the place where they are made constitutionally equal, except Horatio Seymour, and if our Democratic friends choose to make war upon him I will observe tbe strictest neutrality in tbe contest [Applause and laughter. ] Equality is a favorite word with our Dem- ic friends, but when they come apply it, (hey and we differ. They insist on equality of States, and we in sist on the political equality of the men who make the States. (Applause.) States ore col lections of men in oertain prescribed limits. Wo say that oil men stand eqnal before the law when they have not forfeited that equality by their own misconduct Oar Democratic friends say men are not equal, but a number of men put together ta one territory are equal to a very different uambor of men put to gether ta another territory. The individuals are unequal, but when they ora grouped to gether in these corporations, no matter how unequal iu number they may be, then the cor porations become equal! Now we do not re gard that corporation,colled the State, as near ly so valuablo as the elements of which it is composed. We value the States. We agree with Judge Chase and the Democratic party, that they ore indestructible. We agree that, under oar political system. States cannot be wiped out We know that the structure of the General Government requires that there should be States. At tbe same time we ore not ao very careful of the rights of these cor porations made np of individuals as we are of the BIGOTS OF THS INDIVIDUALS that make them np. The State ta its highest sense is you, and I, and onr neighbors; it is all of us, all of those people who have the right of citizen ship here within onr territory, and those peo ple ore more valuable than the corporation which they constitute. We would preserve the States; we wonld preserve the rights of the States, because those rights ore the means of enforcing the rights of men. States do not exist for their own convenience; States exist for the advantage of the people who inhabit them, and in any conflict between the imagin ed interest of the corporation and the real in terest of the people who compose it, we ore on the side of tbe people. Equality and liberty! Some gentlemen la ment that there is a wont of liberty. We have heard the cry of liberty in this country year after year, and never so loudly as ta 1860 and 1861, and what was tbe kind of liberty they then wonted? What is the kind of liberty that I am very apprehen sive some of our fellow-citizens in their hearts desire now ? Why, they want the liberty of denying liberty to other men. [Applause.] Some of the citizens of this State have seen a cheering omen of an improved state of affairs in the proceedings of this Democratic Conven tion. Their resolutions, it is said, were some what less fierce than they had been; and of talk they had almost none. I am unable to participate in this satisfaction. In that Con vention I leam that great constraint was used' to silence the unruly member. I see in this not an increase of patriotism, notion increase of wisdom, not on abandonment of post errors, not a pledge of future reforma tion, but an increoae of conning, and a practical confession of the necessity of con cealing the abandonee of the heart out of which the mouth speaks. SPEECH DANGEROUS. When men know that nothing can be said except what ought not to be said, they are very wise in imposing silence; bnt when they imposed that silence they implied that speech would be unwise; (applause) they implied that speech wonld be dangerous; they implied that they have some thing in their hearts which tho world onght not to know, and, therefore, it is unsafe to let it out [Applause and laughter). And, now, ray Democratic friends, if you have in your hearts any hatred to the United States Gov ernment, have the manhood to let it ont [Applause]. If you have in yonr hearts any hatred to the Northern section of the country, have the manhood to let it ont If yon have ta yonr hearts a disposition to tyrannize over the class lately emancipated in your section, have the manhood to let it ont [Applause.] If y on have it in yonr hearts to disown the authority of the recent ■nmrlmamta to tho Constitution of the United States, have the manhood to let it out [Ap plause and laughter.] Whatever there is in you of political wish, be it good, be it bad, be it indifferent, have the manhood to let it ont If it is good, you onght to let it out, and be proud of it If ife is indifferent yon ought to let it oat without much concern. If it is bad, you ought to let it out and then be ashamed of it and repent of it [Great applause and laughter.] Bnt there teas not perfect silence. Accord ing to the newspapers of the day, the gentle man who presided over the convention thought proper to make a few remarks. These remarks were very deliberate; they show pre meditation; they show circumspection; they give important admonition to his convention that they shoold hold their tongues. But, at the same time, he could not hold his own, [laughter] and be let ont some things which have a meaning and deserve a commentary. “We have waited many weary months with the expectation that a day might dawn when Georgia would have some hope of a future destiny brighter than has been foreshadowed by the measures of the post You can bear witness, gentlemen, coming, as yon do, from various ports of the State of Georgia, with what patience oar people have pursued the ordinary avocations of life in the midst of wrongs that havo been unheard of ta the his tory of any nation. They have borne it all patiently; they have observed good order; they have obeyed the law; they have preserved peace ta the various counties. You can bear witness to these things in the midst of wrongs that have been practiced npon them, and attempted usurpations that wonld bring tbe blnsh of shame to any honorable cheek.” UNHEARD OT WRONGS. We ought to pause npon that! “Wrongs that are unheard of ta the history of any peo ple.” What are the wrongs that the members of that Convention have suffered? They have had losses, lasses of friends and relatives near and dear, and losses of property. Those were losses by war. Did Ihsy not voluntarily go into that war? Did they not voluntarily attempt to dismember this Union, and has it not been the history of man from the beginning of tho world till now, that no' nation is ever dismembered without a war? Did they not, ta tact, challenge the people of the other part of the country to a war, and to a war about State rights ana the right to hold men ta slavery ? And when that gage was taken up, and the war was waged, and