A A 9 1 6 5 1 1 MORTON Hon. O.P. Morton's Terre Haute Speech. E 671 M89 \ O. P. MORTON'S DELIVERED JULY 18, 1873, AT TERKE HAUIIB, INDIANA. Ladies and 1 shall begin what I have to say to-uiglit by congratulating tliU large audience and the country upon tho general condition of prosperity that prevails throughout our larirl. [ think I may say with perfect truth there never was before since our government was formed a condition of sach universal prosperity as prevails this day. Every condition of society is pros- ; peroas. There never was a time when labor was better rewarded than it is now, or when the wages of labor would pur- chase more of the necessaries and^the luxuries of life than now. There never was a time when labor was so honorable as it is now, and so universally recognized as the foundation of all national growth and prosperity. And as it is with labor, so it is with every other department of the body poli- tic. The mechanic, the. merchant, the n&anufaeturcr, the professional man and the capitalist all, to speak in general terms, are now nourishing are now grow- ing apace as they have never done before. I use strong language, but I am justified in doing it. Look at the prosperity of your own beautiful city. I am told it is growing more rapidly and acquiring wealth more rapidly than ever before. And as it is with-Terre Haute so it is with Indianapolis, and almost every town in the State of Indiana ; and a3 it 'is in Indi- ana so it is in Ohio and throughout our whole country. Now, of course, there are sonvj persons who are in embarrassed circumstances, and always will be. There never wa.? a time, and there never will come a time, when there is not some particular indus- try or som3 particular lioe of business that perhaps is suffering, as compared with others. But I am speaking now of the mass of tfao community and the general condition of business ; and I desire to call yorr attention to the great blessings by which you are. surrounded . Whether you look at the development of our country in the West, the growth of our cities, the improvement of our farms, the building o? railroads and turnpike roads, and evory species of p 1.1 olio iuoproveteent; whether you look at tbe general consolidation the business of the country that it is now placed upon solid foundations that it is now escaping from that elemeret of infla- tion and speculation which always disoiF" ders and in time will destroy business- bear in mind that*he business of the coun- try is settling down upon solid and endow- ing foundations, and that, though our ap- parent prosperity may not be as great ar when prices were high and when there war a general spirit of speculation yet onr prosperity now is steady ; it is onward ; H is regular. And I appeal to gentlemen <& all parties to say if the tiling we most de- sire and which we roost need at the present: time is not; stability stability in business, stability hi the finances, stability in a those things that men must study and un- derstand an<| calculate upon when engaged in individual enterprises, and understand well what they shall do the next year or the next month. CROAKERS AND GRUMBLERS. But, notwithstanding our unwonted prosperity and growth, there are croakers, there are grumblers: and there always wffi be. Yon have sometimes seen men who,, when they were in pert-feet health, wouM strive to make everybody about them mis- erable by pretending that they were abou$ to die. And so you" will find politicians, in the midst of. this great prosperity an* this great affluence, who tell us the coun- try is on the very brink of ruin on the very eve of bankruptcy find that if they are not placed in power, or their party, verything will go to destruction. Now you know these things are not so, and there is 110 intelligent" lady or gentlemaa liere to-night and I care not what party they belong to who, if they will take a deliberate survey of the condition of thi* community, of 'this State, and of this na- tion, will not come tortile conclusion that, as a people, we arc more prosperous in this. year 1S70 man in any iormer period of our national life. I spoke of stability ; take, tor example. the currency. We have had trouble with our currency, growing out of our war and out of a strange and unnatural condition of things, but now it is coming back to solid foundations. Only a short time ago it v/as worth but sixty-eight cents on a dollar, now it is worth ninety-two, and we have every reason to beHeve that, if there shall be no political disturbance, within six months the paper dollar in your pocket Will be equal to a dollar in gold. This is the great thing that we require to Iiave stability and solid foundations for business. There are politicians