But happily all the great principles to maintain which the Republican Party was founded have been long since settled. It is true that Mr. Blaine in his skillful letter of acceptance [laughter] has at last expressed positive opinion on one subject. He has come out as an ardent friend of civil service reform [cheers and laughter] now that the country has declared for it; but in the days when the principle of civil service reform was struggling and weak it received no assistance from this once influential Republican leader.

But, gentlemen, we have not taken the action which brings us here to-day without remonstrances from our party associates. They have rung the changes on political allegiance; that the results of the war will be nullified; that labor will be paralyzed and capital destroyed if the Democratic Party should come into power, and they have told us that if Blaine is elected he will make the country respected in the eyes of foreign nations. To all such suggestions we have been impervious. [Cries of "Yes, Sir."] We reply that the constitutional interpretations settled by the war are not disputed; that the Democrats, who are at least half the people in the country, have no desire, and can have no interest, to check the national prosperity, and we say that the country is respected now throughout the world for its power, its energy, and its resources, and that it will so continue unless some aggressive and magnetic President succeeds in making it ridiculous. [Wild cheers and applause, the audience rising to its feet and waving hats and handkerchiefs in the air.]

There has not been much in such considerations as these to make us support an obnoxious candi

date. But our party friends appeal to our sympathies. They ask us if we will indorse the Copiah outrage and support a party which carries its elections only by intimidation, I answer that we yield to none in our condemnation of these acts. But before all things we will be just, and not charge upon the whole South acts which belong to one or two small communities alone. Our Republican critics know, and know it as well as any men living, that these occurrences could not have been prevented by any action of the Federal GovIf they could why was there no interference at the last general election?

ernment.

No, gentlemen: the truth is that time and education and the influences of Christianity must be relied upon to prevent these crimes. None can deny, and ought not to fail to recognize, that such occurrences as those at Copiah, once so common, are now exceptional. But, however that may be, we are not to be turned from our plain and obvious duty by appeals to sectional feeling or our sympathies. We do not give up our right to condemn outrages in the South any more than our right to condemn political dishonesty.

Let us declare that we stand together, and that we ask our fellow-citizens to join us, to make our protest effectual against Mr. Blaine's election. Let us try to impress upon the voters by our words and acts that political straightforwardness is better than political success, and when we have done our work here let us go to our homes and use such influence as we have to further the cause which we conceive to be the cause of our country. (Longcontinued cheering.)

LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF

HON. THOMAS A. HENDRICKS,

THE NOMINEE OF THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION FOR THE OFFICE OF VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

THE

CHAPTER VII.

YOUNGER YEARS OF THOMAS A.

HENDRICKS-WHERE

HE WAS BORN-HIS PARENTS AND RELATIVES-HE ATTENDS VILLAGE SCHOOL AND LATER ENTERS COLLEGE-STUDIES LAW AND IS ADMITTED TO THE BAR-ELECTED TO THE LEGISLATUREMEMBER OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION AND OF CONGRESS -UNITED STATES Senator, GOVERNOR OF INDIANA AND TWICE CANDIDATE FOR THE VICE-PRESIDENCY.

On the evening of Saturday, the 12th day of July, hardly twenty-four hours after the nominations were made by the Chicago Convention, a very largely attended Democratic meeting was held at Indianapolis, Indiana, to ratify the nominations of Cleveland and Hendricks. Messrs. Hendricks and McDonald, whose name had also been mentioned in connection with the ticket, were escorted to the meeting by a new political labor organization, named the "Autocrats." Mr. Hendricks was received with genuine enthusiasm, and defined his principles in the following speech:

66

My fellow-citizens-You come to celebrate and

K

to express your approval of the nominations that were made at Chicago. I am glad that you are cordial in this expression. This is a great year with us. Every fourth year the people elect the two great officers of the government. This year is our great year, and every man, whatever his party associations may be, is called upon to reconsider all questions upon which he is disposed to act, and having reconsidered, to cast his vote in favor of what he believes to be right. The Democracy of Indiana appointed me one of the delegates to the Convention at Chicago. I spent nearly a week in attendance in that city. I return to say a few things to you, and only a few things, in regard to that Convention. It was the largest Convention ever held in America. Never has such an assemblage of people been seen before. It was a Convention marked in its character for sobriety, deliberation and purposes. It selected two men to carry the banner, and leaving that Convention and going out before the people, the question is, Will you help carry the banner?' [Great cheering and cries of We will do it.']

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"I do not expect that I will escape the criticism, and, it may be, the slander of the opposite party. I have not in my life suffered very much from that, but I come before you, Democrats, conservatives, independents and all men who wish to restore the government to the position it occupied before these corrupt times, and to all such men I make my appeal for your support for the high office for which I have been nominated by the Democracy at Chicago. [Great cheers]. Grover Cleveland, Governor of New York, is the nominee for President. He was promoted to that high office by the highest

majority ever deciding an election in that State. He is a man of established honesty of character and if you will elect him to the Presidency of the United States, you will not hear of Star routes in the postal service of the country under his administration. [Cheers.] I will tell you what we need -Democrats and Republicans will alike agree upon that we need to have the books in the government offices opened for examination. [Cheers and cries of That is it.'] Do you think that men in this age never yield to temptation? [Laughter.] It is only two years ago that one of the Secretaries at Washington was called before a Senate committee to testify in regard to the condition of his department. In that department was the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. In that department an examination was being had by the Committee from the Senate, and it was ascertained by the oath of the Secretary that sits at the head of the department that the defalcation found during the last year, as far as it had been estimated, was $63,000."

Such a speech is what can justly be expected of a gentleman whom the Democratic party-the staunch advocate of reform, economy and good government has honored with the nomination for one of the highest and most exalted offices of the nation.

THOMAS ANDREWS HENDRICKS

was born on a farm near Zanesville, Muskingum county, Ohio, on the 7th day of September, 1819.