Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1879-10-29
AGGRESSIVE INSOLGNCE

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AGGRESSJpF JNSOLPNrg
Utter despair of the Republic would
settle darkly down on the mind of any
person who would habilually read and
believe the average Republican organ.
Almost every newspaper in the entire
country that is devoted to the dissent.
nation of Republican principles-or
rather, advcr,isingsae gassy slamenta.
bic lack of principles soIemnly assures
its readers, day after day aad yea,
after year, that the Democratic party
is thoroughly committed to an hereti.
cal doctrine that is inimical to the per.
petuity of our institutions, and will, if
successful, destroy the Government
reducing to chaos the work OF the
wise and good men who laid the
foundations of our governmental struc.
ture.
There is scarcely Republican or.
gan that has not been engaged in this
unpatriotic work for many months
and most of them TEEN with abuse of
the Democracy as enemies OF the Fed.
eral authority, 0imbued with the spirit
OF secession and rebellion" All this.
because the Democratic creed includes
the great principle of States rights, as
laid down in the Constitution, as de.
fined by Chief Justices Marshall and
Chase, and as held by nearly all the
great jurists OF all parties since tho
birth Of this Nation. 1t would be a
melancholy fact, indeed, ifit were true
that belief in. this old and vital
theory rendered one an enemy Ia his
country. twould show for the greater
part OF the time since the Union was
formed, and during all the years of its
most rapid growth and development
it had been in the bards ofits enemies,
had been under the control of party
whose principles we're dangerously
heretical and tended to the destruction
Of the whole system. 1t would indi.
cate that a majority OF our voting pop.
ulation were u little better than trait
ors to-day, and would warn all the
friends ofliberty, in all other countries,
to expect an early collapse of this
great American bubble--this costly ex.
pertinent in the beautiful but impracti.
cable theory Of self government. But
the journals that publish and the
men who read those assertions do not
believe them. They know that the
masses are honest in their political
views, and patriotic in their feelings.
desiring the best good of all our peo.
pie, and the best results from our Gov
ernment.
From its first appearance on the
stage the Radical party has been blat-
antly aggressive and intemperately
denunciatory. 1t began life BY fling.
ing epithets at all opponents. So long
as it struggled for the accomplishment
of definite and tangible purpose. there
was some excuse for its fiorid zeal and
torrid temper. But when its mission
was accomplished when II had destroy.
cd slavery almost at the cost of Na.
tional destruction. when IT had enfran.
chised the blacks by onforeing The
adoption of the Fifteenth Amend.
ment, when il had no nrincinIes and
no creed, and existed only TO eniov ,be
spoils of office, it should have dronned
its insolent defiant tone and shown a
disposition to admit that lis ranks did
not include all the honesty and no,rio,.
ism and decency of the land Instead
of this, however. under the lead of
such spirits as Morton Butler Lnoon
and gang of coarse and brutal men
whom the war bad lifted from their
natural obscurity into political promi.
nence, the Radical party adopted n still
bolder air and tone of more exasuer.
atlng insolencc. IL seemed 10 have n
notion that, a.. !, became Iauhrup, in
principles and incapable of bringing
up National issues on which to divide
parties, it could only hold power by
firing the passions of the people. The
leaders invented insulting epithets to
apply TO their opponents, and exhaust.
cd their ingenuity in msreprescnting
the principles OF the Democratic party.
Hence 1t has come about that belief
of the sound old constitutional doctrine
of States rights is called "treason,"
and the young Republicans are being
educated to think that the majority Of
the voters are "rebels at heart"
Oh course the Radical leaders know
that the doctrine Of States rights is the
doctrine OF the fathers. They know
that secession is as dead as Abel, the
earliest of deaths victims. They
know that no Democrat denies the
sovereignty Of the Nation in the cxer-
else of all its powers delegated to it by
the States and the people and they
know that the Democratic party is
right In claiming for the States, sovcr-
eighty in the exercise of all rights not
surrendered nor prohibited in the Con.
stitution. Knowing all this, the man.
ayers of the Radical party, in their
desire to influence popular passions,
artfully confound the dead and buried
issues of secession with the honest
Just, reasonable, and constitutional
principle of States rights, as held bv
Democrats, and set IN their own hvn.
ocritica shrieking and sound their
false alarm.
The true way to meet this specics of
assault is to give truth for ialsehood
and bappilv this il moi n diff,cnlt task