who tell us the worse thing that eould be done would be to return to specie payments, and the best thing that eould happen would be a fluctu- ating currency that is worth ninety cents on the dollar to-day, and sixty to-morrow. That is false philosophy. In every coun- try the people were always benelitted when the money in circulation in their pockets was brought tip from a dipcount and made equal to the gold dollar, which is the stand- ard of value throughout the world. That la what we desire, and it is -what we are going to do ; and we are going to do it much faster than any of us e^pecfcetl much faster than I expected ; and we arc going to do it m deriance of theory and speculation upon the part ef statesmen of all parties. It is coming upon us without ajar. It is coming upon us without depres- sion; without unsettling the condition of business ; and we are improving and pro- gressing faster than any of us had a right to expect. RECOVERY FROM THK REBELLION RAV- AGES. We have escaped from a war : some live years ago the terrible civil war that deso- lated the laud ended, and now the marks of war are almost goue from the land. jNbt from our memories : those of you who lost sons and brothers and iaihers ad hus- bands can never forget that, and you can never forget the men that made that war, you can never forget the politicians who forced it upon this country. Bat I am speaking now of the material ravages of war. They are fast disappear- ing, and with the destruction of human slavery, aud with the establishment of hu- man, rights upon an equal biisis of justice and liberty to all. we are now advancing in wealth and material prosperity as we never did before. I said these war memories will not pas*s away. We may forgive, but we cannot forge*, and in a great many instances we have no right to forgive politically. It i.s not sound policy that we should do so, lor that man that lias deceived and betrayed Ms country in the hour of its peril, when it was threatened with destruction that man cannot be safely ' trusted in time of i peace. Am I right about that? (Loud 'applause.) WHO ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR. THE WAR DEBT. Politicians are complaining to you much about the war debt and about 'the manner in which this debt shall be paid. iThe Republican party is held responsible | by Democratic politicians as if this debt jhad been made for the benefit of the Re- publican party. This debt was made to (preserve this country ^ to raise armies, to 'pay them v and keep them in the Held to put down rebellion, and the men who made the rebellion and w'w> continued it are the men who are responsible for the debt. Who made this rebellion? Who was it that caused us to incur this debt? And who are to-day justly responsible for jit in the opinkm of the world? My j friends, I can tell you, and my words can not be gainsaid, that the Democratic poli- ticians of the North are largely and chieflj- responsible for bringing on- this war. I speak that whiek is matter of history ; and who know it better than the in- telligent citizens of Vigo county that but for the course of tee Democratic party in Indiana and other States we would have had no rebellion, and but for the course of the Democratic party after {the rebellion had begun it would have been abandoned at the. end of the first two years, and bat for their conduct we would to-day ha ve no uationaTdebt. South - em people will tell yon vvlien you go among them, I do not care in wfaat State you travel, that if it had uct been for the en- couragement they received from Demo- cratic leaders in the N-oFih, they never would have embarked in the rebellion. They were led to believe that the Demo- cratic party in the North would hold the Republican pnrrty still while the work was consummated, and in thai belief they embarked in it. They were tired of the rebellion in the first two years, and wanted to quit ; but the. Democratic party of the North told them to lu)Id on to persevere; that the Democratic party of the North sympathized with them; that it was everywhere gaining ground through- out the Northern States, and that when it should come into power which it certainly would do they cpuld estab- lish then 1 Confederacy; "and, believing that, they did persevere throughout 1863 and 1SG4. But after the Democratic party [was beaten in 1864 in the Presidential election, then hope died and the rebellion came to its end. 1 merely remark these things, which you all know and whhh cannot be de- nied, for the purpose of placing in. a clear light before your minds the. just responsi- bility' for the, national doht who caused |p t 1 1 ic to be contracted, and who it was that placed it upon your shoulders and upon GREENBACKS. Ou