Part 2

But this is not simply a Southern question. It has come to be a national question, for not only is the Republican vote suppressed in the South, but I ask you to turn your eyes to as fair and prosperous a territory as ever sat at the door of the Federal Union asking admission to the sisterhood of the States. See yonder in the northwest Dakota, the child of all these States, with 500,000 loyal, intelligent, law-abiding, prosperous American citizens robbed to-day of all participation in the affairs of this Nation. The hospitable door which has always opened to territories seeking admission is insolently closed in her face--and why? Simply because the predominating sentiment in the Territory of Dakota is Republican--that and nothing more. And that is not all. This question of a free, honest ballot has crossed the Ohio River. The overspill of these Southern frauds has reached Ohio and Indiana and Illinois, indicating to my mind a national conspiracy, having its centre and most potent influence in the Southern States, but reaching out into Ohio, Indiana and Illinois in its attempt by frauds upon the ballot-box to possess the Senate of the United States. Go down to Cincinnati in a recent election and look at the election returns, shamelessly, scandalously manipulated to return members to the Senate and House of Ohio, in order that that grand champion of Republican principles, John Sherman, might be defeated. Go yonder with me to Chicago and look into those frauds upon the ballot--devised, executed in furtherance of the same iniquitous scheme, intended to defeat the re-election of that gallant soldier, that fearless defender of Republican principles, John A. Logan of Illinois. [Great cheering.]

And these people have even invaded Indiana. At the last election in my own State, first by gerrymander, they disturbed and utterly destroyed the equality of suffrage in that State; it was so framed as to give the Democratic party a majority of 50 on joint ballot; and Indiana gave a Republican majority on members of the Legislature of 10,000, and yet they claim to hold the Legislature. And that is not all. Then, when gerrymander had failed, they introduced the eraser to help it out [laughter]; scratched our tally-sheets, shamelessly transferred ballots from Republican to Democratic candidates. How are we going to deal with these fellows? What is the remedy? As to the Southern aspect of this question, I have first to suggest that it is in the power of the free people of the North, those who love the Constitution and a free and equal ballot, those who, while claiming this high privilege for themselves, will deny it to no other man, to welcome a President who shall not come into office, into the enjoyment of the usufruct of these crimes, against the ballot [applause]; that will be great gain. And then we should aim to place in the Southern States, in every office exercising federal authority, men whose local influence will be against these frauds, instead of such men as the district attorney appointed by Mr. Cleveland, who in this recent outrage upon the ballot in Jackson, Miss., was found among the most active conspirators, when, by public resolution of a Democratic committee, Republicans of that city were warned away from the polls. Then again we shall keep ourselves free from all partisanship if we lift our voice steadily and constantly in protest against these offences.

There is vast power in a protest. Public opinion is the most potent monarch this world knows to-day. Czars tremble in its presence, and we may bring to bear upon this question a public sentiment, by bold and fearless denunciation of it, that will do a great deal towards correcting it. Why, my countrymen, we meet now and then with these Irish-Americans and lift our voices in denunciations of the wrongs which England is perpetrating upon Ireland. [Applause.] We do not elect any Members of Parliament, but the voice of free America protesting against these centuries of wrongs has had a most potent influence in creating, stimulating and sustaining the liberal policy of William E. Gladstone and his associates. [Great applause.] Cannot we do as much for oppressed Americans? Can we not make our appeal to these Irish-American citizens who appeal to us in behalf of their oppressed fellow-countrymen to rally with us in this crusade against election frauds and intimidation in the country that they have made their own? [Applause.]

There may be legislative remedies in sight when we can once again possess both branches of the national Congress and have an executive at Washington who has not been created by these crimes against the ballot. [Applause.] Whatever they are, we will seek them out and put them into force--not in a spirit of enmity against the men who fought against us--forgetting the war, but only insisting that now, nearly a quarter of a century after it is over, a free ballot shall not be denied to Republicans in these States where rebels have been rehabilitated with a full citizenship. [Applause.] Every question waits the settlement of this. The tariff question would be settled already if the 1,000,000 of black laborers in the South had their due representation in the House of Representatives.

