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arnronitic anti Sentinel.
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 9, 187<i.
National Democratic Ticket.
FOB PRESIDENT:
Samuel J. Tilden,
OF NEW YORK.
FOB VICE-PRESIDENT:
Tbo mas A. Hendricks.
OF INDIANA.
State Democratic Ticket.
FOB GOVERNOR:
Alfred 11. Colquitt.
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORS.
F or the State at Lare.
A. B. LAWTON.
JOHN W. WOFFORD.
ALTERNATES,
L. J. GARTRELL,
H. D, D. TWIGGS.
District Delegate..
First District -A. M. Rogers, of
Barke. Alternate, T. E. Davenport, of
Glynn.
Second District-R. E. Cannon, of
Clay. Alternate, James L. Seward, of
Thomas.
Third District—J. M. DnPree, of Ma
con. Alternate, W. H. Harrison, of
Stewart. .
Fourth District—W. O. Tuggle, of
Troup. Alternate, E. M. Butt, of Ma
rion. _
Fifth District—F. D. Dismuke, of
Spalding. Alternate, W. A. Shorter, of
Fulton.
Sixth District—Frank Chambers, of
Wilkmson. Alternate, M. V. McKib
ben, of Butts.
Seventh District—L N. Trammell, ol
Whitfield. Alternate, Hamilton Yancey,
of Floyd.
Eighth District—D. M. Dußose, ol
Wilkes. Alternate, F. E. Eve, of Cos
lnmbia.
Ninth District—J. N. Dorsey, of Hall.
Alternate. F. L Hariaon, of White.
THE PRESIDENTIAL CONTEST.
The Presidential contest is gradually
assuming shape and developing the sa
lient points upon which the powers of
the two parties are centering. But amid
all the array of issues put forward by
the Radical leaders to shut out from the
popular sight the true and only ques
tion which shonld occupy the attention
of the American people, the bloody shirt
stands prominently forth, dripping with
gore aod smelling as if it were recently
pulled from the pocket of Morton,
where it has been stuffed away since
1872. They may raise their hydra-head
ed questions, but amid all the chaos,
the people must and will observe the
issue of reform, personated in Mr. Til
pen—with an ax in one hand and the
faces of the lictor in the other—ready
to strike off those heads and scourgf
from the temple of our country the bar
tering thieves who have been selling ib
very life to satisfy their rapacious greed.
The only issue in the campaign is hon
esty against thievery, and upon that issue
the Democratic party must stand oi
fall. The Democratic party with Mr.
Tilden as its leader can say to the peo
ple, not only of America, that it will
reform abuses, reduce taxation and pay
off in an Administration the bulk of the
national debt, but can assure the people
of Europe that Emma Mines and Jay
Cook railroads, bolstered np by the
Navy Department, will never obtrude
themselves into the great commercial
marts of the world to swindle and fleece
their capitalists nnder the auspices aud
chaperoning of “Ministers Plenipoten
tiary and Envoys Extraordinary" from
onr great nation. Have the American
people lost all pride in their oountry
and all desire to build it np as the
model of all future governments ; or do
they wish to keep it dragging its huge
proportions along through filthy sloughs
of corruption and depravity until its
magnificent form will be the horror
of future civilization ? If they wish
the former let them oast aside all
sectional feelings—all heart-burnings
and animosities that may have been en
gendered by past political differences
and come forward as true American
citizens and support Mr. Tilden —not
for Mr. Tilden or for the Democratic
party—but for this great American Re
public.
We have au abiding faith in the peo
ple when danger is really seen and it
must now bo apparent to any but the
cringing suitors and parasites who hang
around the heels of the “Smoky Crsau,”
waiting to touch the hem of his would
be-imperial robe, that their pockets may
be healed.
THE INDIAN QUESTION.
If it is true that in a multitude of
counselors there is safety, then it be
hooves the oouutry to listen to any one
whose experience and knowledge fit him
in any eminent degree for throwing light
upon the “Indian question.” All sorts
of theories have figured in our relations
•with the Indians, but still 'he same re
suits somehow attend them all—fro
quent and bloody wars, involving much
loss of life, a great deal of suffering, no
little destruction of private property.
a.nd immense Government expenditure.
Whatever may be nrged in favor of the
Wm. Penn policy in itself, the time has
gone by when it can be made the basis
of permanent relations between the
whites and the Indians. The past has
been too full of wars and outrages, and
the memories of the savages that never
forget, and their hearts that never for
give, render a strict Quaker policy a
mere “by-word and a hissing." “There
is eternal war between me and thee," as
it ooours in a supposed speech of an
Indian chief, is fact as well as rhetoric.
The time for the Penn policy was at the
first contact of the two races, before
encroachment upon either side had in
augurated “the eternal war.”
The number of persons who have
dabbled in the Indian problem and vol
unteered their advice to “Uncle Sam” is
legion, but most of this advice is worth
no consideration whatever. People who
live at a distance from the scene of the
Indian troubles, havfe no personal knowl
edge of the circumstances, and never
brushed against the “noble red man,”
are not the most trustworthy counselors.
But when a man who lives in the shadow
of the tomahawk tells his story, and ad
vances suggestions, he deserves more
than indifferent attention. Walter
Cootbb, who has lived in Montana since
1873, is visiting in Ynburn, and a re
porter of one of the local papers there
has given him the luxury of an “inter
~rieWi v That gentleman’s views may not
qxove uninteresting in the light of the
■Sioux war and the annihilation of Cus
ter's command.
According to him, this conflict is no
andden foray, occurring without special
preparation, but a deliberate campaign
on the pert of tha Indians, planned by
Sitting Bull as far back as 1863, at the
time of the Minnesota massacre. In the
meantime he has been collecting arms
and ammunition for a great Indian war.
Like Tecumskh, whose last years were
devoted to the mission %>t forming a
grand coalition of the Indian tribes
.throughout the Mississippi valley against
the white man, he has used his influence
to persuade the tribes throughout tha
Northwest to join in a desperate cam
paign against the whites. Asa conse
quence, the war promises to be long and
bloody. The hostile bands are not to
be pnt down by a few hundred United
States troops. The assurances of the
Indian agents that all of' their Indians
are on their reservations are in the main
false and misleading, causing the fatal
blander of underrating Sitting Bull’s
numbers, and sending a mere handful
of soldiers to do the work of a numerous
force. Mr. Oopeb thinks, at the least
estimate, 8,000 warriors are with the
hostile chief. As might be expected, he
has no compliments for the Indian
agents. Through them, although for
bidden to Bell arms to the Indians, the
latter get their arms and ammunition. To
day Srmso Bull is fighting onr troops
With better equipments than the soldiers
have themselves, and all because the
agents love money better than they do
the laws of the land. It is clear that no
Quaker policy should be used by the
Government in their case. They have
never done the country a cent’s worth of
good, but an inestimable amount of
mischief. They are a sort of law unto
themselves, violate articles of treaty at
their pleasure, cheat and rob the Indians
constantly, and keep np an irritation
and hostility on the part of the savages
that render all attempts of the Govern
ment to maintain peaoa as idle as the
wind. The extravagant journal that
calls on the Government to send an
army against the Indian agents is not so
far out of the way after all. Mr. Cooper
does, however, find a small excuse for
the dishonesty of the agejnts in the fact
that they are ruinously underpaid (they
receive 81,500 a year), and he thinks
that larger pay would secure a better set
of agents and remove much of their
temptation to swindle and break over
the laws. The idea is worth consider-
ing.
From the defeat of Braddock in 1755
down, the great mistake of conducting
campaigns against the Indians has been
to fight them as if their warfare were
conducted upon scientific principles, ac
cording to methods taught at the mili
tary schools. “When you are in Rome
do as the Romans do,” would be a good
maxim for that particular question how
to kill the Indians. Mr. Coopcr's sug
gestion that companies of frontiersmen
be formed to do tbe fighting is a very
important one. He says a single regi
ment of such troops woukl accommplish
more real work than 'the whole of the
regular army. They would equip light
ly, not needing heavy wagon trains like
regular troops ; and, understanding In
dian tactics thoroughly, would “beat
them at their own game.” The regulars,
with few exceptions, know nothing about
the Indian mode of fighting. We be
lieve Mr. Cooper’s views in this respect
are worth a heed with a practical turn to
it. It needs no demonstration that a
few hundred Kit Carsons and Bill Co
dys of the frontier would tax tbe milita
ry genius of Sitting Bull as it has never
been yet .—Hartford Courant.
INDIANA RADICALS IN A QUANDARY.
