The Van Buren press., 1871-10-03
VAN BUREN, ARK, OCTOBER 3, 1871

W
the president. If he should judge this
meeting to be an unlawful and treason
able assemblage, and tha. it and some oil
you are guilty Of the acts mentioned IN
that law, and that proper case had
arisen for il, he could suspend the ha
Jeas corpus, and when that is suspended
he could order us for trial by court mar
tial. Courts martial are organlzad to
convict" and We should be power!ess
If sentenced TO prison or to wear The
ball and chain. not even the writ OF ha-
Jeas corpus, that angel of liberty, could
open our prison doors or strike OF oui
chains. Do not understand me to say
that think the president would do any
such thing. But it gals freeman 10
know he could if he would.
| But this is an extreme case only
state it to show how far that act has
clothed the president with dictatorla
powers. But for the passions which on
late war engendered, and which are no
yet entirely cooled, one such act of fed
sral usurpation would overthrow any ad
ministration, and it ought to overthrow
it. Cheers.
GENERALIZATION.
But 10 lay aside all supposed cases,
refer to some facts as stated upon news
paper authority. Not long ago, we read
an account OF federal interference in q
novel form, at New Orleans, in control
ling nominating convention. A com
pany of soldiers was placed at the door
of the custom house, where it was held,
and none were allowed TO enter without
a ticket Of admission from some federal
officer. We had heard of the army re
forming legislatures to change the polit-
ical character and elect army officers to
congress. But this was a new thing.
This was new step toward centraIiza'
ton, when federal officers control nom
mating conventions by the bayonet The
country is aroused. Republicans we'll rs
Democrats. But what have we seen here,
in our own state, in free Wisconsin
Have you not seen with your own eyes,
my Republican friends, the workings OF
this federal centralizing power the die
tation of federal patronage and federal
power to control the action OF your own
convention? Are you prepared to &C.
qucsce?
Bear in mind there is logical necessi-
ty which controls the action of parties
until they are overthrow. 1t a false
idea gets once enthroned in party,
while it remains in power, moving with
all the force and momentum which vic
tory gives it, that idea will rule it until it
is beaten and chas,ened by defeat. No
party when once it has taken up its line
Of march in given direction will ever
arrest its own victorious progress. 10
arrest it, it must be defeated and over
thrown. The party in power is on the
high road to Capitalization. The only
thing on earth which can prevent it is to
overthrow it. Applause ane cheers,
| repeat, no party in power once NOV
ing in wrong direction ever reforms it,
self 1t is only in defeat that it becomes
chaStened. In adversely it is purified.
Th6 present Federal party, long in pow
er; corrupted ty patronage such as no
party ever welded before intoxicated
with the idea of all power In the federal
government, is on the road which leads
to Imperialism. 1t can only be arrested
in its revolutionary progress end purged
Of its corruptions by being overthrown.
[Great cheering. And, fellow citizens,
there is but one way in which that can
be DONE and that is by restoring the old
Democratic Republican party of Jeher
son, of Madison, and of jackson to pow
er. Tremendous cheers
But can that be done? That's the
question | have no doubt that more
than 10000 Republicans in Wisconsin
who were brought up like myself in the
school OF Jefferson and Jackson, If they
could be assured that tue present organ
ization Of theat party was solidly fixed
upon its old ideas and policy, and that
the men placed in nomination would be
true to them, would, at once, with their
whole souls, go to its support They
were only severed from it on the slavery
question But that and all that followed
il are NOW settled forever, and there is no
logical reason, nothing but species OF
underlined distrust, which restrains them
Fellow cilizens, how can stronger
pledges be given than the platforin unan
imously adopted. and the men they have
placed upon ON it? | shall not speak Of
myself, but look Mt Gen. Bragg and Gen
Montgomery, and all the rest Can be
possible Tor such men, on such plat
form, to go backward ? Can they go
d .,r,I 4 Int Ii t,a N a
faithful soldiers Of the Union cause Z
No, fellow-citizens, no. Let me assure
YOU, my Republican fellow-ci'izens, there
lsno middle ground there is no halfway
measures which can arrest the present
Federal party in its steady advance to-
ward Capitalization but by bringing the
old Democratic. Republican party, ie.
organized upon its old doctrines in their
original purity, again into power. 1t
holds in its ranks 100000 Of men. 1t
is too great to he dissolved. 1t has been
ioGy caastcncd by defeat Aside from
the city of New York, no charge Of cor
rupton is made against 1t and even
there, the old Silas Wright Democracy
always distinguished FOR honesty and in.
tegrity are moving in strong force to nd
that city Of all corruption.
Everywhere it is reorganlzlng, laying
aside dead issues, and is rising to meet
the great crisis, to be once more the
guardian and savior OF REPUBLICAN liberty.
Between these praties all must choose.
There are but two sides to straight line.
A man cannot act with two parties at