they failed, they ought not to complain if they have hod to pay a port of the forfeiture. [Applause.] I say apart of the forfeiture. They have not had to pay all the forfeiture and the usual for- feiture under circumstances of that kind. Tell mo when before in the history of political rev olutions, or ofattempted revolutions, the'pre- vailing party never took a life for treason. The law of revolutions is well known. Whenever men undertake a revolution they, by that un dertaking, agree to stand as heroes if they are successful, and to stand rebels and traitors if they unsuccessful. Washington was the leader of one revolution. He was successful, and stands in history os a hero. U he had failed, he wonld have stood in law as a traitor, and, if captured, would havo suffered a traitor’s doom. I do not say that right is always made by might, but I do say that might mokes low, at least the law of revolutions. The law of the United States declared it treason, and made it penal for a citizen to wage war against the United States. " According to the theory of the prevailing party, the very gentleman who delivered that address was, in law, on insurgent and a- traitor. Has he ever been imprisoned as a traitor? Has he been tried os a traitor? Has he ever been condemned ns a traitor? Has he ever been hung as a traitor? No, he has not, and I am glad that he has not; but I think, after having escaped that fete which ho himself invited, it ill becomes him to raise a lamentation about wrongs and suffering from the government I venture to say that there has never been a better dressed, a better fed and more comfortable set of gentlemen assem bled in one room ta Georgia than were here in that Democratio Convention. And what are the signs of the dreadful wrongs that they have suffered? They were able to travel here to the city of Atlanta from their homes; they were permitted here to organize; they were permitted to nndertako to control tho politics at this State ; they were permitted to talk as freely as they chose, au opportunity of which they forebore to avail themselves. And they were at liberty to do all this under the very shadow of the American flag, and within a few rods of the Headquarters of a gentleman who we ore told is a ferocious military satrap. [Applause.] “Wrongs that are unheard of.” There have, indeed, been wrongs iu Georgia within the last few years, which, "until riceut times, were unheard of. The masked assassin has visited his innocent victim and slain him by night Masked crowds have lacerated the flesh of better men than themselves. Masked crowds have attempted to. ter rify tho plain, the humble, the industrious. But none of the members of Mr. Colquitt’s Convention have boen sufferers in any such ways. (Cries of no! no!) No, not they. There ore people in this State who might com plain that they have suffered unheard of wrongs, that is those of them who are here on earth to complain. Others have gone to carry their complaints before a higher tribunal, complaints that will be heard, and complaints that will be avenged when the earth gives np hei dead, and the secrets of the night here on earth shall be revealed. [Sensation and ap plause.] Bat those sufferers woro not mem bers of Mr. Colquitt’s Convention; those suf fers were not represented in this convention where he oomplains of unheard of wrongs. What are theso wrongs ? Is it a wrong to have a government under which prosperity is dif fused over the land; a government that has practiced an unheard of forbearance towards those who revile it? Unheard of wrongs. I suppose that there is a meaning not ex pressed here. The “unheard of wrongs,” which I suppose that gentleman would have stated had he felt at liberty to make an expla nation, are these: That a government has been established in this State by the initiatory action of the government of the United Spates. Our Democratic friends have no right to com plain of that If State rights have ever been trodden down since the war, they were os sig nally trodden down by Andrew Johnson, os they have been by anybody else. Tell me, where was the authority for tho President to plant governments in ten or eleven States? Where do you find it in the Constitution? Where do yon find it in any law ? and yet a President did that and after he had done-it, the State Bights Democracy of the State of Georgia, through their dele gates in the National Democratic Convention, at the city of New York, in July, 1868, voted as their first choice for President for that very man who had thus encroached upon State Bights. My Democratio friends, when yon talk to me about your regard for State Bights, and in the same breath eulogize Andrew Johnson and declare that you are ready to vote for Andrew Johnson, excuse me if I have no very great confidence in yonr sin cerity. [Applause and laughter]. REPRESENTATION OF COLO BED MEN. But there is another wrong that Mr. Col quitt probably complains of. Anothor un heard of wrong. There is a population in this State to whom political and civil rights were, until recently, denied. Bights of that description have lately been granted them. Mr. Colquitt considers it a grievance that men who once had some kind of representa tion through an interested master, but who have lost that, shall now have a representation by their own selection. What are these men doing for the State? According to estimates given to me by men who are intelligent in such matters, there were 250,000 bales of cotton (lor I will confine my illustration to that single ar ticle,) made in the State of Georgia in the year 1860. According to the lowest estimate, at least three-quarters of that must be set down os the products of the labor of the colored man. ihe value of the whole, according to the average price of last year, was $20,000,000. Here are men who contribute to the prosper ity of the State in one year, the amount of $15,000,000, and those men, it is said, ought to have no voico in the management of the public affairs of this country. There, are men who say that they wish that all these people were out of the country. I wish, for the sake of the experiment, that they were gratified as to a single county, bnt I hope the county selected will not be that in which I hapen to live. What wonld become of yonr lands? What would their value be? How much would you make upon them? How many barrels of com would you crib? How many bales of cotton would you send to market? Wonld yon find it agreeable, instead of sitting down upon yonr piazzo and under your pleasant shade trees, to go out in the fiefds and follow the mule and the