Chapter XVI: Appendix (5)

The Republicans enter upon this important canvass with many
advantages. Their adversaries are loaded down with the record of
the last legislature. Democratic legislatures have not been
fortunate in Ohio. Since the present division of parties, twenty
years ago, no Democratic legislature has ever failed to bring
defeat to its party. The people of Ohio have never been willing to
venture on the experiment of two Democratic legislatures in
succession. The Democratic inflation platform offends German
Democrats, has driven off the Liberal Republicans, and is accepted
by very few old-fashioned Democrats in its true intent and meaning.
The Republicans are out of power in the cities and in the State,
and are everywhere taking the offensive. If Democrats assail them
on account of some affair of years ago, or in a distant Southern
State, or at Washington, Republicans reply by pointing to what
Democrats are now doing in their own cities, or have just done in
the last legislature. The materials for such retort are abundant
and ready at hand. The Republicans are embarrassed by no entangling
alliance with the sectarian enemies of the public schools, and they
have yielded to no sectarian demands or dictation in public
affairs. We rejoice to see indications of an active canvass and a
large vote at the election. Such a canvass and such a vote in Ohio
never yet resulted in a Democratic victory. Our motto is honest
money for all and free schools for all. There should be no
inflation which will destroy the one, and no sectarian interference
which will destroy the other.

_Speech of_ GOVERNOR HAYES _to his neighbors at Fremont, delivered June 25, 1876._

_Mr. Mayor, Fellow-Citizens, Friends, and Neighbors:_

I need not attempt to express the emotions I feel at the reception
which the people of Fremont and this county have given me to-night.
Under any circumstances, an assemblage of this sort at my home to
welcome me would touch me, would excite the warmest emotions of
gratitude; but what gives to this its distinctive character is the
fact that those who are prominent in welcoming me home, I know, in
the past, have not voted with me or for me, and they do not intend
in the future to vote with me or for me. It is simply that, coming
to my home, they rejoice that Ohio, that Sandusky county, that the
town of Fremont has received at that National Convention high
honor, and I thank you, Democrats, fellow-citizens, Independents,
and Republicans, for this spontaneous and enthusiastic reception.

I trust that in the course of events the time will never come that
you will have cause to regret what you do to-night. It is a very
great responsibility that has been placed upon me--to be a
representative of a party embracing twenty millions of people--a
responsibility which I know I am not equal to. I understand very
well that it was not by reason of ability or talents that I was
chosen. But that which does rejoice me is that here, where I have
been known from my childhood, there are those that come and rejoice
at the result.

I trust, my friends, that as I run along in this desultory way--for
you well know that since I learned that I was to be here to-night,
the multitude of letters, and visits, and telegrams requiring
attention have given me no time to prepare for a reception like
this--you must, therefore, put up with hastily-formed sentences,
very unfitly representing the sentiments appropriate to the
occasion. Let me, if I may do it without too much egotism, recur to
the history of my connection with Fremont. Forty-two years ago my
uncle, Sardis Birchard, brought me to this place, and I rejoice, my
friends, in the good taste and good feeling which have placed his
portrait here to-night. He, having adopted me as his child, brought
me to Fremont. I recollect well the appearance of the then Lower
Sandusky, consisting of a few wooden buildings scattered along the
river, with little paint on them, and these trees none of them
grown, the old fort still having some of its earthworks remaining,
so that it could be easily traced. A pleasant village this was for
a boy to enjoy himself in. There was the fishing on the river,
shooting water-fowls above the dam, at the islands and the lake.
Perhaps no boy ever enjoyed his departure from home better than I
did when I first came to Fremont.

