The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1871-07-13

STONE STATE-THE POLITICAL IS
SUES OF THE DAY CLEARLY AND
2 STRONGLY sTATED-A POWERFUL
PAPER BIZ HON. JEREMIAH BLACK.
: The following are the material ror-
tions of the address to the Democracy
of Pennsylvania by the Democratic
Executive Committee of that State
The paper was prepared by ex-Secre-
tary Jeremiah S. Black .a..4 =,
3 The Executive Committee of the
Democracy of the State, to whom the
following address was referred by the
recent State Convention, now present
the same to you as embodying some
of the reasons which actuate and con-
troll the organization they represent {:
We here solemnly renew our often
repeated declarations of fidelity to the
great principles upon which our party
has acted from the time of its first or
ganization. Our ultimate objects are
those of our fathers when they adopt
ed the Federal Constitution, viz: "To
form more perfect union, to estab-
Iish justice, to insure domestic tran
guilty, to promote the general well
fare, to provide for the common
defence, and secure the blessings of
liberty to ourselves and to our poster
ity."E We sincerely believe that the
government of the United States, adj
ministered as it was in, former days,
with direct view to the advancement
of these principles, would do for US
and for our children all that any peo-
Pile can, reasonably desire from the
political system under which they live.
We are equally sure that if not car
ried out in the spirit of those by whom
it was framed it must become q curse
instead of a blessing. Situated as we
are, obedience to the fundamental law
means not only, the honest perform
ance of sworn obligations, but freedom
peace, and prosperity to all classes of
the people. On, the other, hand, the
Iusurpation of ,interdicted or undele-
gated power is, not only a crime in
itself, but the fruitful parent of other
crimes, and will lead as it has already
led, to indefinite misgovernment, cor
ruption, and tyranny, ,,subverting all
liberty, and rendering the rights of all
men insecure. = When we speak of
the Fereral Constitution, we mean the
whole instrument, with all its amend
ments, and. acknowledge the equal
obligation of every part, Several of
those amendments were carried by
brute force and, by frauds upon the
public will so glaring as to take from
their authors all claim upon our re-
spect. = But we cannot deny that they
have actually become a part of the
Constitution. nor can we avoid that
fact, nor get behind it, by showing the
l,,. 49, 1h0
at that time controlled Congress and
mastered the State Legislatures. Who
soeyer swears to support the Consti-
tuition must perform all that is "snom-
mated in the bond. ~ Amy change
which! experience and reason shall
prove to. be desirable must be made in
the prescribed way, and not by revo-
Iutionary and disorderly means.
THE DECLARATION OF 1871. ajq91-
No candid person will deny that the
leading men in power at Washington
have been unfaithful to their duties.
They have broken the pledges, they
made to the people, and, in reckless
disregard of their oaths, they have
violated the plainest provisions of the
constitution. They have deprived the
States of their sacred right of self
government IN matters purely local,
and disarmed them of the power to
enforce their own laws for the pres
ervation of order within their own
boundaries. They have passed bills
of pains and penalties, operating on
millions, at once, without regard to
the, guilt or innocence of the parties.
They have trampled- on all the securi-
ties of life, liberty, and property
They have treated the habeas corpus
law with contempt, and denied the
right of trial by jury. They have
sent out sWarms of their hireiing
agents with Instructions to kidnap,
'imprison and kill free citizens for po-
aliticaI offences, without judicial accu-
sation, without warrant and without
trial. They have not only trodden
upon the, great principles, embodied
liz the original constitution as it came
from the hands of the trainers, but
even the amendments which they
themselves. interpolated, have been
broken without remorse whenever 1t
suited their interests. In defiance OF
the XIIIth amendment they have
doomed many persons TO- the worst
kind of !" slavery or involuntary SER
yitude" in the public prisons, without
the pretence of any crime whereof
the party was legally convicted" In
the face of the 1XIVth they have
abridged the g equal rights" of whole
masses of white citizens. Without
the least respect for the right of uni
versal sufrage guaranteed by the XVIII
they have interfered both forcibly and
fraudulently to prevent fair elections,
and to, set them aside after they were
held. These .outrages upon justice,
liberty and law have been perpetrated,
not during the process of a civil war
not in moments of wild passion or
heated excitement-bu in cold blood
upon deliberate reflection, in a time
iof profound peace, in full view of the
consequences, and their, authors have
followed out this line of policy, step
by STEP, with q persistency which
shows their fixed determination for
the future, as in the past to be bound
bgno oath and held by no promise.
The two last and most important of
their anti-constitutional measures
show more plainly than others their
settled design to strangle the liberties
of the nation, and take perpetual pow
rer into their own hands. The force
bill authorizes the President, not only
to invade the States at his pleasure,
but by declaring martial law to sub
vert all government except what con-
sists of his mere will. n Under the
election law his cannon is planted di-
rectly against the freedom of State
elections. Already the bayonets OF
the executive have cleaned around the
polling places in, the cities of New
York and Philadelphia. Who can
mistake the meaning of these prepa-
rations for the next Presidential elec-
ton? Who doubts that warning and
rebuke are needed nowito prevent the
administration from carrying out its
purposes by force? If the warning
be not given by the people or fail OF
its proper effect can we hope for peace
1t seems to us an error to suppose the
American people tame enough to be
kicked under the yoke ofa despotism.
or ignorant enough to be juggled out
of the great inheritance of free gov
ernment which the fathers left them
Att