Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1865-06-03
QDbll(o) Statessjlnan, 81
LET E II

IL H. IL IL L. 10
S~a~7 FROM .-
HON. Gil. VALLANDIGHAM,
To the "Young Mems Democratic Association
,, Of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
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 compli-
ance in person would be most agreeable to
me, do not believe that either time or
circumstances is auspicious justnow for ac-
tive political agitation. But avail myself
of your kind request, to present, very re-
spectiully, in writing, few thoughts upon
the present position and duty of the DEM
ocratic party. At the best they can be but
conjecture in part, and in part suggestion /;
for he would De a bold man, and ought to
be omniscient of as well the future as the
present, who should attempt to lay down, in
these times, when the scenes change with
the diversity, audiences and marvellous
contrariety of theatric representation, fix
ed rule of policy upon any public question.
Yet with this qualification, and speaking
for myself only, shall address you with
becoming freedom and candor. | do not,
indeed, conceal from myself the apprehen-
sion that we are rather at the beginning
/ than the end of a great revolution, and tn It
free institutions in America are to-day far
more upon trial than at any period during
the past four years. If, indeed, the agen-
cies of force were at once to give place to
the arts of peace, and placid liberty regula-
fed nv law. 91Lb tn sllppppn thn aNnrl
the melancholy forebodings of the more
thoughtful among us might yet prove to be
the vain fears OF men whom much learning
In history and an enlarged study of human
nature have made timid. | surrender my
\ self willingly, however, for the present, to
I the cheering illusion OF those who believe
that miraculous power will again interpose,
and great calm, at the word of command,
follow the tempestuous raging of the sea.
The Democratic organization will, of
course, be maintained. Surviving every
change of party and policy from near the
beginning of the Government to this day /;
often triumphant, sometimes defeated,
never conquered; always adhering, as ana
tional organization, to the essential princi-
piles Of its founders, but adapting its poll
cies, so far as these principles admitted, to
the changing circumstances of the country (;
uulluR CNCu JuC RICdI uduHtIo
an the mistakes of the past four years, and
at the end, numbering one million eight
hundred thousand votersi in the States which
adhered to the UniOn-a number larger
within the same States than at any previous
election-it needs now only reorganization
and discipline to make it powerful at cnce
and ultimately triumphant. For myself
under no circumstances, will consent that
the Democratic organization be dissolved,
so long as it shall have vitality enough to
hold together. The masses of the party
will never agree to the surrender, whatever
'the leaders" so called, might attempt
The fundamental principles of the Demo-
cratic party, of course also, must remain
unchanged so long as our Federal system,
or even any form of demOcratic-republican
Government, shall SURVIVES; and especially
| its true STATE-RtGHTs DoCTRINE--not
Modification, not Secession, but the theory
of our system laid down in the Virginia
and Kentucky Resolutions of 1893, as in
terpreted by their Sauthors; the one by
Madison in his Report in 1899, and the other
by Jefferson in his solemn official Inaugur-
al Of 1901. Thus interpreted they were,
and, doubt not, still are the constitutional
doctrines of the new President, SO long as
these constitute the accepted theory and
the practice under our system, there can be
no consolidated governments either Repub-
lie or Monarchy, in the States which now
make up the American Union. The other
general principles of the Democratic party
are but variations or amplifications of the
maxims, ,"the greatest good to the greatest
number" "the interests of the Masses"
"thc rights of the many against the exac-
tions Of the few"-axioms which, though
the demagogue may misuse or abuse them,
lie, nevertheless, at the foundation of all
democratical government.
! But true as all this is, it would be the ex-
ltreme of folly not to comprehend and recog-
)nize that as to men. and policies, tile events
of the past four years, and especially of the
last five weeks, have wrought q radical
change. Old things have passed away; all
things become new. New books, as Mr..
Webster said upon an occasion of far less
significance, are now to be opened. A new
epoch in the American era has been reach
ed ;and he who cannot now realize, or is not
willing to accept this great fact, would do
well to retire to his closet and confine him
self to funebral meditations over the history
of the dead past, or airy speculations upon
the impossible future. He may become an
instructor, but is not fit to be an actor in
the stirring scenes which are before us.
The time will, indeed, come, and may not
be far distant, when it will be justifiable
and may be necessary to inquire into the
causes of the civil war just now apparent
ly at an end, and to institute scrutiny into
the measure of guilt of those who are re-
sponsible for ii, as well North as South
and it is fortunate that we have President
who, upon neither side, is among its authors
unless, indeed, his support OF General
Breckenridge for the Presidency in 1860 be
reckoned up against him. In all else, at
least, whatever may have been his position
during the war, or shall be his course now,
he is guiltless. Upon the other hand, by
our political foes, the line of conduct of
those who opposed the war, demanded con-
was the shortest, easiest (cheapestS road to
the Union, and of those who, marching in
the same direction, but along the rugged
and bloody highway ofcwar, denounced
only the policies of the late Administration,
will be called inquestion. For myself am
ready to answer, and by the record to be
adiudged. III erred, twas in the glorious
company of the patriot founders Of our
peculiar system of government. And d'now,
accepting The new order OF things, yet en-
ter upon uo defense for adhering to the last
moment, to the policies of those great men,
adopted and sanctioned as these policies
were,l by the second generation of Ameri-
can statesmen. So far from II, would con-
form yet, as far as possible, to their teach
ings and practice. We may not, indeed, be
ready to follow the enthusiast who had
rather, err with Plato than be right with
other men; yet neither are we far enough
corrupted, / trust, to be obliged to apollo
gize for accepting Washington, Jefferson,
Sherman, Hamilton, Webster, Clay and
jackson, asexemPlars worthy of study and