Wyoming democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Wyoming Co., Pa.) 1867-1940, 1868-09-30

| perIty at home, protection from all youl
enemies abroad! Have you not directed
| your local affairs in your own way ?
Have not your relations with your sister
States been agreeable and useful? Have
| you not been represented with dignity and
power and splendor in the great family Of
nations? And yet, my fellow-c citizens, the
Republican party desire to change this
government and substitute one Of their
own creation. They hate this system
They hate this diversity. They hate the
doctrine of States rights. They hate the
Constitution as the fathers made it. They
have deliberately conspired for its over
throw. They prefer consolidated gov
! ernment. They prefer stronger govern
ment. They prefer to break down the
barriers which the States, with their re-
served rights, can interpose, to create
government so sensitive that it will feel
the least impulse of popular will and so
strong that it will execute that will
They believe this will be better and
treer government. They believe that
rather than have the Limitation imposed
by the Constitution, they ought to have
the limitations imposed only by the un-
5ridled will of an irresponsible majority
Twice since the close of the war they have
used all the power which the possession
of the governments, both State and Fed
eral, has given them to amend the Consti-
tuition and in each case the amendment
has been in derogaton of the substantial,
-. e Stata
By the first of these amendments the pow
er of The States over slavery within its
limits was abolished. By the second, cit
izenshiD in tie State is to depend upon
the will, not OF the States, but of Congress;
and the exclusion of negroes from the rule
of suffrage is punished by the loss OF rep
resentation. Not satisfied with this attack
upon the States themselves, with the true
spirit of revolutionary leaders, they have
turned upon the Government itself. The
Constitution has vested in the President
the powers of a department, and made
him responsible for the management of
the army and for the execution of the laws.
The Republican has stripped him of his
patronage, taken away from him the Sc
lection of his Cabinet and the appointment
of officers. 1t was chiefly owing to the IL
domitable frmness of one Of your own
Senators that it did not dispose him from
office and put its own leader in his place.
TAT this point. Gen. Roberts proposed
thee cheers for the Hon. VIM. Pitt Fes-
sender, the Senator alluded to, and these
were given with great enthusiasm, The au
dience rising
The State governments were in full
vigor and operation before and during and
after the war. During the war the State
government of Virginia was called upon to
give lis assent to the creation of West Vir-
ginia, and members of Congress were ad-
mtted from Louisiana, as soon as Federal
troops obtained foothold in that State
After the war, the States of the South
were invited to :atfy, and did ratiiy, the
fourteenth constitutional amendment, and
it derives its validity from their assent
The Republican party, by the reconStruc-
ton acts, abolished these governments,
and created in their stead military govern
ments. which no man will pretend was
within the constitutional powers of Con-
grcss. by the aid Of the army they have
built up other governments not according
to the will OF the people, but according to
the will of Congress, and they have founded
them upon the exclusion of tie intelligence
and wealth and virtue of the white race
from tue right Of suffrage, and upon the
admission of every negro to that right;
and they have made these negroes buy
their exemption from the interference of
the army and their recognition as States
by the ratification of the Fourteenth Con-
stilutional amendment, and pledge that
they will never change the rule of suffrage.
Do not their own acts convict them of the
charge that l have made? Are they not
surely and rapidly, even though silently,
sapping the foundations of the government
aud changing its form and nature? Are
they not accamuIating power in the Fed
eral Government and taking it away from
the States? Do they not declare openly,
and make it the basis Of their creed, that
Congress has the power over the right of
suffrage in ten States which it has not
over the same subject in the other States !?
Why is it they build up these govern
ments upon the basis of the negro vote
alone ? Ny friends, divest yourselves of
passion look at this work steadily. Is
not the stupid ignorance of enfranchised
slaves too narrow a basis for a prosperous
State possessing equal powers with the
State of Maine? Why is it insisted on !?
The reason, the sole reason, is that they
believe they can control the negro vote !;
that by this vote they can secure the cleo
ton of a President and Senators and
Members of the House and Governors and
Legislators and Judges, and so WELD long
er the powers of the Government. |
know many of these men well. They are
men of intellect and daring, They are
men of firm resolve and lofty purpose
They are not actuated by low greed of
gain, nor love of the cmoluments and hon
ors of Office. They have the true spirit
of fanatical rctorrers, and they seek power
that they may overturn this system of gov,
ernmeut and build up another in its stead,
Ny friends, we are engaged in no scramble
for office. We are simulated by no lust
for oficn This STRUGGLE touches the life