American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-04-20
b. Gratz Browns Speech at the
Liberal Mass Convention
IN Kansas.

In his speech at the recent Liberia
Mass Convention held at Topeka, Kansas
Governor Brown, of Missouri, said:
You meet to day to cradle reform move
ment that has only patriotic ends in view
! 1t purposes no violence either Of la'igu:ge D
oil action. 1t addresses itself calmly to suc
reason must pervade our institutions
| 1t indites the abuse of power in high places
only to preserve the fair name nf all from TT
proach. Its mission is to carry healing t,
the wounds of the country, and crown it will
content.
A period of our history fraueht with tn
agitation of great ideas has Just ended
began under the goading of angry part yisms
and was carried forward through the bloc,
| and bitterness of a civil war spread all owe
the land. 1t has terminated by establishin.
! IN cttal freedom as the rightful heritage o
every American citizen. From Missouri
came the first inroads which ushered in tina
| tragic time. From Kansas came a stern re
sistance which kinded the feud of our Who'll,
nation into irrepressihlc antngunisIn Ano
now Missouri aid Kansas join hands il
friendship, insist that policies of peace ant
| not hatred shall prevail, unite to stamp ou
the corruptions which fattcned while W,
| fought, and demand that constitutions
rule shall once more prevail, that the limit:
| of State and National authority shall be re
| spcctcd as or old that military shall Civ,
| place to a civil order, and the people com,
| into their own again.
| This is the political revolution you seel
to inauguratn. And is it not significant al
ready OF coming triumph when two great
States, foremost parties to the collision OF
| the past, so spontaneously combine to give
| it voice and impulse? You have seen across
| what was once the border how absolute
| repose and self-government are restored
there. You feel to the very marrow of you
| bones how essential it is to drive the harpics
of bribery from control in your own midst
Thus, what commends itself as n solution
promising genuine unity for the divided sec
tions, equally implies the purities of Local
administration. What other policy holds
out equal hope?
Then let Kansas be true this day to her
eventful history. In common with the States
of the great West let her assert readiness
to help forward this rescue of the natisn
any high aspiration-control that squanders
the honors and dignities of the Republic
among band of personal retainers. a con-
troll that eventually, under disguises of mo-
nopoly and patronage and taxation and cen
tralism, would substitute a slavery of the
white race for the old slavery of the black
race.
AS Republicans you have come together to
consult upon the mode whereby effect may
be best given to your convictions. So grave
a national danger can only be averted by
concerted action. To accomplish this Ma
tional Mass Convention has been called at
Cincinnati on the let of May. As that as
semblage may be expected to take action of
infinite consequence to the future well order
ing OF our government, and as hostile criti-
cism has not been slow to assail its purport
in advance, l desire to put in pleading before
you some of the reasons that have shaped
its calling.
Apart from the imperative necessities al
ready stated, there confronts the public Il
consideration connected with the present
Republican organization which breeds seri-
Gus alarm with all rejecting men who value
the substance of things more than any form.
That consists in the transformation which
its partisanship has impressed upon the Gov
eminent itself To state it plainly, ours is
no longer government of three coordinate
branches, each Independent and check
upon the other, as our fathers framed it but
within the structure has been established an
other government, intangible to the law,
merging all departments into one will,
known as that of the party, and within the
party has been erected despotism, ruling
all its membership into its own ordering,
known as Executive favor. Thus it results
that those barriers against abuse of power,
set up with so much care, are all broken
down, and replaced by subtle machinery
whose secret springs few may know. Under
Republic in name we have to-day packed
Judiciary and a subservient Congress, dom
mated by Military Cheftain This fact
which is visible to all who will look, this fact
which sets at naught the defenses of charter
rights, this fact which puts to blush the
claims of party fealty, this fact which
raigns the very method of that interior rul-
ing organization-this fact, l say, necessi-
tates a revolt from established routine to at
tain any free patriotic expression. There
can be no freedom of utterance where ostra-
cism falls upon the best and bravest who
dare to dissent. Tradition has it that among
the ancient Locrians he who proposed any
reform did SO with a halter around his neck,
by which he was suspended if the law was
not adopted. Here the hanging begins be-
fore the investigation is permitted, and Ad-
ministratiOn cartoons against Sumner and
Schurz surpass in malignity the implement
OF Tweed or Connolly.
Gentlemen of the Convention, let us not
underrate the magnitude of this undertak-
ing. 1t is no small matter to shake loose
victorious party from its moorings, and it
will be no slender argument that will have
weight to effect that object. Many attach
ments will have to be broken; many interests
will intervene; many doubts will arise. But
have an abiding faith in the patriotism of
the American people, whenever a hearing
can he had l know, too, that this appeal,
to have any success, must be made to the
mind and conscience of the conquering
North. 1t is there the public opinion is con
solidated, which can make or unmake gov
ernments. The conquered South stands
virtually voiccless- And from whence
well can come the presentmcnt that will he
powerful to touch the inner cord of the con
vIction as from the States of the West,
peopled with the manhood of those snewy
sons of both North and South who have
converted wilderness into wonder of
wealth. They have learned to know each
other as brave men ever do; they are free of
those restraints SO tyrannous elsewhere, and
in pioneering the path of empire they see
with intuition dangers to which older com
munities are ever blind.
Your attention has been called to the in
strumentalitics through which the present
cast Of character has been given to the Repub
lican party-one which has disguised it so
completely that its earliest and most stead
fast friends cannot always recognize it. An
inquiry into the results of that distortion
upon the general public thought will also go
of to satisfy you that it has been productive
of no good, and gives promise of no useful
ness.
The profoundest problem of this time
one not second in importance to any of the
great questions which have been solved-is
to unite the people everywhere upon the basis
of thorough reconciliation, to readjust the
our political system has suf-
fered from the rule of force, and to inspire
the new nation with its old faith in in
situations. Otherwise there can be no hope
for still higher development of republi-
can government in time to come And who
of all of us is willing to sacrifice that hope?
Shall it be said that with so much attained,
with freedom accomplished, self government
affirmed, progress inviting, We are not will
ing to confront the difficulties of the hour
and 20 forward to achieve that destiny
which outlines itself grandly upon the
eye?
The people of the North, who have es-
capped material disaster during the war; and
enjoyed prosperity since, are but too apt to
think that they do not countcnance any
and, because the forms are pre-
served, that no violence or wrenching has
has been done to their political system. Con
slider, however, that the conduct of our ma
tonal affairs is only the Legitimate fruit of n
recognized sentiment that sustains it-that
it comes of public opinion, and is no better