the twenty-fifth day of Febru- ary, 1862, Congress passed the first act that was passed authorizing the issue of legal tender notes. A second act was passed in January, 1863. Since then tliere have been no acts passed authoriz- ing the issue of legal tender notes. Under these several acts of Congress four hun- hundred millions of greenbacks were issued. Of tiiis amount forty-four millions were contracted, or, as we say, "retired " from circulation by Mr. McCulloch, the Secre- tary of the Treasury during the adminis- tration of President Johnson, leaving in circulation, as there are now, three hun- dred and fifty-six mJlions of greenbacks. We have also about three hundred mil- lions of National Bank notes, based on the bonds and redeemable in greenbacks ; but I speak now of the legal tender notes issued by the Government. We have been trying ever since the close of the war to bring these notes up to par, starting with them at 68 or 70' cents on the dollar, and bringing them up gradually until now we have got them to about 92 cents on the dollar, and we expect to have them at par in the course of six months. Now, if it has required such a long time, and has been attended with so much difficulty to bring three hundred and iifty-six millions of these notes up to par, and get clear of their de- preciation, if instead of having only three hundred and Iifty-six millions of these notes in circulation we had two thousand millions, in that caso all hope of getting them to par would have to be abandoned and they would become wholly worthless, as was the case in France and elsewhere under similar circumstances; they would fall to the ground as they have done in other countries. But by keeping these notes within a moderate limit we have succeeded in removing to a great extent their depreciation, and shall succeed in bringing them to par. In the great loan bill of 1804, under which the most of the bonds now out- standing were issued, it was provided thai/ the whole amount of greenbacks should never exceed four hundred millions of dollars. That was a pledge given to the bondholder^ and to those from whom we expected to borrow money, It was tiien believed that without this pledge the Government could not borrow the amount necessary to carry on the war. That pledge that guaranty is unrepealed, and is as binding now as it was then. This is my general statement in regard to the condition of the greenback question. DISHONEST WAY TO PAY IIOMI.'ST DEBTS. Mr. Pendleton thought, iu 1867, that he had made a discovery but in 1868 > when he was a candidate for Governor in OliiQ, he had come to the conclusion that he had not made a discovery. He was materially akled iu coming, to that con- clusion by being slaughtered in the Dem- ocratic Convention in New York in 1868. This gentleman, in common with Mr, Voorhees, thought he had discovered x way to pay the national debt without costing anybody anything, without taxa- tion, without any burden upon the peo- ple, simply by expending a few thousand dollars for Ink, paper, and printing, and they now wish to make the people be- lieve (more especially Mr. Voorhees for Mr. Pendleton has abandoned the whole thing), that, having found ont this way to pay the national debt without costing anybody anything, the Democratic party may now be put into power to relieve the people of all taxation. I have heard something -like this before. Some of you have seen advertisements in the news- papers, that if you would send one dollar to some Post Office box in New York, or Philadelphia, or Boston, you would re- ceive ki retura a great secret, by which you would be enabled to make "a large fortune, or become suddenly rich. Such advertisements are frequently contained in the newspapers, and greenhorns some- times bite at them and send their dollars. All such advertisements are intended fot jreenhorn-Si and the game is what i? called ia confidence game. Whenever a politi- jcian comes before you and tells you he I has found out a way by which the na- itional debt can be paid without costing j anybody anything, remember that it is (intended for groenhom* and nobody else. I [Laughter and applause.] The national debt can only be paid honestly-, just like your debts can be paid, and whenever j politicians attempt to gain the confidence of the people, and to gain their votes, by pretending that they have found out way to pay the national debt without taxation, and without cost to anybody, it is on]y a political confidence game that is all. EFFECTS OF INFLATION. I spoke to you about the effect of our having three hundred and fifty millions of paper money in circulation, and the diffi- culty of bringing it to par. It is well kuo,v/n to any business man that If you were