The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1865-06-07
LETTER FROM
VALtANDIGHAM
YOUNG MEMS DEMOCRATIC
ASSOCIATION"
OfLancaster, Pennsylvania.
TO THE

H -taaiH
GENTLEMEN From your President
and Secretaries, as also from individual
members, l have, within the past three
months, received repeated cordial invita-
tions to address your Association. While
compliance in person would be most
agreeable to me, do not believe that
either time or circumstance is auspicious
just now for active political agitation
But l avail myself Of your kind request,
to present. very respectfully, in writing,
! few thoughts on the present. position
and duty OF the Democratic party. AT
the best they can be but conjecture in
part, and in part suggestion; for he would
be bold man, and ought to be omnis
cieHt Of as well the future as the present,
who should attempt to lay down, in these
times, when the scenes change with the
diversity, suddenuess and marvellous con
trnric,y Of theatric representation, fixed
rule Of policy upon any public question.
Yet with this qualification, and speaking
for myself only, I shall address you with
becoming freedom and csndor. | do not,
indeed, conceal from myself, the appe-
hension that we are are rather at the be-
ginning than the end Of great revolu-
ton, and that free institutions in Amcri-
ca are to day far more upon trial than at
any period during the past four years =
If, ildeed, the agencies Of force were at
once to give place to the arts of peace,
and placid liberty regulated by law, sub
pio rege, to succeed the sword, the mel
anchoI y forebodings of the more thought
full among us might yet prove to be the
vain fears Of men whom much learning
in history and an enlarged study of hu-
man nature have made timid. surren-
der myself willingly, however, for the
present, to the cheering illusion Of those
who believe that miraculous power will
again interpose, Ind great calm, at the
word of command, follow the tempestu
ous raging Of the sea.
The Democratic organization will, oI
course, be maintained Surviving every
change Of party and policy from neal
| the beginning of the government to this
day; often triumphant, sometimes de
feated never conquered; always adher
ing, as national organization, to the es
sential principles Of its founders, bu
adopting its policies, so far as these prin
ciples admitted, to the changing circum
stances of the country; enduring ever
through the great dangers and the mis-
takes of the past four years, and at thu
end, nun bering ono million eight hun
pred thousand voters in the States whicl
adhered to the Union-a number large
within the same States, than at any pre-
vious election--it needs now only re.or
, ganiza,ioa and discipline to make it pow
: e, fuI at once and ultimately triumphant
: For myself, under no circumstances, vii
) consent that the Democratic organiza
ton bo dissolved, so long as it shall bav
vitality enough to hold together. Tn
masses Of the party will never agrco L
r tke surrender, whatever "the leaders," S
called, might attempt.
The fundamental principles Of th
Democratic party, Of course also, mus
remain unchanged so lOngas our Fedora
system, or even any form Of democratic
T. republican government, shall survive
and especially its true STATE.RlGuT
= DooTRINE-nct Notification, not Secc'
sion, but the theory of our system la
down into the Virginia and Kentuck
Q Resolutions of 1903, as interpreted b
l. their authors; the one by Madison in hi
: Report in 1899, and the others by Jeffel
son in his solemn official Inaugural c
1901. Thus interpreted they were, am
:. l doubt not, still are the constitution,
a doctrines of the new President So Ion
r as these constitute the accepted theor
and the practice under our system, ther
can be no consolidated government, eitl
Republic or Monarchy, in the State
which now make up the American Uniol
!. The other general principles Of the Den
ocraiic rarity are but variations or ampl
, 6Cations Of the maxims, "the create
good 10 the greatest number" "thc into
est Of the Masses" "the rights of II
many against the exactions Of the few'e
st anxioms which, though the demogogv
= may misuse or abuse them, Ne, heverth
less, at the foundation Of all democratic
r. government. ga. En .......- -
Q But true as all this is, it would be II
extreme Of folly not to comprehend an
recognize that as to men and policies, Il
events Of the past four years, and esp
! cially Of the last FIVE weeks, have wrong
: radical change. Old things have pas
>. ed away all things become new. Ne
a books, as Mr. Webster said upon an occ
d sion of far less Significance, are now to
e opened. A new epoch in the Americi
y era has been reached; and he who ca
: not now realize, or is not willing to a
copt this great fact would do we'll to r
(, tire 10 his closet and confne himself
funebral meditations over the history
the dead past, or airy speculations upt
the impossible future He may becon
! an instructor, but is not iit to be an act
10 the stirring scenes which are before u
The time will, indeed come, and may D
be far distant, when it will be jusliliab
and be necessary to inquire into the caus
Is Of the civil-war just now apparently at !
1 n L ~ 4 4 al. q. d j.. 7. !.