The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1876-07-20
TILDEN AS A sEcEss1oN1sT.

4
tiarv!"
TILDEN AS A SECESSIoNIST
rs THIS FIT MAN TO OCCUPY THE PREsIDEN-
NAL CHAIR.
from the New York Times1
| In 1860 Mr.. Tilden. who had for years been
one of the most supple and plant tools of the
slave power, distinguished himself by extraor-
binary efforts to prevent the election of Mr..
Lincoln. He attacked every idea and princi-
pie upon which the Republican party was
founded, as false in theory, wrong in
morals, and certain to be most disastrous in
their results. He asserted the right of the
Shareholder to take his human chattel into
any of the Territories of the United States,
and was re-eminently the champion of that
hideous system whose triumph in this coun-
try would have been the end of all liberty, of
all humanity, of all progress, of all that
characterizes a Christian civilization. He
not only asserted the right of the slave
holders to take their human chattels wherever
they pleased, but that the denial of such
right entitled the slave-holding States to snap
the tie that held them within the Union, as
nation would break treaty or repel invasion.
We have now before us one of his efforts,
pamphlet under the date of October II, 1860,
addressed to Hon. William Kent, then ElectOr
on the Democratic ticket for the State of
New York, in which he held the following
language:
The single, slender, conventional tie which
holds the States in confederation has strength
compared with the compacted, INTERVENING ibres
which bind the atoms of human society into one
formation of national growth.
The masters of political science who constructed
our system preserved the State Governments as
buwarks for the freedom of individuals and locali
ties. against oppression from centralized power.
They recognized right of constitutional secession,
but they left revolution organized 1Uhe 1t should be
demanded by the public opinion of State; left 1t
Cith pO1Cer to snap the tie Of confederation, as 9d
nation might TepeI inUGsOn. They caused us to de-
pend in great measures, upon the public opinion of
the States, in order to maintain confederated
union. They intended to make it necessary for us,
in every reasonable extent, to respect that public
opinion.
AS rule of right and duty for the construction
and execution of the constitution the theory main
tanned by Mr. Seward, and toe extensively accepted,
is entirely fallaciOus, contract governing COM
plicated transactions or relations between men, and
applying permanently through the changes inevita-
BILE in human affairs, can be efectua if either party
intended to be bound by at liberty to construe
execute it's provisions in a spirit of hostility to
the substantial objects of these provisions. Is
peciGtty rs this true Of compact Of confederation be-
tIoee11 the States, where there can De no common GT6G
ter invested Nth authorities and 0lcers equally
pab ecith those 9gch courts possess bet,oeen idiOdd
atGIs for deteTmini1sg and enforcing just c0StTGc
tiO3 and execution Of the instrument.
There can not, in the whole of Calhoun's
works, be found more concise and terse
statement of the right of each State to secede
at viii from the Union. It's opinion is its |
law. Washington stated the opposite theory
with equal terseness when he sad that s. in !
fuence is not government" Are we any bet |
ter prepared TO accept Mr.. Tilden's theory
of the nature of our Government than we
were sixteen years ago? Are there still no
questions upon which the public opinion
of the States may yet differ? May it not
differ upon the question of the payment of
our national debt? May not Alabama, which
has Just repudiated large portion of her
State debt contracted for the construction of
railroads, entertain an opinion" that she is
under no obligation to pay her share of a
national debt, created for the purpose of CO.
erclng her into Union which she sought to
leave on account of an alleged violation of
it's constitution d? After all Ihe sacrifices that
have been made-sacrifices that cost half
million of lives and almost-untod treasure
are we still but loose aggregation of States |
bound by no stronger tie than the passion or
sentiment of the hour? Or are we to repeat
one of the planks in the Republican platform
Just adopted at the convention at Cincin- |
natl, and suggested to it by our German citi- |
zens, that the United States Government, not |
the State, is supreme?
No nomination could have been made which |
so effectually revives the issues of the past |
which the Republicans have so often met |
and in which they have so often tI1umphed, |
as that of Mr.. Tlden. No man in the United |
States is more-ftting representative of all i
that is dangerous and Odious In the Democratic !
party. No man ever more persistently urged |
that our soil was to be possessed by slavery |
as well as freedom: no man ever more en-
phatically maintained the right of the South
ern States to secede upon mere caprice, and |
no man more sincerely syulpathzed with |
them in the struggle for independence"
The cause of the North was an unholy one ;
it's war an outrage. and so late as the Demo |
cratic Convention of 1864, was declared by
him to be a failure. To support him now is
to turn our back upon the past, and to declare
our professions to have been mere mockery, |
and our achievement but sham. We shall |
have occasion to refer again to Mr.. Tilden's |
letter, which is too long for publication in our
columns. We presume it will be Immediately |
republished for the benefit Of the public. Our
people will be able to judge for themselves of !
his fitness TO occupy the Presidential chair. |
We do not believe that they will put man
into 1t who has indicated in every possible
manner the right of the South to secede, at |
least till the passions growing out of the
rebellion shall have subsidized, and till time
has so strengthened the Union sentiment that |
we can afford to overlook what only few |
years ago at the North was regarded, and |
which should still be regarded, as the crown
ing political heresy.
TILDEN AS A RAILROAD SCALPER. |
HIS STEAL FROM THE ST. LOUIS, ALTON AND |
TERRE HAUTE. f
EFrom the Chicago Tribune1
Mr.. Samuel J. Tilden, the Confederate |
Democratic Reform candidate for the Presi- |