Two days after, a petition was forwarded, signed by two hundred influential Republican and non-partisan voters of the second district, containing the words, we "most urgently solicit you to accept the nomination given you."
His acceptance being demanded on the ground of duty, he returned to Cincinnati and made the canvass. At Glendale, on September 4, he delivered a lengthy speech, from which we take these extracts:
Fellow-citizens:
My purpose in addressing you this evening is to spread before the people of the second district my views on the questions of National policy which now engage the public attention.
In the present condition of the country, two things are of vital importance—peace and a sound financial policy. We want peace—honorable peace—with all nations; peace with the Indians, and peace between all of the citizens of all of the States. We want a financial policy so honest that there can be no stain on the National honor and no taint on the National credit; so stable that labor and capital and legitimate business of every sort can confidently count upon what it will be the next week, the next month, and the next year. We want the burdens of taxation so justly distributed that they will bear equally upon all classes of citizens in proportion to their ability to sustain them.
We want our currency gradually to appreciate, until, without financial shock or any sudden shrinkage of values, but in the natural course of trade, it shall reach the uniform and permanent value of gold. With lasting peace assured, and a sound financial condition established, the United States and all of her citizens may reasonably expect to enjoy a measure of prosperity without a parallel in the world's history.
When the debates of the last presidential election were in progress, four years ago, there were troubles with other nations threatening the public peace, and, in particular, there was a most difficult, irritating, and dangerous controversy with Great Britain, which it seemed almost impossible peaceably to settle. Now we are at peace with all nations; the American government is everywhere abroad held in the highest honor; and an example of submitting National disputes to the decision of a court of arbitration has been set, which is of incalculable value to the world.
Four years ago, and for a considerable period since, the public peace has been broken or threatened in a majority of the late slave States, by bands of lawless men, oath bound, disguised, and armed, who, by terror, by scourging, and by assassination, undertook to deprive unoffending citizens, both white and colored, of their most cherished rights, for no reason except a difference of political sentiment. Now these organizations have, it is claimed by their political associates, disbanded. Large numbers of citizens in those States, heretofore hostile to the recent amendments to the constitution, and to the equal rights of colored people, declare themselves satisfied with those amendments, and ready to maintain the constitutional rights of colored citizens. Notwithstanding the predictions of our adversaries, that to confer political rights upon colored people would lead to a war of races, white people and colored people are now voting side by side in all of the old slave States, and their elections are quite as free from violence and disorder as they were when whites alone were the voters. In a word, peace prevails in the South to an extent which, under the circumstances, the ablest statesmen among our adversaries three years ago pronounced impossible. The watchword of the Republican party four years ago was "Let us have peace." A survey of every field where the public peace was then imperiled, of our affairs with foreign nations, with the Indians, and in the South, shows that the pledge implied in that famous watchword has been substantially made good, and that, if the people continue to stand by the government, the peace we now enjoy will be continued and enduring.