to issue now three hundred millions, or two hundred millions, or one hundred millions of new legal tender notes, you would thereby inflate the currency, encour- age a spirit of speculation, send up prices ; and then the whole thing must come down of course ; to se a cotftttion espres- oion, it would "go np like a rocket^and some down like a stick. ' ' We would have fce tame 'gloomy and terrible course to travel again. We are now approaching a condition of solid prosperity. Our curren- ay is rapidly becoming good ; but if we is- 8oe fifteen or ebrteen hundred millions of greenbacks to pay off these bonds, we would first rob our creditors, and then rob t&e people by leaving this money in their hands so depreciated that it would take a aat full of it to buy a hat ; it might be had, it was in France, for a dollar a bushel. THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AND THE TARIFF. Passing from that, I come now to the question of the tariff. There is a great ieal said by Democratic politicians about ihe tariff. What is a tariff? A duty lev- . xA. upon foreign goods imported into the United States. We have always had a tar- Jaf in fehis country ever since the Govern- aftent was x formed. It began with the ad- au'nistration of George Washington ; and Before the Union was formed the several .States had their respective tariffs. We| aive always raised revenue by a tariff, and! always shall. It has been done under eve-' ^administration. When the war caaaej an we could not raise enough money by a I S&riff. We had to raise it by a tariff in | jart. We have been reducing it as wej tamld, but we still have to raise a hundred,) Mid fifty-live or a hundred and sixty-five] mLKon dollars a year by a tariff. Now if > f&u abolish the tariff, how will you get] money to carry on the government ? Will you get it by direct taxation ? Is the De- aocratic party in favor of that ? Certainly aot ; nobody is in favor of that. Then we must have a tariff to get revenue. It is idle to talk about repealing it, unless you can j carry on the Government without money. Then free trade is out of the question ; when a man talks about it he talks about . thing that is impossible. I do not care in what manner you adjust the tariff, if you have a tariff at all it will afford some protection; you must have a tariff for sfcvenue, and free trade is out of the ques- tion as long as you have a tariff. THE VARIOUS KINDS OF TARIFF. There are several kinds of tariff. There! * what is called a prohibitory tariff that) is an obsolete idea. I know of nobody' who is in favor of it. Then there is a tar- iff for protection merely that differs bin Sttle from a prohibitory tariff in principle ; iliat is not the kind of tariff that we want. 3ut as a tariff for revenue will afford some protection, and as we must have a tariff for j revenue, we propose that the protection shall result in favor of our osvu producers, wid not in favor of foreiga producers. There are two or three wayK of levying a tariff. One way, advocated by Mr,. Kerr, is to levy it highest upon articles that we do not produce at ali, such as tea, sugar and coffee. ~ If you do that v of course it must come lightest upon articles that we do produce in competition with foreign countries, so as to afford to our own pro- ducers the least possible protection and encouragement. There is another plan called the horizon- tal tariff, which is levied at an equal rate of per cent, on all articles without regard to whether they are luxuries or necessaries. It has been said to be a tariff of strict neu- trality between the home producer and the foreign producer. If you think that neu- trality in that respect "between home pro- ducers and foreign producers should pre- vail, then you would b in favor of the horizontal tariff; but there are very few people who are in favor of that. In levy- ing a tariff for revenue, we should in the first place put the tax higher upon luxuries than upon necessaries, and then, if there must be a discrimination, let it be in favor of our home producers. Then there is another method of levying a tariff ; put it lowest on articles that we do not produce, and higher upon articles that we do produce, so that there shall be at all tunes a fair and equal competrtion between the foreign and the home pro- ducer. If you make it a prohibitory tariff you get no revenue by it. If you put it below the point of competition you get revenue only, and give the market over to !the foreign producer. We do not want a ^prohibitory tariff ; we do not want to make a monopoly here : but as you must have a tariff, how should you levy it ? I say put it at a point that will afford a fair competi- tion between the home and foreign pro- ducer. That