Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1876-03-01
MCKsONlAN DEMOCRACY.

. 'e~sN ~>stcses~s VS." f''>s's'sy ~ va
! battle of Now Orleans in Philadelphia
on the 9Th of January. The following
: is full tcxt of that portion Of tn,
speech of Senator Bayard, on that oc
casion, and should be read by every
adult, and school boy in tho Union
The speech has the true Democratic
ring and is couchcd in excellent Ian
guagc. Read it,,
am glad throughout this pro
gramme of toasts to sec the careful, th'
useful, the discriminate use of th,
word Federal us applied to our Con
gross to our government and TO oul
Union Of States. II was not an idea
word Those who framed this govern
ment deliberately termed it the United
States Of America-the States Unitec
of America. The term is pregnan,
with meaning, and lot us not forget it
for il seems to me to be the root of the
idea ofour American citizenship. Peo
pie who talk of the Federal govern
ment frequently forget that it is ma
ton of States, of Independent sovereign
communities, who, by their represen.
tatvcs in Congress, meet for the com,
mon benefit OF all, for tho injury and
degradation of none. [Applause, l.
The men who formed this government
were grave and earnest ard able; they
wrought in sad sincerity when they
formed this government of ours. They
made il representative government
which it was intended to be-they the
agents and the people the principals.
What was the underlying idea of that
government? What was contained in
Nthat charter of the States which
may be termed the letter of attorney,
iTevocable if you please, but letter
of attorney giving certain delegated
powers to those who are to rule them
and Withholding expressly all those
not dclegatcd2 What was the intent2
Those who framed this government
had felt the hand of power and had
felt it sorcly, and they intended that
their children and their children's chill
dren should never feel it as they had
done and all over thisehartcr of gov
ernment which they formed is spread
the great fact, the great truth that
comes up and is seen like the letter
mark of the paper upon which the
original doctrine is written, limitation
upon power, nothing absolute, all limi.
ted, distributed in order that it might
be limited, and each department
carefully guarded against intervention
by the other There not only was
that safety that must come TO all men,
cultured or uncultured, wise or simple,
in the refusal to admit the aggregation
of power in too great masses in any
one hand, for, as you know, tho natur-
al effect of power is not only to be
abused when it is not responsible, but
to corrupt the sourcc-and do not we
see both, in the times in which we live,
sadly typifcd2 1t not only was that,
but II was meant to make govern
ment IN which the honest, the simple,
and the semi-cultured man should take
his part, and carry out the principles
of liberty which that government was
intended to contain. 1t was not for
the scholar, only, it was not for
the man whose life had been devoted
to the study of the science of govern
ment, but it was meant for the plain,
honest, straightforward man who felt
that this was the truth, rather than
perceived it by his intelligence. This
was the cause of this separation Of
power. This was the cause why pow
er was given in such small compart-
ments TO each. II was that men Of
moderate ability and knowledge should
I'll them, and that our nation should
be a nation governed by the people
and not by a few great men who had
made statecraft the study of theirlives.
[Applause.1 This charter of powers
to the Federal Congress and to the
President contains, of course, as many
inhibitons as it does grants of power.
II reads Congress shall have power"
and Congress shall not have power"
and the "shall not is almost as fre-
qucntly repeated, whether applied TO
the inhibitions upon the State or upon
the Federal power as the shall" is in
the grants Of power which were dele
gated to Congress- What the trainers
of our government sought was to make
this government free, and If II was TO
be strong, il was to be strong in the
affections Of the people. 1t was TO be
a great and beautiful cdifce, OF which
the states, standing complete and per-
feet each in its own autonomy, were
to be rs columns OF beautiful temple
the temple of constitutional liberty.
Each State was to be column, and
the general govcrnment,'as they term
cd II, the government Of the United
States, was TO be the superintendent
roof--a roof surmountcd by grand
and beautiful dome, the very poetry
OF governmental creation, TO be hung
above all not TO crush them by its
weight, Dut 10 Dind them togcthcr Dy
its strength. [Applause.] 1t was the
genius OF Michael Angelo who con-
ccivcd the thought Of taking the pagan
dome of the Pantheon and hanging il
in mid.air as the dome Of grand Chris
tian temple, and 30 was it the idca -oi
our iorciathers that they should take
powers necessary for the preservation
of the States, and not thch' destruc-
ton, and form that grand temple OF
liberty under which the States live
and flourish tho States never so strong
as when sustaining the government
tho government never 30 strong as
when sustained by the States. TIRE