The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1875-04-15
From Harper's Weeily.l
Democratic First-Fruits.


The first national result of the Demo
cratic reaction of last year was the cleo
ton of Mr. Eaton of Connecticut, to the
Senate of the United States. He was
the represen tative of the real sentiment
and tendency of his party, and in a
speech made soon after his election he
| foreshadowed the course in regard to the
amendments which Mr. George Ticknor
Curtis elaborated in his letter to the
| Manhattan Club after the New York
election Mr.. Eaton has now made a
| speech in the Senate 1t is grave mis-
fortune for mere politician, of whatever
| local reputation, to be transferred to
| that arena If he speaks, the whole
country hears. and, despite the express
sive silence or the Jealous praise of his
party organs, he is measured by the pub
lie judgment as surely as a new boy at
school by his comrades. Mr.. Eaton's
speech shows conclusively that he is
bitter, narrow, unintelligent partisan,
and nothing more. He was Copper
head" during the war, and he has all the
spirit and tone of his class. Wholly un-
| important in himself, he is nevertheless
the representative of party that aims
to control the government. He is the
chosen leader of those who are now ap-
pealing to the people of Connecticut to
restore the Democratic party to power,
and his views must be accepted as those
of his associates and followers.
The substance of his speech was dec
laration, reiterated and repeated, that
the States of the Union are sovereign. 1t
is rather useless discussion, since war
of fonr years has decided that they are
not so. Mr.. Eaton said his assertion
that the States were sovereign and in
| dependent" was not heresy when Madi-
son lived. He is mistaken. Mr.. Madi
son said, in the Convention of 1887, THE
States never possessed the essential
rights of sovereignty; these were always
vested in Congress" He went on to say
that their voting, as States, even in the
Congress of the old Confederation, was
no evidence of sovereignty. A sovereign
power which can not declare war or
make peace with other sovereign powers,
or coin money or conclude treaties, or
which, having delegated those powers at
its sovereign WILL can not at that will
resume them, is very absurd sovereign
power. II it can resume them. Jefferson
Davis and his confederates were correct
in asserting that secession was the right
of sovereign State. When Mr.. Antho-
ny held up Mr.. Eaton on the points OF
this very simple dilemma, his writhing
was pitiful. He attempted to explain
when they were not sovereign, and the
Senate very properly laughed, and Mr..
Eaton said that he did not feel well.
That was precisely what Davis and his
men said after desperate attempt to
| put Mr.. Eaton's doctrines into practice.
~. This is the reform Democracy" The
parfV7S1ceeeds in ,electing Senator from
New Englanti,-and he begins by profess
ing his allegience r9-the Virginia and
Kentucky resolutions and~+t4he dograas
by which secession and rebellion Ntte!E;e NtteE;e
defended. lie succeeds in proving to
the intelligent people of this country
that the Democratic party is the same
old party whose dangerous iallacies
Webster exposed forty years ago, and
which still pertinaciously clings to the
opinions upon which it defended slavery,
and which logically justified notification
and rebellion. While it sends to the
Capitol from this part of the country
Senators who, like Mr.. Eaton, proclaim
these principles it sends from Missouri
and Georgia Senators who, like Messrs.
Cockrell and Gordon, maintained them
in the field. Are such men more likely
to administer the government according
to the principles established by the war
| than those who sustained the war and
won the victory2
! Mr.. Eaton succeeds Governor Buck
! ingham, who was one of the most de-
voted and patriotic of the war Cover
nors. Does any intelligent American
not utterly blinded by partisan fury sup
pose that it would have been better for
Connecticut and the country if Mr..
Eaton had been Governor instead of Mr..
Buckingham? Why should it be imag
ined that q tory of the Revolution would
have been a saier guardian of the gov
ernment founded upon the principles of
the Revolution than Son of Liberty
That is question which the voters of
! Connecticut have to ask themselves now.
For what reason should Mr.. Eaton and
Generals Gordon and Cockrell, enemies
of the principles and objects of the war,
hostile TO the amendments and the set
tie ments, asserting that the States are
sovereign and independent" be prefer
red in the control of the government to
those who deny the sovereignty of the
States, who hold to the national su-
premacy of the Union, and who believe
that the amendments are just and should
! be enforced