But now see what this town is,--how it has grown. It has not
increased to a first-class city, but it has become a pleasant home,
so pleasant, so thriving that I rejoice to think that whatever may
be the result next fall it will be pleasant to return to it when
the contest is over. If defeated, I shall return to you oftener
than if I go to the White House. If I go there I shall look forward
with pleasure to the time when I shall be permitted to return to
you, to be a neighbor with you again. And really we have cause to
be satisfied with our home and the interests which the future has
in store for us here. Larger cities always have strife and rivalry,
from which we are free, and yet we are well situated between two
commercial centers, the Eastern and Western, between which is the
great highway of the world, and we can not but partake of their
prosperity. Over the railroad passing through this place, or near
it, will pass for all time to come the travel and trade of New York
and San Francisco, of London and Pekin. Every town along this route
partakes of the prosperity of this highway. Upper Sandusky, on the
Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad, and Tiffin, that
thriving and beautiful city through which passes the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad, south of us, while along the lake shore passes the
great northern division of the Lake Shore Road, making this route,
as it were, the great artery of the world's travel, and we can
abide with the prosperity that is to come in the future. Those of
our friends who travel in Europe return sometimes dissatisfied,
because there is a rawness in this country not seen in England and
the older countries of Europe. But then the greatest happiness, as
all of us know, in preparing a garden or a home is to see the
improvements growing up under our hands. This is what we enjoy; and
the change in Fremont from the time I first knew it till to-day
gives me very great pleasure.

There is another change which gives rise to mournful reflections.
When I came here in the year 1834, I became acquainted with honored
citizens who are no longer living. There was, Mr. Mayor, your
father, Rudolphus Dickinson, Thomas I. Hawkins, Judge Olmsted,
Judge Howland, and, among others, that marvel of business energy,
George Grant; and I might go on giving name after name. But it is
true that of all those I remember seeing on that first visit, not
one is with us to-night. All who came with me, my uncle, my mother,
and my sister, are gone. But this is the order of Providence.
Events follow upon one another as wave follows wave upon the ocean.
It is for each man to do what he can to make others happy. This is
the prayer and this is the duty of life. Let us, my friends, in
every position, undertake to perform this duty. For one, I have no
reliance except that which Abraham Lincoln had when, on leaving
Springfield, he said to his friends: "I go to Washington to assume
a responsibility greater than that which has been devolved upon any
one since the first president, and I beg you, my friends and
neighbors, to pray that I may have that Divine assistance, without
which I can not succeed, and with which I can not fail." In that
spirit I ask you to deal with me. If it shall be the will of the
people that this nomination shall be ratified, I know I shall have
your good wishes and your prayers. If, on the other hand, it shall
be the will of the people that another shall assume these great
responsibilities, let us see to it that we who shall oppose him
give him a fair trial.

My friends, I thank you for the interest you have taken in this
reception, and that you have laid aside partisan feeling. There has
been too much bitterness on such occasions in our land. Let us see
to it that abuse and vituperation of the candidate that shall be
named at St. Louis do not proceed from our lips. Let us, in this
centennial year, as we enter upon this second century of our
existence, set an example of what a free and intelligent people can
do. There is gathered at Philadelphia an assemblage representing
nearly all the Nations of the world, with their arts and
manufactures. We have invited competition, and they have come to
compete with us, and with each other. We find that America stands
well with the works of the world, as there exhibited. Let us show,
in electing a chief magistrate of the Nation--the officer that is
to be the first of forty or forty-five millions--let us show all
those who visit us how the American people can conduct themselves
through a canvass of this kind. If it shall be in the spirit in
which we have met to-night, if it shall be that justness and
fairness shall be in all the discussions, it will commend free
institutions to the world in a way which they have never been
commended before.

Well, friends, I am detaining you too long. Therefore I close what
I have to say by expressing the feelings of gratitude entertained
by myself and family for the kindness and regard shown us by the
people of Fremont.

About the middle of the war, General Sherman lost a boy, named
after himself, aged about thirteen years. He supposed that he
belonged to the Thirteenth Infantry, and when they went out to
drill and dress parade, he dressed in the dress of a sergeant and
marched with them. But he sickened and died. The regiment gathered
about him, for he was to them a comrade--dear as the child is loved
by men who are torn away from the associations of home. General
Sherman, the great soldier, was touched by it. He said it would be
idle for him to try to express the gratitude which he felt; but he
said they held the key to the affections of himself and family, and
if any of them should ever be in need, if they would mention that
they belonged to the Thirteenth Infantry at the time his boy died,
they would divide with him the last blanket, and last morsel of
food. It is in this spirit that I wish to express my thanks to the
people of Fremont for the welcome they have given me. I bid you, my
friends, good night.