The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1875-07-25
Senator Thurman.


own views. His position in regard to the
Columbus platform 10 difficult one. His
record is for hard money, while that plat
folm favors what be calls "sofr money |
The Ohio Democracy has gone wrong on
| this particular question, declaring against !
him and in favor of initiation. But Ohio is
his State /; it is the field upon which his
political battle must be fought. What then
lie he to dot Grow virtuOusly Indignant
In defence of true Democratic principle |
and lose the State by dividing his party
or truckle to the dominant within of the mo- |
ment and sacrifice the consistency of q long |
and honorable public career
He does neither. He proclaims that he
will, during the coming campaign, denounce
the soft money plank as heresy, but &C.
cept the platform as . whole, under that
protest, rather than divide the party. In
other words, he does not consider the cur
rency question the most vital one before
the peop'e. He thinks that the most i'm
portant thing now lie to restore the general
Democratic instinct to the control Of
American affairs. That instinct is, the
smallest possible amount of government.
The grand anti American heresy or politi.
cal depravity is, the greatest possible
amount of government. Your instructive
Democrat, or American, says: Leave every
thing, when possible, to private enterprise,
and where government is unavoidable,
give it, as much as possible, to local con-
troll. Your anti-American says: Give all
power to the government and put all in
terests under its rule,-education, travel,
lines of commerce, improvements, manu-
factures, agriculture, even the domestic
relations, even the liberty of the ctizen,-
let it be master and its people serfs con-
trolled in every movement by oface-hold
ers, let them be trained to more regularity,
more promptness, more efficiency in all
|, things, like an army. Government does
all things better than the incentive of pri-
vate interest can get them done, and that
government should not be partly divided
among local sovereignties, but ought to be
CENTRALIZED in one iron grasp.
This is the anti-American idea. 1t is one
= which controls by far the greater portion
a of the human race, and has done so in all
a ages. 1t comes naturally of human degen-
) eracy and timidity, of the want of that
o manhood which is not afraid to rely upon
n itself to enforce order, and in the absence
Is of which men, like disheartened herd Of
J. sheep, throw themselves upon the protec.
ton of a keeper, though he be despot
T. Even in America there is, and always has
u, been, powerful element of that kind, and
it though our country has always hitherto
10 been Republican in it's true majority, tn,
o. Russian policy has ever been in favor will
u powerful minority. Under various name
., -Federalist, Wing, Know Nothing, Re
10 publican,-always defeated and Away
springing up under a new and less unpopu
lar name, the Russian idea has continual
maintained an active and acrimonious var
~ fare against the American idea, sometimes
", indeed, with temporary appearances c
se success.
ID, Mr.. Thurman, like a true American o
"a Democrat, knows that the Russian ide
has been of late enjoying, under the nam
be of Repu blicanism, one of it's accidental an
81. unnatural successes, and that instead of tn
no Democratic party's permitting itself to b
'et divided up on side Issues, it is a matter {
prime importance that it should organic
for victory which will cause its gener,
ok' spirit to dominate the country. He fee
o" that the vast flood of corruption, + aut
theft and over-taxation with which the Ian
- has been inundated, and in which it's pro
= n perity has been drowned, has poured
IN. through breaches made by the dominal
to party in the bulwark of the written an
ties unwritten American Constitution. Gel
tarlizstion at Washington has given tt
for opportunity of robbery and spoliatio
'"' which has not failed to bring forth it's nat
70 raj fruit of ruin.
~ Mr.. Thurman, therefore, thinks it absu
NY to quarrel over the dog kennel when Il
'% house is on fire. He believes that the Der
of ocra'i0 parry sn'u'" SS"uu '0S0'ueF al
&C. FeSrie'e 'he fortunes oA Ine country
lila considere it suicidal to wish success to q