plow all day, and then alternate the labor the next day with the agreeable diversity ot hoeing? My friends, if you do not like to lave this population here, dismiss it if you ran, and do without it I desire that it shall stay here. I desire that they shall be useful to themselves, and to us to whom Providence has given a lighter skin. I desire that their industry shall feed, as it now does, a largo part of the commerce and manufactures of the world. But I desire that these men who are so universally useful in this country, who, if they have not this country, have none this side of the land of Conaan, shall take an interest in this country, and have a voice in its govern ment I do not care to repeat the argument that has been often made. The rights of mastery over the person have ceased* the rights of mastery over the earnings of others have passed away, and tho right to impose political priva tions upon other men who have never forfeit ed political rights by their own behavior, should have passed away too. Theso men have had theso rights—tor three years ever since October, 1867—where they have not been unfairly interfered with, and who has been hurt by it? Has not the country, since those rights were first created, advanced more than it has advanced in any three years of its history? it now to your recollection, not the actual improvement of the State of Georgia within the last three years exceeded the improvement of the State of Georgia for any three years since Oglethorpe landed at Yamacsaw Bluff. Judge the tree by its fruit Are not the fields cultivated, are not the rail roads running, ore not the buildings going up, are not the ships sailing, are not all the branches of human industry flourishing, not withstanding these enormous wrongs which so vex the anxious souls of onr Democratic friends? [Applause aud laughter.] Take the two years since tho war in which they substantially swayed Georgia from the latter part of 1865 to the latter part of 1867. Compare those two years with the sub sequent three years, and in which have the greatest strides been made towards prosperity? In which has the greatest improvement mani fested itself all over tho face of our country? If it is a grievance, it is a grievance which this co an try can well afford to bear, a griev ance under which it flourishes, a grievance under which it advances without precedent, and is not a grievance about which mon may break their hearts. But this is not all that is in Mr. Colquitt’s address. He congratulates his friends upon their forbearance. “You have not thought proper to resort to REVOLUTIONARY MEASURES that you might bring about a reformation. 1 That is gracious. Our Democratic friends have condescended not to inaugurate a new rebellion to redress these atrocious wrongs! Revolution is serious business. Oar people tried it once, and ono would think they had learned a severe lesson upon that subject, but, notwithstanding revo lutionary thoughts are in the heart of Mr. Col quitt it seems that he and his friends have con sidered revolutionary measures, and they have condescendingly thought proper not to resort to them. I thank you, my Democratic friends. Having had in my own experience a slight tasto’ot attempted revolution, I am desirous to live out the rest of my brief stay on earth with- ter.] You have graciously forebome to afflict us again with a revolution. I thank you first in the name of that Government which might perhaps feel bound to try to suppress it It did succeed in suppressing one, and possibly it might have similar success another time, nevertheless tho task was very troublesome, and it is desirable to avoid a repetition of that trouble if possible. I thank yon in the name of those widows whom your revolution would have sent wail ing throughout the laud. I thank you in the name of those living men whose graves wonld have ridged your battle fields. I thank you in the name of those men who now havo whole limbs, who would bo cripples, as the fruit of your rebellion. I thank yon in the name of that country which is spared the other mise ries that my tongue cannot portray in conse quence of your gracious forbeaiouco. Talk, if you choose, of tho apparent harmony shown by the silence in your convention. Publish as many abusive things as you choose in tho news papers. Practice yonr scurrility upon Bepubli- «ui men and Republican women. Exhaust your chivalry in denunciations of female strangers who come here to instruct that class of people to whom you say you are the best friend, but whom you do not instruct yourselves. [Ap plause.] Go on with nil the other meannesses that Democracy, has over devised, but spare us, I pray you, from another revolution. But onr Democratic friends go on farther, aud finally say, that “whatever policy others may pursue, we pledge ourselves to do all in our i*)\vcr to secure free and fair elections by all who are qualified to vote under existing laws.** So tar, so good. Hare is improve ment, here is reformation» Do this, and you will have advanced. Do this, and you will have become better. Will you do it? You say you will, and now give the evidence of your sincer ity. WHAT IS A “FAIB AND FREE ELECTION?” It is an election at which every voter feels at liberty to cast his vote according to his own conscientious preference without fear of moles tation or harm for so doing. It is a free and fair election when a man selects tho candidate of his choice and goesnp to the ballot box and pnts his ballot in without a threat, taunt, or word of reproach. Ife is not a free and fair election when men having habits of mastery, and assuming the air and tone of mastery, stand by the place of voting, and when the voter comes np, carrying tho ballot of his choice, ciy oat “mArk him, mark him; see how he votes ; see whose land he lives; i next year.” [Applause.] It is not a free a id fair election when a man pretending to be tue vo ter’s friend comes to them privately, and says: “Yon had better vote the Democratio ticket I know yon are a Radical and yon want to vote the Radical ticket, and yon hare a right to vote the Radical ticket I wonld not take from you any of your rights, but if you do vote the .Radical ticket, yon will find that some of the wild young men whom I cannot restrain, may come to your houses at night and play the Kn-Klux upon you.” It is not a free and fair election when the landed proprietor says or hints to the dependant man, that if he does not vote as he wants him to vote, he will be houseless and homeless next year. CAPITAL AND LABOR. My friends, I am touching now a serious topic. Iam