Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-04-24
DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM.


The democratic members of Congress
took the trouble to manufacture platform
for their constituents before leaving Wash
ington. We have supposed hitherto that
the people at home had this privilege,
This locks likes Capitalization, the exer-
else of despotic and unauthorized power,
an invasion of the peoples rights as well
as State rights. That, however, is for
them to settle in their own family. 1t is
said there was fierce wrangle over it be-
fore it was adopted, which will be perpet-
uated and extended in the local councils
and districts.
The address prepared by these Con-
gressmen arraigns the radical party for
divers kinds of wickedness, the worst of
which appears to be that of clothing the
President with power to proceed against
the Ku-Klux. This in their opinion is
supremely wicked, and threatens very
alarming consequences, as no doubt it does
Ito the Ku-Klux. They have also discoy-
vered by the excellent opportunities which
they have had for observation that Presi- |
dent Grant is to be candidate for re-elec-
ton, and this they consider dangerous
matter probably their fears extend no far
Their than in relation to their own presi-
Dental prospects, in which view of the
case they certainly have some occasion for
anxiety. Then they say honesty and
moral worth are discarded by the radicals
and this troubles them; they being so
remarkably upright and moral in all there
own party dealings, as witness the pur-
chase of Winans and the general manage
ment of New York by Boss Tweed. They
groan because of alleged extravaganza on
the part of the administration and neg.
lect to reduce taxation, but they forget
that since Grant became President the
public debt has been reduced $204, 754,-
413.09, the decrease of expenditures has
been 500, 949,21, that taxation has
been cut down $S0,00o,0O0 per annum,
and the funding of the debt at lower
rate of interest has been commenced by
which large annual saving Of expense
will be effected; they also forget that they
themselves voted in Congress agaist every
measure for the reduction of the taxes and
also against the funding bill, thus making
record that is utterly at cross purposes
with their address. We should like to know
which they propose to stand by, their votes
in Congress or their platform
Perhaps the most remarkable feature in
their platform is the recommendation
which they make to their party to acqui-
esce in the amendments to the constitu-
ton, to preserve order, and to be civil and
decent in their conduct, while at the same
time they denounce the bill passed by
Congress to secure the people ofthe South
their rights under the Constitution, and
treat the outrages of the ku-Klux as mere
tictions. Their faint endorsement of the
amendments is simply cheat, and
weak one. Their true animus in relation
to enforcement of the amendments is better
expressed in their general course to-
wards the people whom those amend
ments were designed to protect in the
rights OF citizenship. They acquiesce in
the amendments with their lips but in their
hearts they curse them, and in their acts
they nullify them. They would recon-
mend peace in the South, but the Ku-Klux
might assassinate harmless citizens by the
hundred. and they would never ac-
knowledge that blood had been split or
that the constitution provides any remedy
in such cases. Such support of the
amendments will be taken for what it is
worth. If they honestly desired to es-
tablish peace in the South they should
have joined the republicans in Congress
in passing the enforcement bill, and
thus they would haveSshown their sim
cerity. Had they done this the Ku-Klux
would have seen that they had no support
in the North, and would at once have
broken--up their organization, and the es-
Enlistment of law and order would have
followed. Now we have bill to suppress
the ku-Klux, but with the democratic
party arrayed against it and apologizing
for and denying the acts of the Ku-klux
its enforcement will be difficult Their
aid to make peace in the South is very
much like their conduct toward the rebel
lion, as a party. There were patriotic
democrats who went by thousands into
the army and fought gallantly for their
country, but the democratic party as an
organization was an ally OF the rebellion,
and its nature is not changed.
THE ENFORCEMENT Fill.
The following is the act TO suppress the