Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1865-06-29
LEI TER 1"IsoNI
HON. G.. L.. YAILANDlGHEA

HON. G. L.. VALLANDlGIzAM.
TO THE
YOUNG MEMS DLlr CRATIC A&SOCLA IION
OF LANCASTER, rENNsYLvASIA.
GENTLEMEN From your President and
Secretaries, as also from individual mem
bers, have, within the past three months,
received repeated cordial invitations to ad
dress your Association. While Il compli-
ance in person would be most agreeable to
me, | do not believe that either time or cir
cumstancc is auspicious Just now for active
| political agitation. Bat | avail myself Of
your kind request, to present, very respect
| fully, in writing, few thoughts upon the
present position and duty Of the Democrat
ic party. At the best they can be but CON
lecture in part, ami in part suggcstion for
he would be bold man, and ought to be
omniscient Of rs well the future a, the pres
ent, who should attempt TO lay down, in
these times, when the scenes change with
the diversity, suddoness and marvellous
contrariety OF theatric representation, a fixed
rule Of policy upon any public question:
Yet with this qualification, and speaking
for myself only, | shall address you with be-
coming freedom and candor.
do not, indeed, conceal from myself the
ginning than the end Of a great revolutions
and that free institutions in America are
to-day far more upon trial than at any
period during the past four years. IT, in
deed, the agencies Of force were at once to
give place to the arts Of peace and placid
liberty regulated by law, sub Iio rcge to
succeed the sword the melancholy fore
bodings of the more thoughtful among us
might yet prove to be the vain fears of men
whom much learning in history and an en-
larged study Of human nature have made
timid. | surrender myself willingly, how
ever, for the present, to the cheering illusion
of those that believe that miraculous power
will again intcrposc, and Il great calm, at
the word Of command, follow the tempcStu-
Gus rngingS of the sea.
The Democratic organization will, of
course, be maintained. Surviving every
| beginning of the Government to this day,
often ntriumphant, sometimes defeated, never
conquered always adhearing as IL national
organization, to the essential principles of
its founders, but adapting its policies, so far
as these principles admitted, to the chang
ing circumstances of the country enduring,
even through the great dangers and the
mistakes of the past four years, and at the
end, numbering one million eight hundred
thousand voters in the States which adhered
to the Union-a number larger within thc
same States than nt anv nrevious election
ii needs now only REORGANIZATION and dis
ciplinc to make it powerful at once, and ul-
timately triumphant For myself, under
no circumstances, will | consent that the
Democratic organization be Dissolved, SO long
as it shall have vitality enough to hold to-
pether. The masses ofthe party will never
srree TO the surrender, whatever "the
leaders, so called. might attempt
The Fundamental PRINCIPLES of the Dem
ocratic party. of course, also must remain
UNCHANGED so long as our Federal system
or even anv form of democratic rep,ibican
government, shall srryiye-and especiallv
its true State RIGHTS Doctrine-not nulliG-
cation, not secession; but the theory of our
system laid down in the Virginia and Ken
tuckv Resolutions fl79S. as internreted nv
their outhors. the one Nv Madison in his
rnnort in ZOO and the otber bv .Teffcrson
in his solemn official inaurural Of lSOl -
Thns INTERPRETED thew were and donbt
NOT still are the constitutional doctrines of
the new President So Iong as these consti.
tnte tbe accented theory and tbe nr,ctice
under ous svsten there can be M rconsoli.
dated government either ronnblic or mon
archy. in the States which make M the
American Union. The other general prin-
c;nles of tbe Democratic nartv nre but ynri-
at;ons or qualifications of the maxims,-
sTThe greatest GOOD TO the greatest number, "
"the interests of the masses" 'the rights
ofthc many against the eyactions of the
fcw''--oxioms which. thoupb the demapogue
nav misuse or abuse them lie ncvertIcless,
at the foundation of ali democratical goy-
eminent
RI t,,,o .S oil tb;sie Il wouId ho tbo ev
treme of folly not to comprehend and recog-
nize @ tbat as as to men and policies the event
NJ The mast FAM Years, and esncciullv ofthe