titude, and especially
to be here in this good county of Jefferson, whose representatives
have thrice honored me by their vote when a candidate for the Senate
of the United States. I cheerfully come to speak on matters in
which you, as well as the whole people of the United States, have
a common interest; and I will best meet your wishes by stating, in
a plain, frank way, such facts and reasons as appear to me to
justify the support you have uniformly given to the Republican
party since its organization in 1854, and to present adequate
grounds for supporting it now.

"Three parties present candidates to the people of Ohio for the
highest offices of the state. It will not be necessary or just
for me to arraign the personal character, standing, or services of
either of the candidates on either of these tickets. They are all
respected citizens, and each would, no doubt, if elected, satisfactorily
perform the duties of the office for which he is nominated.

"But the issues involved are far more important than the candidates.
I assure you that upon the election in Ohio depend questions of
public policy which touch upon the framework of our government and
affect the interests of every citizen of the United States. The
same old questions about which we disputed before the war, and
during the war, and since the war, are as clearly involved in this
campaign as they were when Lincoln was elected, or when Grant was
fighting the battles of his country in the Wilderness.

"There are also financial questions involved in this contest. The
Republican party proposed, maintained, and executed the resumption
act as the best remedy for the evils that followed the panic of
1873. Under that act it has brought about the resumption of specie
payments. By its policy all forms of money are equal to and
redeemable in coin. It has reduced the interest on all the public
debt that is now redeemable. It has maintained and advanced the
public credit. It now declares its purpose to hold fast to what
it has done, to keep and maintain every dollar of paper money in
circulation as of equal value to the best coin issued from the
mint, and as soon as possible to complete the work of reducing
interest on all the public debt to four per cent. or less.

"The Greenback party not only denounces all we have done, but
proposes to reverse it by the issue of an almost unlimited amount
of irredeemable paper money, to destroy the system of free national