Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1879-09-25


cupied the seats of sixty Representatives
in Congress, with twelve in the Senate,
have vanished from the political stage !;
and many of their official abettors in
the North have been scourged back TO
to the powerless obscurity from which
they ought never TO have emerged.
"Our struggles for justice in the
courts, the reclamation of our rights
through the press, upon the hustings,
and in the legislative assemblies of the
States and the nation, have produced Il
striking moral effect on the minds of
our adversaries themselves. They have
not given up their despotic theory of
government, but their practice is inf.
nitely less cruel than it used TO be.
They still assert that they took advan.
tage of the military force which the
war gave them, to kill the Constitution,
and that they did actually put it TO
death but they have left of the habit
of insulting its memory. They continue
to deny the rights of the States but
they have quit holding them down to
be plundered and trodden upon. They
declare with AS much solemnity as ever
that our general government is not the
result OF compact between sovereign
States, which bestowed upon it certain
rights specifically enumerated, reserving
all others to the States themselves and
tae people, but selfexisting nation
with powers uncreated, underlined. un.
delegated, and, therefore, unlimited.
But the brutality with which this claim
OF absolute authority was enforced dur.
ing the dark years which followed the
war has visibly diminished under the
influence of the popular protest and the
decisions of the courts. We are no
longer reminded by the toad.eatcrs OF
the executive that we hold life, liberty
and property at their mercy. Military
commissions and arbitrary arrests have
been frowned out of fashion.
I'VE do not know that the enemies
of constitutional liberty have yet re.
pented of their past misdecds, but there
are only some remnants of their i'm
perial system which they now openly
adhere to and expressly threaten TO re
peat. The object OF all these is to Grip.
pie and obstruct the exercise of the
elective franchise. They insist upon
the right of the Federal executive To be
represented at the State elections 10y
the bnyonets of the standing army /;
they will not relinquish the power OF
their hircling agents to imprison Demo.
cratic voters without n warrant. and
they strenuously refuse to part with the
privilege OF trying their political oppo-
nents by juries packed to convict them.
The people and the States in the pres.
ent Congress made a brave struggle to
strike off these shacklcs and the OBJ
stIuate exertion Of fraudulent admin.
istration to hold them on proves that
the foul play OF 1876 will be, ii possible,
repeated IN 1850.
AT what time in the future the final
defeat Of the anti democratic party
will make an end of all its tyranny
and corruption no one can predict at
present. Moral forces work slowly when
opposed by money and arms; but on
some day, not very distant, the organ.
lied enemies OF honest government will
be totally routed and when justice
does overtake them the weight OF the
iron hand will make full atonement for
the delay OF the lcaden heel.