The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1876-10-12
THE DANGER AND DUTY OF THE
DAY.

When Senator Bayard led the way in
manly and earnest condemnation of the
opinion of Judge Taft by an interview
with representative of the World which
has since resolutely followed up by spec
ches in Brooklyn and this city, the man
ayers of the Hayes campaign, who speak
mainly through the Times in this city,
instantly rushed forward to wave the
"bloody shirt" in his face. 1t was the
only answer they could make to his in
disputable proposition of constitutional
law, that there is in this broad land Of
ours no voter created by Federal power,
all voters having their life and being as
such from the several States. Thus speaks
the Times
citizenship, as he defines it, has moth
ing whatever to do with the Union; it
pertains exclusively to the State. A vo-
ter resident in New York votes not as a
citizen of the United States, but as a cit
izen of New York The National Gov
ernment has nothing to do with him,
and, according to Mr.. Bayard, he must
not look to it for privileges or protection.
The soul of liberty in this country is,
in Mr., Bayard's opinion, encased in State
laws, and any interference on the part of
the Federal power to protect the individ-
ual voter from fraud or violence, would
be fatal to our form of government
And then, through column and
half of "bloody shirt" rhetoric, the Times
went on to denounce Mr.. Bayard as an
arrant rebel for uttering such a senti-
ment
Yet what else did the Supreme Court
say in its opinion, which in effect deci-
ded Judge Taft's recent law to be no law,
and the Presidents order to be uncon-
stitutional? We give the words of the
Court:
"We have decided that the Constitution
of the United States has not conferred
the right of suffrage upon any one, and
that the United States have no voters of
their own creation in the States"
We confront the rhetoric of the Hayes
managers with this solemn language
of the Court, not to vindicate the World
or Mr.. Bayard as against the Times nor
to show how ignorant that journal is of
our system of dual governments, nor yet
to demonstrate how indefensible is the
conduct of Grant, Taft and Cameron in
this business, but to make our Democratic
friends, and conservative men of all par
ties feel how much depends on the COM
ing election 1t is not against the Dem
Ocratic party at all: it is against the
framework of our political system, and
the Constitution of the United States
that the Hayes campaign is conducted.
Look at the facts The Supreme Court
has !asrEided that the Federal Govern
merl1 lannot perform police duty inside a
State, and yet it is just that police duty
which the President directs the rnarshals
and the army to perform, and to perform
without an application from any State!
The Supreme Court has decided that,
under no existing law, can the President
protect either negroes or white men, or
men of any color, inside State, from in
timidation, whether the latter be applied
to prevent either from registering or vo-
ting or doing anything else, and yet Judge
Taft, under orders from Zach Chandler,
advises the President exactly in the face
of the highest tribunal in the land. To
what must this directly and inevitably
lead? IN
To-day there is no law for such inter
ference with the States; but give the rad
ical party power at the next election, Ell
tber in Congress or in the White House,
and there will be laws passed authoriz-
ing such invasion of the States. '.''t.
Do conservative men reply that these
laws, though passed, will nevertheless .be
unconstitutional OF course they will be
and so the present Supreme Court plain
" has said What of that A Radical
Congress can and will authorize an in
crease of Judges, as it did in 1859, where
by the next year, in 1870, Bradley and
Strong assembled the bench to overthrow
the SO emn judgment which had pro-
nounced the Legal Tender law unconsti-
tutional. The denunciations heaped on
Mr.. Bayard by the Times as the Hayes
organ, clearly and Enthusiastically betoken
what the Hayes leaders mean to do If
they get power in all departments of the
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, Legislative and
judicial
We ask all conservative men, and par
ticularly all sincere Democrats through
out this city and State, TO ponder these
things.