brings you revenue because there is competition, and competition im- plies foreign importation. That gives rev- enue, and at the same tune builds up your own home producers, home manufacturers and home labor. I am for protecting home labor as far as it can be done legitimately. I do not want to see the laboring men of this country working for the same prices that the working men of Great Britain, France and Germany command. Labor is higher in this country than it ie in the countries of .Europe, and I hope and ex- pect to see it maintained, and when .we can legitimately protect and encourage our own labor, I am in favor or' doing it. But I do not want anybody to say because I say this that I am in favor of a, prohibitory tariff, or a protective tariff, in the offensive sense in which the term is used ; but what I say is, we have got to have a tariff. I do not care how much Democrats may bawl in favor of Free Trade ; we must have a tariff, because we have to carry on the Gov- ernment, and cannot do it without money, and ns w? nnst have a tariff I want it so adjusted as to discriminate in favor of the home producer, not the foreign producer. A HOME MARKET. Another tiling right here : I am in favor of building up a home market. I think there are some fanners here to-night-, and \ want to say to the'm that it is better for' luetn to sell their wheat at $1 50 per 'bushel' in Terre Haute, than it is to sell it at $1 50 per bushel in New York and then have to pay for its transportation to Liverpool, Brest, or some other European port. What is the fact ? I epe here behind nie a distin- guished railroad man ; I state it as a gen- eral proposition, and I think I am not far out of the way, that it will take one bushel out of three, or very nearly that, to send your wheat to New York, and then it will cost a good deal to get it from NewYork to Liverpool. Mr. McKeen, am I not right? (The gentleman addressed, W. B. McKeen, Esq., President of the Terre Haute, Vandalia & St. Louis Railroad, re- plied that the speaker's estimate was cor- rect.) Now, you are in pursuit of a foreign market, recollect. When it comes to corn, I guess it takes nearly one bushel to send the other to New York ; and then if you go in search of a foreign market, which some gentleman are so fond of, you have to pay die additional cost of transportation across the Atlantic. So that it is to our interest to have onr market at home. 16 is to our interest to have all kinds of indus- try and all kinds of manufactures I do not want to create a monopoly ; I have -stated my principles ; but I say boldly here that**it is to our interest to have as many different manufactures as we can. Do you think everybody ought to be farmers? If everybody were farmers, then the farmers would have no market. No, it is not the interest of these gentlemen who are en- gaged in fanning to have everybody farm- ers ; it is our interest to have diversified pursuits ; it is our interest to manufacture, as far as we can, what we need, and that the men who manufacture buy what the farmer lias to sell and sell to the fanner what he wants. Will any man dispute the soundness of these principles ? And yet some politicians will come before the coun- try and argue as if there was no honorable pursuit but farming. They want to natter the farmers, but farmers have too much" in- telligence and good sense to be deceived by them. They know their interest is to have a good market for their produce, and to have it as near home as possible. And one great desideratum that we have now to look to is cheap transportation to the East- ern cities. We have got to have it, and we are going to try. The nearer you can bring the market at home to the farmer, the better for the farmer, and the better for all classes of people. WISDOM AND STATESMANSHIP OF KK- PUBLKJAN LEGISIiATION . They tell you a gr^at many articles are taxed. Of course they are.' This tariff must fall' on something-. You canntft take in a hundred and sixty millions of dollars of revenue every year unless you tax nearly everything more 'or less;, -but we have been reducing taese-taxes. I want to state to you although you are doubtless already familiar with it what has re- cently occurred in Congress. We have passed a bill to reduce taxation, and by that bl'U have reduced taxation to the amount of eighty million dollars, Now reducing taxes eighty million dollars is worth a great many Democratic speeches, and a great many Democratic arguments. There is a great fact. We have .just re- pealed fifty-seven millions of internal taxes, and at the same time reduced the tariff twenty-three millions. We could not come down altogether ; we came down as low as we could to raise the necessary amount of money