And my soldier friends, interested that liberal provisions should be made for the care of the disabled soldier--are they willing that this question should be settled without the presence in the House of Representatives of the power and influence of those faithful black men in the South who were always their friends? [Applause.] The dependent pension bill would pass over the President's veto if these black friends of the Union soldier had their fair representation in Congress. [Applause.] It is the dominant question at the foundation of our Government, in its dominating influence embracing all others, because it involves the question of a free and fair tribunal to which every question shall be submitted for arbitrament and final determination. Therefore, I would here, as we shall in Indiana, lift up our protest against these wrongs which are committed in the name of democracy, lift high our demand, and utter it with resolution, that it shall no longer be true that anywhere in this country men are disfranchised for opinion's sake.

I believe there are indications that this power is taking hold of the North. Self-respect calls upon us. Does some devotee at the shrine of Mammon say it will disturb the public pulse? Do we hear from New York and her markets of trade that it is a disturbing question and we must not broach it? I beg our friends, and those who thus speak, to recollect that there is no peace, that there can be no security for commerce, no security for the perpetuation of our Government, except by the establishment of justice the country over. [Great applause.]

CHICAGO, MARCH 20, 1888.

_Marquette Club Banquet._

On the evening of March 20, 1888, General Harrison was the honored guest of the Marquette Club of Chicago--one of the leading social and political organizations of that great city--at their second annual banquet, given at the Grand Pacific Hotel.

The officers of the club for that year were: George V. Lauman, _President_; William H. Johnson, _First Vice-President_; Hubert D. Crocker, _Second Vice-President_; Charles U. Gordon, _Secretary_; Will Sheldon Gilbert, _Treasurer_.

The Banquet Committee and Committee of Reception for the occasion comprised the following prominent members: James S. Moore, Frederick G. Laird, LeRoy T. Steward, Wm. H. Johnson, James E. Rogers, F. W. C. Hayes, Henry T. Smith, Harry J. Jones, Chas. S. Norton, Irving L. Gould, T. A. Broadbent, Jas. Rood, Jr., Wm. A. Paulsen, T. M. Garrett, Geo. W. Keehn, Harry P. Finney, C. B. Niblock, Wm. A. Lamson, S. E. Magill, R. D. Wardwell, Fred. G. McNally.

President Lauman was toastmaster, and opened the banquet with an address of welcome to Senator Harrison.

The other speakers of the evening were Edward J. Judd, Theodore Brentano, Hon. Thomas C. MacMillan, Hon. John S. Runnells, Newton Wyeth, Mayor Roche and President Tracy of the State League of Republican Clubs.

Amid hearty applause General Harrison rose to respond to the toast, "The Republican Party." He spoke as follows:

_Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Marquette Club_--I am under an obligation that I shall not soon forget in having been permitted by your courtesy to sit at your table to-night and to listen to the eloquent words which have fallen from the lips of those speakers who have preceded me. I count it a privilege to spend an evening with so many young Republicans. There seems to be a fitness in the association of young men with the Republican party. The Republican party is a young party. I have not yet begun to call myself an old man, and yet there is no older Republican in the United States than I am. My first presidential vote was given for the first presidential candidate of the Republican party, and I have supported with enthusiasm every successor of Frémont, including that matchless statesman who claimed our suffrages in 1884. We cannot match ages with the Democratic party any more than that party can match achievements with us. It has lived longer, but to less purpose. "Moss-backed" cannot be predicated of a Republican. Our Democratic friends have a monopoly of that distinction, and it is one of the few distinguished monopolies that they enjoy; and yet when I hear a Democrat boasting himself of the age of his party I feel like reminding him that there are other organized evils in the world, older than the Democratic party. "The Republican party," the toast which you have assigned to me to-night, seems to have a past, a present and a future tense to it. It suggests history, and yet history so recent that it is to many here to-night a story of current events in which they have been participants. The Republican party--the influences which called it together were eclectic in their character. The men who formed it and organized it were picked men. The first assembly that sounded in its camp was a call to sacrifice, and not to spoils. It assembled about an altar to sacrifice, and in a temple beset with enemies. It is the only political party organized in America that has its "Book of Martyrs." On the bloody fields of Kansas, Republicans died for their creed, and since then we have put in that book the sacred memory of our immortal leader who has been mentioned here to-night--Abraham Lincoln--who died for his faith and devotion to the principles of human liberty and constitutional union. And there have followed it a great army of men who have died by reason of the fact that they adhered to the political creed that we loved. It is the only party in this land which in the past has been proscribed and persecuted to death for its allegiance to the principles of human liberty. After Lincoln had triumphed in that great forum of debate in his contest with Douglas, the Republican party carried that debate from the hustings to the battle-field and forever established the doctrine that human liberty is of natural right and universal. It clinched the matchless logic of Webster in his celebrated debate against the right of secession by a demonstration of its inability.