touching the gravest politioal problem which is now, or which can be for the next twenty years, placed before the people of this Southern comrry. When the capitalist attempts to control the laborer in his political rights, he is rousing a lion that is sleeping now; but if roused, a lion that will devour his rouser. [Applause.] Many of the polit ical philosophers of this country have given a great deal of grave discussion to a supposed conflict between capital and labor, a conflict which they imagine has entered into American politics. Until recently that conflict has been substantially a chimera. The notion was adopted into this country from the other ado of the ocean. There is a natural struggle and conflict between capital and labor, where one portion of the inhabitants of a country are se curely rich, and the great moss are hopelessly poor. There the difference between labor and capital is definite and distinct Capital is in oue class of hands, and labor is in another class of hands. And where government favors the concentration of capital in a few hands, labor feels its jealousies and its hatreds. In the United States, looking at tho white population alone, the cry of a conflict between capital and labor has generally been the cry of a demagogue, for the reason that capital has seldom been organized against labor, and labor has seldom, except in the small way of trades unions, been organized against capital. Ideas have been transplanted from Europe when the state of facts, ont of which those ideas sprung, have not been transplant ed. That conflict has been averted in this country by the fact that we have no class who are perpetually safe as capitalists, and no class who ore perpetually doomed to be impover ished laborers. The great body of our people aro both capitalists and laborers, and they have something in common with both. Few capitalists feel sure that they will be perma nently rich, or if they should be permanently rich, fewer of them still feel sure that their children or their grand-children will be. The laborers of the country have been kept from any adverse movement against capital, by tho fact that they themselves were generally in some degree possessors of capital, and by the fact that they look forward either to their own or to their children’s acquisition of wealth. No man in this country, at least no family in this country, has been securely rich, and no family in this country has been hopelessly poor. Therefore the capitalist remembers that he has been a laborer, or if he has not, his father or his grandfather has been, and that hisjchildren or his grandchildren may be, and that gives him an interest in the rights of the laborer. The laborer remembers that his ancestors may have been rich, and that he or his children or grandchildren may be so, and that gives him a respect for the rights of capital How is the problem affected by the elevation of colored men to freedom ? Labor and capital were in the some hands here in tho Sooth. They have now be come divorced by emancipation. Will conflict between labor and capi tal bo the consequence? It will be, if capital encroaches npon labor, and capital is encroaching unreasonably and infamously npon labor when capital undertakes to control the vote of the laborer. The laborer’s ballot is his safeguard. THE BALLOT THE LABORER’S SAFEGUARD. The laborer’s ballot is his means of maintaining his own independence and bis legal rights. Let the capitalist, if chooses, war upon the laborers,and he stirs up an antagonistic force in the laborer. He will bring to that laborer the sympathy of millions of laboring voters in other ports of tho land. And if a political strife between labor and capital should be brought about by su<*'\ folly on the part of the capitalist, it requires no prophet’s vision to see that the conflict will end in the defeat of capital That con flict i3 to be avoided. Every wise man should labor to avoid it Agrarianism is wrong in principle. Let every man keep that which is lawfully his own; but, in order to keep it let him not try to get what is lawfully another man’s. The laborer’s ballot is his own. Tho laborer’s ballot is precious to him. It is too precious a thing to be made the object of an unlawful encroachment from any force without a resistance that will ultimately depress the agrarian force. How can the conflict between capital and labor be avoided here 4 “ theso Southern States where we have largo body of laboring voters who have been and still are without capital? The solution of the question is easy. Givo them every opportunity to acquire capital by fair ateraitigq, see that the law protects them against imposition, see that their wages are faithfully paid, enejurage them to husband their earnings, and to invest them in some permanent form as capital The moment a man owns a house lot in town, or an acre in the country, he becomes a capitalist in in ter es., and will soon become a capitalist in senti ment Protect him in that town lot, protect him in that country acre, or a larger farm, and, above all, protect him most faithfully and sedulously in the exercise of that ballot which is the guaranty and tho safeguard of all his other possessions. [Applause.] Do that, and then yon may plausibly claim to be the friend this people. You now say to them, “come with us, for we are yonr best friends. We op posed your freedom aa persistently as we could, yet we aro your best friends. Wo op posed yonr accession to civil rights, but still we are your best friends. We have all of us, as a party, most zealously opposed your political enfranchisement. Wo have done our best to keep yon ont of the Leg islature, to keep you out of office wherever there are offices to be bestowed, to keep you out of any share in the government of the country to which you belong, but still we are your best friends.” Well, it is very desi rable that there should be friendship be tween all classes of onr population, that there should bo a reciprocity of kindly offices. It is desirable that the former master should wish well and do well to his former slave, and that the former slave should wish well and do well to his former master. But I think that somo of our people are a little too exacting. nrhat, in effect, they say to the colored population: “You have done very well by us in times post,yon rejoiced at our advent into this world. You took care of us iu our in fancy; you played with us in onr boyhood; as soon as yon were able you began to work for us, and you continued to work for us up to the year I860 with no compensation but your food and clothes and