The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1880-06-10

Hix Political Character as GiVen
by George Ticknor Curtis.

by George TicKnor Curtis.
1 turn from hisjudicial to his politi-
cal character. 1t is our privilege and
our right to claim him as Democrat.
But it is at the same time our duty to
vindicate his political principles, and
to declare why he was an adherent OF
the great political party which he hon
ored by his sympathy, upheld by his
vote, and strengthened 10y the weight
of his character. am sure that he
did not desire to see change in the
National Administration in order that
there might be new distribution
of the spOiIs of political victory. He
was a too large minded man for that.
His politics were too broad and too ell
evated to draw their inspiration from
| the public crib. He hoped for great
change from the domination of the
Republican party, in order to relieve
| the country from the tendencies to
consolidation, and to an undue eXpan-
sion of the Federal power which has
marked our political history for peri
/ cd of nearly twenty years. He desired
4 such change as the best and only
means of finally reconciling the two
sections of country to each other. He
| wished to see the hand of Federal pow
er GaKen off from the internal concerns
OF the States. Believing in the good
faith of the white men of the South
towards their gcolored fellow-citiZens,
he desired to see those States left prac-
ticalIy and theoretically to the same
right of governing their own internal
relations that is exercised by the people
of every northern State. He did not
believe in controlling elections in the
South or in the North under the guise
and pretense of securing their fairness.
He; did not believe in continuing the
policy of hate and sectional vitupera-
ton. Trusting to the efficacy of the
constitutional amendments and ac-
J cepting them in good faith, he hoped
} that the people of this country would
| at length see that to make them the
machinery by which the colored voters
of the South are to be prevented from
exercising their own Judgment upon
political affairs, and from acting with
, one or another party for the same rea'
. sons and in the same manner as white
men do, is a tyrannical denial OF equali.
ty of rights which those amendments
profess to have introduced. In a word
our late associates Democratic princi-
: pies may be summed up in the very
: words which he has left OH record, al
. though he used those words in the
G course of strictly judicial reasoning
The general gOccrnnaent possesses SPe
cinl POacers for special purposes. and q
: can exercise no others. AU other poac
: ess Of government belong to the States
!. and their Legislatures may exercise al
: p0scers that are not prohibited by theii
!. oacn or By the Federal Constitution
= This was the doctrine of the founders
of our government; this is the doctrin
to-day of the Democracy of the Union
e and it was to restore this as a practical
q living and perpetual rule of actor
. that all our late associates politica
principles tended and all his hopes 70
!, his country aimed.
e Al He has passed away. He has gon
;. at time when such men are great.
needed. We shall never again be ben
efitted by his counsels or cheered b,
i. his presence. But as we lay this sin
= cere tribute upon his grave, let us b
s grateful for what he has been to tn
State of his birth and to the pOlitica
organization of his choice. s'-.s