It is vitally important for tbe Hayes
party to carry Indiana in the October
election. The Hhrtford Times says
if they lose that, they are gone hook
and line, bob and sinker, and they
know it. It would be a proclama
of their weakness in the West. We
have never had much doubt, since the
nomination of Tilden and Hendricks,
that tbe R publicans would bo beaten in
Indiana; and this we say in the full
light of the desperate bribery and cheat
ing which the Indiana Mortons will no
doubt resort to, as they have done in oth
er elections. The truth is, tbe tide is
against them. Not only is the St. Louis
ticket a very strong one in that State,
but the Republicans are handicapped
from the start by a party lukewarmness
toward Hayes and Wheeler, and by the
odium resting on their State ticket, head
ed by Judge Godlove S. Orth for Gov
ernor. His proved corruption at Wash
ington, in the Venezuelan claim swin
dle, is a millstone around his and his
party’s neck. Three, if not four, of the
principal Republican journals in Indiana
refuse to endorse his nomination, for
the openly given reason that he is now
proved to be a corruptionist. (Thanks,
once more, to tho Democratic investi
gating committees, appointed by that
Congress that “is doing nothing !”)
The Chairman of the Republican State
Committee has been trying to get some
other man to agree to be the candidate
for Governor, and says that he and the
members of the Convention that Domi
nated Orth, seeing inevitable defeat
ahead as they are now going, are ready
to pitch him overboard violently—repu
diate their own action in nominating
him—and pnt up another man ! This
because Qbth won’t resign and stand
aside. But, though this desperate
osurse is urgsd upon the Indiana
Radicals by some of tbe Hayes
leaders in Ohio and other States, it can
not be followed; it would be direct sui
cide. Orth’s friends are too many to
permit such an unheard of act. And so,
there the Hayes party stands—with de
feat staring it in the face, take whatever
course it may. We beg leave to suggest,
if Orth is to be pitched overboard, that
his party take np Sohuyler in
his place.
A THIRTY-SIX HOUR GAUNTLET.
The recent battles with the Indians
of the Yellowstone country, if all the
incidents of the fights could be collec
ted, would furnish material to the ro
mances for an entire generation of
startling stories. Yet no touch of the
imagination could add an element of in
terest to the wild, desperate encounters,
the hair breadth escapes that signal
ized the bravery and fidelity to duty of
the commands of Crook, Reno and
Custer. One of the muei thrilling ac
counts of the kind comes from tfie pen
of Lieut. Db Rudio, who was with
Major Reno, and is given in a letter to a
friend in New York. Few Indian fight
ers have ever run such a gauntlet of
death as did the lieutenant and private
O’Neil, who was his companion in the
desperate flight for life.
Early in the fight of Reno’s command
witti the savages, De Rudio’s horse be
came unmanageable from a wound, as
he was about to mount after picking
up a guidon, and broke away, leaving
him 50 yards from a band of about S6O
Sioux. A storm of ballets whistled after
him as he ran for protection into a
thicket near by. There he found pri
vate O’Neil and two companions also
hidden away from the savages. While
crawliug from the spot the fugitives
were horrified spectators of the scalp
ing and mutilation of a dead soldier by
squaws, two doing the work and .others
performing a sort of war dance around
the body and its mutilators. Soon
after this cheering spectacle, De
Rudio and lib? comrades were threatened
with as terrible a death by fire, the
savages having Ignited the woods. It
burned all around them, bat a timely
fall of rain arrested the flames, and
saved them lives for further ad
ventures. There; they remained until
night, the savages scouring all about
them. As soon as it was dark the party
started out to reach the ford, two miles
away. On their way they encountered a
band of Indians, and the two others,
who were mounted, fled, leaving De
Rudio and O’Neill, who escaped into
some bashes by the river. At the dim
dawn of day they heard the trampling
as of a large body of cavalry, and peep
ing forth, saw horses mounted by men
in dark blouses and some of them in
white hats. The lieutenant thinks he
recognized the dress of Tom Custer.
Not dreaming that rescue was not at
hand, De Rudio stepped out of the
bashes and hailed them. To his dismay
his shout was answered by an infernal
yell and a discharge of three or four
hundred shots. The lieutenant and
his eow&a&op jumped into the bashes,
which were mo\rd down by the ballets
in all directiocs, and aras-Jed as fast as
thev could to get oat of the g of
the savages just returning from the #BB
-of CusrKJt’s command, of whose
fate the dishesrfened fugitives now had,
cheir first intimation. The redskins
gathered on the top of the bluff, and,
as they saw the bushes move, fired in
that direction at the two soldiers, who
seemed to lead a Charmed life. While
concealed here, they saw a band of sav
ages approaching, not suspecting the
proximity of the whites. The latter
fired brought two Indians, and the rest
fled in hot haste. The thicket was fired,
and the same narrow escape from burn
ing alive was again the fortune of the
soldiers as characterized their first flight
from the Indians. They even had to
smother flames as they approached burn
ing slowly through the dense under
wood. During their concealment here
they heard the musketry firing attend
ing the final attack of the savages on
Reno’s position. As soon as the red
skins retreated, Dr Budio and
O’Neill rejoined the command, having
been abont thirty-six hours without
food and drink.
“THE GRASSHOPPER, FEAST.”
The New York News says: July is
the month in which many, too many,
things ripen. With blackberries, peach
es, and corn we must reckon an agricul
tural product less cheering to the farm
er—namely, the joyous grasshopper. In
July this frivolous emblem of improvi
dence sheds his last skin as a mere hop
per, and at last emerges, full-fledged
and thoroughly baked, with four soft
but soon sturdy wings, for the express
purpose of carrying despair to the heart
and profanity to the lips of the Western
farmer. It is during this fine, hot, dry
month of August that we are invited to
look on at the grasshoppers’ feast. Re
cent biographers of this boon to man
represent him as fully conscious of a
rich and much-occupied life only then,
when the sun pours vertically down to
moet the upward radiance of heat al
ready stored in the parched fields. It
is in such weather that he begins to fsel
himself born to higher things, and,
hurling himself upward in the air, is
astonished to find himself something of
an eagle. His efforts are viewed with
envy by his neighbor, who essays the
same, and presently the dry buzz and
clatter of a hundred wings inspire all
the grasshoppers of the surrounding
fields to try the paths of air. Like a
rolling snow ball, this insect revival
gathers force, and soon a swarm arises
like a dun cloud, which receives as it
proceeds a contingent from every direc
tion, before and on its flanks, until the
sun is darkened with the voracious
masses, and the plague of locusts settles
on the land. If it is curious and some
what alarming to watch a single grass
hopper fall upon a stalk of grass or
wheat, chop it down with its strong man
dibles, and rapidly devour it end on,
what must be the sensations of the
owner of harvest fields to see the ap
parently sudden irruption of large and
hungry millions of grasshoppers upon
his defenseless crops !
This year the first note of warning
comes from California. The newest
land is experiencing the plague which is
as old as Egypt, and which springs from
the same causes now as formerly, and in
America as in Europe and Asia. Al
though called migratory in deference to
the natural instinct of attributing bad
things to other nations, the winged
grasshopper only moves from place to
place in obedience to hunger, though
the flight of swarms is doubtless pro
longed by the pleasnreable excitement
which movement in great masses gives
to the individuals. A late writer at
. tributes their marvelous abundance in
certain years to two main reasons, and
evidently considers their occasional ap
pearance in overwhelming numbers an
unavoidable necessity. One cause is
the abnormal quantity of their espeeial
articles of diet cultivated by the labors
of men, and the other is the absence,
also due to men, of their natural ene
mies. These are the two main factors
affecting the abundance of many other
scourges, among which, perhaps, the
most familiar will bo the measuring
worms which devour elms and
other trees. The natural enemies
of grasshoppers are enumerated by
the same writer as moles, mioe,
hawks, and many smaller birds, black
crickets, and tho long green grass
hopper which is usually taken for a
vegetarian. Of cultivated animals,
swine and turkeys are held in high esti
mation. The latter destroy thousands
of the wingless young, while the former
root out unerringly the packages of eggs
which the female deposits an inch or so
below the surface of the ground. Farm
ers are advised to plow np in Autumn
the clay and loam soils where dead fe
males are found, and after searching for
the eggs, if that be possible, to turn in
swine and turkeys, and trust to the Win
ter frosts to kill as many of the eggs as
are overlooked. In late Spring, when
the grasshoppers are half grown, it is
customary in Southern Russia to use a
kind of harrow, made of thorny bushes,
to destroy the young insects, and some
times a combination of a roller and
harrow. Some have springs, so that the
twigs or thorns fit into the inequalities
of the ground. Ditches are also dug
and swarms of unfledged grasshoppers
driven into them and crushed. When
the roller and machine are used the
practioe is to drive it in a narrowing
circle, so that the escaping fry are
gradually confined to the centre, and
more certainly crushed. Fires and driv
ing of the insects, whether fledged or
unfledged, are not considered of any
lasting benefit, wherever they occur in
extraordinary numberfs.
