Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-02-07
UNION AND AMERICAN.
LIBERAL REPUBLICANISM.
"They Who Would Erect q DeS-
pOtiSm Within the Party VIII
Not be 10th TO Erect a DeS-
pOtism Within the Nation"

the AADGEAA convention
ut Jefferson City, Missouri, Jan. 2s
IS72.
Loud calls were made for Gov. Brown
who finally arose in his seat and addressed
the convention. We give the substance o
of his remarks:
Mr.. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF
THE CONVENTION: Sympathizing and Co
operating with you cordially in this meet
ing as do, yet it was not my purpose to
have offered any remarks upon the occasion
l have so recently discussed somewhat al
length most of the questions contained in
your resolutions, that l did not deem it es-
sential or desirable to repeat what was theI
said, more forcibly, perhaps, and certainly
more CONSIDERABLY, than can be done here
and now. However, as it seems to be the
desire of this convention of our liberal
friends, that should address some words
Of encouragement, and give some reasons
for the faith that animates us to the decis-
i've action We are about taking, viii cheer
fully respond to your wish.
Let me say, Mr.. President, that l am not
often given to doubts or hesitancy in politi-
cal action; but sir, if doubts did crowd my
mind now, and if any hesitancy operated
within my breast, when l look abroad over
this assembly and see here, there, and al
most everywhere, remnants Of the old
guard Of freedom, ready to-day to unite
themselves with this new action Of deliver
ance, would have all my doubts dissipated.
CCheers.
Sir, l see in this assembly many gentle
men with whom have co-Operated for long
years in the liberalism of other days, and it
is most cheering and encouraging to know
that they stand now as they did Of yOre.
Ageneration has elapsed since we first drew
together in kindred sympathy. The bloom
of youth then mantled faces I see yonder,
which are now Wrinkled in the forehead,
and traced with hard lines of care by the
mighty struggle through which we have
passed in this great conflict for freedom.
Memory, sir, goes back down the dim aisles
of time, recalling many brave spirits whom
l grieve to say have passed to their final
bourne since We first planted the flag Of
freedom upon slave soil. Many too, are
incapacitated from attendance here to-day,
by physical debility, although they send US
mementOes of their regard and good will
by correspondence, and hopeful messages.
Many, however, still remain faith
full as of old; aud they are here
to testify once more for freedom
9
largely represented in this assembly, side
by side with prominent citizens of the man
or born, the distinguished leaders of that
great German element, that ever stood like
Macedonian phalanx, solid in the front
rank of freedom. None know better than
myself, what trust and reliance has been
placed on them in the past; and none can
better realize the weight and significance of
70 fol, affo oI,E 1,os,
faith, as now, solid as one man. And it is
well that it should be thus. That great ele-
ment of our nationality that has served such
noble purposes in the past, and that comes
represented here on this occasion, animated
by no spirit of sectionalism, embittered by
no rivalries of power, with no memories of
hostility to cultivate, but as impartial judges
of what freedom demands in this hour, is
with us most heartily, and says: "Let US
go forward and make new deliverance for
this nation" TCheers.
Mr.. President, the resolutions that have
been presented TO you embOdy very fully
and very forcibly the outlines of those re-
forms which we labor to accomplish. They
cover many branches of the control of the
government. They embrace the civil serv-
ice, the revenue, and all the workings Of
national machinery; and they go further,
sir, and strike at the very heart of that
which must be the central figure and point
of attack in this great fight of the future,
that is the Capitalization Of the national
government over all local freedom. 1t is
there that you have got to confront your
foe; it is there that it is intrenChed; il is
there that it is surrounded with all the ap-
planes Of military supr )rt; it is from that
quarter that it is dissel hnating ideas that
are demoralizing the public thought Of the
country, and teaching it to rely, not upon
the people, not upon their own local State
or other associations for protection, but
upon the simple behest of a national cen
trial power and central authority.
Day by day the firm foundations of your
constitutional forms Of government are being
insidiOusly Sappe J, under one excuse or an
other; now to mould judicial decisions, now
to control elections, now to suppress an al
legged disorder; and thus under the guise of
maintaining the liberties of some, there is
being prepared that fatal lethargy of local
independence and selfgovernment which
but smoothes the way for the slavery of all.
The assumption and continued exercise by
the general government Of powers largely
self asserted in time of war, never dreamed
Of heretofore in time of peace, the military
marshalling of all its functions into the con-
troll of a single WILL and the fierce partisan
ship which accOrds to that will almost an
immunAg from challenge, are signs of the
time too plain to be misunderstoOd-sign
full of peril to the liberties of the people.
The prolongation Of despotic control over
all those sections that had surrendered and
acduiesced in the settlements of the war,
rather for political than patriotic ends; the
refusal of such policies of amnesty and gen
eral suffrage as would have restored peace
and selfgovernment; gave ominous shadow
ing to many of the friends of real freedom
of what was contemplated. And the enor-
nous stretches Of executive power no less
than its ruthless exercise, to master other
communities elsewhere, by the power of
patronage, have not served to tighten up the
picture.
Now sir, for one, am certainly free to
say that do not fear that the liberties OF
this nation, in the present instance and
hour, will be wrested from them by the will
of any individual man, however powerful
he may be; but l do fear that il this is per-
mitted TO go on, this demoralizaion of pub
bic sentiment; this teaching of the people
to acquiesce in, and consent 90, miraculous
Of the national constitution in violation OF
the rights of communities; this dominion
by the national authority of all election
control through its hirelings of office and its
party machinery, that you pave the way fcI
an incipient despotism that may some day
give you bloody account of itself.
Mr.. President, am no alarmist; but
when so many Of those who have been the
most steadfast friends of fFeedom in this
nation, express their grave apprehension al
what is tranSpiring, is it not time that we
should engage in some serious effort tc
bring our government back to those
limitations of powers, which have beer
found SO essential to the safe order
ing Of any free society. And l may ado
another thought, which is this: that as 4
believer in individual liberty, in the right o.
: sl,o Ivro ~ he rryidacf die