The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1871-03-16

1N@N-NAOA 10 w OECuDy
, the popular mind, what will be the
, Democratic platform for the next Pres
: idential eIectionf That this party, al
the present time, is without any we'll
defined principles, is perfectly evident
They have no ''policy" or system o.
measures by which they propose tC
regulate the conflicting interests of g
great nation just emerging from a gi.
gantic civil war, in which many i'm
IPOrtant issues were involved and which
must be disposed of. These issues, il
undispOsed of, are living, pressing re.
alities, which nust be met and perma.
nently settled in a way that they may
not return to plague US again.
This party = which betrayed the
country in the hour of its peril-with.
out any declared policy for the future,
now comes forward with marvellous
efrontery, to demand restoration to
power and place. They opposed and
crippled the Government in the con-
duct Of the war they have opposed
all measures of reconstruction and pac-
ification since the war.
The Republican Union party, to
whose standard rallied those whose
patriotic instincts were strong enough
to break through party ties, saved our
country from destruction. Where
would now be our great and united
Nation, if the policy of Buchanan, of
PendletOn and Vallandigham, had
been pursued? The Southern Confed-
eracy would now be established upon
the ruins of disrupted and dishonor-
ed country, and we should now be suf-
fering all the dire consequences entail
ed in the destruction of the peace, har-
mOny and prosperity of great people.
Do not the great facts of our history
point with unerring distinctness to the
party and the men who have the best
claims to challenge the continued con-
fdence of the people? The men who
have been tried and not found want
ing, are the men to be trusted in the
future.
Mr.. Thurman, of this State, recently
informed the Senate, that the National
Convention to be held between now
and the Presidential election would
declare and define Democratic princi-
pies. We must, therefore, be content
to gather the principles and policy of
this party from its past action and its
present movements.
On a recent occasion in the Senate,
Mr.. Morton spoke as follows:
1t is important that the country should
understand the issue rendered by the Dem
ocratic party; that it proposes TO accept
nothing that has been done in the way of
/
terms and guarantees required of the rebel
States as the condition of their restoration.
Not only has il declared, through its con-
ventiOns, State and national, that the Re-
construction acts of 1867 were uncUnstitu-
tional and void, but it now asserts that
the l4th and 18th Amendments are nulli-
ties, and will be by them disregarded
when they come into power.
! Men of all parties, who seek repose and
the final settlement of the great questions
! growing out of the rebellion, are notified
that the programme of the Democratic
! party is revolution and TetrogressiOn. The
nullihcatiOn of the 14th Amendment
means the reduction Of the colored people
of the Southern States to the condition Of
slaves to the law; it means to leave the
door open to the assumption of the rebel
debt, paying the rebels for their slaves and
| for the repudiation of the national debt
All these things are provided against in
that amendment, and there can be no 9TH
er reason for its notification. Why should
any one desire to set it aside unless it be
to accomplish the things which it fOrbids
In stating the position of the Democratic
party, / rely upon the expression of Opiu-
ion in the Indiana resolutions and upon
the vote of the Democratic members in the
OSAOA Ollu VI Wis "a JllOlg At bub ldSJ Se5-
sion, against a resolution declaring the
validity of the I4th and 18th Amendments.
On the l1th of July, 1870, the other House,
by a vote of I3s yeas to 80 nays, every
Democratic member present voting nay,
adopted the following resolution, offered
by Mr.. Ferris, of New York:
Re8otUed, That the 18th and 18th articles
! of amendment to the Constitution of the
IIDifp6 haEinur hanu Ir1,r
by the Legislatures of three-fouths of the
several States, are valid to all inteuts and
purposes as part of the Constitution of the
United States, and as such binding and
obligatory upon the Executive, the Con-
gress, the judiciary, the several States and
Territories, and all citizens of the United
States.
rely upon these further reasons:
That the adoption of the amendments
was strongly opposed by the Democratic
party In Congress and out of it that the
Democratic party every where denied the
power OF Congress to require the late rebel
States to ratify the amendments as a con-
ditiOn to their restoration that no Demo-
cratic convention, Legislature, or leading
statesman, so far as ! know, has accepted
or admitted the validity of the amend
ments. And l may refer to the additional
facts that the State of Kentucky to-day
nulihes an important provision of the l4th
Amendment, and also of the "Ciyil Rights
bill" by refusing to colored people the
right to testify in her Courts in any case,
civil or criminal, to which white person
is party. A white man may enter a col
Ored congregation and shoot the minister
in the pulpit, and if there are no white
witnesses he can not be prosecuted. No
wonder that the press is teeming with
crimes committed upon the cOlOred people
of that State. -
And the Supreme Court of California, III
a recent decision, refusing to the Chinese
the right to testify in cases to which white
persons are parties, while not directly de-
nylng the authority of the 18th Amend
ment, asserts the existence of State rights,
which would subvert it utterly. And the
Governor Of that State, in a message to the
Legislature, declared that the 18th Amend
ment was not within the scope of the pow
er OF amendment contained in the COnsti-
tuition of the United States. And the Leg.
islature of Oregon, at its late session, form
ally declared the same amendment to he
nulllty and not binding upon the people
of that State.
Inc issue thus presented is of the grav-
est possible character, and involves the
peace aud perhaps the very existence Vt