Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-06-20
The old oues,lon I,e.orencI.
from uarper,s Weekly Of June2i.l

Inc BttNI DlunutI OF forcing an extra SeB-
sion must now be very clear to intelligent
Democrats. Their party has gained by IL
nothing whatever, while the Republicans are
united upon principle which was indicated
! by the war The feeble Democratic effort to
place the Republicans in the position of wish
ing to control elections by the army, expires
in its own folly, while the Republicans assert
with increasing force the fundamental prin-
ciplo that for all its lawful purposes the ma
tional government is everywhere and always
operative within the Union II does not en-
ter State ut the will of the State For its
own lawful purposes it is always in the State
as much and as rightfuly as the State author
| ity. The denial of this truth was the essence
| of the doctrine OF secession. The formula Of
secession toward the Union was LET us
alone AppomattoX replied, mo govern
ment let's its armed enemies alone" The DO
! litical moral of the war was not that there are
indestructible States, but that there is an indie
structiblo Union. It cost the country half a
million precious lives, thousands of millions
of dollars, hundreds of thousands of maimed
and wounded men, incalculable private sor-
row and public loss, with the total destruc-
! ton of social and industrial institutions. TO
overthrow the Southern Interpretation of the
| constitution. The Democratic party with
fool-hardy tcmerity, has deliberately attempt
ed to restore that Interpretation, and in long
congressional speeches has reproduced the
arguments of Calhoun and the fire eaters, as
if the war had no permanent significance and
result whatever and as if everybody sup
| posed, with Mr.. S. S. Cox, that
Nobody knows, but the so-called Lord,
Why the so-called North drew its so-caled sword"
| The North knows very well why it drew the
sword, and what the sword gained; and with
out the slightest il-feeling, but with inhexi-
BILE resolution, the North proposes to main
tain it.
1t was very edifying, as we have heretofore
| observed, TO hear Mr. Carlisle, of Kentucky
arguing to Tammany Hail. in the approving
| presence Of Mr.. John 4. Hoffman, for the
| necessity Of free elections. Which, in Mr.
Carlisle's opinion, most threatens freedom
| and honesty of elections in New York, the
reporters of Tummany Hall, or the army of
the United States! Or does he suppose that
the people Of New York are such fools that
| they do not know Yet this question is the
| one raised by the extra session. and the Dem
! ocratic view of it is sustained by the old Cal
| houn argument of State sovereignty The
folly of the Democratic policy is still further
shown, not only by its disregard of the vital
fact that the Calhoun doctrine of the Union
has been overthrown by tremendous war,
but by the other equally vital fact that the
sentiment of nationality has been so fostered
and developed by the growth of the country
! that it is now instructive and every year
makes the appeal TO State pride and power,
more and more puerie. This national in
| stinct, however, does not discredit or belittle
the fundamental principle known as local
self-government. The power of the small
district and political community, the com
! plete State organization, civil, military, and
| judicial, making each State water-tight
| compartment adequate to float the whole
| all ling oil NH ~,
supreme and immediate authority Of the
whole nation for its lawful ends over every
! part of every State continues. TO try to rep
| resent this view as absorption and centraliza-
ton and consolidation is rs hopeless as the
attempt to show that the existing statutes
| prohibiting military interference with cleo
tions authorize the control of elections by
| bayonets. The question is in u nutshell The
| Democrats propose that the national govern
ment shall surrender to the States its right
and duty Of protecting its citizens in the ex-
ercise Of a national function. The Republi-
cans decline.
Upon this question the Republicans are
willing and glad to appeal TO the country.
| The Ohio Republican convention properly
| places it first in the platform, but the plat
form does not properly adjust the response
| bility. The Democratic party must Of course,
be held accountable. But it is the Northern,
sor. 1t is such Democrats as Speaker Ran
dali, Messrs Cox, Clymer and others, who
are the real leaders in this business. 1t will
| be found at last, we think, that, as in the old
ante -btilUlH days, the manlier element of the
| Democratic party is the Southern element
| Northern Democrats are so eager to serve
what they suppose to be Southern wishes that
they run before they are sent. Conscious
that the vote of the party is in the Southern
TOT. 4l.i,- y..1t - a..
more Southern than the South II was
Messrs Thurman and Beck who suggested
the revolutionary programme, while the
| Southern leaders were averse to it, In the
| electoral struggle Of 1876 it was the South
| ern Democrats who were sober and patriotic
the malignnnts were Northerners So during
| the present situation it is the Northern not
| the Southern, Democratic journals which try
to taunt and sting Congress to disorganize
the government by oWitting the appropria-
| tons and should the appropriations pass. il
will be owing probably to the action OF South.
| orn Democrats. We agree with the New
| York Times that it is the Democratic party
| not section of the country, which is to be
| held responsible for the extra session aud its
| extraordinary follIs. The question which
the session has raised as paramount is in no
sense sectional 1t affects the Whole Union
and every State equally. The election Of
| utulbtfh OF congress III LOUISIANA OF IN New
| York is an election in which every State and
every interest i'll the country is concerned.
Members are not the delegates of States in a
| Congress of States; they are representatives
of the people TO make suitable laws for the
people everywhere in the Union. The repre-
sentatives from Maine and Iowa have an
equal voice with the representative of Louis
lana in sugar legislation, and with that of
| Virginia i'll the laws that affect tobacco. The
vote of the member from Arkansas affects the
manufactures of New England, the mines of
| Pennsylvania, the commerce of New York.
Therefore the constitution provides that the
Congressional election shall not be regulated
by the States exclusively. Steady persist
ence in maintaining the real result of the war
will at last persuade the most obdurate Bour-
bon that the enormous sacrifice and the ire
mendous struggle were not so-called," but
were among the most effective facts of his
| tory.