such little presents as we might be disposed to give you. Then anoth er power came in and took you from us and gave you to yourselves. We owned yon-once and now yon own yourselves. Bat we have a jrcat deal yet that you do not possess. We have and, and horses and males, and cattle and houses and furniture, a large port of which was produced by your labor under our super intendence; and now, as you have done so much for us, just do a little more and givo us the right to rule over you iu politics.” [Ap plause.] Upon the basis of reciprocity he colored man might say, “as we have done so much for you, yon might come to us iu politics,” and then wo will have no conflict between tho races.” My frionds, seriously, if there is anything that I desire in reference to public affairs, it is that there shall be perfect HARMONY BETWEEN THE BACKS. How will the conflict of races come? It will come, if at all, by one race denying what another racoon good grounds claims. And now, if you dosire harmony between the races I will tell you, my Democratic friends, how you can have it. The colored meu iu this country are grappled with hooks steel to the Republican party, and they will vote the Republican ticket when ever they vote according to their will. Not a new privilege which they have acquired, but what is directly or indirectly due to the Republican party—they gratefully own it Now, my Democratic friends, if you want perfect harmony with the other race, come ont and join the Republican party. [Great ap plause.] There will then be no conflict of races, for both the races will be going together. What objection have yon to joining ns? What hinders youj? Do yon not like the men that the party puts iu office? Come into the party and enter into onr conventions and have other men nomin ated. Do yon say that the men who lead oar party are not pare ? Yon believe yourselves to >e pare, and u you are so, come into our party and put your pure selves at the head of it. [Applause.] We will let you go thither if we are satisfied of your capacity for that place. Do you say, as sometimes you have said, that our party u deficient iu able men? Then bring your able selves into it, and thore will be >lenty of ability, according to yonr conceit >0 confederate reminiscences stand in your way? - Let the dead part bnry its dead. Act, act In tbe living present." Aci for the coming future. Act with that party that represents the nationality which was triumphant on the field of battie- that nationality which is now, and is hence, forth to be, in spite of all your mumuring, considered by the great mass of the American people represented in the United States Gov ernment Do yonr scruples relate to the pres ent or to the post? Are they living, vital, profitable, pertinent to the business of the present hour, or are they simply resentful and vindictive? The current of nationality flows on and will flow on in spite of you. Those people who dwell between the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific coast, and between the Gulf of Mexico and the Northern Lakes, ore determined to live under one government The tendencies of this age, tendencies which are stronger than any political philosophy, are toward a union of nationalities, to a political union where there is an identity of race and language. Italy, in onr day, has become one. Germany, in our day, has almost beoome one. The genoral tendency of modem civilization is one way. Here in tho Southern States there has been an exception. Disintegration was attempted here when integration was going on everywhere else. And why ? Because here was a peculiar institution which fostered a peculiar class of ideas, and a disintegrating theory was a very convenient fence aronnd that institution. Bat the institution has fallen, and let its bnlwarks fall too. Allow me to make an illostratition. Thore is a stream and a current We are all npon that current setting towards nationality. That current sets towards liberty. You are borne npon it I am borne upon it The only difference is this: Yon are pointing your head up the stream, you are swimming as hard os you can, and yon are painfully struggling against the current, bat yoa go down in spite of yourselves. We look down the stream, we yield ourselves to the current We look ahead and when we see rocks or breakers, we avoid them, and yet in the smooth water. And the difference is that you and we get to the same place, only we are faster ana get there first and get there pleasantly, while yon get there a little late and painfully. [Applause.] Now abandon so hopeless a task. Let alone yonr memorial politics. Let alone your revengeful politics. Politics should not rest on memory and sentiment alone. Love the memory of your friends who fell in the “lost cause.” Your best affections inspire that love. If it pleases you to strew flowers on their graves, do so. If it pleases you to shed an affectionate tear where their bones are mold- ering, do so. Bnt let tho cause be buried in their graves. That is gone. You cannot bring lifo to them. You cannot bring life to tho cause for which they fell Other questions before yon now. Tho wholo duty life is not in mourning for the dead. We owe duties to those who aro living now, and to those who shall live hereafter. Say what you will, dream as yon may about the past, these two ideas of nationality aud liberty are to be the ruling political ideas of the world in which we are living—in the world in which onr children are to live. Let us prepare our selves for the world of 1870, and our children for the world of 1880, and 1890. Let us not train them for tho world of 1860, for that world has passed away. And if you wonld not make them strange and awkward in life; if yoa would not subject them to perpetual jarring and fric tion, do not try to put them in that world which is past and gone. LOCAL GOVERNMENT NOT TO BE ABOLISHED. A word or two upon a matter which I am told really troubles some worthy persons. They say that they have given np secession and slavery, bnt there is one thing which they cannot give np, and that is a “local govern ment," which they have been told the Repub lican party intended to abolish. Let me tell you, that that is a chimera. No sensible person wants to absorb all the legislation of tho land in the National Congress. There has been a dispeition of late years to strengthen the pow ers of the General Government, for snch an increase of power wus needed.. Now subjects of legislation by constitutional amendments have been given to Congress, and I con see no harm in an assimilation of the States. I cannot