The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-02-06

DOCLf1neS-EaslurN
Bullet. Success by Ballot.
Washington Cor. Cincinnati Gazettel
The main issues for 1880 are rapidly
developing. Except that the situation
does not threaten war, it differs little
from the manifestations of 1860. Then
the South was preparing to secure State
rights outside the Union through armed
rebellion. Now it is boldly renewing
the contest within the Union.
with unarmed notification for its
weapons. Yesterday, at the de-
mand of the Southern Senators,
the Northern Democrats assembled
with them in caucus; agreed, and with
out protest, to, announce extreme State
rights doctrines as their common plat
form; agreed further to ask the Dem
ocrats of the House to unite with them
in destroying the letter of those laws by
which the National Government as yet
retains the fiction of authority in the
Southern States. They further de-
cided among themselves to withhold
supplies through the Appropriation
bills unless the Republicans yielded
and allowed the repeal of such obnox-
ious laws as the Democratic caucus
might point out.
| The picture is one of clear outlines.
Its unexaggerated features are these:
| Practical notification of all United
States laws in South Carolina which re-
late to the election franchise, the rights
of citizens, or the collection of the reve-
nue. from illicit dealers. In that State
there are United States revenue officers
in jail for performing their duty. Su-
pervisors of elections and Deputy Mar
shals are in jail, or, by suferance, out
temporarily on bail. Witnesses called
by United States courts are under in
Jury All efforts Of the General Gov
eminent to protect its own officers, or
it's courts to arrest or punish Illicit dis
tillers, to punish the great violations of
National election laws, Or to prevent
the harassine of its election officers and
of it's witnesses, by local authorities,
have, one and all, been effectually multi
fed in the State of South Carolina.
In Louisiana, witnesses summoned by
United States courts have been openly
taken from Federal officers and brutally
murdered, while others have been driven
from their homes, and warned not to re-
turn at the peril Of their lives.
In Alabama the United States Mar
shall is in prison, and the United States
, District Attorney under arrest for re-
, fusing to deliver to local Grand Jury
the evidence which the United States
holds against prominent Democratic
ballot-box-stuffers.
In Virginia the country is called to
hear her Legislature proclaim through
] the formal report OF q committee that
the State of Virginia is superior to the
; mandates of United States courts within
her borders. And in the Senate of the
= United States the Democrats have. In
= secret caucus, pledged themselves each
] to the other to uphold and defend the
: most extreme views of State rights. At
: the demand of the Southern side in
I their caucus, the Northern members
s agreed TO the terms of the Morgan reso-
, luton, and so far as caucus action can de-
: termine 1t, doctrines with which the most
n extreme Southern Senators and mem
y bers express themselves delighted are an
e nounced as the platform of the Demo
t cratic party. Itwas platform forced on
= Northern Senators against their Will.
The latter insisted that any apparent
q lack of Endorsement of the several war
e amendments would solidify the North
8 against them. The Southern Senators
e replied that their people would not
b submit to indorsing them to the extent
n of recognizing the power Of the Gen
f eral Government to enforce them. The
q Southern men carried the day, and the
d Morgan resolution is the result. Do
II Southern men expect to blind the in
d telligence of the North to the rankest
" doctrines of State rights by their dis
4 guises of those resolutions
F. The first, while declaring the wal
II amendments valid, and that it is the
IS duty and right of the United States to
st enforce them, ends by virtually denying
e that the power to enforce them resides
g in the Government, and virtually affirm
g ing that it is lodged in the States. Ii
v the subsequent resolutions these posi-
ct tons are boldly declared to be founded
d upon the constitution itself. Prominen
ID in the second resolution is the ole
Of cornerstone OF secession, that the
citizen owes paramount allegiance to his
State.
And to close all, and to crown all, it Ii
e. gravely resolved that if by rife-clubs
/. or mobs, or murders, or any OF the
f. means by which lawlessness in the South
n tramples upon the constitutional rights
.s of citizens, those rights are abridged o.
Of destroyed, the General Government il
To powerless, and if action is taken in tbs
II premises, such action must originate IL
40 the States alone. This is the undistort
ne ed meaning of the last in this series o
an resolutions.
ba To sum all up, the Democrats ar
f. turning the dial of the years back t
nd 1860, and srmmoning the nation to tr
40 the issues of State rights again, and t
~, settle the question whether the Unite
- Gill;. o,o n ootioy, A North 1hof ono