The daily gazette., 1879-09-20
STALWARrISM IN MASSACHU-
SETTS.
.hu UnrlA

From the N. Y. World.
The Massachusetts Republican plat
form affords an edifying Illustration OF
the way in which the accepted rules Of
grammar o taught In New England
schools may influence question OF con-
stitutional law. The Conkling platform
in New York declared that the "Repub-
lie" of the United States Is a"nation,"
but the, N sssach usetts platform proclaims
that the "United States Is q nation. II
the Massachusetts, draughtsman had
dramatically said that the United
STATES 'sare' nation he would have hap
PLY knocked out his own bratus. What
he ought to have written was 1.-THE
Government OF the United states 10 na-
tiou." OuIy IL would have been rather
absurd to solemnly proclaim, even In
M assach usetts, thar "government" Is
"nati0u," since government IL an iaci-
dent of the life OF u nation. and natioD
Is Q race Of men, q people born gwen
country and living under one govern
ment, or simply people distinct from
and not subject to Othe peoples. VINO
ban properly define or describe sRovern-
ment ~ nalion or people? The po-
htical corporation created by the Fed
eral Constitution Is aptly described In
that iustrument To be- 1.-THE u United States
Of America" and that Is the end Of the
matter. Vino, Yer wants to learn what
powers that Government has must go
for an answer to the document which
created 1t. These powers cannot be as
certained by callisg the Government
nation or y league, any more than oy
| calling 1t q tribe or an empire. The
| States are "united" by the CoAsutunon,
and the Constitution defines the Gov
ernment. As the very conception OF
such . government was new and un-
known till devised by the trainers Of our
| Constitution, no name then implied TO
any other government cIuld correctly
describe and defiDe 1t. Nearly every
| thing else in our system OF government
| OF of governments our fOrefatheIs b0r-
row ed from their prsde cessors, but the
contrivance or the machinery which for
certain enumerated purposes tied the
| then thirteen States and ties the now
thirty-eight States together as one gov
erpment was new-absOlutely new !!
Thanks to that contrivance. thirteen
States have grownI to be thirI y-eight
States; and thanks TO that contrivance
whole continent of North America may
yet be covered by an 'indissoluble
Union of indestructl BILE States"
The danger to that contrivance to-day
is in the centripetal and not In centrifu-
gal forces Of the country. Whatever
may have been the peril heretofore,
Whatever may be the peril hereafter, the
necessities OF the civil war dangerously
increased the tendency of Federal pow
er TO concentrate at Washington. That
tendency must be steadily and surely
checked. The ne cessty of this 10 as
great now az it was in 1901, when JEFF
ferson led the Democracy TO victory.
What then could be more silly than
for body of men in Massachusetts, To
emit such rubbish as is contained In the
second resolution Of the Worcester plat
form, for the purpose of creating or de-
fining a natl onal issue to-day? This res D
luton declares that ''local selfgovern
ment in all maj teIs which belong TO the
4 States must fully recognized" Who
says 1t must not be? Certainly not the
Democrats, who perpetually assert 1t
e who insist that u decide upon"the quail
tications" of voters for member o
Congress is a business which belong
v exclusively to each State 10 regulate fO
q itself, and who also contend that thu
Government of the U uited States has M
l. voters of its own! And why babble q
the NJ Massachusetts, Republican, do abOu
allegiance" when every militia ofhce
u in the convention must have sworn Il
ut ."oear true allegiance" to the Common
- wealth of NJ assach usetts and not to I'll
Utt ed States? Why talk about "exa
ne equality IN the exercise of civil and p
IN litical rights" as a thing to be- enforce
by the United States, In behalf of eaC
or Of Its citizens, in the face Of the fac
at that no citizen Of the United States,
lawful age and otherwise qualified, Ca
" vote in Massachusetts unless he ca
he read write, and that no naturalized CT.
zen can vote in RHODE Island unless
l In, l.r Tha.r io
notorious "dlsilnctlOn of origin, rae
creed, or color" IN Rhode Island.
there any equality of all men befo
Va he Law" which regulates voting
le- Massachusetts, or in Rhode Island? Ce
IN, tainly not.
'H And consider this resolution
OF I'VE demand that elections shall
by free from all interference by unlawf
bodies of armed men, and shall also
'he free from the interference Of national
is State military forces except when e
!, ployed as part of the posse comitatus.
iy Democrats demand that no "bodies
1t armed men," whei her lawfully or
No, lawfully organized, shall interfere WI
''' elections. The State of New York ev
e forbds her own militia to be called I
II on a voting day unless it be necessary
preserve the public peace.
der What can the Republicans of Mas
n a chusetts mean when tLey proclaim
present obligation TO perform I"
ma dulies" IN which that party original
wv which was to prevent the repeal of
Missouri Compromise and to prev
us' the carrying of slave labor into free
ritory? The l. gal right which justii
that opposition to the extension OF
q of very v AZ TO he found in the general q
o-o trine of State rights AZ opposed to
90 claim of national rights.
ecu 1t is not easy to understand how Z
,ers Gated men of good moral natural se
eo'' could have been brought to utter
not twaddle which the leading Republic
Law are now utteriDg in party plato
simply because the Democrats den
Sc the REPEAL of the Davenport law.
by only explanation is that those who u
a -, this twaddle do no expect 1t to be ia
VI vi seriously. and with intent TO be belle
the The Inc evitable answer to all these
rass publican alta cks on those of thei; G
trymen who are not Republicans
one, be found by the Massachusetts, Rep
10 of cans in the outgivings Of the B
Democrats yesterday.
Now that we have heard so Z