see why a law on general subjects that is good for Georgia, should not be good for Michigan. But there are divers minor things which ire property left to tho States, and let me tell ’ou that there is a automatic brake, if I may tse the expression, which will stop any jour, oy towards consolidation. It is a physical ii«t- Ibility that Congress should do the whole „ 0 _lation of the country. It can hardly do now, in the allotted time, all the requisite general legislation. You cannot much in crease its powers without increasing its duties to an impossible extent. There is a propriety iu having some central control over States. The fourteenth aud fif teenth amendments give that controL They empower tho national government to force a Stato to do its duty, and there is nothing hurt ful in this. No State shall abridge the privi leges or immunities of American citizens, and if a State wants to do so, the general govern ment ought to interfere to prevent it No State shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction his oqual protection of tho law, and if any Stato wants to do so, the general K vemment onght to interposo and prevent it. e yon unwilling that the State shall bo made to do right ? Are you unwilling that tho privi leges and immunities of American citizens should bo guaranteed, protected. Are you un willing that all persons within the State should have the equal protection of the laws? Ah, bnt some say, tho general government will not do this properly. That, it seems to me, is rather a silly reproach in view of the experi ence that we have had with national legislation and of State legislation. There have been errors in each abundantly, for wherever there is man there is human error. But taking it all in all, I think we may feel just os pifft under national legislation as under State legislation. Where have the grossest enormi ties been perpetrated or attempted in Ameri can legislation? Not at Washington, but in State capitols. States have nullified, States have seceded, States have repudiated. No equal enormities appear in tho National legis lation. I cannot see why men sent from all parts of this great nation, should be more likely to do wrong than men sent from only one part of it It is true that there is infirmity, and perhaps there is corruption even at the seat of the National Government Bat I hope it may not be deemed disrespectful if I say that gentlemen who congregate in official capacities at the seat of Stato Governments are sometimes o little lower than the angels. [Applause.] I am not awaro that Milledge- ville was always an immaculate spot Per haps some faults have crept into this thriving city of Atlanta, aud while I concede that Washington is not wholly free from them, I cannot say that any other capital enjoys an ex emption from them. Tho theory of our Dem ocratic friends seems to be that the Stato is never likely to do wrong, and that the national government is never likely to do right They have a great deal of charity for the fractions and no charity at all for the interger.. The advancing hour admonishes me to hasten to a conclusion. I have not spoken of one subject which, perhaps, I ought not to omit [A voice, “election.”] I Iiavo not referred to the PRIVATION OF OFFICE, imposed by the constitutional amendment* Article 14. Some of our fellow-citizens hold that to bo a great grievance. The men who had been political leaders before the war and led tho country into the war, are the class that aro reached by this prohibition. The penalty suffered by them, according to the letter of the law, and tho usages of nations would have been a forfeiture of life. According to their own pre dictions they would have lost their lives in the event of failure in their undertaking, But the penalty is merely exclusion from office. They are left in life, and in liberty, with ‘such prop erty as they are so fortunate as to have. They are left with the right of suffrage. But they are-not allowed to hold pablic sta tions themselves. And even this small priva tion will cease as soon as they show attach ment to their Government But is it important to the world that these men should be in office? What have they done for this people that the people should be swayed in their politics by the desire of pam pering them in office? Their merits are to ha?» lJMl a people most seriously astray. Their merits are to have plunged this country into difficulties from which they could not extricate it; to have brought upon us four years of war with all its horrors; to have caused war to be followed by several years of political distrac tion with all its inconveniences. For these merits we arw to adapt all our politics to the great purpose of keeping them in office. You State Bights gentlemen, retire. You have had yonr day. Yon have bad a Govern ment of your own manufacture, and we re member what sort of a Government it was. Yon ran one ship ashore, and we don’t care trust you with the pilotage of another. [Applause.] A defeated, and disappointed, and impoverished people, a land full of wid ows and orphans, and cripples, aud prema ture graves. These are the trophies of your statesmanship. There was scarcely but one man acting in the higher field of politics daring the four years of your ascendancy in the Southern States, who showed any growth iu political capacity. There was one man whose intellect grew dar ing that period. Ho was a man who had been bred in the strictest school of State Bights, and who was so simple as to suppose that when you-made a State Bights govern ment you intended to administer it on t tate Rights principles. And that man had tue manhood to try and hold you to your own p -ofessod creed, and in that effort his intellect grew and his reputation grew. He failed and tho cause failed. That man is one who was for eight years the Governor of Georgia, and he has had the sense to quit your party. [Ap plause.] Tho rest of you did not hold your own. You ought to retire from Bheer shame, city in public affairs in this country Incapability of the State administra tion ! Incapability of the national adminis tration ! Where was the capacity in yonr concern? Democratic statesmanship. Where was your statesmanship? ‘Where was your diplomacy ? How many foreign powers did you induce to recognize your government? Whore was your financial skill? We have the trophies of that in the Confederate money that is locked up iu some of our trunks. [Ap plause and laughter.] And that is a true measure of tho value of your statesmanship. A Confederate note is a fair measure of the value of Democracy. [Applause.] A