Feliciana sentinel. [volume] (St. Francisville, La.) 1877-1892, 1879-07-12
PRINCIPLES THAT GAN NEVER DIE

|
back Party, is worthy of place in ever
Democratic paper in tho land:
ST. PAUL. MINI, June 10, 1879.
Hon. James Starkey, Chairman State Gem
tlNt COm"sittee National Grcenback- l. ADO
Party Minnesota,
DEAR SIR:-I am in receipt of yours 16tl
instant informing me of my nomination
by the late State convention of the Nat
ional Greenback- Labor party of Mime
sofa for the office of Attorney General O.
this State, and requesting notice of nj,
acceptance or declination Of til. nonina
ton. 90
The convention did me a High honor
bnt one little merited am surprised and
ut the same time hattered by its action.
Surprised that it passed over so many
more deserving in its party ranks to se-
lect an avowed Observation-Disclosures til at
II did this without the customary ante
nomination INSTRUMENTATION knowing
or seeking to know what might be my
sentiments upon the subject. trusting the
honesty of the man to speak these senti-
'nents without fear or favor. For this
honor and confidence, I beg leave to
thank the convention and its party.
fou have not honored me with II COW
OF tho resolutions adopted by or proceed.
ings of the late conventions, and will
avail myself of the daily press, and pro-
sumo the printed rerorts to be correct.
Gathering from them what the new party
processes, and the conditions which were
attached 70 nominations then made, 1
unhesltatiugly and at the first opportuni-
ty afforded me, declined the honor ten
dered.
am asked first of all to leave the
Democratic parity. Though I have long
sympathized with Greenback men in
some OF their political principles-partic-
ularly IN the advocacy of the free coinage
and tree circulation of silver as a legal
tender m'ney-in the denunciation of |
that supremost of all folIies and most |
transparent OF all political frauds, the |
national banking sysJem-in their denun-
citation OF bribery and corruption at the |
polls-ye5 fail to see anything in these,
and much more could men ton, that the |
Democratic party has not always advo
Gated or denounced as strenuously as
have Greenback men. lt
The Democratic nartr f-~,r. ;t- --o--:
zation, coeval almost with the govern |
ment, to this day, has been emphatically |
the party of the people. Through good
and evil report, in sunshine and in storm,
it has kept steadily in view, as tho polar
star of its political existence, ''the great
est good of the greatest number" Trea-
son within its ranks, and misrepresenta-l
ion without, have ut times, but for Il
ime only, driven it from power; but as
ureIy as ''truth is mighty and will pre-
'aif'-as surely as real Republican
principles have place in tho hearts Of tho
american people, so sure does it and will
return to the helm of State. My first
nowledge, as boy and man, of it.
ates from the Know Nothing III movement
1856. l saw the party, then as now
attl ing for the rights Of the people, for
ne heritage of tho poor and oppressed, +
Sept out Of sight by the political lorna
0 of that day. The Democratic party l
ent down, and with it also disappeared t
II period the guaranteed rights Of eve. e
: foreign born citizen and every Catho- II
c in the land. But saw 1t rise again I
hen the madness passed-and tho hon t
It American heart, speaking through t
,nest American lips ut the polls said the t
party was right in it's de- II
nse OF civil and religious liberty. saw 1
10 party divided with internal quarrels I
Charleston, and through it's broken g.
nks purely sectional organization I
arch to the possession of the govern tt
ent. AS Il patriot / leave tho veil of "
nc unfit ed from the recoId of fire and tt
'ord that followed this first triumph of t
sectional party which will mark the tt
ars from 1860 to 1865 as the saddest in te
o history of the Republic. t.
From 1865 to 1874 the sectional Repub- tc
an party held undoubted control of all tt
o branches Of the federal government, y,
o House, tho Senate, the Presidency, -
3 Judiciary and the army. 1t dictated ~ ~
policies, it framed the laws, it filled
c bench with partisans to construe =,
ose laws, it overrode the constitutional "
rriers which the fathers OF the Repub- ~
had interposed to protect mnoritics .
d to preserve civil liberty, and with w
3 iron hand of the army it enforced it's ~ ~.
rty mandates at the polls. More than
IS, it fostered monopolies the most iu- ~
nous and rapacous; it sowed tho land W
TIN the dragons teeth of sectional hate; '"
placed and retained men in office s'
ose official lives and conduct were Il 90
nch in the nostrils of h&'est men and /. "'
grace to tue nation; in short it 'it W.
yed such fantastic tricks before high
lven' thar the American people, stop ", y"