The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1868-05-12
THE SPIRIT OF DEMOCRACY,
MIR. Jere. Williams Speech Deliv-
cred Before the PendletOn Club
of WOOdsfieid.

The able speech Of Mr.. WILLIAMS has
commanded attention from the press
throughout the country. We copy the
following from the Weekly Matches
(Miss.) Democrat. of April 27:
ut has been we'll said by Mr.. Jere.
Williams, of Ohio, that if the Radicals
succeed in the coming fall election, it
matters little who shall succeed after that
time; for system Of government will in
that event be fastened upon US under
which elections will have little influence.
The issue, said he, which underlies all
other issues of the campaign, is con-
test between two widely different and an
ltagonistic systems of government.
'sOne of these systems is that founded
by Jefferson upon The principle that all
power is originally centered in the people
that our government, State and Ma
tional, possesses no legitimate powers but
such as have been specifically granted to
them by the people, in written constitu-
ticns. This may be called the constitu-
tional system. tits the system advocated
by the conservative element Of the ma
ltion. The central idea of this system is
thatthe Central Government shall attempt
nothing which the States can do as well,
or better; States shall attempt nothing
which counties can do as well, or better;
and townships shall attempt nothing
which society or individuals can do as
we'll, or better. This system recognizes
the greatest possible individual liberty Of
the citizen Itis the grand fabric which
was contemplated by the wise statesmen
who framed the constitution under which
this country enjoyed for three-quarters of
q century degree of prosperity and
progress hitherto unexampled. It is the
system whose benefcent provisions were
carefully observed from the birth Of the
United States, until the elimination of
sectional fanaticism in the election of
Abraham Lincoln.
eThe other system Of government, pre-
cisely the converse of the above, is that up
on which Radicalism ridesits race Of party
power to national ruin. This system re-
cognizss the head of the government as
the source of all political power. It is
based upon the monarchial theory that
the people have no rights except such as
the government has loaned to them and
may at any time reclaim.
1.-THE political campaign now in pro-
gress is death struggle between two an
tagonistic systems, and must result in the
overthrow of the one and the permanent
establishment Of the other. Under the
operation Of the first, or conservative
system, the Constitution was supreme
law, which none dared violate. The CO.
ordinate branches of the government,
each of them exercised its functions, and
all Of them worked together in beautiful
harmony. The people meantime were in
deed free, not burdened with taxes, nor
oppressed with unjust Legislation, nor
abandoned to vice and lawlessness. The
majority ruled the nation, and it was not
governed too much.
"Under the operation Of the second, or
Radical system, the government was seiz-
ed by q minority, the nation was hurled
into vast and destructive revolution, the
people were stepped in the supremest
misery. and literally weighed down with
q burden of debt, at once ubiquitous and
intolerable.
aEven now the people Of ten States of
the Union are robbed Of every right and
power guaranteed by the Constitution, or
reserved by them in their sovereign ca
pacity. Under this system a usurping
Congress is soheming for Che destruction
of the judiciary branch Of the govern
ment, while it has already stripped the
executive branch of every prerogative
vested in it by the Constitution and the
laws, and made the chief magistrate of
the nation anonenity in its government
Not stopping here, this party seeks by
its reconstruction schemes to Africanize
ten States Mississippi among them. The
Conventions and Constitutions submitted
by them, the barefaced frauds which at
tend all elections connected with them,
the wholesale disfranchisement of the in
.telligent white people, the subsidizing Of
Radical newspapers, all these are instru-
ments in the hands of this minority, with
which they seek to place their power be-
yond peradventures That they shall not
succeed is the last hope of the people for
liberty. To prevent that success, the
people have the power if they but give it
concert and proper direction.
aWe Of the South, as now circumstan.
ced, cannot take fullshare in the strug-
gle; but we can do that which shall
strengthen our friends in the North and
give them and US the victory. We can
disenthral Mississippi, if we but defeat
the coming Constitution. We must de-