The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1868-07-09

Democratic Principle

Last week we made inquiry about th
principles of the Democratic party
We soon found an answer in the July
number of the Old Guard, the only
Democratic Magazine published in thil
nountry. There are are several polit
ical articles in this number, anC
we propose to make few very brie
extracts, that our inquiry may be an
swered.
There is an article entitled "Who are
the Traitors7" in which it's argued that
the rebels were right, and those who
sustained the Government were wrong,
The writer says:
"What then, mad a majority Of the
whole people of the United States to
do with framing the Constitutions
Was it not a compact entered into by
each separate State, independent ofsucb
maiorityi Did not several of the States
Virginia, New York and Rhode
Island-expressly reserve the right to
secede, or reserve the power of govern
mentl Ard one being allowed the
right, all necessarily must have it"
And again, the writer says:
"Men break laws every day, but are
not guilty of treason. Treason con-
sists, as above quoted, in breach Of
allegiance from subject, or citizen, to
a sovereign; but where does the sover-
eighty lie! In each separate State or
its people, and the Federal Government
is but the delegated agent OF these
States united. True, the Constitution
says s'Treason shall consist in giving
aid, &C., to the enemy" What enemyl
A foreign enemy could only have been
intended. But as it is embraced in the
articles of the Constitution, as the Con-
stitution is made the supreme laD, not
ahe sovereign pOlCer, breach OF its pro-
visions cannot, therefore, be made an
act of treason, which only has reference
to sovereignty. Cannota citizen, then,
commit treason against the Federal
Government Only in this way: BY
giving aid to foreign enemy, you com
NIT treason against your own State,
of which the Federal Government is the
agent, and in which State, by jury of
its citizens only, can you be legally tried
for the crime. But if your own State
holds you guiltless, no power on earth
can legally try or punish for the act.
These may now be considered, to
use the language of a noted journalist,
"abstractionS forever exploded" but
they are the true Interpretation of our
Constitutional compact nevertheless.
And, however others may think that
che war has settled these questions,
they are much, very much, mistaken.
"The war settled nothing"-nothing
but mountain of debt on the shoul ders
of those who will tumble it off yet
Force never yet settled questions of
truth, of right or of justice on her CORY
side, while the immortal thoughts ofmen
are left to proclaim them.
1t has been urged, time and again,
that the South had no just grounds for
secession. If the breaking of the Con-
. stitutional compact on the part of the
North, and inability on the part of the
Federal Government to enforce it, did
not afford iust grounds for secession,
then the breach of a compact by par
ty on one side does not release the
other from it. What lawyer-what
man having any regard for equity,
would advocate such principle 7"
These are few of the principles of
the Democratic party, as laid down by
the best writers of the party. How
do men who are not rebels and traitors
like themf