VACATION SPEECH-UTICA.

CITIZENS OF UTICA,-I feel to-night like a Grecian in the age of Demosthenes speaking to the Athenians. I shall address a few plain words to an audience educated by the statesmanlike thoughts of Horatio Seymour and the fervid eloquence of Francis Kernan. I am glad to meet you-glad not so much on my own account as for the cause that excites so deep an interest in the hearts of this great gathering. The State of New York, first in the sisterhood of American commonwealths, embraces within her borders the commercial emporium of the Union, and comprises five millions of the most active population on the face of the globe, representing every variety of the industries. I have had occasion recently to present to my fellowcitizens some observations in respect to the means of harmonizing the views of those interested in the navigation of the canals, in the improvement of the public works, and in the removal of the burdens of the taxpayers of the rural districts. Looking a little farther beyond the borders of our own State, it is impossible for us to maintain the policy most fitting for ourselves, and not shower its benefits upon our sister States. An older commonwealth, as we are, we renew and live over our youth again in the great, rising, active communities of the Northwest, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri; and I am rejoiced that it is impossible for us to protect and develop our own interest in respect to the great systems of intercommunication which traverse our State without conferring like benefits on these great Western communities.

Gentlemen, in some remarks I had occasion to address to the Board of Trade of the city of Buffalo the other day, I adverted to the fact of the remission of taxation which we had accomplished in this State. I refer to the subject to-night because the telegraphic report-wonderfully accurate in the main -stated the reduction of taxes to have been only $2,250,000, whereas it is over $2,700,000. I desire to correct this error, and make known how much has been accomplished in this respect.

A product of the increased valuation will be brought into the treasury unknown and unexpected at the time the tax-bills were enacted. The valuation is something like $200,000,000 larger this year than last, which will bring it to about $1,200,000,000. That money will be a surplus in the treasury at the end of the year. Even deducting that amount, our remission of taxes would be $1,500,000. But the appropriations have been reduced to such an extent that there will be a further surplus beyond that increase of revenue; and we shall be able, if honest men are sent to the legislative bodies who will cooperate in the work of reform and carry on the business of this State economically, to reduce the taxes from 6 mills, which they are now, to 41, and perhaps to 4 mills. They were last year 7 mills. This year we have reduced them to 6; next year we can reduce them to 4 or 4. And we can continue still further to reduce them to 2 or 2 are as low as they were before the late civil war.

mills, until they

Fellow-citizens, this is a matter of interest to you all. I ask you to give your attention to the choice of the men who are to represent you. Last year you had to elect an Assembly only; this year you are to renew the whole Senate, the whole Assembly, and the whole Canal Board, all the Legislature and the principal administrative bodies of the State. You have, therefore, at the coming election the power to work a revolution in the administration of the canals. Partial changes are of no utility. A new man of good intentions and ordinary force of character engrafted upon the existing body of officials will

accomplish nothing. What you want is a renovation of the whole system.

Gentlemen, I am not of those who accept men who seek shelter under the Democratic flag while they betray the rights and interests of the people. I am in favor now, as in 1871, of shooting as a deserter any man calling himself a Democrat who plunders the people; and I hope our Republican fellowcitizens will do the same. In elevating one party we necessarily elevate the other. I desire particularly to call the attention of the farmers of this great agricultural county, situated in the centre of the State, surrounded by other agricultural counties, to the interest they have in carrying out these great reforms. The taxes which are paid to the Federal Government are collected indirectly, and but little felt by the people. In the cities municipal taxation is the largest burden; but in the agricultural counties it is the State tax which constitutes the chief visible burden. And I call on the farmers to consider the peculiar and extraordinary degree of their interest in the reduction of State taxes.

Fellow-citizens, it is not that we withhold anything that is necessary for the public good; not that we will withdraw our aid from those great social objects with which the government usually concerns itself: but it is that we stretch out our hands and crush the spoilers of the public treasury. It has been said that the commission appointed to investigate the canal frauds have been slow. They have undoubtedly taken considerable time to carry on their investigations. But let me say to-night that they have collected a body of evidence of great accuracy and completeness that will enable the suits to proceed with rapidity and vigor. Indeed, the cases are already half tried by the labors of that commission; and it will be discovered ere long that the fruits of their work will amply answer the expectations of the people.

Gentlemen, I am on a journey from Buffalo to Albany, and have stopped over night to see some friends, and am happy to meet the citizens of this place, those who feel an interest in

good government and pure administration; and I hope that every man within the sound of my voice will bear in mind and carry with him to his home a sense of how much depends upon the part he shall act in this great work. It is not enough for you to select men who make fair professions; you are to look to what they have done hitherto. If you find them reformers who see some objection to every measure of reform and no danger or evil in plunder or fraud, but great mischief in everything intended to repress them, let these men stay at home. Let them watch in silence their own household gods, and send to the legislative bodies men who have at heart the cause of the people. Fellow-citizens, it is not to ourselves alone that we are to look when we consider what is involved in this controversy. The whole United States, and indeed other countries, are interested in it. The cause of free government has been dishonored and imperilled by the abuse, maladministration, and peculations that have recently prevailed in this country.

Whenever among the countries of the Old World men are aspiring to a larger measure of liberty and a larger share in the conduct of government, they are met by the disparagement of the free institutions of America. By the most sacred obligations, by the highest of human duties, all citizens of whatever party are bound to unite to contribute what they may to the purpose of redeeming the reputation and securing the successful working of the free institutions in this great commonwealth. Citizens, shall we have your co-operation in this great cause? Are you ready, in the coming canvass, to whatever party you may be attached, to insist that these great objects shall be paramount? You have only to will it, and the cause will go forward and onward to complete success.

XLIII.

THE Central New York Annual Fair in 1875 was held at Utica; Governor Tilden accepted an invitation to visit it on the 30th of September. The report that he was to be there drew a large crowd, estimated by the contemporary Press at "fully twenty-five thousand persons." At 2 P. M. the Governor, accompanied by ex-Governor Seymour and Senator Kernan, both of Utica, was escorted to the fair-grounds by Young's Independent Cavalry corps and the Adjutant Bacon Cadets. He was then formally presented to the assembled multitude by Mr. Thomas R. Proctor, the president of the Association, who spoke of the presence of the chief magistrate of the commonwealth as a just recognition of the important public interests in part represented by their Association. He added: "Agriculture, horticulture, and mechanics, while they are the primary sources of the prosperity of other pursuits, are eminently self-sustaining. Their greatest foe, however, is taxation, direct and indirect, when made oppressive by official peculation and corruption. We now greet you, sir, because we are naturally in full sympathy and accord with your patriotic, well-directed, and fearless efforts to relieve the people of this State, and more especially the labor which is expended on the products of the soil, from ruinous taxation. We venture to congratulate you on your success thus far, and to encourage you with an assurance of our hearty co-operation in that laudable work." When the applause which followed these remarks had subsided, Governor Tilden made the following brief address.