The two favoring causes, then, are
vast amounts of congenial food and lack
of hereditary enemies. Tbe former is, of
course, unalterable while population in
creases or remains as it is; the latter
want is one of the clearest acts of retri
bution which human beings are able to
bring down upon themselves. The
slaughter of birds which goes on all the
while in the West is tbe direct cause of
insect plagues, for it is well known that
there is RO agent so destructive of in
sects as a bird with young. The de
struction of prairie chickens is practical
ly unlimited, and does not cease during
brooding months; like the buffalo, the
prairie chicken has only a certain num
ber of years of existence before it be
comes, to all intents and purposes, ex
tinct. ' Bqt it is not only edible birds
like the prairie chicken which suffer.
There are thousands of inpp and boys
issuing eat every day to slaughter
everything in the feathered line which
comes in their way, from tfeh useful, in
sect-devouring crow to the tiniest wren.
This is a proper question for Orange
era to take up, in how far birds should
b* protected by effective laws for the
sake of thev aid in suppressing insects.
Nothing could be #ore appropriate for
associations of that sort, a#d nothing is
of saore serious interest to farming pop
ulation*. On purely business princi
ples, the logic would be on tbe side of
the birds, even if a certain amount of
grain were necessary to be set aside for
them and for two Reasons.
One is tha* if birds increase unduly,
they ijsn be made available for food at
certain fwSfT™" 15 . if that be necessary,
while grasshopper* £an not; the other is,
that since maßf grasshoppers go to the
maintenance of one bird, it W to
capture one bird than many grasshop
pers. Thus birds save grain, are them
selves available food, and save labor,
while for the grasshoppers nothing can
be said. It is true that Jons the Bap
tist consumed them with wild honey in
the desert, but Mnfortunately we are not
John the Baptist. The fact is that the
grasshoppers feast upon ns.
Thebe was a strange panic at Jerusa
lem on ther-Mseeasioo of Murad Y. to the
Turkish throne. The issue of cartrid
ges by the Chief of Police to fcis men to
be fired in celebrating the accession of
the new Saltan, and the consequent ne
cessity of sending most of the aaskets
to the gunsmiths for repairs, gave rise
tp.the report that a general massacre of
Christians w to take place the next day
after the midday .psycr. Christians and
Jews Closed their shops anjl barricaded
themselves in tbfi various convents and
hospiees in the city. The streets were
fall of families fleeing with their prop
erty. Seeing this the Moslems took
fright. They thought the Christians'
there about to massacre them. So they
closed their shops and hurried to pieces
of safety. Soon the streets were desert
ed. Everybody was waiting for the evil
hoar. Then tbe authorities took the
matter in hand, showed the people that
there was no cause for their fright, and
by degrees persuaded them to open their
shops or go home.
THE VOICE OF REFORM.
OUR NEXT PRESIDENT'S LETTER
OP ACCEPTANCE.
New York, August 4.—-The following
is Governor Tilden’s letter of accept
ance:
Albany, N. Y., July 31st, 1876.
Gentlemen —When I had the honor
to receive a personal delivery of your
letter in behalf of the Democratic Na
tional Convention held on the 28th of
June at St. Lonis, advising me of my
nomination as the candidate of the con
stituency represented by that body for
the office of President of the United
States, I answered that at my earliest con
venience, and in conformity with usage,
I would prepare and transmit you a
formal acceptance. I now avail myßelf
of the first interval in unavoidable occu
pations to fulfil that engagement. The
Convention, before making its nomina
tions, adopted a declaration of principles
which as whole seems to me a wise expo
sition of the necessities of onr country
and the reforms needed to bring back
the Government to its true functions, to
restore purity of administration, and to
revive the prosperity of the people. But
some of these reforms are so urgent that
they claim more than a passing approval.
Reform in Public Expenses.
The necessity of a reform in the
scale of pnblic expense, Federal,
State and Municipal, and the
modes of Federal taxation, justifies
all the prominence given to it by the
St Louis Convention, The present de
pression in all the business and indus
tries of the people, what is depriving
labor of its employment and carrying
want iuto so many homes, has its prin
cipal canse in excessive governmental
consumption nnder an illusion of a spe
cious prosperity, engendered by the
false policies of the ’Federal Govern
ment. A waste of capital has been go
ing on ever since the peace of 1865,
which could only end in univer
sal disaster. The Federal taxes
of the last eleven years reach the
gigantic sum of forty-five hundred mil
lions; local taxation has amounted to
two-thirds and much more; the vast ag
gregate is not less than seventy-five
hundred millions. This enormous taxa
tion followed a civil conflict that had
greatly impaired onr aggregate wealth,
and had made a prompt reduction of
expenses indispensable. It was aggra
vated by mos unscientific and ill ad
justed methods of taxation that increas
ed the sacrifices of the people far beyond
the receipts of the Treasury. It was
aggravated more by a financial policy
which tended to diminish the ener
gy, skill and economy of production
and the frugality of private consump
tion, and induced miscalculation in
business, and an unremunerative use of
capital and labor. Even in prosperous
times the daily wants of industrious
communities press closely upon their
daily earnings. The margin of possible
national savings is at best a small per
eentage of national earnings; yet now
for these eleven years governmental con
sumiftion has been a larger portion of
the national earnings than the whole
people can possibly save, even in pros
perous times, • for all new invest
ments. The consequences of these
errors are now a present public ca
lamity, but they were never doubtful,
never invisible. They were necessary
and inevitable, and were foreseen and
depicted when the waves of that ficti
tious prosperity ran highest. In a
speech made by me on the 24th of Sep
tember, 1868, it was said of these taxes:
“They bear heavily upon every man’s
income, upon every industry and every
business in the country, and year by
year they are destined to press still
more heavily unless we arrest the sys
tem that gives rise to them.” It was
comparatively easy when values were
doubling under repeated issues of legal
tender paper money to pay out of the
froth of our growing and apparent
wealth taxes, but when values re
cede and sink toward their natural
scale, the tax gatherer takes from
us not only our income, not only
our profits, but also a position of our
capital. Ido not wish to exaggerate or
alarm. I simply say that we canaot
afford the costly and ruinous policy of
the Radical majority of Congress; we
cannot afford that policy towards the
South; we cannot afford the magnificent
and oppressive centralism into which
our Government is being converted; we
cannot afford the present magnificent
scale of taxation. To the Secretary of
the Treasury I said early in 1865, there
is no royal road for a Government more
than for an individual or a corporation.
What you want to do now is to cut down
your expenses and live within your in
come. I would give all the legerdermain
of finance and financiering, I would
give the whole of it for the old homely
maxim, “Live within your income.”—
This reform will be resisted at every
step, but it must be pressed persistently.
We see to-day the immediate represent
atives of the people in one branch of
Congress, while struggling to reduce
expenditures, compelled to confront the
menace of the Senate and the Executive,
that, unless the objectionable appropri
ation be consented to, the operations of
the Government there under shall suffer
detriment or cease. In my judgment an
amendment of the Constitution ought
to be devised separating into distinct
bills the appropriations for the various
departments of the public service, and
excluding from each bill all appropria
tions for other objects and all independ
ent legislation. In that way alone can
the revisory power of each of the two
Houses and of the Executive be pre
served and exempted from the moral
duress which often compels assent to
objectionable appropriations rather than
stop the wheels of Government.
The South.
An accessory cause, enhancing the
distress in business, is to be found in
the systematic and insupportable mis
government imposed on the States
of the South. Besides the ordinary
effects of ignorant and dishonest admin
istration, it has inflicted upon them
enormous issues of fraudulent bonds,
the scanty avails of which were wasted
or stolen, and the existence of which is
a public discredit, leading to bankrupt
cy or repudiation. The taxes generally
are oppressive; in some instances they
have confiscated the entire income of
property and totally destroyed its
market value. It is impossible that
these evils should not react upon the
prosperity of the whole country.—
The noble motives of humanity
concur with the material interests
of all in requiring that every obsta
cle be removed to a oomplete and
durable reconciliation between kindred
people once unnaturally estranged on the
basis recognized by the St. Louis plat
form—of the Constitution of the United
States with its amendments universally
accepted as a final settlement of the
controversies which engendered civil
war. But in aid of a result so benifleont
the moral influence of every citizen
as well as every governmental authority
ought to be exerted, not alone
to maintain their just equality be
fore the law, but likewise to
establish cordial; fraternal good will
among all citizens, whatever their
race or color, who are now united
in the one destiny of common self-gov
ernment. If the duty shall be assigned
to me I should not fail to exeroise the
power with which the laws and the Con
stitution of our country clothe its Chief
Magistrate to protect all its citizens,
whatever their former condition, in every
political and personal right.
