The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-08-23
A Thread that Binds Them.

The ONO campaign was loIhiahJ oP
on the Republican side Wednesday by
speeches from Secretary Sherman at oteu-
benville, Secretary Schurz at Clncinnatl,
and Judge Taft at Cleveland. The speech
Of Mr.. Sherman, to which we may ire
ouently have occasion to refer during oar
campaign, was for the first part much III the
same vein as his Maine speeches, ana 1of
the second part an answer to Gen. Ewing
The speech of Mr. Schurz, the first ne mas
delivered during this campaign. was lhalliy
devoted to the currency question, WIN
sde-hit at the Democratic dogma OF state
Rights carried to its dangerous extreme.
His remarks upon the success OF Ewing are
applicable to a fusion success in Maine lie
said:
Whatever may be said in this campaign, the
success of Gen. Ewing in Ohio on TINS great
battle field of financial discussion, would IN
| spire a revival of the initiation movement all
| over the country even in spite of the resump-
ton of specie payments 1t would AGAIN draw
the Democratic party all over the west ana
South into its current and expose us 10
harassing agitation at time when Steady
conservative policy is so necessary LOT the re-
building of our prosperity. 1t would AGAIN
threaten to unsettle everything and TO throw
| our economic development Back into the old
uncertainty and confusion.
When he turned to the doctrine OF
political currency he commented upon The
dangers of it and how widely the Democracy
in advocating it, have wandered from their
former positions The Democrats of Maine
have strayed as far from the old standard
and the old camping ground as have the
Democrats of Ohio. On this point the Sec
retary said
Gen. Ewing is of old Wing origin. Do you
remember upon what grounds the Democrats
fought the old Wings? Was it not mainly
! that the old Wings were thought to favor an
undue accumulation of powers in the hands OF
the government, while the Democracy con-
tended that the powers of the government
should be carefully limited and circumscribed?
| And now say to you, never did the EXTREMIST
| Whig in his boldest dreams conceive so mon
strous an accumulation of governmental power
as Gen. Ewing claims for the government in
this single sentence. Stop and think for
moment what kind of power that is: to deter
mine how much or how little money the people
shall have, and by regulating the volume OF
currency to change its value; to determine ar
bitrarily what every dollar in the land shall be
worth from week to week and from day to day.
Who, then, will WELD the tremendous power
| which Gen. Ewing wants the government to
exercise? Under Democratic rule at least, ac-
cording to recent experience, it would be the
caucus of the dominant party, then, to deter
mine and change the current value OF every
article Of property in the land, and, as Gen.
Ewing says, ''to give prosperity and to infict
Distress" AT the mercy OF the caucus OF the
dominant party would be the private fortune
of every citizen. If you are ready to accept
and indorse such doctrines, my Democratic
| fellow citizens, then, pray you, let us hear no
more of your opposition to a Capitalization of
| power in the government, no more of your de-
votion to careful limitation of governmental
authority. Then all your protestations on that
head will appear as the most transparent cant
of hypocrisy.
He pushed his argument still further in re-
gard to this political currency by sayiug:
The constant and mischievous ag tation of
| the Ohio school of Democrats for the destruc-
| ton of the National Bank currency and the
substitution of greenbacks may however, serve
| one good purpose. 1t will at last convince ev-
cry sensible man that, as long as such govern
! ment paper currency exists, the agitation for
an expansion of that currency will never cease
| to- disturb the public mind, to threaten the
| maintenance of specie payments to endanger
! the public credit, and to undermine that foun-
| dation upon which alone the business OF the
| country can safely stand-a sound monetary
system. 1t will at last convince even that class
! of well-meaning men who, although in favor OF
| honest money have been affected by that senti-
mental idolatry of the greenback which has
confused so many minds, that, after all, under
our Constitution, as in every wellregulated
| polity, it is not a legitimate function OF the
| Government to be bank of issue; that in the
! public interest it is necessary to take the vol
| ume of the currency out of politics: that 1t is
| the business of the Government to coin real
| money, and not to print notes; to see that the
| coin struck in the mints be of the standard
value, to prevent and punish counterfelting,
make M tk II safe to act as bank controller SO as
to keep it safe and as for the rest to let curren
CIV and trade, in their relations, take care of
| themselves, without arbitrarily interfering
| with either.
Then he turns to the consideration OF
those estate Rights which the Democrats
so zealously uphold in everything except in
the matter of currency, and gives the follow
ing clear and condensed statement of the
subject, showing that the State rights which
the Democrats seek to uphold are but State
,prongs masquerading in the garb of their
betters:
True State rights, in the constitutional
| sense, that is, the power of the people OF
| State to govern their local affairs, subject to
the limitations defined in the national consti-
tuition, are not only admissible but necessary
| in Republic like ours. OF that right OF local
| self-government in this sense the States CT
Massachusetts, and Ohio are no less jealous
| If such local subdivisions of the Republic,
within which the right of local self-govern-
| ment is exercised, did not exist, they would
| have to be invented. [ think, however, that
the worship paid to individual States, which
| attributes to them certain mysterious histori-
| cal sanctity above that of the Union: is not
only mschievous, but very much out of date.
When it is said that the original thirteen
| States were separate independent entities, out
| of which the Union grew, it must not be for
| oatfa fbat fwanfy-fOnr SfnfaS
which were made and nursed into being Dy the
| Union. Moreover, circumstances have
changed. The interests common to the people
| of all the States have grown immensely in va
| riety and magnitude. and the citizen OF Cali
fornia or Oregon, owing to the railroad and
| telegraph, feels himself to-day nearer to the
seat and the influence of the national power
than the citizen of Pennsylvania or North Car
olina did at the beginning of this century. By
| the same change of circumstances the interests
| of the people of the different States have be-
come more and more interlaced the doings of
the people of each State have become of more
consequence to the people of the other States,
| and thus the national Government has grown
in Importance to all. While this change of
| condition cannot fail to strengthen the nation
| al idea, constitutional State rights that is, the
right of the people of State to govern their
| home affairs, subject to constitutional llmlta-
| tions, do not conflict with it. But when in the
name of State rights the attempt is made to
trench upon the constitutional powers OF the
national Government, or to nullify laws which
are, under the Constitution, the supreme law
of the land, or to deny, abridge, and trample
upon individual rights of citizens, guaranteed
by the Constitution, then State rights become
the mere cloak of State wrongs, which it is our
duty to resist. When those State wrongs are
| such that they can be reached and redressed
| by constitutional exercise of national power,
then that power must, and at present will, be
| dutifully exercised When those wrongs are
| beyond the reach of the constitutional power
of government, then public opinion must be
invoked to mark those wrongs with the stamp
| of condemnation.
| Dixon's Bloody Shirt.
| >I:cl, Xorl-