The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1877-01-31
0he Semtimsl.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 81.
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND THE
LAW.

very foundation, has evidenced a PROFOUND
and unwavering reverence for constitutions
and laws. Democ ats believe sacredly that
in obedience to the constitution CEN
tiers the existence of republican institutions.
Hence the democratic party has submitted
quietly to unjust laws and erroneous con-
structions of the constitution. 1t has re-
sisted with all the ability it could command
revolutionary innovations, appealed to the
constitution, pointed out the old LAND marks
and put forth it's mightiest energies to hold
the country to its ancient moor
ings. But fanaticism on more than
one occasion has been triumphant and the
country has paid terrible penalties for the
departures. 1t is one thing to obey bad law
and quite another thing to applaud it. The
first may be high duty, an absolute neces-
sity-the second is a crime, vicious in all its
parts, an evidence of cowardice and
lack of the essential qualities of manhood.
There are rights which constitutions can
not confer and which constitutions can not
reyoke-the right TO live, to be free and to
pursue happiness, inalienable rights, God
given and imperishable. Rights guaranteed
By the constitution until the sovereign
will revokes them are scarcely less
sacred, and when these are abro-
gated by a party or faction
in defiance of the organic law crime is
committed and resistance is a duty, duty
so sacred that it can be measured only by
devotion that yields when resistance ends
in martyrdom. To applaud such laws is to
abandon the cause of justice and truth and
right, dignity iniquity and despotism, COM
nland the car of progress to stand still and
20 back to darkness rather than
mount to higher and sublimer attitudes of
vision and to more glorious prospects of flu
ture greatness. If such had been the policy
and practice in all lands and chimes, it is
safe to say humanity would today be
cropping its way in darkness, weighted
down with burdens, the thought of
which is an understandable horror.
Peace is divine, and so is war if for divine
purpose. War is not always crime on the
part of those who engage, in it. The fields
it has fertilized and the fruits it has borne
are among the most sacred mementoes the
centuries have garnered and pre-
served. Submission to wrong never
secured right and never moved humanity
an inch on its upward journey. And though,
as we have remarked, it may be a duty
sometimes to submit to bad Law, there is no
requirement, human or divine, to approve
or applaud, and when such laws infringe
any of the inalienable or constitutionally
guaranteed rights resistance will follow if
cowardice has not dsurped the place of cour
age.
The case now before the country is singu-
larly anomalous. To put the best possible
face on the situation would be to say that
the joint committee proposed and congress
has passed fair law to make wickedness re-
spectacle. A band of conspirators exalted
crime to the level of honesty, and the law
crystalizes the fact in the record of the
first month of the second century
of the republic Under the law,
and in strict accordance with the
constitution, the people said reform should
BE- The law comes in and declares Il may be.
The people issued their edict, "Henceforth
an honest government" The law inter
poses and gives Grdntism another chance. A
mighty people putting forth their sovereign
power proclaimed Tilden and Hendricks
president and vice president. The law per
mits four men, moral lepers, the most de-
generate villains in the country, dead in
trespasses and sins-swollen with crime.
purifying radical ulcers-to challenge the
verdict of the ballot-box with more than an
equal chance to reverse it, and the issue
was squarely made to the peoples represen-
tatives to consider these claims of conspira-
tors or take the consequences. To avoid the
consequences the bill was drafted and be-
came the law. 1t is assumed that this law
will secure peace, and in the long years to
come the people will have ample time
TO sum up the price paid. We repeat; to
obey the law is enc thing to applaud the
law quite a different thing. Mr. Henry
Watterson, member of congress and editor
of the Courier-Journal, will be remembered
for his ferceness and feebleness. During
the campaign he mounted to an
elevation as serere as was ever obtained by
a sand hill crane. He could see further and
more distinctly than any other statesman
that Kentucky ever adopted or produced.
His declarations were Napoleonic, and Ken
tuckians listened and shouted and voted.
Henry Watterson made strides as gigantic as
did ever Harry of the West, the great com
moner of the country. But suddenly, pres
to-a compromise is suggested: elect Tilden.
and let Hend-icss slide. Then come re-
monstrances and another flop; now war,
with one hundred thousand unarmed men in
Washington to see justice done; smoke in
in the distance; shooting crackers in the rear.
That for a while, and now this:
'For our part" says Mr.. Watterson, I'VE
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