Los Angeles daily herald., 1875-08-19
An Old Whig Speaks.

EDITOR HERALD.-I am not a voter
only late conner, like thousands Of
others who have been enticed to come
and settle among you by your genial
climate, your fertile soil, your splen-
did scenery, and the grand develop
ments now so fminent in your favored
country. 1 am not politician,
though the time was, when for a long
time, felt the deepest interest in the
partizan politics of our country; but
that was when our constitutional
compact was pure as it had been when
it come from the hands of our fathers
who made it, when Wings and Demo-
Gratis (the only parties then known)
We'd with each other in efforts to pre-
serve it, but differed as to the right
mode of carrying out its provisions.
1t was based then, as it is now, on
fundamental principles, the same in
alienable rights and security of man
which agitated the land of our fore
fathers centuries ago and brought to
the block the crowned head of Charles
the Second; the same that waited our
Pilgrim Fathers to Plymouth Rock;
the same that landed our Cavalier
Fathers on the sandy shores of South
Carolina; the same that united the
sons of those venerable devotees of
liberty in the glorious struggle which
resulted in American freedom and be-
gan the work of universal emancipa.
ton from despotism and all the evils
of irresponsible government. And that
sacred compact is the same under
which we contended so f1ercely for
party supremacy from the halcyon
days of 1882 to the dark and gloomy
period of 1S60-61, each party being
loyal to the Constitution, as they be-
lieved; and it stands, this day, as much
the very life and charter of our liber-
ties as it did then, except that, since
the war, the Thirteenth, Fourteenth
and Fifteenth Amendments have been
added but to these all may and all do
agree, as they only enlarge the sphere
of freedom and render a new defini-
ton to single clause of the COnstitu-
ton.
And now, if it is so worthy of our
veneration, so essential to our happi-
ness and existence as nation, surely
the man who speaks lightly or irrev-
erently of it in the presence of large
assemblage of American citizens is
amenable to censure; and if he is or
has been the occupant of high posi-
tion, his example justly calls for the
most unmeasured denunciatiOn of all
true patriots.
These reflections have been suggest
ed by the address of Ex-Governor
Wood of Oregon to a large cOncourse
of citizens of Los Angeles on Satur-
day evening last, in which he justified
the dire abuses of the Republican
party for the past ten years on the
ground of "higher law" regarding
Constitution as effete if not vicious in
its restraints and unworthy to stand
in the way of progress. . In other
words, as impotent to chez he ambi-
tiOus or vindictive purpos )f an un-
trammeled party, which, lder the
groundwork of our existence as ma
tion and seeks to build up central
lied oligarchy to enslave us forever
for what else can our Government be,
when shorn of State rights, as ex-
Governor Wood would have it? His
whole argument seemed to be nothing
else but a rehash of those stale doc
trines of the Republican party which
have lain crushed and purifying on
the battle fields of political strife for
| the last ten years-nothing more than
a Sophomore son of any Radical poll
tician might be expected to rehearse.
In his terrible denunciation Of our
| Southern brethren, he seems to have
carefully studied the reports of major
| tiles of committees who, like himself,
were picked and packed to misrepre-
sent facts to sustain the Administra-
| ton; but the counter reports of minor
| tiles, whose statements were tried and
have led the people everywhere to
stamp the party with infamy, he cer-
| tainly forgot or Intentionally disre-
garded. His speech was simply a
| fiery eXhortation, delivered with such
| impetuosity and mannerism that it
outstripped all criticism, as he went
bounding from one point to another,
dealing out to our down trodden
brethren of the South the same whole
sale abuse and vilification that were
hurled so furiously against them by
his party in the dark days of recon-
struction. If the Ex-Governor had
lived in the days of Cotton Mather, 1
am sure our pure old great-grand-
mothers would have Jared worse than
they really did,
But as this communication was de-
signed as q protest rather than an ar
gument or review, l will say no more,
having expressed my horror at ths ex-
Governors sacreligious assault upon
our great and only charter of liberty.
WuICt OF 1910