to cany on the Government, but we have, by mean 5 of certain great improvements in- tiie ad- ministration, been enabled within the last fifteen days to repeal eighty millions of taxes. How have we done that? First, we have repealed all, or nearly all, the in- ternal taxes, except those on whisky and tobacco and the sales of whisky and to- baccoall the rest with the exception of stamps. We have abolished stamps put on receipts, which are a vexation to the peopLe, and. we have abolished stamps on all notes under one hundred dollars. We have brought down this kind of taxation to the lowest point that we' 'could, and nearly all that is left of it is on tobacco and whisky. A thousand other little taxes, that had to be levied during the war, we have now swept away. REFORM AND EQUALIZATION OF THE TARIFF. Well, how about the tariff? w e have taken off twenty-three millions from the tariff. On what? Principally on tea, cof- fee, and sugar, those three great necessa- ries of life, that are consumed by every family in this country, and consumed not according to their wealth but according to their number. The laboring man the man in every condition of life must have his tea, coffee, and sugar. We have re- duced the tax on tca^from twenty-five cents to fifteen cents per po>und ; on cof- fee from five cents to three cents per pound. We have taken three cents per pound off sugar, or 33 per cent, of the en- tire tariff. We have reduced the duty on pig iron from $9 to $7 per ton, bringing it down to the point where we think there will ba a fair competition between the home and for- eign producer . A STP.i. many articles we have put on the free list, upon v.-hich there was a small duty. So this Congress, tluit has been so much abused and traduced, has reduced your taxes eighty millions of dollars. In the presence of a grand re- sult of this kind all little petty grumblings, carpings, and fault-findings disappear. Here is a great event, a gfand result. And -it was brought about by the Republi- can party, arid without the aid of the Democratic party. DEMOCRATS VOTE AGAINST REDUCED TAXES. Now, I want to call your s attention to the fact that, notwithstanding"' our Demo- cratic friends are 'com plaining continually about the tariff, not one qf them, in cither branch of Congress, voted for this bill that reduced taxation eighty millions of dol- lars not one of them. The work has been done, but they did not do it; it has been done by the Republican party in Con- gress. Some of you will wonder at that that these Democratic politicians, who have been talking so earnestly about the burden of taxation, when brought to the test not one of them would vote for the bill upon its final passage ! The most of them voted .against it, and some of them, dodged j but rf there is one man that voted for it I do not know it. DEMOCRATIC HYPOCRISY. The Democrats in State Convention, in January last, resolved that tea, coffee, and sugar should be put on the free list. Those great necessaries of life, we could not do without a tax upon them. We have go,t to have the one hundred and sixty millions of revenue, and although we put as much on luxuries as we can, W6 cannot put it all there; there are not enough of them. We must pay some- thing on our tea, coffee, and sugar, and in fact on nearly everything else. It takes a great many taxes to make a hundred and sixty millions of dollars. These Demo- crats wanted the tax taken off from those articles; they wanted tea, coffee, and sugar put on the free list, but when the time for voting came not one of them voted for the bill. To^how you how perfectly hollow and hypocritical are all these Democratic professions, I refer you to this vote on the iinal passage of that bill. There is the test. One vote in favor of reducing taxa- tion is worth a hundred speeches in favor of it. They have made hundreds of speeches, but when the time came to vote they either voted the other way, or were not there. I read an extract from the New York World, one of the leading Democratic papers in the United States, and by all odds the ablest. This is of recent date, within the last ten days ; it 13 commenting on this 'bill that I was just speaking of: "The proposal of the 'tail tariff,' as it" is now called, from the fact of its having been lucked on the end of the internal tax biH, was a shrewd move on Schenck's part. By offering a measure for the diminution of taxation though the reductions them- selves were made in the most obj ect ion able way, viz : mainly upon tea, coffee, a-ntl 'SUSCTT Schenck was able to secure the Re- publican vote for his bill. The Republi- can revenue reformers knew that they could not face their constituents without having reduced taxation, and at this late