No party ever entered upon its administration of the affairs of this Nation under circumstances so beset with danger and difficulty as those which surrounded the Republican party when it took up the reins of executive control. In all other political contests those who had resisted the victorious party yielded acquiescence at the polls, but the Republican party in its success was confronted by armed resistance to national authority. The first acts of Republican administration were to assemble armies to maintain the authority of the Nation throughout the rebellious States. It organized armies, it fed them, and it fought them through those years of war with an undying and persistent faith that refused to be appalled by any dangers or discouraged by any difficulties. In the darkest days of the rebellion the Republican party by faith saw Appomattox through the smoke of Bull Run, and Raleigh through the mists of Chickamauga; and not only did it conduct this great civil war to a victorious end, not only did it restore the national authority and set up the flag on all those places where it had been overthrown and that flag torn down, but it in the act and as an incident in the restoration of national authority accomplished that act which, if no other had been recorded in its history, would have given it immortality. The emancipation of a race, brought about as an incident of war under the proclamation of the first Republican President, has forever immortalized the party that accomplished it.

But not only were these dangers and difficulties and besetments and discouragements of this long strife at home, but there was also a call for the highest statesmanship in dealing with the foreign affairs of the Government during that period of war. England and France not only gave to the Confederacy belligerent rights, but threatened to extend recognition, and even armed intervention. There was scarcely a higher achievement in the long history of brilliant statesmanship which stands to the credit of our party than the matchless management of our diplomatic relations during the period of our war; dignified, yet reserved, masterful, yet patient. Those enemies of republican liberty were held at bay until we had accomplished perpetual peace at Appomattox. That grasping avarice which has attempted to coin commercial advantages out of the distress of other nations which has so often characterized English diplomacy naturally made the Government of England the ally of the Confederacy, that had prohibited protective duties in its constitution, and yet Geneva followed Appomattox. A trinity of effort was necessary to that consummation--war, finance and diplomacy; Grant, Chase, Seward, and Lincoln over all, and each a victor in his own sphere. When 500,000 veterans found themselves without any pressing engagement, and Phil Sheridan sauntered down towards the borders of Mexico, French evacuation was expedited, and when Gen. Grant advised the English Government that our claims for the depredations committed by those rebel cruisers that were sent out from British ports to prey upon our commerce must be paid, but that we were not in a hurry about it--we could wait, but in the mean time interest would accumulate--the Geneva arbitration was accepted and compensation made for these unfriendly invasions of our rights. It became fashionable again at the tables of the English nobility to speak of our common ancestry and our common tongue. Then again France began to remind us of La Fayette and De Grasse. Five hundred thousand veteran troops and an unemployed navy did more for us than a common tongue and ancient friendships would do in the time of our distress. And we must not forget that it is often easier to assemble armies than it is to assemble army revenues. Though no financial secretary ever had laid upon him a heavier burden than was placed upon Salmon P. Chase to provide the enormous expenditures which the maintenance of our army required, this ceaseless, daily, gigantic drain upon the National Treasury called for the highest statesmanship.

And it was found, and our credit was not only maintained through the war, but the debt that was accumulated, which our Democratic friends said could never be paid, we at once began to discharge when the army was disbanded.

And so it is that in this timely effort--consisting first in this appeal to the courage and patriotism of the people of this country that responded to the call of Lincoln and filled our armies with brave men that, under the leadership of Grant and Sherman and Thomas, suppressed the rebellion, and under the wise, magnificent system of our revenue enabled us to defray our expenses, and under the sagacious administration of our State Department held Europe at bay while we were attending to the business at home. In these departments of administration the Republican party has shown itself conspicuously able to deal with the greatest questions that have ever been presented to American statesmanship for solution. We must not forget that in dealing with these questions we were met continually by the protest and opposition of the Democratic party. The war against the States was unconstitutional. There was no right to coerce sovereign States. The war was a failure, and a dishonorable peace was demanded. The legal tenders were illegal. The constitutional amendments were void. And so through this whole brilliant history of achievement in this administration we were followed by the Democratic statesman protesting against every step and throwing every impediment in the way of National success until it seemed to be true of many of their leaders that in their estimation nothing was lawful, nothing was lovely, that did not conduce to the success of the rebellion.