green back is a fair measure of tho present value of Republicanism; and gold and silver arc the fair measures of the value of the Republican ism which is soon to be. [Applause.] There a great grievance with our Democratic friends when they go before the people in the back woods. They make a great complaint of bloated bondholders who do not pay taxes while tho poor people of the land have taxes to pay. It is true the poor and the rich have taxes to pay, and plenty of them. And why ? To pay a debt that was created in suppressing a Stato Bights’ insurrection. [Applause.] You State Bights’ gentlemen created the ex pense, and then you blame us for trying to defray the expense. “But non-taxable bonds were issued.” So they were, and people took theso bonds upon the faith of the government that that taxes should not be im posed upon them. And they paid to the gov ernment value enhanced by that circumstance, and it seems to me that the government ought to keep its faith ; that when the government promises to pay and to demand no tax, the government ought to pay and to demand no tax. But we are told that it was wrong in the government to make snch bargain, and we aro told this by men on whose lips tho Southern Confederacy is the constant theme of praise. A few days ago a friend was looking through an old pocket book, and he took out a document and made me a present of it I will read it “ $100, 6 per cent By authority of tho 14 section of the act of Congress, approved tho 17th day of February, 1861, it is hereby certified that there is duo from the Confederate States of America, aud payable two years after the ratification of a treaty of peace with the United States nnto John , or assigns, One Hundred Dollars with interest at the rate of 6 per cent per annum from the 14th day of March, 1865, inclusive, etc," and on the top of this paper in big letters, are the words, “non taxable certificate//" Now the ad mirers of the Confedracy say that is an atrocious grievance for any other Government to issue non-taxable obli gations. My Democratio friends, why did you not go to Richmond in 1864, and preach against non-taxable papers there? The bur den of supporting tho Government is indis pensable. The share which falls upon us in this country is heavy compared with what we once paid.* Bnt remember that the trium phant party in the great conflict shares with us the payment of that debt which we occasioned. Ought we to grudge our share? If we really and in good faith take an interest as voters and citizens in the Government, we ought to be jealous’for that Government’s honor. Wo onght to be jealous for that Gov ernment’s faith. We onght to be jealous for that Government’s rank among the nations. We ought to be willing to bear our share of the common burdens. There ought, of course, to be os speedy are duction of the debt as is possi ble without too onerous taxation, and that re duction is going on. DECREASE OF PUBLIC DEBT. Since the 4th of March, 1869, the debt has been decreased by over one hundred millions of dollars—a fact which answers a world of Democratic logic. The burden may be heavy upon us now, but it will be lighter hereafter. Taxation is already reduced, and an the country grows and its means are enlarged tax ation will decrease, and the burdens will fall more lightly upon individuals. Bear it for a while. Do not try, in an unilateral spirit, to hrow the debt upon onr grandchildren. Let us, if possible, pay it off in our own .day and generation, or at least let us bring it down to a managing size. There should be economy, there should be retrenchment. This reform has been going on ever since the 4th day of March, 1869. I know that if thoBe who now administer the Government are sustained by the people in doing what they desire, these reforms will continue, and tho public debt will continue to bo reduced also. . _ _ . Extravagance in State affairs, Iam told, is another complaint of my Democratic friends Having been for sometime post closely engaged iu another field of observation, it has not been in my power to scrutinize the finances of this State carefully. Men tell me that there has been extravagant legislation on some-points. They tell me that aid has been given or promised to railroads unwisely. I do not know enough about the particulars to have formed a judgment, and I am not in the Democratic habit of judging without investi gation. But if there has been errors of that kind, my information is that Democratic gen tlemen are largely concerned in that error. If there is, ns some say, an extravagant compen sation to the members of tho General Assem bly, I wonld remind them of the fact that the present rate of compensation was fixed ra 1865 by a Legislature composed of nine- tenths Democrats, who imposed that bur den upon tho people when the country was not half as able to bear it as now. I do not say that this pay is extravngant; I do not say that these gentlemen who assemble here are not earning for the State all that the State pays them, but, I do say, if there be nn extravagance in this particular, the Democrats aro not guiltless of it [Applause.] Look at tho record of the yeas and nvys, and I thiuk vou will find that when it comes to the distri bution of money, our Democratic friends are not particularly bashful Newspapers complain, I understand, that extravagant payments are made by the Execu tive of the State, but when the annual lists come out, many a Democratic editor appears among the recipients of the public cash. Democratic gentlemen of my own profession have not the slightest objection to taking money when the State has occasion to employ their professional services. And in some other matters I am told that our Democratic friends arc just ns ready os the greediest Radical iu the land to pat tho public money into their pockets. I do not blame them for these things when the money is justly earned. Bnt I do think it shows a remarkable degree of assu rance for them to take the public money and then complain that the public money has been spout. And my suspicion is that some of the geutlemen who complain most loadly have not been themselves favored, and that their objection is not so much that tho money has been spent, os that it goes into somebody else’s pocket besides their own. The “outs” are always vigilant guardians of two things;—of the Constitution and of tho public purse; but if they.come into power the Constitution often ceases to be the object of theirsolicitnde, and the public purse is emp tied in tho old way. A reform party when it comes into power, is generally re markable for extravagance, aud