The daily gazette., 1879-05-14
"No Soldiers Can Interfere -

Aoh tho RAChuhOhu W
Mr.. Evarts is lawyer of great reputa-
tion-a statesman of no mean repute-
and ranks high in the estimate of the Re-
publican party, and his words, pronounc-
ed in all the sober earnestness of an ad-
dress to his countrymen are not to be
treated lightly, nor to be passed aside, as
''an empty sound" The usurpations of
his own party had reached to the point
when his silence, under loyalty to 1t,
had ceased to be virtue, and his pa
triotism, rising above partisanship, gives
utterance to the doctrine of the Fathers
whose breath was the love of liberty.
The proposition was to his mind so self
evident, had for so many ages been ac-
cepted as indisputable, that 1t was an AK
ION Of liberty that he felt it unnecessary to
attempt its demonstration, but proceeded
to announce its corollary: "That when
men vote and when their chosen officers
meet, and when without violence and
without demonstration of insurrection,
they undertake the affairs of their politi-
cal governments, no soldiers can inter-
fere.' So impressed were his auditors
"fellow citizens of New York"-with
the power and truth of his words, that
they greeted them with cheers. "No
soldiers can interfere"
In the time of Edward I. 1t was the
habit of Parliament to attach their sup
ply bills petitions for grievances In the
time af the Tudors and Stuats, money
bills were conditioned on redress. In
| the time of Charles |. the language
| of Parliament was "Unless we are Sc
cure in our liberties we cannot give y
''that by ancient course of Parliament
grievances have been first considered of
before supply y"-"that grievances and
supply go hand in hand" The doctrine
we repeat is as old as the hills, and has
never been disputed until now. If at
any time its application can be properly
made it is now "when vicious laws have
fastened themselves upon the statute
book which imperil the liberty of the
people, )" that it becomes the bounden du-
ty of Congress to say ''it will appropri.
ate no money to give effect to such
laws" and failure so to act-ii
necessary to the ends to become accom-
plices, after the fact, of those, who through
these laws, struck at the life of the Re-
public and at the liberties of the people.
1t is the duty Of our representatives,
before they leave Washington, to give to
the American people the assurance that
the right is preserved to them to cast
their votes at all elections without fear
of the interpostion of Federal power
and that in the exercise of their right OF
suffrage
NO SOLDIERS CAN INTERFERE.
Is this the wisdom of great min
lister, or the ominous vibration of pen
dulum?
Such has ever been the voice of free
men from the time of Edward the First
in the fourteenth century, from genera
ton to generation, down to February
1865, when it was reserved for an Ameri
can Congress, under Republican rule
when eleyenl of the States wer,
unrepresented, confessedly for the pur
pose Of controlling the elections in thu
South, thereby to perpetuate Republican
rule and to such excesses has this party
carried the power of interference will
the free exercise of the inalienable an(
invaluable right of free suffrage, that TIN
present Prime Minister was forced to de
clare that ''the people of the Unite,
States are justified in assuming that tn
supreme civil power shall dominate owe
the military, and that no merging @
them or interference with them shall b
permitted"
s.NO SOLDIERS CAN INTERFBRE."
This being accepted as the true doc
, trine of our Government, it follows as
: consequence that when the Administra
ton shall undertake to impugn its trut
or impair its strength, it becomes th
duty of the representatives of the peopl
to compel such administration to with
hold its hand; and if it be claimed tina
the power is or may be exercised, unde
color of law, then the duty is imperativ
! to wipe such laws from the statute bool
and compel the concurrence of the ad
, ministration. Mr.. Evarts in the speec
referred to, declared that it was for 18Th
! indubitable and ancient rights of Parlis
: ment to hold the purse when in dange
from the claims of royal power" til
great battle for English liberty Wa
fought.