Currency Reform.
Reform is necessary, declares the St.
Louis Convention, *o establish a sound
cnrrency, restore the public credit
and maintain the! national honor,
and it goes on to demand a judicious
system of Dreparation by public econo
mies, by official retrenchments and by
wise finance, which shall enable the na
tion soon to assure the whole world of
its perfect ability and perfect readiness
to moot any of its promises at the call of
the creditor entitled to payment. The
objects demanded by ti)6 Convention is
a resumption of specie piwments on the
legal tender notes of the United States.
That would o* only restore the public
credit and maintain the National honor,
bnt it wonld establish a sound currency
for the people. The methods by which
this object is to bepnrsned and the means
by which it is to be obtained are dis
closed by what the Convention deman
ded for the future and by what it de
nounced in the past.
Bank Note Resumption.
Resumption of specie payments
by tbp Government of the Uni
ted Stares on its legal tender notes,
wonld establish specie payments by all
the banks on all their not**. Official
statements 011 the 15th of May show the
amounts of the bank notes was $300,-
000,000, Isas SSO.?Q9,OOQ held by them
selves. Against these pW9 hundred and
eighty millions of notes the batiks held
8141,000,000 of legal tender notes, <jr a
little more than 50 per cent, of the
amount, but they also had a deposit is
the Federal Treasury, as security for
these notes, bonds of the United States
worth in gold about $360,000,006, avail?
able ana current in all the foreign
money Markets. tn resuming the banks,
even it were possible io* fill their
notag to be presented for payment,
wonld have $500,000,000 61 specie
funds to pay $580,000,000 of notes,:
without contracting their loans to
their customers or calling op any
private debtor for payment. Suspend
ed banks undertaking to resume have
usually boon obliged to collect from
needy borrowers the means to redeem
excessive issues and provide revenues.
A vague idea of distress is therefore
often associated with the process of po
sumption, but the conditions which
caused distress in these former instances
do not exist. The Government has only
to make good its promises and the banks
ean take care of themselves without dis
tressing anybody. The Government is,
therefore, the sole delinquent.
Leisl Tender Resamptioa.
The amount of the legal tender notes
of the United States now outstanding is
less than 8370,000,000, besides $34,000,-
000 of fractional currency. How shall
the Government make these notes at all
times as good as specie ? It has to pro
vide in reference to the mass which
would be kept in use by the wants of
business a central reservoir of coin,
adequate to the adjustment of the tem
porary fluctuations of international
balances, and as a guaranty against
transient drains artificially created by
panic or by speculation. It has also to
provide for payment of such fractional
currency as may be presented for re
demption and such inconsiderable por
tions of the legal tenders as individuals
from time to time may desire to con
vert for special use or in order to lay by
in coin their little stores of money.
Resumption Not Difficult.
To make the coin in the Treasury
available for this reserve, to gradually
strengthen and enlarge that reserve, and
to provide for snch other exceptional
demands for coin as may arise, does not
seem to me to be a work of difficulty,
if wisely planned aJd discretely pursued.
It ought not to cost any sacrifine to the
business of the country. It should
tend, on the contrary, to a revival of
hope and confidence. The coin in the
Treasury on the 30th of June, including
what is held against coin certificates,
amounted to nearly $7,000,000.
The current of precious metals
which has flowed out of our
oountry for eleven years from July 1,
1865, to Jnne 30, 1876—averaging near
ly $76,000,000 a year—was $832,000,000
in the whole period, of which $617,000,-
000 were the product of our own mines.
To amass the requisite quantities by in
tercepting from the current flowing out
from the country, and byacquiring from
the stocks which exist abroad, without
disturbing the equilibrium of foreign
money markets, is a result to be easily
marked out by practical knowledge
and judgment. With respect to what
ever surplus of legal tenders the wants
of business may lail to keep in use, and
which in order to save interest will be
returned for redemption, they can be
either paid or they can be funded. Wheth
er they continue as currency or be ab
sorbed into the vast mass of securities
held as inyestments, is merely a question
of the rate of interest they draw. Even if
they were to remain in their present
form and the Government were to agree
to pay on them a rate of interest making
them desirable as inyestments, they
would cease to circulate and take their
place with Government, State, munici
pal and other corporate and private
bonds, of which thousand of millions
exist among us. In the perfect ease
with which they can be changed from
currency into investments lies the only
danger to be guarded against. The adop
tion of any general measures to remove
a clearly ascertained surplus—that is,
the withdrawal of any which are not a
permanent excess beyond the rates of
business. Even more mischievous would
be any measure which effects the public
imagination with the fear of an appre
hended scarcity in a community where
credit is so much used. Fluctuations
of values and vicissitudes in business
are largely caused by the temporary
belief of men, even before those beleifs
conform to ascertained realities.
Amount of Necessary Currency.
The amount of necessary currency
at a given time cannot be determined
arbitrarily, and should not be assumed
upon conjecture. That amount is sub
ject to both permanent and temporary
changes, an enlargement of which seem
ed to be durable happened at the begin
ning of the civil war, by a substituted
use of currency instead of individual
credits. It varies with certain states of
business. It fluctuates with considera
ble regularity at different seasons of the
year. In Autumn, for instance, when
buyers of grain and other agricultural
products begin their operations, they
usually want to borrow capital or circu
culating credits, by which to make their
purchases, and want these funds in cur
rency, capable of being distributed in
small sums among numerous sellers—
the additional of currency at which
times is five or more per cent, of the
whole volume, and if a surplus beyoud
what procured for ordinary use does
not happen to have been on hand at the
money centres, a scarcity of currency
ensues and also a stringency in the
loan market. It is in reference to such
experiences that in a discussion of this
subject in my annual message to the
New York Legislature, of January 5,
1875, the suggestion was made that the
Federal Government is bound to redeem
every portion of its issues which the
public do not wish to use. Having as
sumed to monopolize the supply of cur
rency and enacted exclusions against
everybody else, it is bound to furnish
all which the wants of business require.
The system should positively allow the
volume of circulating credits to ebb or
flow, according to the ever changing
wants of business. It should imitate,
as closely as possible, the natural laws
of trade, which it has superseded by arti
ficial contrivances; and in a similar dis
cussion in my message of January 4,
1876, it was said that resumption
should be effected by snch meas
ures as would keep the ag
gregate amount of the currency self
adjusting duriDg all the process, with
i out creating at any time an artificial
scarcity and without exciting the public
imagination with alarms which impair
confidence, contract the whole large
machinery of credit and disturb the
natural operations of business.
Means of Resumption.
Public economies, official retrench
ments and wise finance are the means
which the St. Louis Convention indi
cates as provision for reserves and re
demptions, the best resources, a reduc
tion of the expenses of tbe Government
below its income, for that imposes no
new ohange in the people. If, however,
the imprudence and waste which have
conducted us to a period of falling reve
nues oblige us to supplement the re
sults of economies and retrenchments by
some resort to loans, we should not
hesitate. The Governmet ought not to
speculate on its own dishonor ih order
to save interest on its bonds—promises
which it still compels private dealers to
accept at a fictitious par. The highest
national honor is not only right, but
would prove profitable. Of the public
debt, $985,000,000 bear interest at 6 per
cent, in gold and $72,000,000 at 5 per
cent., in gold. Tbe average interest is
5.58 per cent. A financial policy which
should secure the highest credit, wisely
availed of, ought gradually to obtain.
A reduction of one per cent, in the in
terest on most of the loans, a saving of
one per cent, on the average, would be
$17,000,000 a year in gold. That saving
regularly invested at 4J per cent, would,
in less than thirty-eight years, extin
guish the principal. The whole $170,-
000,000 of funded debt might be paid by
this saving alone, without cost to the
people.
Proper Time for Resumption.
