The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1879-10-04

SPEECH OF
HON. DANIEL w. VOORHEES,.
At Hamilton, Ohio.

session Of Congress There was Simultaneous
prolonged, agonized, hysterical scream from
Republican sources all over the country against
the Democratic party, because we asserted our
faith in the capacity Of the people to govern
themselves, and our determination that they
should do so without let or hindrance from
military power This was the head and front of
our offending no more and no less. We were
true, absolutely true, TO the bedrock principles
of the constitution, while the leaders of the
| Republican party, as all the world knows, pro-
claimed on the floor of both branches of Con-
| gress doctrines so subversive of the very life
of civil liberty that the Tories of the Revolu-
ton would have been ashamed to own Them
Docs this sound to some of you as an exagge-
rated statement made merely for politi-
cal efecty If co. let us examine for
few moments the extent to which the
Federal Government has already arrogsted to
itself the right by law TO seize upon every spe-
cles OF local elections, control them by force,
aud manufacture ajorites out of minorities
Are you aware that there is now law of Con
eress, enacted by the Republican party in full
force at this hour, which asserts the control of
the Federal Government and the jurisdiction
of the United States courts over every election
OF every description that can possibly occur in
any State or Territory, in any district, county,
city. parish, township, school district, munloi-
pality, or other territorial subdivision, if any
other can be found? Such is the fact. Federal
power has clutched control of every voting pre-
cnct In the States and Territories. In proof of
his allow me to read in your hearing section
% q Of the Revised Statutes OF the United
Safes:
avery person who, by any unlawful means, hun
ders, delays, prevents obstructs, combines
and eonfederates with others to hinder, delay pre-
vent obstruct, any citizen doing any required
to be done to qualify him to vote, or from voting
in any State, Territory district, county, city,
arish, township school district municipality or
other territorial subdivision shall be fined notices.
ihan $685. or be Imprisoned not less than one
month, nor more than one year or be punished by
| 10th such fine aid Imprisonment.
What kind of an election escapes the provis-
! ion Of this see.ionS
II has been asserted over and over again, in
| Congress ana elsewhere, by the Republican
! leaders ana newspapers, that the power of the
/ Federal Government has been applied only at
tunes and places where members and delegates
! in Congress were chosen. This is all false, as
the section just read conclusiyely proves. If
! You we're holding an election for Mayor of this
| eity, or for Councilmen in lis various wards,
aud one person should by any unlawful means,
| such. for instance, as quarrel on the street,
hinder or delay another elm voting, the person
| 80 offending Ia, by express terms of this sec
ton, made liable to u fine of not less than $500
or 10 imprisonment not less than ono month
{
| aud Imprisonment. Ii you were engaged In
eleclDg Clerk, an Auditor, or Sheriff, or any
| other county officer of Butler county, the same
insolent interference by the Federal Govern
ment is provided for by this law You are not
free from its aggressive and inquisitive power
even in the hrmblest details of your local
affairs. In the language of the law it
self, an election in a township or q
school district is subject TO the domination
of Federal rule, Federal Marshals Federal
ate punishments OF Federal courts Are you
in favor of this law? Are you 80 poor and
| contemplate in your own view of yourselves
that you feel the need Of the restraining and
| penal Influences of such an enactment rs this !?
| Are you willing to admit that you can not trust
yourselves; that you cannot even elect the
| Justices Of the Peace, or the trustees of your
townships. or the officers of your school
districts unless the supervision and threaten
ing authority of the Federal Government is ex-
tended over you? Have the American people,
III fact, sunk SC low as this? Have the people
of Ohio consented to this servile doctrine
The leaders of the Republican party say you
have; Charles Foster says you have; John
Sherman says Won have They say that this
usurpaion against local sef-government shall
stand; that this legislative insult to you, this
enactment of distrust of your virtue and in
telligence, shall remain permanently in the
4 statutes of your country. l say it ought
to be repealed, expunged, torn from the pages
nation and adherence. What do you say?
Do you believe in yourselves, or do you want
a mastery
That is the exact issue. II is a very old one,
and yet it sounds new in our times. Those Of
you who think You are not competent to man.
age your local affairs, unless the club of the
| Federal Government ls welded overy your heads
by United States Marshals, District Attorneys,
aud partisan Judges on the Federal bench, will,
of course, and with entire consistency, vote the
Republican ticket-vote for Foster, who has
the same opinion of you that you have of your
selves. Who do you suppose would vote with
yon if they were here? Every Tory of the
Revolution. Not one of them believed in the
natural rights Of man to govern himself with
out q master. The odous Lord North, Prime
Minister to George Ill. would be stalwart
Republican in this contest, and the old imbe-
cile King himself, if alive and citizen of Ohio.
would on the we'll known principles of his long
and tyrannical reign, be for Foster, and a
strong centralized Government If you could
resurrect from their infamous graves all those
who sided with Great Britain against the prin-
ciples of Jefferson in the days of the Revolu-
ton, not one would fail to sustain the high pre-
rogative of the Government i'll stamping out
local and popular sovereignty. If every
on the Scottish or English thrones
could be exhumed to-day, they would, on this
issue, zealously support the Republican party.
All such, in all ages, as have disbeheved In
human freedom, and individual responsibility
all the blood stained monsters who have cured
the earth with war to crush the aspirations OF
the people for home rule and civil liberty,
would, if here contribute to the campaign fund
of the Republican party, subscribe for its news
papers and vote for its candidates. All this and
more would follow in the logical order of things.
1t was reported not long ago that very rich
man of New York, by the name Of Jay Gould,
blurted out his willingness and desire to pay
millions for a Government Of high centralized
powers; a Government not dependent upon the
popular will; Government which would gov
ern, coerce and hold in subsection the people,
instead of allowing them, according to the con-
stitution of their fathers, to govern themselves
This was simply a somewhat indiscreet but
very accurate proclamation of the spirit and
purposes of the Republican party. 1t has the
sanction of all such leaders Of that party as are
without faith in mans capacity and right to
govern himself; of all such as are rich and
prosperous, and desire no possibility OF q
change of all retired capitalists whose invest
ments are eating up the mortgaged lands and
labor Of the people, like incurable cancers
wrecking the human body
. There was hard struggle at the very begin
ming of our Government over this very ques-
, , ton. There was q party then very formidable
in talents, and very considerable in numbers
/ which had no faith in the people, and boldly
declared its infidelity to popular institutions
The Republican party, with its Supervisors, it
Marshals, it's Commissioners, its spies, its Fed
eral courts, and its deep distrust of the Amer
lean people everywhere, in township, county
and State, is the revival Of the old despoti'
Federal party under different name, but will
similar ideas. The circle is almost complete
country have almost reached the point at which
thew hepan their nefarioua echeunes nearly