The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-09-25
:CITY INTELLIGENCE.
TIE PRESENT ISSUES.
speech of Senator Norton, of Indiana,
Last Evening, at Concert Hall.

bpttCu VI 6euHtOE IHOfNOUf "
Last Evening, at Concert Hall.
Concert Hall was acain hlled last evening with
Republican audience, TO listen TO the great
speech of Senator O. p. Morton, OF Indiana.
Colonel J. w. Forney introduced the speaker,
who, after the applause had subsidized, said;-
When the walls have been erected, the roof
put on, and the house nearly finished, the incen.
diary may cast his brand into the shayings aud
rubbish that are still left, and cause the struc-
ture TO be consumed TO ashes. SO the work of
reconstruction, now nearly finished, and which
we desire to complete, is exposed TO a like dan
ger; the incendiary Is lurking around the pre-
mIses seeking TO kindle the rubbish aud refuse
OF the Rebellion into flame that shall destroy
all that has been accomplished, aud place the
country back In condition worse than that In
which 1t was in the beginning. shall the work
OF reconstruction be completed rs 1t has been
begun ~ is the great issue to be decided by the
people at the approaching election, tCheers.)
The Republican party presents to the country
for Its adoption the policy of completing the
work of reconstruction upon the basis upon
which 1t has been carried forward-Lhe basis OF
equal rights, OF equal aud exact justice to all
men. 1t presents the policy OF peace, repJse,
and stability; il presents the policy OF proteC-
tion to American industry and OF placing the
burdens of taxation upon the rich rather than
unon The poor, upon capital Ialler than upon
labor, upon the luxuries instead OF upon the
necessaries Of life. Financially, 1t presents the
policy OF a return to specie payments at the
earliest practicable moment, and OF maintaining
the public faith by the payment of the national
debt according to the very letter and spirit of
the contract. (Applause.) 1t presents the
policy of reserving the public lands for actual
settlers, and giving them to every man who will
make a farm and a garden where before there
was a wilderness. The so called Democratic
party present for the adoption of the country
the policy of notification and revolution. They
propose to nullfy the reconstruction laws OF
Congress- and to overturn by military force the
new State governments that have been erected
in the South: they propose to undo all that has
been done; 10 retrace all the steps that have
been taken towards the settlement of our
national troubles, and to place the country in a
condition compared with which it would have
Rebel States" go and suffered the Union
10 be dsmembeTed. They propose the equal
taxation OF all kinds of property, whereby
the articles OF prime necessity, which are indIs-
pensable to the poor and TO the aboring men OF
the land, shall be taxed equally with those
articles ofluxury used only by the rich, and which
enter only into the pleasures and disspations OF
lie: They present the policy OF reputation, of
national dlshonor, which, according to the
lessons OF history, has proved fatal to every
Government which has adopted it. In this
country political nullifcation Is where the
people OF State or the members of a great
parry conspire to defeat the operation of the
laws by force and violence. In 1882 the people
OF South Carolina net in convention, and
resolved that the people OF each State had the
right to determine for themselves whether an
act OF Congress was constitutional or not,
and that if they held it 10 be uncon-
sttutional, they had right to resist and
PltNSut It's OpCIdJlOu WlbDlu tue llulltS Vi I0dG
state. They resolved that the then existing
tariff law was unconstitutional, null, and
void, and that it should not be enforced within
the limits of the State of South Carolina,
and that its operation would be prevented, if
needs be, by military power. This was nulid-
cation pure and simple. General Jackson, then
President OF the United States, met this first by
proclamation, in which he argued conclusively
that notification was wicked, unconstitutional
and tteasonaole. He then met 1t by making
preparations TO put it down by military force,
and by threatening to hang. John G. Calhoun
and all his reasonable conspirators. (Renewed
applause.) Seeing that President Jackson was
determined in the matter, the nuiliners TOOK
counsel of their fears, and abandoned nulli6ca-
ton. They then admitted that while a State
remained in the Union it had no right to nullify
or to resist the law, but they claimed that when
a State was aggrieved by the passage OF an un-
constitutional act OF which 1T had the right
itself, it had the right to Withdraw from the
Union, TO separate itself from the Repuo-
lie. And this was the doctrine OF
ReSeon OF s nat M
at the cost of more than four hundred thou
sand loyal lives and five thousand millions OF
dollars, and with it was extnguished the doc.
trIne of secession. But the people OF the South,
so far from accepting the situation, acting in
concert and harmony with the Democratic party
of the North, have abandoned the doctrine of
secession only to retreat to and adopt the doc
trine of notification. The Democratic party
assembled in convention 10 the city of New
York, following the example of the people of
South Carolina, resolved that the reconstruction
laws of Congress were unconstitutional, null,
and void. BY this resolution they instructed
the people of the South that the reconstruction
laws, being unconstitutional, were no laws at
all, and were not binding upon anybody; that
the new State governments which had been
brought into existence by these laws were
equally illegal and Unauthorized, and were
not entitled to the obedience or submission of
the people Of the United States. This
resolution was an invitation to the people of the
South to nullify the laws of Congress and to
oyerturn by force the new governments that
had been erected. 1t was full and complete
assertion of the publication doctrine OF 1882,
which, If admitted or carried out, would be as
fatal to the Government ss the doctrine of
secession. General Blair, the Democratic can
didate for Vice President, in letter written
some three or four days before the Convention,
which was placed in the hands OF every member,
and which letter brought about his unanimous
asserted the doctrine of nulli6ca-
tion even more explicitly than did the platform
OF the Convention. He declared that recon-
struction was the only issue; that all questions
of finance, tariff, and tie currency were to be
left out OF view. He said that the Democratic
party might elect President and majority of
the House of Representatives, but that, owing
to the peculiar organization of tue Senate, they
could not change the character OF that body
10 repeal the reconstruction laws, or to undo
by legislation what had been done; and,
consequently it was the duty of the new
President to nulliGy the laws, and Ito use his
own languagel ito trample them into the dust;
to employ the army of the United States to over.
turn and destroy the new State governments in
the Soutb.n He made nulliication-broad,
direct, foTcible nulli6caton only issue to
be decided in the election, and declared that
upon this issue alone would he suffer his name
to be presented TO the convention. Upon this
issue his name was presented to the convention
and he was unanimously nominated. His
of hu hal