The proper time for resumption is tbe
time when wise preparations shall have
ripened into a perfect ability to aecom
plish the object with a certainty and
ease that will inspire confidence and en
courage the reviving of business. The
earliest time in which such a result can
be brought about is the best. Even
when the preparations shall have been
matured the exact date wonld have to be
chosen with reference to the then exist
ing state of trade and credit operations
in our ov?n country, the course of foreign
commerce and the condition of the ex
changes with othei: nations. The specific
measures and the actual date are matters
of detail haying reference to ever chang
ing conditions; they belong to the do
main of practical adnjjnigtktive states
manship. The captain of a steamer
about starting from New York to Liver
pool does not assemble a council oyer
his ocean chart and fix an angle by which
to lash the rudder for the whole voyage.
A human intelligence must be at th:
helm to discern tbe shifting forces of the
waters and the wind; a human hand
mast be helm to feel the elements
day by day and guide $o a mastery over
them.
Preparing far Resumption.
Such preparations are everything,
without them a legislative command,
fixing a day ; an official promise, fixing
a day, are shows. They are worse—they
are a snare and a deltfsion to all who
trust them. They destroy all confi
dence among thoughtful men, whose
judgment will at least sway public
opinion. An attempt to act in each a
command or sapb a promise, without
preparation, would end in new suspen
sion ; it would be a fresh calamity, pro
ductive of confusion, distrpst and dis
tress The act of Congress of the
Jith of dun#, J#7s, enacted that
on and after the Ist of January, 1879,
the Secretary of the T easury ahSh re
deem in coin the legal tenders of tbe
United States on presentation at the of
fice of the Assistant Treasurer in the city
of New York. It authorized the Secre
tary to prepare and provide for such re
sumption of specie payments by the use
of -any surplus rpyegues ao^ . otherwise
appropriated, and by isains ip Ins dis
cretion certain classes of bonds.
More than one and a half of the
years have pipipj, Qongress and the
President have continued ef?T WPOS to
unite in acts which have legislated ant
of existence every possible surplus ap
plicable to this purpose. The coin in
the Treasury claimed to belong to tjip
Government had, on the 30th of Jnne,
fallen to less than 845,000,000 as against
$59,000,000 on the Ist of Janaary, 1875,
and the availabily of a part of that sam
is said to be questionable. The reve
nues are falling faster than appropria
tions and expenditures are reduc
ing, leaving the Treasury with
diminishing resources. The Secre
tary has done nothing under his
powers to issue bonds. The legislative
committee and the official promise, fix
ing a day for resumption, have thus far
been barren. No practical preparations
towards resumption have been made;
there hgs been no progress; there have
been steps backward; there is no econo
my in the operations of Government.
The homely maxims of everyday life are
the best standards of its conduct. A
debtor who should promise to pay a
loan out of a surplus income, yet be
seen every day spending all he could
lay his hands on in riotous living, would
lose all character for honesty and veraci
ty. His offer of anew promise, or his
profession as to the value of old prom
ise, would alike provoke derision.
Resumption Plank of the St. Louis Platform.
The St. Louis platform denounces the
failure for eleven years to make good
the promise of legal tender notes. It
denounces the omission to accumulate
any reserve for their redemption; it de
nounces the conduct which, during elev
en years of peace, his made no advances
towards resumption; no preparations for
resumption, but instead of, has ob
structed resumption by wasting our re
sources and exhausting ail our surplus
income, and while professing to intend
a speedy return to specie payments has
annually enacted fresh hindrances there
to, and having first denounced the bar
renness of the promise of a day of re
sumption it next nenounces that
barren promise as a hindrance to
resumption; it next demands its
repeal and also demands the
establishment of a judicious system
of preparation for resumption. It cannot
be doubted that the substitution of a
system of preparation without the prom
ise of a day for the worthless promise of
a day without a system of preparation,
would be the gain of the substance of
resumption in exchange for its shadow.
Nor is the denunciation unmerited of
that imprudence which the eleven years
since the peace has consumed $450,-
000,000, and yet could not af
ford to give the people a sound
and stable currency. Two and a half
per cent, in the expenditures of these
eleven years or even less would have
provided all the additional coin needful
to resumption, relieved to business dis
tress, the distress now feit by the peo
ple in all their business and industries.
Though it has its principal cause in the
enormous waste of capital occasioned by
the false policies of our Government,
it has been greatly aggravated by the
mismanagement of the currency.—
Uncertainty is the prolific point
of mischief in all business. Never
were its evils more felt than now.
Men do nothing because they are unable
to make any calculations on which they
can safely rely. They undertake noth
ing, because they fear a loss in every
thing they would attempt,. They stop
and wait. The merchant dares not buy
for the future consumptioniof his cus
tomers; the manufactuierdares not make
fabrics which may not refund his out
lay—he shuts his factory and dis
charges his workmen; capitalists can
nit lend on security they consider safe,
and their funds lie almost without
interest; men of enterprise, who have
credit and securities to pledge, will not
borrow; consumption has fallen below the
natural limits of a reasonable economy;
prices of many things are under their
range in frugal, specie payment time,
before the civil war; vast masses of cur
rency lie in the banks untouched. A
year and a half ago the legal tenders
were at their largest volume and the
twelve million since retired have been
replaced by fresh issues of fifteen
millions of bank notes. In the
meantime the banks have been
surrendering about four millions a
month because they cannot find a profit
able use for so many of their notes. The
public mind will no longer accept sham.
It has suffered enough from illusion.
An insincere policy increases distrust;
an unstable policy increases uncertain
ty. The people need to know that the
Government is moving in the direction
of ultimate safety and prosperity and
that it is doing so through prudent, safe
and conservative methods, which
will be sure to inflict no new
sacrifice on the business of the country.
Then the inspiration of new hope and
well fonnded confidence will lave in
the restoring processes of nature and
prosperity will begin to return.
The St. Louis Contention concludes
its expression in regard to the currency
by a declaration of its convictions as to
the practical results of the system of
preparations it demands. It says : “We
believe such a system, well devised aud
above all entrusted to competent hands
for execution, creating at no time an ar
tificial scarcity of currency and at
no time alarming the public mind,
into a withdrawal of that vaster ma
chinery, credit, by which ninety-five
per cent, of all business transactions are
performed—a system open, public and
inspiring general confidence—would,
from the day of its adoption, bring heal
ing on its wings to all onr barrassed in
dustries; set in motion the wheels of
commerce, manufactures and the me
chanic arts; restore employment to la
bor and renew in all its natural souroes
the prosperity of the people.” The
Government of the United States, in my
opinion, can advance to a resumption of
specie payment on its legal tender notes
by gradual aud safe processes, tending
to relieve the present business distress.
If charged by the people with the ad
ministration of the Executive Office, I
should deem it a duty so to exercise the
powers with which it has been or may
be invested by Congress as best and
soonest to conduct the country to that
beneficent result.
Civil Service Reform.
The Convention justly affirms that re
form is necessary in the civil service—
necessary to its purification; necessary
to its economy and its efficiency, neces
sary in order that the ordinary employ
ment of the public business may not be
a prize fought for at the ballot box, a
brief reward of party zeal instead of
posts of honor, assigned for proved
competency and held for fidelity in the
public employ. The Convention wisely
added that reform is necessary even
more in the higher grades of the pnblic
service. President, Vice-President,
Judges, Senators, Representatives, Cabi
net officers—these and all others in au
thority, are the people’s servants. Their
offices are not a private perquisite
they are a public trust. Two
evils infest the official service of Federal
Government—one is the prevalent and
demoralizing notion that the public
service exists not for the business and
benefit of the whole people, but for the
interest of the office holders, who are
in truth but the servants of the people.
Under the influence of this pernicious
error public employments have been
multiplied. The numbers of those gath
ered into the ranks of office holders have
been steadily increased beyond any
possible requirement of the public bus
iness, while inefficiency, peculation
frand and malversation of the public
funds,from the highest places of power to
the lowest, have overspread the whole
service like a leprosy. The other evil is
the organization of the official class into
a body of political mercenaries, gov
erning the caucuses and dictating the
nominations of their own party and at
tempting to carry the elections of the
people by nndue influence and by im
mense corruption funds, systematically
collected from the salaries or fees of
office holders. The official class in oth
er countries, sometimes by its own
weight and sometimes in alliance with
the army, has been able to rule
the unorganized masses, even un
der universal suffrage. He>e it has
already grown into a gigantic power,
capable of stiffling the inspirations of a
sound public opiniop and oi resisting
any change of administra’iop qntil mi -
government becomes intolerable and
public spirit has beep stung to the
pitch.
