The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1870-05-11
Sound Democracy.


democrat in Ashland county. TIL,
day for trimming a;d time seryIn:
has gone by; and 1t is the imperative
duty of every democrat desiring thu
welfare OF the party aud the State, t.
see that no man hereafter, shall re
ceive Il nomination at the hands of the
party, who is not knownto be capable
honest, and of undoubted political in
tegrity. The article reads, thus:
The organization renowned in the
history of this State as the Ohio De
mocracy, eve yet disgraced itself 10y
an abandonment of its %colors; and il
wise counsels prevail that Democracy
is in no danger now. Year i'll and
yea; out the leavcn of the Ohio de-
mocracy has maintained its quality, in
the face of the most disheartening and
discouraging defeats-in the presence
of unhappy personal rivalry, and such
perfidy as would have betrayed any
encampment not entrenched by the
strongest surroundings. One by one
the old aspirants to office have been
picked up from the Democratic ranks
and bribed into positions of power,
leaving their comrades to struggle al
most hopelessly against overwhelming
odds. Ii is no less singular than true
thal the Democratic party has been
more frequently betrayed by men that
it has picked out of the gutter and
elevated to pedestals they were unfit to
occupy, than that those. same men
were the most virulent enemies to be
encountered. The cupidity and per
fidy of indIviduals-sqch as the. sbo-
lition party eleyates to power-have
effected the Democracy and the coun-
try ut large more injuriously than all
other of the instrumentalities of the
Abolition fanatics. If the Democratic
party had not been founded, upon imT
mutable principles and been gifted
with an idea above the bread and but
ter that constitute the ambition Of the
thieves who have joined and betrayed
it, the party would have disappeared
years ago. But an organization that
has the sense, the brains and the
courage to maintain itself through so
many years of unmelciful disaster,
must not and cannot fall into that
shameful apathy that precedes a NOR
tai sickness. There is nothing in the
times or the signs thereof that will
Justify any conscious Democrat in Civ
ing way to the deluge of fraud and
fanaticism that apparently threatens
the overwhelming of the entire vessel.
1t will he much more to the credit OF
the Democracy and the profit of the
people and the country for all to de-
spise the dangers and the frauds that
environ their fortunes, and make a
a decent and upright struggle for the
ascendancy that is Indispensable to
the preservation of civil liberty or good
government. d.
There is a vast quantity of sense
less blather about submitting to- final
tiles, and hundreds of feeble intellccts
favor the policy of ~acquiescing III the
grossest and most scandalous frauds
ever perpetrated upon n people, with
a view to gain office and power. Such
advisers shoul be, like The debt, re-
pudiated. They are the representa-
lives of the donkey race, leading the
columns of lions, and their counsels
are unworthy of esteem, because in
stigated by motives never regarded by
the Democracy of this country. In a
Republic supposed to be governed 'by
the people and for the people," there
can be no such things as fraudulent
fnalities. The umpireship of these
finalitIes rests with the people, and if
there is not spirit and intelligence
enough in them tc resent such impo-
sition as the Fifteenth Amendment, or
this sclhdalous public debt, there can
be no need of parties, nor can there
be much excuse for the formation of
factions i'll opposition to the imperial
ism that has already assumed sway.
In another column of this paper we
publish the call for the Democratic
State Convention, to be held on the
first Wednesday and. firstday of June.
In that Convention, which should be a
representative body of the Democracy
of Ohio, there should be Il final quietus
put upon the time servers and policy
mongers who are anXiousto recognize;
facts rs accomplished before anything
has been established. Such counsels
have enervated the party heretofore,
and will do the like service again, if
there is not manliness in the Conven-
ton to resent their shameful APP
proaches. The Fifteenth Amendment
will be, as it ought to be, denounced
and repudiated as a fraud, swindle
and usurpation, such as the people OF
the State of Ohio, with a becoming
sense of their W rights and dignity,
will refuse to recognize CT any force or
effect, as a part of the law of the land,
in the form of a Federal Constitution.
1t should GO to the world as the opin-
ion of at least one-half of the people
of Ohio, that the 10Th Amendment is
the tlrimble-rigging trick of a caucus
of thieves, who had no more right to
vote away the liberties of States and
peoples than they had to sell domin-
ions that they did not own. The
minor incidents of this issue can be
as summarily disposed of. 1t seems
idle to discuss tariff questions, or dis
pute about which Il of many articles
shall be taxed to pay revenue to the
Government, when hat Government
itself is an organized robbery and
prof1gate usurpation. The collection
of eight hundred millions of taxes per
annum to defray the expenses of a
caucus of thieves, who rob the people
of every right TO life, liberty or prop
erty, and burlesque all government, is
a badge of infamy which no Caucasian