Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1871-08-18
Senator Morton on the "New Depar.
tureO -


THE following is from the sneecb NJ
Senator Morton, recently delivered at
Louisville, KY;
The first thing. he would consider would
DC Ine attitude OF the Democratic party of
Kentucky in regard to reconstruction of
the constitutional amendments. Within
ninety days the Democratic party North
have pretended to make a complete somer.
sault, by pretending to be in favor of the
reconstruction Of the Southern States, and
the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amend.
ments. If this new departure ia sincere
ana hearty, no man would rejoice more
than |. When these things are accepted
North and South, shall consider my DO
litical work as done. Is this pretended
revolution real or false? I have right to
know. | do not intend to be cheated,
nor do l intend the Republican party shall
be cheated When the situation is really
accepted, | shall be among the first to an.
nounce 1t, and the first to rejoice And
until then will do all l can to expose all
cheats and swindles on the subject. There
are some individuals and a few newspapers
in the Democratic party who are sincere
In the acceptance of it, among whom, l
believe the C0UTjer-,JOSIrndL of this place
of the party II is pretended and insincere,
and is only simulated to gain power and
to put the question of the amendment out
of issue until the Democrats get control
of the government. This is clearly shown
by resolutions of the Democracy in the
conventions in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Ken
lucky, Iowa and Maine. In none of their
resolutions have they declared in unequiv-
ocBl language the acceptance of the Four
teenth and Fifteenth Amendments. They
have used equivocal language, and have
dealt with the people in double sense
Their whole effort has been to cheat the
public. The same may be said of the ad-
dress of the Democratic Senators and mem
bers of Congress
Parties are not got up to order, nor
created by conventions or politicians
They grow up out of the condition of the
country, or spring from great events.
They have corporate existence are com.
posed of many individuals, and are the
creatures of education, tradition, and pre-
judice. Men may control their actions by
their wills, but they cannot control their
beliefs in politics or anything else. The
Democratic party has been, by its whole
education and history, committed to the
doctrine of State rights and State SOW
ereignty. The right of secession is a
necessary offshoot of Democratic prin-
ciples. 1t has arrayed itself in iustifca-
tion and defense of slavery against the
emancipation of the slaves, and all its pre-.
JUDGES are arrayed in behalf of that in
stitution. 1t now pretends that within
ninety days it has utterly changed its prin-
ciples. Before that time it declared the
reconstruction measures unconstitutional ;
that the ratification of the Furteenth and
Fifteenth Amendments was procured by
fraud and duress, and were no part of the
Constitution. If they were in earnest
ninety days ago, they believe it yet. II
they do not believe it now, they were
hypocritical then Their conduct justifies
me in saying that their pretended accept
ance of these amendments was hypocriti-
cal, and is only simulated till they shall
get into power. They have said to the
South, "Let us make the platform, and
select the candidate who will carry out the
cheating programme. Without power we
can do nothing. Trust us with the power,
and then we will be true, as we
have been in the past, to the Democracy
of the Southern States. The South
must take us on trust" Thus do
they propose that the next canvass shall
be made upon false issue. While insist
ing that they are in favor of the new de-
parture, they cling to the doctrine of State
rights and State sovereignty. The party
nowhere repudiates the doctrine of seces-
sion. If State rights is correct, the right
of secession results from it, and Buchanan
was right when he said there was no pow
er in the General Government to coerce a
State. Until this doctrine is repudiated it
stands as perpetual threat against the in
tegrity of the Union, and until that doc
trine is dead the nation will always be in
danger. Kentucky is the second child of
the Union, and it is as absurd to talk about
the sovereignty of Kentucky as for a child
to claim to be the twin brother of its
father. Kentucky was born with the Con-
stitution, and was made a State by the
United States The leading idea of the
Republican party is that this nation is un-
divided and indivisible; that the nation is
sovereign and the States subordinate; that
there is one sovereign, and not thirty -sev-
en-. There is no danger of centralization.
For one. shall regard the rights of the
States as zealously as any one, and there
is no desire to override them; but do re-
pudiate the idea of State sovereignty-that
the state has the right to withdraw from
the Union at pleasure. All the States
have rights, because the Constitution con-
fers them upon them, and guarantees them
to them.
The Democratic party, by history, edu-
cation and tradition, is incapable of reform.
You cannot engraft reform upon it any
more than you can engraft a live branch
upon dead trunk, or place new roof
upon tumble-down house, with rotten
rafters and crumbling foundation 1t has
already out.lived its time, and ought, for
the good of the country, to pass away. II
the new departure has been taken in
earnest, there is no excuse for its living
another day. Its repentance should be Of
the deathbed character. 1t should ask
only to be forgiven-not to live But il
seems to retain the remarkable theory that,
by confessing its crimes and protesting
to adopt Republican principles, it is en-,
titled to supercede that party in power,
and thus acquire a title over those who
have been doing right all the time. The
pretended new departure is but develop
ment of the irrepressible conflict in the
Democratic party. 1t thus confesses that
it can't succeed upon its own principles,
and that the time has come when it should
pass away, and, as a political organization,