To the Editor: In your account of the Democratic rally at Lexington I noticed that mention is made of the delegation from Merna carrying a banner with the inscription "Irish of Merna all for Hancock." I assume the authority to say that the "Irish of Merna are not all for Hancock," although the Democratic speakers of Bloomington have made several speeches at Merna, telling what distress the country is now in under the bad management of the Republican party.

About the surplus. They say that there are one hundred millions of dollars in the United States treasury, and bring that in as an act of stealing from the people. Where is the nation, where is the state, county or town, where is the church, the school or one of the different societies that does not boast of it when they have money in their treasury? Should Democracy get control I fear the money would not be in the treasury very long. How much money was in the treasury when Buchanan and his Democratic cabinet left the White House and turned over this government to the Republican party, all tattered and torn and nearly in a state of insurrection?

Should the Democratic party get into power this fall the reins of this government will be peaceably placed in their hands, with the ship of state sailing in a clear channel. About the tariff. The Democratic speakers tell their audience that boots and shoes are too high, and that a change in the administration will be the adoption of free trade, which will compel the manufacturers of this country to bring down their prices or close up business. The Republican party don't want to close up the manufacturing business of this country by adopting any such measures, for England can undersell any other nation on the globe. Her labor costs little or nothing, and I believe that I know that the majority of the people of the United States do not want to give England a chance to bring her old store goods and land them on our shores free from tariff for the purpose of under-selling our own tradesmen.

The effect on Ireland. In or about the year 1800 Ireland was one of the most prosperous manufacturing countries in Europe. She continued such until about the year 1820, when England succeeded in persuading the Irish Parliament to adopt the free-trade system. As soon as that was accomplished, England unloaded her cargoes of goods free from tariff on Ireland's shores, and down went Ireland's manufacturing establishments. Look at the condition in which the Democratic party left this country in 1860-61. It took fifty bushels of good sound corn (not soft whisky corn) delivered in Bloomington to buy a pair of $5 boots; farm hands husked corn for 50 cents a day; thousands of farms were under mortgage; there was no money to pay with; the situation was terrible in the extreme until the Republican party, fully competent to meet the emergency, issued the greenback dollar that was welcomed by the laborer and the farmer and drove out the Democratic stump-tail currency, but was despised by the capitalists, who had their money loaned on farms and on other real estate on mortgages drawn payable in gold coin. They refused to take the greenback for a dollar, but the Republican party said this is a dollar and you must take it, which filled with joy the hearts of many a father, wife and mother. Men that I know, and many of them who had very close picking to live under the Democratic administration, are now, by industry, close attention to business, and with the Republican flag of freedom floating over their heads, marching along unmolested in their business, yes, protected in their industries and enterprises until they are now wealthy. If they had to pay off their mortgages in gold coin money a poor man would have lost his home, for it took about three dollars in greenbacks to buy one gold dollar. I am one of the many that once went to pay off a mortgage of that kind, the amount being five hundred and fifty dollars, including interest, due to a well-known capitalist of Bloomington. I tendered the money to him in greenbacks. He said, "No, sir, I want about sixteen hundred dollars of them things or five hundred and fifty in gold." I insisted that he should take the greenbacks. He said he would see his attorney, George O. Robinson, a well-known lawyer of Bloomington, and after so doing he accepted my money and released the mortgage. And this is only one instance in thousands of such cases all over the United States. When the Southern majority of the Democratic party rebelled against the Union they took what gold they could get hold of to Richmond and left us but very little to meet our obligations. And now, after twenty years of Republican administration, faithful and true to their trust, and to the people of all sections and classes, they, by economy and good management, have succeeded in being able to place in the treasury of the United States the sum of over four hundred millions of gold dollars to the credit of the people of the United States, ready when called upon to be paid out to the just claimant. That is the way every honest man meets his just debts. He always has it ready if he possibly can. There are a great many first voters and other young men that, of course, have no personal knowledge of how a Democratic administration would suit them, because they have had no experience with the party. They have never seen the party in control of the government. If they would look back just as far as they can remember and notice the progress this country has made for the last twenty years they must say that the Republican administration was good, was a great deal better than good, taking into consideration the deplorable condition that the Democratic administration had left it in: Shooting down loyal men in the South, tearing the Stars and Stripes, the flag of this country, into pieces and trampling it under their feet, while the riotous Democrats of the North formed into howling mobs against the Federal Government, and by so doing gave the rebel cause more encouragement than if they were in the rebel ranks fighting for the rebel cause. These are incidents in the history of the Democratic party; with all these facts in view and facts that they know to be true, they have the cheek every four years to come to the front and claim that they are the party that should hold the reins of this government. It remains for the voters of the United States to answer at the coming election.

Now, Mr. Editor, in answer to that false inscription displayed at Lexington. I have been ill in bed for seven weeks, but am now able to be out-doors, and if I am alive on election day I will be one of the many Irishmen of Merna, Towanda Township, McLean County, Illinois, that will vote for Garfield and Arthur, for they are the nominees of the party that has always proved itself true to the people and the nation and the nation's credit. The time has not yet arrived when a change of administration would be best for the public good, and the voters of the United States will see to it at the coming election that the reins of this government will be held and guided by its friends and not by its enemies.