I do not think that our Democratic friends would bo any ex ception to that rale. ELECTION. Some gentleman has called upon mo to speak about the election. I have been speak ing about the election. I have been exhorting you to vote right when the election comes, and that is the most interesting matter connected with the election. I suppose, however, that the inquiry has reference to another question, to tho question whether there shall or shall not be au election in the State of Georgia this year. It is my judgment that there should be au election. It is my expectation that there will be an election, and it is my expectation that if there shall be a fair election the Republican party will carry the State of Georgia by twenty thousand majority. [Loud and continued ap plause.] As well as I can judge of the political senti ments of the people of the State a majority of at least that number is iu favor of liberty and nationality, a majority of at least twenty thou sand prefers for the first office of tho land Ulysses S. Grant, either to Jefferson Davis or Horatio Seymour. [Great applause.] If the men who have the right to vote in this State shall go to the polls and vote as they choose, without terror, without danger, without insult, without injury, in my judgment the result will bo os I have indicated. If onr Democratic friends keep their pledge; if they allow a free and fair election, I shall anticipate that result. There is no danger from anybody bnt them. Whoever bullied them at the polls on election day? Who, of the laboring popu lation of this State ever wont up to his employer a week before tho election and said to him, “sir, you must vote my ticket or I will cease to work for you,” and there would be just as much reason in his saying that as iu the employer saying, “vote my ticket or you shall not live on my laud." I desire reciprocity, but I do not desire a reciprocity in meanness. I do not desiro a reciprocity in oppression. I do not desire a reciprocity in encroachment upon tho rights of other men. A fair election! give it to us my Democratic friends; give it to us because it is right; give it to us by way of showing your advance in honesty since 1868. And if you do not give us a fair election, your party will commit suicide. [Great applause. ] BUSINESS AND LOCAL NOTICES. Great stir in town about E. F. B. Infants.—Much suffering to theso tender tittle bods of the human family might bo al layed by using Mrs. Whitcomb's Syrup. See advertisement in another column. + sep G-d&wlw Try English Female Bitters E F. 15. cures all females. 8ke advertisement of Dr. Butts’ Dispensary, headed, “A Book for the Million—-Marriage Guide”—in another column. . It should bo ead by alL may 3-dtVwly What means E. F. B? E. F. B., the Great Female Regulator. The Bon-tons all want E. F. B. Special Notices. A Tainted Atmosphere.-—Malarious fc- :ra are most prevalent in tbe fall. Heavy snd un wholesome exhalations then arise from tbe earth, snd the grest disparity between tbe temperature of dsy snd night predisposes the system, enfeebled by the summer bests, to epidemic disesses. Tlio nccretivo organs, tbo liver especially, sre apt, si this period of tbo year, to become inert snd sluggish, snd all tho bodily powers require renovation. Tho beat, indeed the only protection against the morbid influences of the season is s wholesome medicated stimulant. Pre eminent among the restoratives of this class, and in deed the foremost among the remedial and preventive modieines of modern times, stands Hostetler’s Stom ach Bitters. Its reputation is coextensive with tlio Western Hemisphere: it has been a standard article for twenty years; its sales (ss may be ascertained by the revenue returns) sre far larger than those of any other proprietory preparation on this continent: and the testimony in its favor embraces letters of approval from the moet distinguished member* of all the learned professions and from well known residents of almost every city in the Union. These are ita credentials.— To state what it is doing to prevent and assuage the sufferings of the human family would require more spaoe than 04m be given to the subject here. The dys peptic, the bilious, tho nervous, the weak and emaci ated, the desponding, the broken down, find in ita ren ovating and regulating properties a sure and immedi ate means of relief. It is a pure vegetabia specific, at safe and potent, and for which the whole materia medics affords no substitute. sep C-dswlw Cholrrs.—Tbe following letter is from Mr. Woodward, of St. ton*, to J. N. Hurl* Ibq.. of New London, Coon. Mr. W. la m EWlUemui of high ranwobbiUtr. «od dorlas tho pnrmlenre of the chol era ta St tout., watched the remit of the ippllctlon of tbe Poin Killer for thle dtaerae, »nd his testimony ran be relied upon with tho utmortconXdcnm: Dux Sin: Ton recollect when I raw yon ta .luxury UM. my ezpreoing to you my moet sanguine expecta tions that Darts' Pain Killer wonld bare a tremendous aaln in the West thi, season, and my anticipation, have bran more than realised, and tho testimony of w ho have used it haa boon that they would not be willing to go to bed at night without it ta the On tho appearance of the cholera ta this city, such was the confhtanco in the Fain Killer aa a remedy, tlud many who purchased it remarked to me that they had no fears or dread of the cholera aa long aa they had th. Fain KUl«r by them, and hundreds took It daily aa a prorcntiTe. tor no person can have a de rangement of the bowels or diarrhoea if they nee this medicine. Xhls was ihe security and conSdenco ot hundred, acquainted with it, and whon their Mends .attacked with tho cholera they wonld admin l,ter the remedy in large quantities, and in every case when it haa been taken in any of the Brat stages of thi, dU- lm, it haa proved ancneasfnl. I consider it an inhtlUble remedy. I have got hoard of any individual in any family who used the Pain Killer when attacked but speedily recovered. The clerk informed me that he administered it to ^eraon, when cold or ta the cramps, and it gave im mediate relief, hot still It should he gira quickly, for when the discharge of ••rice water” has begun, tho hope of life has fled, should tEi, dieease make its ap pearance among yon, as in all probability it will, bo not alarmed; you awl all others there have the reme dy. and I am confident if the Pain Killer is need, not a ■ingle death by cholera will occur ta yonr city. Beepectihlly yours, A. T. tVOODWAED. ns- The Pain Killer U eold by all dealer, in Family Medklnra. Hod trine 4 Fox wholesale, above. I sag 13-deodawlm ' „