The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1879-05-09
THE DEMOCRATIC POSITION CLEARLY
STATED.

Presidential ticket. The patriotic ut
teranoes of Mr. Blackburn in the re-
cent debates upon this question have
indeed placed him in prominent light
before the public-so much so that the
Radical journals and speakers have
seen fit to level shower after shower of
envenomed spite at him--an unfailing
sign of his eminent fitness for so distin.
guished position as leader of the grand
old patriotic party of the people and of
constitutional government.
The stalwart Kentuckian unlues-
tienably made the best and ablest speech
Of either side upon this question. He
struck the keynote of the contest, and
in his Fgument-which for brillianey
of rhetoric, as well as for oomprehen-
sive power of statement and analysis,
confirms its author in the position al
ready accorded him in popular estima-
tiOn-the leadership of the majority
upon the floor of the House of Repre-
sentatives.
In view of the possibility of Mr.
Blackburn's nomination it may be of
interest to our readers to present to
them some extracts from his masterly
effort. His speech was not only clear
and comprehensive statement of the
Democratic position, but a complete
and overwhelming answer to Garfield
and his associates In single para
graph in the outset the whole case is
stated clearly and emphatically as fol-
lows:
standing upon the broad ground of our
constitutional power, and hedged about by
precedents upon precedents, we make the
issue that the ballot must be FREQ, and
cheerfully accept all the responsibilities
this great issue carries with il. The con-
test upon which we have entered will
never cease till the sacred right OF an
American freeman to deposit his ballot
free from the supervision of federal Off
cials, FREQ from the intimidating presence
of deputy marshals, free from the overaw.
ing array Of troops at the polls, Is secured,
or the forty-sIxth Congress OK pires by It's
constitutional limitation"
After replying at length TO the charge
: of revolution" which Garfield had
made against the majority in taking
their present position, and demonstra.
ting the utter Inconsistency aud absurd
ity of the charge coming from the source
it did, by extended reference to the rec
ord made by Garfield and the Republi-
can party in Congress in the past, in
attaching Important legislation to APP
preparation bills and thereby securing
executive approval for measures from
! which it might otherwise have been
, withheld. Blr. Blackburn closed his
! speech substantially in the following
language
: For the first time in eighteen years the
Democracy is back in power in both
; branches Of C0nglcSs. We propose TO
celebrate her return to power by wiPing
from the statute book those degrading re-
strictions on freemen, and by striking
away the sbackles which partisan legisla-
I
stop until we have stricken the last Vestige
Of your war measures from tho statute
books dixie those which were born eli the
, passions incident to civil strife, and which
looked alone 70 the abridgement of the lib
: critics of the citizens), until We have an un-
trammeled election and an unsu peryised
ballot, and an absolute Tree right for tho
citizen to deposit his ballot. as the condi-
tons precedent which we offer TO YOU for
the passage Of this bill. II the gentleman
from Ohio is to be excused (for certainly
he cannot be juslifiedl for paradinE before
this house the 'argumentum in teTrorom"
oi q veto that Is cut and dried to be put
| upon a bill that has not yet passed, arnd II
he is to be pardoned for warning tho house
that the executive branch Of the govern
ment will never yield its assent to this
measure in its present fern, ask whether
/ may not be warranted and justified in
employing equal candor in assuring that
gentleman and his associates that the dom
mant power in this Congress, the ruling
, element in this body, Is also equally de.
termined that until its just 5emands, sane
ton by all laws, human and divine, pro-
tected and hedged around by precedents
without number, demanded by the people
) of this land without regard to secti 81, ,
clamored for not by the south alone, but
in Philadelphia as well as in New Orleans,
: in San Francisco and Boston, as well as in
Charleston and Savannah, are complied
with, this side Of the chamber, which has
demonstrated its power, never means to
yield or surrender unless this Congress
shall have died by>Virtue OF its limitation.
. A principle cannot be compromised. IL
may be surrendered, but that can only be
done by It's advocates giving proof 70 the
world that they are cravens aud towards,
and lack the courage'of their own conYic-
tons. We cannot yield and we will not
yield.
Let me assure my friends on the other
side that this IS the restoration to power OF
party as old as the government itself.
which for one hundred Yeas almost has
stood the boldOst, fr9est, truest exponent
and champion and defender of the doctrine
Of constitutional Limitation, against the
doctrine Of the aggrandizement OF power
Ii is this organization that has come back
} to rule, and il means to rule, and to rule ia
obedience to law. The issue is laid down
Tho gage of battle is delivered. Lift it
when you please, and we are willing to
appeal TO that sovereign arbiter to which
the gentleman from Ohio SO handsomely
alluded, the American people, TO decide
between US. We intend to deny to the
J President Of the Republic the right to ex-
ercise such unconstitutional powers. We
do not mean to pitch this contest on the
g-ounds Of objection to him who happens,
If not by "the grace Of God" by the run
of luck" to be administering that Office
II from yonder canvas [pointing to pic
ture hanging to the east of the Speakers
chairl the first President Of the Republic
should step down TO assume the powers
which the grateful people of an infant re-
public conferred upon him as their first
chief magistrate-if he were here fired by
that patriotic ardor which moved him in
the earlier and better days of this great
government, to him we would never con.
sent to yield unconstitutional powers or to
rest the liberty OF the citizens in any mans
discretion, nor would he receive It, It was
not for the earlier, but for the later execu-
tives of this government to grasp, and