A Civic Revolution,
The first step in reform is the eleva
tion of the standard by which the ap
pointing power selects its agents to exe
cute official trusts. Next in importance
is a concientious fidelity in the exercise
of the authority to hold to account and
displace untrustworthy or incapable
subordinates. The public interest in an
honest, skillful performance of official
trust mast not be sacrificed to the
usufruct of the incumbents. After
these immediate steps, which will en
sure the exhibition of better examples,
we may wisely go on to the abolition of
unnecessary offices and finally to the
patient, careful organization of a better
civil seryice system under the tests,
wherever practicable, of proved com
petency and fidelity. While much may
be accomplished by these ruetfiods, it
might encourage delusive expectations
if withheld here—the expression of my
conviction that no reform of the civil
service in this conntrv will be complete
and permanent until it# Chief Magistrate
is constitutionally disqualified for re
election, experience h&?}ng repeatedly
exposed the futility of self-imposed re
strictions by candidates or incumbents.
Through this solemnity only can he be
effectually delivered from his greatest
temptation to misuse the power and pat
ronage with which the Executive is ne
cessarity charged,
Educated in the belief that it is the
first duty of a citizen of the Republic to
take his fair allotment of care and trou
ble in public affairs, have for forty years,
a# a private citizen, fulfilled that duty
though occupied in an unusual degree
during all that period with the cencerns
of government, I have acquired the
habit of official life. When a year and
a half ago, 1 entered upon my present
trust it was in order to consummate re
forms to which I had already devo
ted several of the best years
of my life. Knowing, as I do, there
fore, from fresh experience, how great
the difference between gliding through
an official routine and working ont a re
form of systems and policies, it is im
possible for me to contemplate what
needs to be done in the Federal admin
istration withont an anxious sense of
the difficulties of the undertaking. If
summoned by the suffrages of my coun
trymen to attempt this work, I shall en
deavor, with God’s help, to be the effi
cient instrument of their will.
[Signed] Samuei, J. Teuden.
To Gen. John A. McClernand, Chair
man ; Gen. W. B. Franklin, Hon. J. J.
Abbott, Hon. H. J. Shannhorst, Hon.
H. J. Redfield, Hon. I'. S. Lyon and
others, Committee, &o.
THE STATE CONVENTION.
SPEECHES OF HON. CLIFFORD AN
DERSON AND GEN. COLQUITT.
[Constitution's Report .]
Remarks of Hon. Clifford Anderson.
Gentlemen of the Convention :
I have never been placed in any posi
tion, the duties of whieh I had conclud
ed to endeavor to perform, in which I
felt more diffidence and embarrassment
than in this. The position is one to
which I did not expect to be assigned,
and it is one which I did not desire,
because I believed there were other gen
tlemen who are delegates to this Con
vention who conld discharge its duties
more acceptably than myself. I have
great distrust of my abilities to meet
the demands which are put upon me as
presiding officer of this Convention, for
although I have been connected with
deliberative bodies in past years I do
not claim to be a parliamentarian. I can
promise to endeavor to discharge the
duties faithfully and impartially, and I
shall rely upon your aid to accomplish
the objects had in view in placing me in
this position. I thank yon for the com
pliment and honor of being called upon
to preside over this Convention of
the representative men of the grand
old SState of Georgia. Taken com
pletely by surprise, I hive no set
speech with which to address you, but
you will pardon me for suggesting that
the circumstances in which we are placed
impose great responsibilities upon those
who compose this Convention of the
Democratic party of Georgia. Wo are
just emerging from the gloom that was
cast over the destinies of this great
State by the carpet-bag rule under
which we suffered for so many years
after the close of the late civil war. We
are just beginning to experience the
prints of a wise administration of the
State government. We are just begin
ning to feel that the future of Georgia
is in hauds of patriots aud friends—of
men of intelligence and character—of
men worthy of the respect and admi
ration of our people. But not yet has
the Government of this great country
been rescued from those who would
bring it to destruction, for although
there is a majority of those who repre
sent the great patriotic ideas of the age
in the Lower House of Congress, the
Executive Chair and the Upper House
are still in the hands of those who do
not appreciate or realize the dangers or
duties of the hour.
We have need of wisdom and patriot
ism to accomplish the great ends of
Government for this people. The mis
sion of the Demooratio party is not ouly
to preserve what we have accomplished
in Georgia and keep the State govern
ment in the hands of the friends of
Georgia and who, by their intelligence
and character are entitled to the confi
dence of the people, but to rescue from
the hands of those who sit in power at
Washington the control of this great
nation, and to-day we are just entering
upon a great campaign which is not
only to determine the future of Georgia,
but of this great country—whether
those who have misruled for so many
years shall continue to do so for the
years to come, or whether in their place
men shall be installed who shall reflect
the patriotic sentiment of the country,
North and South, and restore the Gov
ernment to the purity of the early days
of the Republic.
Gentlemen, upon your deliberations
to-day depend milch. I know we can
look with perfect confidence to the suc
cess of the candidate you present for
Governor. But your deliberations re
late not only to who shall be Chief Mag
istrate of Georgia lor four years after
the present incumbent retires, but they
will have an influence upon the result
which shall be had next November and
which will determine whether the men
who are now in power and have oppress
ed us, and who by their corruptions
have dealt unjustly with ail classes and
sections and thus disgraced the Govern
ment, shall remain injpower, or in their
places shall be called the representatives
of reform and the grand patriotism of
the age—men who will stand forth be
fore ttie country and the world as the
exponents of those great principles
which once were the admiration of the
people of this country and devotion to
the rights of the people under the Con
stitution. I say, then, your duties are
of a responsible character. I know that
you have come up here with an earnest
desire to faithfully discharge those du
ties. Let there be harmony and let
no bad feeling linger in any breast when
the deliberations of the Convention are
closed. Whoever is selected, let him
receive the cordial support of every
man in this Convention and of those re
presented by them, and let him be borne
into the Gubernatorial office amid the
plaudits of the people of Georgia, who
have so much at stake in this great con
test. And let us so deliberate and so
act as to promote the success of those
men presented to us by the National
Democratic party for President and
Vice-President of the United States.—
Let us contribute to their success aud
rescue the Government from the hands
of those who would despoil and ruin it;
let us drive out the thieves and the
money-changers, and establish upon a
firm basis the principles of constitution
al liberty which our fathers fought for
and maintained in the earlier days of the
Republic. This grand duty is yours
here to-day. Will you be equal to it ?
Will you sacrifice all prejudices and mi
nor considerations and come grandly
and unitedly to the duties of this hour
aud upon which our future depends.—
Let us do this and then go home aroused
with feelings of patriotism to achieve
the grand destiny before us. Let us so
act as to assist the working out of that
great destiny for both btate and Nation
which will be worthy of the renown and
glory of the fathers of the Republic.
[Cheers interrupted the speaker at the
conclusion of almost every sentiment
and greeted him as ho finished in rous
ing notes of approval.]
Gen. Remarks.
Mr. President and Fellow-Democrats:
I thank you most heartily for the kind
ness and the unanimity of support
which has been shown me and which so
far exceeds any confidence that I may
have in my own worth and merits and
places me under such a weight of obli
gation that I shall not even attempt to
express my appreciation of it. Surely
no man ever had greater reason for
thanks and gratitude, and it is due to
myself and to yon to say that while I
live I shall remember with the pro
foundest feelings of gratitude the dis
play of favor which you have made to
me to-day. And if I shall be called by
the voice of the people to official station
the recollection of it will be an incen
tive to do my utmost to subserve the
interests of the State and advance the
happiness and prosperity of the people.
[Applause. ]
I feel the compliment all the more in
the light of warmly championed candi
dacy of other distinguished fellow-citi
zeus—their merits, abilities and patri
otism, their capabiliiies for the exalted
office, for which they were pressed by
their friends. I warmly unite in endors
ing, and I accept the preference which
yon to-day have made in no vain conceit
that it is in any sense a tribute to supe
rior excellence. [Applause.] I accept,
gentlemen, the standard which you to
day have placed in my hands and I
trust that it will be so borne daring the
canvass as to lead to victory, and, if vic
tory is aohieved, that inits results neith
er you nor yonr too partial constituency
shall have any reason to be ashamed of
your standard bearer. [Cheers.] But
I know yon too well not to be fully
aware of the fact that you will expect of
me, if elected, the exhibition of my ap
preciation in the acts of an administra
tion rather than in any words that I
might speak here to-day. [Applause.]
