The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1870-06-01
NUMBER 81.


/ ~--4AS " tuc -SSA4OcfalAc sEaFeY.
The present hour marks a crisis in tbe
existence of the Democratic party.l It is
cowarulce or blindness not to recognize
ana meet II with becoming deliberation
| and courage. The issue is life or daotb
1or the party-hberty or slavery for the
! people. The question we have TO answer
Is: Shall we make further effort 10 nre-
/ serve Constitutional Freedom? or shall
we surrender our Liberties. and accent
the chains which are forged and partially
put upon our limbs2- 1t is our prereoa-
I tive to adopt eitherzalternative. Let us
consider our duty in the emergency, that
what we do may be done understandinplv
The axIoms on which the liberties of
the people depend have an existence who'll
ly distinct from the organizationiof p5lif-
| zeal parties TO enforce them. lust as laws,
OF health survive, though as individuals
some wholly neglect their observance. If
we obey, all is well, but if no means be
| adopted to enforce and make effective the
one or the other, they assert themselves
| by inghtful penalties for the infraction-
In the one case Despotism is inflicted, and
IN IN Che oGher' Death. There Is no escape.
Effect fellows cause inexorably.
Though the Democratic party perish TO-
morrow, these truths will survive to wit
L. That the public liberty cannot exist
where usurpation is tolerated in the Fed
eral Power
| 2. That it cannot exist where the Fed
eral power controls elections in the States.
| TO the extreme of the employment of mil.
itary force in their control.
.. That 1t cannot exist where wealth
Is privileged from taxation, and a burden
OF debt amounting to twenty-five nund-
red millions of dollars, exacts interest at
the rate OF SIX per cent annually, from the
wages of toll
t. 1t cannot exist where a populace,
Irreclaimably debased and ignorant by
| the law OF their creation, wields the bal
lot IN sufficient numbers to control cleo
uons, or to materially effect their results.
These will be truths though the Demo-
cratic party should never held another
convention, or nominate another candidate
But If the Democratic party go out of
existence, there will be no organization
remaining to resist the usurpations, and
lnhcuons, and debasing and tyrannous
measures of Republicanism, and the last
hope of Constitutional freedom must be
abandoned. The consummation will be
reached IN that hour, and the Republic of
Washington will have become Despot-
ism as unqualified as the Empire of Ma
poleon.
If on the other hand, the Democratic
party shall resolve the mockery of main
tanning its present organization, and yet
abandon the principles which have hither-
to given it its vitality, if it shall deter
mine, in accordance with the cant of the
hour, to accept" the amendment "and
the debt as facts and fnalities. the coun-
try will have nothing to hope from it, and
it would be quite as well for the cause of
Constitutional freedom, and infinitely bet
ter for the honor of the party, TO vote its
own final dissolution.
Hence 1t Is that we regard the present
as crisis IN the Democratic party, and
await the issue with deep concern.
If the debt and the amendments, with
incidents which are inseparable, be accep-
ted by the people, it will be the establish
ment, in perpetuity, of new Government,
differing radically and wholly from that
which the Constitution created, which the
Democracy long administered, and which,
during the bitter years of the decade past,
| it has half despairingly, yet heroically,
| sought to restore. No revolution was
} ever wrought more radical, distinct and
calamitous to liberty, than that which we
are considering as possible.
We shall, as individuals, have new and
strange duties, and, actuated by novel
motives, must work for unfamiliar purpo-
; ses. The hour will have struck for new
+ departures" and many Of us, seemingly
: 4isEeI for -@ifc our purity ASSOCIATIONS,
1 will be seen running to and fro
We are one Of that large class of peo-
, pie who are partisans from principle, and
care not farthing for party distinct from
= principle; who, when voting for the sue
cess of a party, desire to know exactly
5 what is to be effected by darty success
1 and when IL shall come TO a mere scram-
/ bic for place by unprincipled men, wheth-
: or they abuse the name of Democrat, Oh
assume that of Republican, we shall stand
aloof from the dirty strife, indifferent to
r the result, and whether hell takes the
: hindmost" or the foremost, trouble not
ourselves to inquire, unless it shall seem
5 to effect our personal or pecuniary inter
est.-Noythaccs5