Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-08-26
1ancastcr fntelllgenrer.
What He Said.

Thecorrespondence elsewhere published.
from the Valley Virginian, of Staunton,
shows very clearly just what substance
there is in the statement it printed that
Senator Hampton in a speech at that
place declared that the principles at
stake in this political contest were the
same as those that Lee and Jackson
fought for; and the explanation is just
what we supposed it would be. Senator
Hampton did not say that the Democrat
ic party under Hancock's lead was now
contending for the right of secession.
That, nO@One but fool could have sup
posed that he said. The idea of his
speech was to show that the Democratic
anti-federal principle was at stake in this
contest, rs Lee and Jackson believed it
to be in the war in which they fought,
and the language he used extempora-
neOusly. was not SO carefully chosen as
to avoid the miscOnstruction which
has been placed upon it by his political
enemies. 1t does not appear that he used
the words which are aScribed to him !:
hut it does appear, from the statement
of the reporter, that he employed Ian
guage which the reporter thought would
bc liable to misconstructiOn, and there
fore he did not embody it in the report
which he was taking for the New York
World. The editor of the Tiryinian,
being Republican, was sOlicitous to give
as bad twist to Hampton's language as
it would bear, and therefore added to the
report the words which Hampton now
declares he never Intentionally uttered.
It may bc admitted that the nearer of an
extempOraneous speech will remember
better its language than will the
speaker; but it must also be ad-
mitted that the speaker will best
know what he intended to say. In this
case, conceding that HamptOn's words
were correctly reported, no one who
wishes to do him justice will have any
difficulty in believing that the construc-
ton which his opponents put upon them
is not the one which he intended to con-
vey. This will he believed because he
says SO and because, furthermore, it is
not Il sensible construction to put upon
the language of a sensible man, to hold
that he meant to say that the right of
secession is maintained in this contest by
the Democratic party under HancOck's
lead.
1t was sound and sensible to declare
that the Democratic party defends and
maintains the strict construction
OF the constitution and the rights
of the states against the tendency
to ccntralizc in the federal government
powers which are not expressly granted
to it by the constitution. No doubt Lee
and Jackson, with all the other Demo
Gratis i'm rebellion, believed that they were
fighting in defence of their principles
when they fought to dissolve the union.
TIE Democracy in the North did not
believe that they were to be main
taincl in that way. The ballot is the
only weapon of the Democrat, and tue
will of the majority is the law of his
land. Those who don't like it can leave.
That principle is the one the war has
settled and among the things which
this election will secure will be the just
construction of the constitution ut the
hands of one who has shown himself to
be master of the true Democratic idea
of it.