Juniata sentinel. [volume] (Mifflintown, Pa.) 1846-1873, 1871-08-23
Queries for William MsCandless.

General William McCandless. you
were a member of the Senate in 1869.
when the Fifteenth Amendment to the
Federal Constitution was before that
body for ratification On that amend
ment you made speech. and that
speech is published in the Legislative
Record, page e54; and in that speech,
speaking of the friends of that measure,
you said: They are sapping the very
foundation of our liberties by the theory
contained in the so-called Fifteenth
Amendment to the Federal Constitu.
ton"
Speaking to General Fisher, one of the
Senators from Lancaster, you said /:
The shade of Thaddeus will rise to
your support, and give you some reason
for surrendering to Federal power the
very citadel of the liberties Of the peo'
pie of your State"
Further on you said !:
The patriots of the revolution battled
for years Oh many a doubtful and bloody
field to establish. which they did sue.
cessfully. the right of local self govern
ment on this continent, and now in the
space of three hours, the majority in this
chamber will set aside, as far as in them
lies. the handiwork of the fathers of the
republic"
1.-The solar system acts by the i'm
mutable laws of nature; our system BY
the mutability of the political necessi-
ties of an inscriptions party. If their
action tends to a Capitalization of power
in the Federal government las the pas
sage of this joint resolution will assure)
your State rights and personal liberties
will melt away as would the planets were
they in like manner drawn by the sun,
their central power, from their respective
orbits
"lf you succeed in doing this. you
not only overthrow our form of govern
ment, but tear up its very foundations"
Can We approve the present proposi
tion. and hope. in the future, to control
any domestic relation of the State if the
centralized power at Washington says
nay? Assuredly not"
Can you preserve your form of gov,
eminent if you permit power existing
outside of the State to regulate and con-
troll the vote Of the people within it ?
To ask the question is to answer it.
Common sense must teach you that the
vital power of the States, in their sepa-
rate capacity is gone, and you are gov
erned BY centralized despotism"
What more fatal measure can be
adopted than the one now proposed"
"A human being might as well be de-
clared to live after the breath had left
the body, as State to exist when It
shall have parted with this vital princi-
Pile"
Now, General, we take it for granted
that in using this language you were
speaking your true sentiments that you
verify believed that the Fifteenth Amend
ment "saps the very foundation of our
liberties" surrenders 'the very citadel"
of those liberties. aud "sets aside the
handiwork of the fathers of the repub-
lie ) that under it our "State rights and
personal liberties will melt away" that
it "overthrows our form of government
and "tears up its very foundations >
that it is a ".fatnl measure. and that it
leaves the State dead-devoid of all
"vital principle"
Very good. IF you thought so, then.
you were right in saying so But. do
you think SO still :! If not, why do you
not take back the many hard things you
said then, and acknowledge, like man,
that you were all wrong. and that all
these mutterings were but the sickly
vapors Of diseased brain2
But. General William McCandless. if
you do think so still (and we to take it
for granted you do), how, as a good citi
zen much LEES as good Democrat, can
you now acquiesce in an amendment so
revolutionary, so fraught with direfnl
consequences. and confess your willing
ness to treat it as an integral part of the
Constitution 7 Either you were vaporing.
then, or you cannot be honest now. No
honest man, no good citizen, can charac
terize as "surrendering the very citadel
of our liberties" 'sapping the very foun-
datious' of our government, "fatal
measure which destroys the very life of
the State If he believes this, he is a
recreant to his State and traitor to his
principles if he now acquiesce in it all
simply because it is an accomplished
fact
We leave to the accomplished William
the task of wriggling out of this dilem-
ma. He is either false prophet or a
traitor knave. If what he said in 1869
was mere buncombe or blarney for effect,
he is an unfit man for any public trust.
And if that speech was the honest utter
ance of what he really thought and be-
lieved, he is of all men the most danger