The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1873-01-10
THE PARTY OF ruE ru4unr.

Many writers of ability have recent.
lly given their views regarding the
probable basis upon which will be
reared the party which must Ultimate
ly spring from The discordant factions
which now exist in this country. All
agree that there must be some radi
cal change in the manner Of conduct
. ling the national administration. The
people are rapidly becoming conscious
of the fact that they have delegated
too much power into the hands of the
President, and that, to save their
Government from losing every YES.
tage of that excellence and purity
which the fathers designed should dis.
anguish it from the illiberal Powers
of earth. it is necessary that there
should be q retrenchment of the con-
stitutional powers reposed in the
j President. Henry Clay Dean, with
his usual practical sense and in. his
4 lucid and fearless style, in an article
which we published two weeks ago,
suggests a certain remedy for tho
startling evils which are SO rapidly
developing in the civil service of the
Government. He endorses the one
tern principle enunciated in the Gin.
cinnatti and Baltimore platform, and
boldly declares in. favor of the people
voting direct for candidates for the
Offices of President and Vice Presi,
dent. He goes even further, and
shows why many offices which are
filled by executive appointment should
be supplied with incumbents by the
people OF the Districts in which such
officers are officially employed, This
would include United States Marshals,
Collectors and e. s. District Attor-
neys. It wonld also reach District
aud Supreme Judges and render the
Judiciary independent of the Execu-
tive. No thinking man, who believes
in the great truth contained in the dec
laration that "all just powers are de-
rived from the consent of the gov
erned," can reflect that the entire Ju-
dicial system of the United States de-
rives les power from the appointment
of one man, without trembling for the
safety of the Republic.
That there is growing sentiment
among the best informed people of all
parties favoring curtailing the Presi-
dental prerogative of acting sole
judge of the fitness of men for many
high and important offices, is shown
by the fact that the subject Is being
discussed in spirit of candor and
with an absence of partisan feeling by
the most intelligent Journals of the
country. A small number of Admin
istration organs have manifested their
lack of sense by railing against any
reform in the way of curtailing the
appointing power, but they only il
lustrate the evil which they would
ignore and perpetuate. That many
of the suggestions advanced by Mr..
Dean will be engrafted into the plat
form adopted by "the party of the
future" upon which will devolve the
duty of eradicating the evils which
are now SO painfully realized by every
patriot, we have no doubt. And that
that party is now assuming tangible
form, with able exponents who have
Invested themselves of past prejudices
and are laboring to unite the honest
masses of the people, is fact equally |
certain.
Constitutional changes will perhaps |
be required before all the necessary
reforms are accomplished. and it will
require time to consummate the hap
py result, but to doubt that the people
are equal to the task before them is
to -impugn their virtue and lntelli-
gence and to deny that man is capa-
bic of selfgovernment. "The party
of the future" must be bold, liberal
and progressive; it must partake of
the enlightened energy of tho Demo
cratice party when led by its brave
old founders whose highest political
aspiration was to carry forward the
standard of Republican freedom and
add new honor to the cause which
they had so nobly won. Corruption
will work its own cure as sure as wa
ter finds its level. The enlightened
Judgment of the people will finally
triumph in the condemnation and de-
feat of those who now exercise pow
ers unwarranted by the spirit if not
by the letter of the Constitution. &
The friends of reform should be
bold, active and ivigilant. Nothing
is lost, but great deal won to good
cause, by its supporters and advocates
carrying son an aggressive warfare
against all opposition, and, like Henry
Clay Dean, speaking plainly and TO
she point, - -,