period in the session no measure for the purpose other than tha-t before them was possible." WHAT ACTUATES ^THE DEMOCRATIC PARW. , What is the trouble with our Demo- cratic friends ? I will terUyou. They have but one rule of action practically, as though they have theoretically other;- and that is to oppose whatever the Re- publican party does. Wlten we propose! to reduce the tax on one article, they want it reduced on the other, but when we come to the other then they say it's the t'other. And so we can never get to that article upon Avhich they are willing ito reduce taxation. After their clamoring about the tariff on iron, as they have been for years, when we proposed in this bill to bring down the tariff from $9 to $7 per ton, the bill that contained that reduction never , secured a single Democratic vote. No, these are not the articles they want the taxes reduced on. They are in favor of reduction on everything except the ar- ticles contained in the bill. We have selected those things that we thought moyt important for the great mass . of the- nation, and especially for the poor people and the laboring part of the community,, because the wealthy can always take care of themselves. We have selected these articles and reduced the tax on them, but yet we were not able to secure the aid of a. single Democratic member in either House. OUR GREAT FINANCIAL MEASURES. I come now to the Funding -Bill. We have passed a Funding Bill. What is that? We mean by a Funding Bill, a bilt by which we will be able to reduce tJio rate of interest on the public debt. Our bonds now draw six per cent, and five per cent. We could not get money at any less rate during the war, but the time is come now when we think we can borrow money at lower rates. How do we pro- pose to do it? Not by violating the con- tract by trying to swindle our creditors the men who loaned their money to the "Government but by an honest and legiti- mate method, such as has been practiced by every honorable government in the pjvorld. We passed a bill authorizing the Government to issue three kinds of 'ixmds. First, bonds to the amount of two hundred inHlions, drawing five per cent, ; second, bonds to the amount of two hundred millions, drawing- 4 per cent. ; third, bonds to the amount of one thou- sand millions, drawing four per cent. We authorized our Secretary to sell tlwse bonds,, if he can, at par. If he can sell a bond kt par that draws only four pen- cent, interest, then he can take the money he gets for that bond and by with it another bond that draws six per cent., and thus save to the Government two per cent, per .annum. If he sells a bond drawing four and a half per cent., and buys a bond of like amount drawing six. he saves to the Government one and a half per cent, per .annum. That is what we call funding the f.'bt. and we propose to put the debt into jiew bonds that draw a lower rate of i-nter- esc. by which we can save from ten to twenty millions per annum. Do 3-011 not tfiiuk that is a good purpose an honorable And an honest purpose? We have been tr>'iiig to get such a bill for two j-ears. We have got one secured ; it is signed : it is the law of the land to-night. And yet this bill could not secure the vote, so far as [ know, of a single Democrat, although tliey have been complaining so much about the great burden of Hlrre^.; the i>eople are jxxying. They complained about cur pay- ing interest. They want to stop the intei'- r.-it by aj ing oil' the bonds in irredeema- ble paper money, but v.'hen we get ;rx hon- est, honorable and proper method of put- ting down this interest, and reducing the expenses of the Government, it was not able to secure the vote of n, single Demo- cratic member or Senator. X-o. They talk about these things, but whan the time for action comes when the time to ac?.om- plish it comes they are not there. So much, then, in regard to live Funding bill. We expect that we shall fund this We expect that we shall bs able to sell low priced bonds, and buy up those bearing a higher rate of interest, and thus .save millions every year, until the whole debt is finally funded, and the money thus eaved in the way of interest, ean be applied to the payment of the bonds. STDPUBLICAN HONESTY GRANT'S AND JOHNSON'S ADMINISTRATIONS CONTRASTED. Now, the question may present itself to your mind, howris it that we have been %!>!