Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1872-03-15

platform preparatory to formal demand
for the control of the regular Radical or
ganization at Philadelphia.
What will this platform be? This is
momentous question for us Of the South,
and i'll indicating its answer, we again have
recourse to the speech of Mr.. THU MBULL.
and we take his utterances as authorita-
tive, because he seems, by common con-
sent, to be regarded as the man whom the
Liberal Republicans will put forward as
their candidate, in case they enter the Pres
idential campaign as separate organiza-
ton.
In commenting on the resolutions in the
in his seat in the United Sta ties Senate, re-
Gently said:
"The next resolution is the one opposed
to centralized authority, in which it is de-
clared-
"That local selfgovernment, with impair
tial suffrage, will guard the rights Of all Cit
izens more securely than any centralized
authority" -
And so l fully believe. If there was
one thing that our fathers priced more
highly than any other in the Organiza-
ton of their governments in this
country, it was the right to make their
local laws and manage their local affairs.
1t is the great protection of the citizens,
and when the time shall come, ii it ever
does, that all the powers Of Government
shall be centered here at Washington, III
the hands, l care not, whether OF one or OF
five hundred men, it will be an imperial
despotism and the people will have sur
4 Ii, Of
the encrOachments of arbitrary power.
know the Senator from Indiana has
promulgated different doctrine from this.
| know that he has announced it as prin-
cple of our system OF government that the
States possess only such powers as are con-
ferred upon them by the Constitution OF
the United States; but there never was
greater heresey. Why, sir, just the reverse
of this is the truth. The States possess all
powers not taken away from them by the
Constitution of the United States, and
such is the very language of the instru-
ment itself:
States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by 1t
10 the States, reserved to the States resptc-
lively, or to the people,
All these reserved powers belong to the
States or the people of the States. They
do not belong here at all. This General
q
general purposes, to manage the affairs
which are national, and not 10 Interfere
with those which are local.
The principles cnunciated in the Mis-
souri, platform denounced by the Senator
from Indiana as anti-Republican are the
principles upon which the Republican
party has won all its triumphs, and which
will go down to pOsterity upon the annals
of the future history OF the country as con
stituting its proudest record. They are
the principles for which | have always
contended; and, God helping me, they are
the principles for whicl. J shall contend to
the cnd.'
The doctrine here laid down has a very
familiar old-fashioned Southern Demo
cratic sound, but as Senator TRUMBULL as
serts so positively that it is now orthodox
republican doctrine, we will not take issue
with him, but will content ourselves with
the thought that if it is the purpose of the
Liberal Republicans to force the Phila-
delphia Convention to build its platform on
this foundation, or to disrupt the Radical
organization, we have hopeful augury
Of better times.
1le IllIaQCidnla CONVENTION IS OI'SItN
to meet in June. From this body we have
nothing to hope, save the denomination OF
General GRANT.
The time for the meeting of the National
Democratic Convention has not yet been
fixed, and very properly too. 1t ought to
be the very last party to enter the campaign.
What the policy Of the South will be or
ought to be, no man can now fOresee.-
Fighting for the supremacy of the civil law
over military usurpation, rather than for
mere partisan success, we can only say that
we should scan we'll the political horizon,
and govern ourselves accordingly. For the
present, and for some little time to come,
we should endeavor, by few . brilliant
flashes of silence to maintain g a mastery
inactivity" preparatory to the great con-
fiict.
When the National Democratic Conyen-
ton does meet, however, the South will be
ready, through her delegates, to express her
views plainly.