In considering all these things, my fellow-citizens—and I have tried to present my views and action touching them with entire frankness, and as fully as is possible in a speech of this character—it should not be forgotten that the Governor of an American State possesses no authority that is not expressly vested in him by the laws. His duties and powers are clearly defined and limited by law, and he has no more right to do any act or exercise any authority not explicitly within the scope of the laws than has any other citizen. Hundreds of men thoughtlessly say, when something they think ought to be done is left undone, “If I were Governor, I would do this and that,” when, if any one of them were Governor, he would find that he had no legal right to do what he says he would do. I have frequently, since assuming the duties of my present office, found my authority thus restricted, and although this fact has occasionally caused embarrassment and vexation, I know the limitations placed on my official power are proper and just. This is a government of laws, and not of men, and no interests, either of justice, morality, or the public welfare, will be promoted by vesting any officer with arbitrary powers or authority. If, therefore, any good citizen thinks that I have on any occasion failed to do what he believes I should have done, let him, before condemning me, ascertain whether I had any legal authority to do it; whether I had not, in fact, done all that the laws of Kansas authorize me to do; and whether, all things considered, it is not always safer and wiser to follow Davy Crockett’s rule: “Be sure you are right; then go ahead.” True courage is not illustrated by yielding to public clamor; nor are right and justice exemplified by hasty and ill-considered zeal for a good cause. The American faith in “level-headedness” is not, after all, misplaced, and the public man who, possessing the judicial quality of seeing both sides, or all sides, of any question, does the safe and the just thing in dealing with it, can afford to trust to the clear judgment and the honest instincts of the American people for his vindication and approval.
REPUBLICAN ACHIEVEMENTS.
I have not, my fellow-citizens, attempted to discuss those questions which divide the people in the larger domain of national politics. It has seemed to me that, on an occasion of this character, I should confine my remarks to a discussion of State affairs. But I am not indifferent, I could not be indifferent, to those issues of principle or of policies on which the Republican party bases its action and its faith. I am before you as a candidate of the Republican party. I have been a Republican from boyhood—an earnest, enthusiastic, loyal Republican; a Republican from conviction; a Republican who believes that the Republican party embraces in its ranks the best brain, and heart, and conscience of the American people. On every great question presented during the past thirty years, the Republican party has taken the side of justice, liberty, and eternal right. Never ashamed or afraid to espouse the cause of the poor, the ignorant, or the alien, and make their wrongs its own, it has never, on the other hand, pandered to vice or crime or cupidity for support. When it took control of the General Government, this country was a weak collection of discordant States on the verge of civil war and disunion. It crushed armed rebellion, brought the old flag back to the places from which it had been driven, and made the American Republic the greatest of civilized nations. It struck the shackles from 4,000,000 slaves, lifted them up, and enfranchised them. It opened the public lands to the people under the beneficent provisions of the homestead act. It spanned the continent with railways. It gave to the people a sound financial system and a stable currency. It revived and fostered American manufactures. It encouraged public education. It enriched our history with a long list of imperishable names that will be an inspiration and an example to our youth for generations to come—the names of Lincoln, and Grant, and Seward, and Thomas, and Garfield, and a host of others. And finally, when fraud and terrorism in the South and vilification and falsehood in the North had accomplished their ends, and this great party surrendered the trusts it had so long controlled, did its opponents and traducers, after the most patient and careful investigation, discover any facts or evidence to justify the ignorant and brutal accusations they had made against Republican honesty and competency? Not a single fact. Not a shadow of evidence. They “counted the money,” and it was all there—every penny of it. They investigated the books, they scanned every account, they scrutinized every item and figure, and they found nothing to criticise. And at last, one of the most prejudiced Democrats in the country was compelled to declare, and did declare, that he had been amazed at the perfect system, accuracy and integrity with which the business of his department had been conducted by the Republicans.
THE “RASCALS” WHO WERE TURNED OUT.
But they “turned the rascals out.” Oh, yes—that business has been attended to with promptness and regularity. An unending procession of “rascals” has been moving out for a year and a half. “Rascals” who had invaded the sacred soil of Virginia and Kentucky; who had stolen negroes and made them free; who had been with Grant at Vicksburg and in the Wilderness, and with Thomas at Mission Ridge, and with Sherman on the march to Atlanta and the sea, and with Meade at Gettysburg. Some of these “rascals” had grown old and gray; some limped out painfully, because of old wounds; some wore a vacant sleeve; some had voted against that great Democratic patriot, Vallandigham; and some had, years before, been guilty of singing a song about hanging a great Democratic statesman on a sour-apple tree. Men guilty of such “rascalities” as these of course deserved to be “turned out,” and they were promptly bounced.
DEMOCRATIC PATRIOTS AND MARTYRS WHO CAME IN.
In their stead, a long line of Democratic martyrs and patriots marched in—men who had “fought four years for their Democracy” under Lee, or Bragg, or Joe Johnston; men who had expatriated themselves to the wilds of Canada to avoid Lincoln’s “bastiles;” men who had wandered through the timbers of the Wabash or the Miami bottoms hunting their lodge of “Knights of the Golden Circle” or “Sons of Liberty;” men who had rejoiced over every disaster to the Union arms, and mourned over every Union victory; men who had denounced that gentle and loving Greatheart, Abraham Lincoln, as a “tyrant,” a “baboon,” and an “ape;” men who had assailed our great commander, Ulysses S. Grant, as a “bloody butcher” and a “drunken tanner”—these, in large measure, were the “honest patriots” who marched in, while the drums beat and the fifes whistled the old familiar tune, “Turn the rascals out;” and the Democratic party of Kansas, assembled in State convention, formally indorsed and approved this programme by adopting a resolution that “the soldiers and sailors of the late war”—not Union soldiers, not loyal soldiers, mind you, but “soldiers of the late war,” Confederate as well as Union—“are entitled to the first consideration in appointments.”
CONCLUSION.
My fellow-citizens, the issues of this campaign are of vital importance to the prosperity and happiness of this State and this Nation. Republicans of Kansas, remember that in less than two years from this time we will be in the midst of a Presidential campaign. Do your duty now, and the result then will be assured. Support with voice and pen and vote, the candidates of your party—the men who represent convictions, principles, and policies approved by your judgment, and dear to your hearts. There has never been a time, from 1860 down to the present moment, when the Republican party more fully deserved the support of all loyal and just-minded men than it does now. Rally around the old banner of Republicanism—the flag of Lincoln, and Grant, and Garfield, and Logan, and Blaine. Vote with and for the party that gave liberty to the slave, and restored the Union and brought back peace and prosperity to bless a distracted and impoverished land. Vote with the party that has made Kansas famous throughout the civilized world as a State where unexampled material growth has gone hand in hand with unexampled social and intellectual progress. Vote with the party that is striving to make every home in Kansas a prosperous and happy home. Vote for the party that is always and everywhere the party of good government, of social order, of liberty and law. Do this, do it earnestly and faithfully, and the benediction of an approving conscience will fall upon and abide with you forever.