<; to repeal eighty millions of taxes? \Yb r was that not done before ? You have had a Republican Congress all the time; why could you not do it before? II AV ill tell yeu. We have had a Republican Congress, but not a Republican Admin 15- fcratlon until the last sixteen months. The last three and a half years of President Johnson's administration was a.H tliorouir'.i- -ly Democratic as was that of James i>;s- .phanan or Franklin Pierce. I want to tell .von how we are abie at this time to repeal 'eighty millions of :a:a\, and still have sur- plus money coming into the Treasury. pirst, by economy by reducing the ex- penses of the Government, and \fe reduced them, MS compared with President John- son's administration, over fifty millions of dollars. They have been curtaMed here, and curtailed there-, and in the other place, and the expenses of the Government have been greatly reduced. Then we have gained a large amount in another way tby the honest collection of the revenue. I wish to show you a statement I obtained from the Secretary of the Treasury only three or four days ago. I saw Mr*. Bout- well the clay I started from Washington, and asked him to send me a statement, over his own signature, as t-o the amount of the gain "by the honest collection of the revenue since General Grant came into power. Here it is, and 1 shall read it to you :. ''TREASURY DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., Jiriy 5th, 1870. Hon. 0. P. Morion : In reply to your verbal inquiry I have the honor to state that there hris been an increase of- thirty-two millions. six -hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars in the Internal Revenue receipts during the firs*, sixteen months of President Grant's ud- ciinistratio-n. MS compared with the last sixteen months of President Johnson's administiation." There, you have it. On the 'same rate of taxation cvcm with less, because under Johnson's administration the tax on whis- ky was two dollars per galhm, while it is now fifty cents per gallon, we liave an in- crease of more than thirty-two millions in the receipts of Internal Revenue in sixteen months. Mr. Eoutwell goes on : "And an increase of nineteen millions I four hundred ami six thousand nine hun- 'drcd and fifty-three dollars in custom 'du- ties for the same period and upon the same comparison, making an aggregate of fifty- one millions four hundred and eight thous- and six hundred and ninety dollars." Just resulting from an honest adminis- tration ! When you add this to what we have gained in the way of economy by re- ducing the expenditures, you will under- stand -how we are able to reduce taxation eighty niillions-of dollars by oacsingleblow. I read again from his statement; "The decrease of the public debt for the last ^sixteen mentlis is one hundred and. -ihirty- inine millions one hundred and four fltous- fand six hundred and sixty dollars." THE WAR DEBT MELTING AWAY. Since Grant came into power, and up to !fchc 5th d;iy of July, nearly* one hundred ;iiiil forty :V.]ilo:H of the public debt have been paid off, and I have just got ;. dis- patch showing that up to to-night the pub- lic debt will have been reduced over one ium'dred and forty-six millions since Gen- eral Granfc camo into power, winks during the last sixteen nfonths of President John- son being ia power only eight millions of . reduction was made, or a little over ; cer- tainly less than nine millions. At this rate the public debt will be paid off in Jess than fifteen yea-re. It is true you have all beeivground down by taxation ; all perish- ing with K. You are all poor, badly dres- sed and half starved, as yon all know ; but Ave have paid off nearly a hundred arid for- ty millions of this debt since Grant came into power. Here is another great result. Is it not better to pay oft' the debt in this way than to attempt to swindle the creditors out of it by using irredeemable paper for the whoio amount? To have them lose the debt and the people lose the currency? And nobody gain anything byMt but the swindlers and shavers? I say. in the presence of these great results, all Demo- cratic arguments fall to the ground, and come to nothing. And what has been done in these six- teen months will bo increased in the next sixteen months. The administration is getting better month after month, and will get better year after year. The machinery is only fairly in operation nov, F . THE TRUE "LABOR" PARTY OK TUB COUNTRY. 1 h;u'd the Republican party is the great labor party of the count ty, and *o it is. Another thing : it is the great reform party of. this ".country. We have made the greatest reforms that ever were made, and shall continue to make them; but we only do ono big thing at a time. Peo- ple that undertake to do everything at once, nearly always fail as to everything. You can see how we have advanced, step by step, until the country is brought to its present condition. There are other great reforms to be accomplished, and the Re- publican party is the party to do it. I tell ny friends ii they want reform to cuiy with tt>nt party tlxat has made reforms,