We are entering upon a campaign in
which there are involved interests of
stupendous magnitude. Upon oar side
we are contending for peace, fraternity,
economy, honesty in office and freedom
from the clap-trap of bought political
power, the elevation of the Government
from menial hsnfis of those in which
there wifi be found an illustration of the
purity and high character of the men
iyfio founded our institutions and im
posed Upon 48 tfie responsibility of their
perpetuity. We are confronted by a
great party which practically, if not
avowedly says it is for sectional hate and
agitation; that it will deny to one-third
oi the people of these States the bless
ings of a Union based upon free thought
and political equality ; who think the
offices of this Governmeht are party
chattels*to be filled with officer-holders
who, but for their position, wonld be
dependent npon the charities of the
world. [Applause. J| - '
Since the war we have sought peace
and through all onr trials and the Pro
tean hues and shapes of reconstruction
ye have meant peace, and the recorded
facts of our history prove it. On the
hostings, in the pulpit, iu the columns
of the press aud from the bench lessons
of charity, good will and harmony to all
classes of our fellow-citizens have been
t night and inculcated with a sincere
purpose. [Loud cheers.] But I shall
not detain you to-day, gentlemen, with
an elaborate speech upon the great na
tional issues. We have illustrated in
the administration of the State of Geor
gia since it was committed to the Demo
cratic party that no one of the rights or
privileges of any good citizen of the
country has been denied to him who bad
a right to claim them. [Cheers.] In
illustrating this I might refer to the
present able aDd admirable administra
tion. [Applause.] And in the same
line to whioh I have made reference, it
will be the duty of that officer who shall
be called to preside as his successor to
continne. [Cheers.]
Gentlemen, without going any further
and without any premeditation, allow
me to say that while I receive your stan
dard with great diffidence, distrustful of
my own powers, yet strong in the purity
of my intentions, 1 believe that, with
your earnest co-operation, we will vital
ize the Democratic party and give a gov
ernment to the country which will en
courage industry, unite a divided peo
ple, aud be a token of peace, harmony
and happiness, under the providence of
God, at the coming of which we might
bow down in humble tbanksgiviugs.
[Applause.] I thank you, gentlemen,
for your great kindness. [Prolougad
applause. ]
REAL STATE OF THE CROPS.
A GOOD AVERAGE CENTENNIAL
HARVEST.
A Survey of the Agricultural Situation in tlie
Northern States—Where Farmers lluve
Prepared aud W here They Have Not.
There is no better way to forecast bus
iness prospects than by ascertaining the
agricultural prospects of the year. It is
now definitely known that the wheat
crop of California is uncommonly large,
and the yield is estimated at a trifle over
30,000,000 bushels. Undoubtedly Cali
fornia takes the lead as a wheat produc
ing State. Indeed, it is far in advance
of all other States except Minnesota,
which follows close. When California
first came into our possession it was
generally believed to be worthless for
agricultural purposes, except in its val
leys where irrigation could he practiced,
but it has been gradually determined
that the annual rain fall of eighteen
inches, coming early in Winter and de
creasing as Spring advances, is sufficient
to mature wheat, and that wherever the
soil is capable of being plowed this
grain can be grown all over the whole
face of the country. This, however,
does not apply to the southern portion
of the State, and it is to be added that
there are exceptional dry years coming
once in from five to eight. The general
condition of the California wheat crop
is this: it matures early without mois
ture; after being cut it remains in the
fields for months without receiving the
least injury, for not a drop of rain falls.
The only drawback is, it beoomes ex
ceedingly hard, and in grinding at the
home mills a quart of water is added to
every bushel, otherwise the bran would
not separate from the flour.
Eugiand takes the largest part of Cali
fornia’s surplus, and uses it to raise the
grade of dark and injured wheat.
Australia takes several million bushels,
and the Sandwich and Philippine Islands
draw their supplies thence. If the con
dition of the laboring people of China
and India could be elevated by an in
crease of day wages the Asiatic demand
for California flour would become im
mense. So also would be the demand
for more of our staple provisions. There
is every evidence that California is en
joying great prosperity.
The Far West.
Nevada scarcely raises her head ag
riculturally, depending as she does on
California for most of her supplies.
Idaho and Montana raise an abundance
of wheat, also all kinds of vegetables,
but ouly by irrigation, a condition com
mon to the whole great interior, from
the Sierra Nevadas to the 100th meri
dian, which runs 200 miles west of the
Missouri and 400 miles east of the foot
of the Rocky Mountains.
Within a few years Arizona has made
rapid progress iu agricultural develop
ment. Irrigating canals have been taken
from the several streams, especially
from the Gi'la, and first class flouring
mills have been built. A good market
is found at the military posts. Arizona
is about as remote as Alaska, since the
only route to the East is by way of San
Francisco. For the most part the cli
mate is hot; fruits of all kinds thrive
wonderfully, and peaches are better
than in any other part of the United
States. Much of the country is unex
plored, but it is known that there are
vast forests, and thousands of valleys
watered by beautiful streams, many of
which disappear in the sand.
Utah has large crops of wheat and
other grain, but probably no surplus,
since the many silver mines require
heavy supplies. No grasshoppers have
appeared this year, and according to
the usual course they will not increase
sufficiently to do damage within five or
six years. The Mormon people seem to
be highly prosperous so far as worldly
matters are concerned.
Little progress is reported from New
Mexico. No greater breadth is under
cultivation than 150 years ago, and the
system of culture there is the same as
that which now prevails among the
Moors in Northern Africa. The chief
interest is of a pastural nature, flocks of
sheep covering the elevated plateaus,
and the number owned by one man
ranges from 50,000 to 200,000 head. The
owners of these flocks belong to the
aristocracy. Usually, when young men,
they finish their education by serving
several years in commercial or banking
houses in New York city.
The Heart of tlie Continent.
Colorado, the new State, has a better
prospect for wheat and corn than ever
before, and there will be a decided sur
plus of wheat, which hitherto has found
a ready market in Atlantic cities in the
form of flour, on account of its superior
quality. Here, as elsewhere in the inte
rior, the rainfall is so slight, being an
nually only twelve inches, against fifty
fonr in New York, that nothing can be
grown without artificial irrigation. The
heavy masses of snow in the mountains
furnish an abundance of water, filling
all the streams during the Summer
months, and the .rsnpply is conducted
over the fields in thousands of rivulets,
as on the farms of the valley of the Po in
Northern Italy. Within a few years
irrigating works have been constructed
on a most extensive scale by immigrants
from the States, and towns and cities
have arisen, fome of them almost hid
den by the groves of forest trees.
Schools, churches, mills, railroads, and
all the evidences of civilization are pre
sented, and the mines of silver and gold,
now yielding seven mil ions of dollars a
year, gives activity to all the industries.
In the Arkansas Valley are several apple
orchards that will yield thisseason 1,000
bnshels each. Hitherto fruit trees have
been largely Winter killed, but the prac
tice of growing trees from the seed se
cures success, provided the hardest va
rieties are selected.
Settlements are pushing up the Mis
souri in Dakota, and large breadths of
wheat of excellent quality are grown.
Oats aDd barley are favorite crops, but
only the small, quickly-growing sorts of
corn mature.
In June, Minnesota people estimated
that they would have 30,000,000 bushels
of wheat, but adverse conditions have
reduced the yield to 24,000,000. Al
though of the Spring variety the quality
is good owing to the locality being in
the neighborhood of the 100th meridian,
the line of aridity, not long ago most
dealers refused to submit to having
their wheat graded by the Chicago
standard, since, as was alleged, it was
used to mix with the inferior Spring
wheat of other parts of the Northwest.
A heavy percentage of Minnesota wheat
is manufactured into fionr at home, in
mills that have no superiors, perhaps no
eqnals in the world. Fruit culture is
rapidly advancing in this State by the
planting of hardy sorts, and three trees
of anew variety, grown fiom the seed,
sold last year for 82,000 each.
By all accounts Wisconsin has re
markably good crops this year. Indeed,
the people are rejoicing that their fields
promise so abundantly. The reports
from Michigan are encouraging, though
unfavorable causes have operated. Their
apple crop is likely to be an average
one. The Rhode Island greenings of
Michigan are the best grown in the
ccnntry, and some other kinds are high
ly esteemed. Some of tfie Miohigan
packers are doing great damage by mix
ing in inferior fruit.
The New En*lapd and Middle Slates.
On the whole, New York may be said
to have average crops. For the most
part the farming is good, and the fer
tility of tfie soil is tolerably well sus
tained, especially in the shale and lime
stone regions. There are more intelli
gent and thrifty farmers in New York,
with a proper appreciation of their du
ties and opportunities, than in any
other State.