Now, what conclusion shall we draw? Is there anything in this story, so briefly and imperfectly told, to suggest any conclusion as to the inadequacy or incompetency of the Republican party to deal with any question that is now presented for solution or that we may meet in the progress of this people's history? Why, countrymen, these problems in government were new. We took the ship of state when there was treachery at the helm, when there was mutiny on the deck, when the ship was among the rocks, and we put loyalty at the helm; we brought the deck into order and subjection. We have brought the ship into the wide and open sea of prosperity, and is it to be suggested that the party that has accomplished these magnificent achievements cannot sail and manage the good ship in the frequented roadways of ordinary commerce? What is there now before us that presents itself for solution?

What questions are we to grapple with? What unfinished work remains to be done? It seems to me that the work that is unfinished is to make that constitutional grant of citizenship, the franchise to the colored men of the South, a practical and living reality. The condition of things is such in this country--a government by constitutional majority--that whenever the people become convinced that an administration or a law does not represent the will of the majority of our qualified electors, then that administration ceases to challenge the respect of our people and that law ceases to command their willing obedience. This is a republican government, a government by majority, the majorities to be ascertained by a fair count and each elector expressing his will at the ballot-box. I know of no reason why any law should bind my conscience that does not have this sanction behind it. I know of no reason why I should yield respect to any executive officer whose title is not based upon a majority vote of the qualified electors of this country. What is the condition of things in the Southern States to-day?

The Republican vote is absolutely suppressed. Elections in many of those States have become a farce. In the last congressional election in the State of Alabama there were several congressional districts where the entire vote for members of Congress did not reach 2,000; whereas in most of the districts of the North the vote cast at our congressional elections goes from 30,000 to 50,000. I had occasion to say a day or two ago that in a single congressional district in the State of Nebraska there were more votes cast to elect one Congressman than were cast in the State of Alabama at the same election to elect their whole delegation. Out of what does this come? The suppression of the Republican vote; the understanding among our Democratic friends that it is not necessary that they should vote because their opponents are not allowed to vote. But some one will suggest: "Is there a remedy for this?" I do not know, my fellow citizens, how far there is a legal remedy under our Constitution, but it does not seem to me to be an adequate answer. It does not seem to me to be conclusive against the agitation of the question even if we should be compelled to respond to the arrogant question that is asked us: "What are you going to do about it?" Even if we should be compelled to answer: "We can do nothing but protest," is it not worth while here, and in relation to this American question, that we should at least lift up our protest; that we should at least denounce the wrong; that we should at least deprive the perpetrators of it of what we used to call the usufructs of the crime? If you cannot prevent a burglar from breaking into your house you will do a great deal towards discouraging burglary if you prevent him from carrying off anything, and so it seems to me that if we can, upon this question, arouse the indignant protest of the North, and unite our efforts in a determination that those who perpetrate these wrongs against popular suffrage shall not by means of those wrongs seat a President in Washington to secure the Federal patronage in a State, we shall have done much to bring this wrong to an end. But at least while we are protesting by representatives from our State Department at Washington against wrongs perpetrated in Russia against the Jew, and in our popular assemblies here against the wrongs which England has inflicted upon Ireland, shall we not at least in reference to this gigantic and intolerable wrong in our own country, as a party, lift up a stalwart and determined protest against it?

But some of these independent journalists, about which our friend MacMillan talked, call this the "bloody shirt." They say we are trying to revive the strife of the war, to rake over the extinct embers, to kindle the fire again. I want it understood that for one I have no quarrel with the South for what took place between 1861 and 1865. I am willing to forget that they were rebels, at least as soon as they are willing to forget it themselves, and that time does not seem to have come yet to them. But our complaint is against what was done in 1884, not against what was done during the war. Our complaint is against what will be done this year, not what was done between 1861 and 1865. No bloody shirt--though that cry never had any terrors for me. I believe we greatly underestimate the importance of bringing the issue to the front, and with that oft-time Republican courage and outspoken fidelity to truth denouncing it the land over. If we cannot do anything else we can either make these people ashamed of this outrage against the ballot or make the world ashamed of them.