Of all the New England States the
best accounts come from Vermont. The
limited amonnt of land, comparatively
speaking, which each has in cultivation
admits of thorough work. Their mea
dows and their grass lands are probably
unexcelled. Complaint is constantly
made that the hill towns of Massaohu
setts annually lose in population, and
the reason undoubtedly lies in the di
minished fertility of the soil. Farms on
the border of the Connecticut valley
have been depleted to furnish manure
for the tobacco fields, which in one way
or another contiuue to Vie profitable.—
Broom corn has almost ceased to be cul
tivated, though formerly it was an im
portant crop, although raised cheaper iu
Illinois ; and now Illinois suffers in like
manner because Nebraska and Kansas
can raise it cheaper still. Next to Ver
mont, Connecticut farming has most im
proved, and many of the farms are high
ly attractive.
New Jersey, Maryland aDd Delaware
are having a favorable season, and the
wheat and grass crops were fully up to
the average. Corn looks tolerably well.
The short fruit crop, especially of
peaches, will be of great advantage to
tbose who have half crops.
That part of Pennsylvania east of the
mountains had a fine harvest, and the
corn prospects are hopeful. Only about
five per cent, of the whole region is
poorly farmed. The apple crop is de
cidedly short, but the quality may be
superior. Iu places, plums are grown,
aud the curculio seems to bo resting.
The soil of Eastern E ennsylvania is un
excelled, as its basis is iimestoDe. The
western district has a basis of shale, and
these advantages alone are sufficient to
make the Commonwealth rich.
The Great Corn Belt.
A large part of the Northern States is
now to be considered by itself, for the
reason that it has been visited by a com
mon calamity. The region embraces
much of Western Pennsylvania, most of
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and
the eastern parts of Kansas and Nebras
ka; and it includes the great corn belt
of the United States, where is grown the
surplus of corn that enters into the mar
kets of the wo; Id either in the form of
grain or of provisions, viz : pork, beef,
lard and butter. On no other part of
the earth’s surface can so much corn to
the area be produced, and in no other
part is the quality so good. It is to be
added that intensity of production is
limited to a region not much larger than
the State of Illinois, equal to about 120
average counties, and that the corn pro
ducing counties lie, a few in Ohio and
Indiana, perhaps five in each, in the
whole of central Illinois, in southern
lowa, eastern Kansas, and Nebraska,
ami in the river counties of Missouri.
It is from these counties that the actual
commercial surplus comes. Elsewhere
the supply is absorbed'by the local de
mand.
A commercial corn crop must be
planted from the 15th to the 22d of May,
or it will be a failure, because the field
is so large that, if planted later, there
will not be time to work it. As soon as
the corn appears, teams, barrows, or
other implements are ready to stir the
ground and kill the weeds, and not a
day, not an hour is suffered to pass un
improved. The whole business is re
duced to a complete system and may al
most be called a science, aud, except as
to some slight differences, as to check
planting or drilling aud in the use of
implements, all the farmers agree on
common methods, and the work progres
ses with the promptness and certainty
of a huge piece of machinery. In uni
formity, in vastness of extent, in capital
invested, and in geueral successful re
sults, no other example of rural com
mercial industry in he world is at all
comparable to the corn growing in this
great corn belt. The three great cities,
Cincinnati, Chicago aDd St. Louis, which
stand at the outer angles of this region,
have been built up aud are sustained by
this wonderful grain.
A Wholesale Calamity.
Well, the corn crop for 1876 was
planted in 1 due season, though under a
great disadvantage, for the ground was
cloddy and hard, aud many teams were
broken down, so terribly heavy and ur
gent was tlie work; but it was all in, and
the triumphant farmer waited for a little
season. The story is soon told. Rains
fell continually, and on low, level
ground it was impossible to work the
corn, and now, to-day, the mournful
observer traveling through from beyond
the Missouri almost to the Alleghanies,
sees thousands upon thousands of fields
where the corn, never yet touched since
the day of planting, is from six to
twelve inches high, yellow, standing in
water. No work, do possible favorable
condition, can make it, worth fifty cents
an acre* On rolling, high, quickly
drained land, the corn looks well, and
the estimate is—perhaps it is high—
that there will be half a crop. There
were twelve days during June when an
incredible amount of rain fell in Central
Illinois, stated to have been 43,500 cu
bic feet to the acre, or an amount equal
to twelve inches on a level. As there
was no discharge over so vast an area of
prairie, there could be only one result.
Meanwhile there is a large stock of hogs
raised since the scarcity of two years
ago, and plenty of cattle, all looking
well at present. How they are to be
fattened is a question. But there is one
hopeful view, so far as the whole region
is concerned, to the effect that the corn
crop of last, year was the largest ever
grown, and heavy lots are on hand in
Central Illinois, estimated to be 50,000,-
000 of bushels, which will largely in
crease this year’s half crop.
It is manifest that while the rain was
falling wheat,, oats, barley, and rye must
have suffered, aud that therefore there
is shortage so far as these products are
concerned. Certainly the wheat crop
must be short, and yet only a few days
since wheat fell nearly 15 cents a bushel.
Tlie reason for this wonderful - decline is
alleged to be the deficiency of suitable
storage iu New York city and the dam
age wheat is suffering by the hot weath
er, aud on account, of the low condition
in which it was harvested last year.—
There are said to be 4,000,000 bushels
in New York aud scarcely 2,000,000 in
Chicago, all below good grade, and now
comes a low grade from much of this
year’s crop.
There is a pretty large wheat-prodno
ing region not yet mentioned. Com
mencing on u line 100 miles west of'
Kansas City, we have a country 150
miles wide where th'e rains were timely
and where an immense breadth of most
excellent wheat was grown, whioh is now
mostly threshed. This includes all of
Western Kansas and Nebraska; and be
sides, favorable weather prevailed in
three-fourths of lowa, where not only
wheat, but corn, oats, and all vegetables
are good and abundant. Thus, while
the dosses by wet weather have been
enormous, a vast amount has still been
saved, and the wealth of the country is
materially increased.
PRIM ATI VE WARFARE.
Interesting Proposition by a Montcngran to a
Wounded Russian Officer.
[From the London Daily A'ews.]
The Montenegran method of making
war is very primitive. A Russian officer,
who visited their country, and studied it,
tells us tfiat a Montenegran never sues
for mercy; and whenever one of them
is severely wounded, and it is impos
sible to save him from the enemy, his
own comrades cut off his herd. When at
the attack of Clobuck, a small detach
ment of Russian troopS was obliged to
retreat, an officer of stoat make, and no
longer young, fell on the ground from
exhaustion. A Montenegran, perceiving
it ran immediately to him, and, having
drawn his paragan, said, “You are very
brave, and must wish that I should cut
off your head. Say a prayer, and make
a sign of the cross.” The officer, horri
fied at the proposition, madd an effort
to rise, and rejoin his comrades with the
assistance of the friendly Montenegran.
They considered all those who have
been taken by the enemy as killed.
They carry out of the battle their wound
ed comrades on their shoulders. Arms,
a small loaf of bread, a cheese, some
garlic, a little brandy, an old garment,
aud two pair of sandals made of raw
hide, form all the equipage of the Mon
lenegrans. On their march they do not
sesk any shelter from rain and cold. In
rainy weather the Montenegran wraps
around his head the strooka (a shawl of
course cloth), lies down on the ground
and, putting his rifle under him, sleeps
very comfortable. Three or four hoars
of repose are quite sufficient for his rest
and the remainder of his time is occu
pied in oonstaut exertion. It is impossi
ble to retain them in the reserve, and it
seems that they cannot calmly bear the
view of the enemy.
The tactics of the Montenegrans are
confined to being skillful marksmen. A
stone, a hole, a tree offer them a cover
from the enemy. Firing usually in a
prostrate position on the ground, they
are not easilyy hit, while their rapid and
sure shots carry destruction into the
closed ranks of a regular army. They
have besides a well practiced eye for
judging of distance, and thoroughly
understanding how to take advantage of
the ground. Of oourse it will always be
difficult to employ such warriors against
regular troops.
WASHINGTON NOTES.
Washington, August s.— The Senate
has up resolutions to print 10,000 copies
of the message of the President and
accompanying documents on the recent
trouble at Hamburg, S. C. The posi
tion of Gibson and Wike was wrongly
stated in the proceedings of the Bank
ing and Currency Committee yesterday.
On the motion in the committee direct
ing the chairman to report a bill repeal
ing the time fixed for the resumption of
specie payments, Mr. Gibson voted
“No” and Mr. Wike voted “Aye.”
The amendment proposed by the Senate
Military Committee to the House bill
for protection of the Rio Grande border
is verbal, making its provisions manda
tory.
