Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1880-09-09
GOOD READING FOR REPUBLICANS.


Hon. Albert Palmer, noted Re
publican of Massachusetts, and one of
the most popular speakers in New
England, presided at the great meet
ing at which General Butler spoke, at
Faneuil Hall, Boston, on Saturday
night last. The first part of his speech
is good reading for Republicans open
to reason, and we quote it. Mr.. Pal
mer said:
when parties change their princi.
pies, patriotic men change their parties.
cast my first Presidential ballot for
Lincoln, the martyr. shall cast my
next for Hancock, the great soldier and
the great statesman. Democratic prin.
ciples have never ceased to rule this
country, but the Democratic party has
sometimes failed to respond to the
Democratic instinct. Ii was so, in my
judgment, in 1860. The Republican
party was born OF Democratic aspira-
tions, cradled in Democratic ideas, nurs-
ed by Democratic statesmen, and car.
ried to triumph by the votes OF the
| Democratic masses. But in the fullness
of time that Democratic mission has
been accomplished. II has ceased to
bear Democratic fruit, and the fungus
| growth of sectionalism which springs
from its decay has at length provoked
the cry from the people, Cut it down,
why cumbereth IL the ground?' When
the Republican party first sprang into
the arena, armed for the fight with
party nominally Democratic but actu.
| ally sectional, with weapons appropriat-
! ed from the armory of Jeffersonian doc
trine, il declared for everything which
il now repudiates. The preamble TO
its first platform, adopted in 1856 at
Philadelphia, declares that its purpose
was ito restore the action of the Fed.
eral Government to the principles of
Washington and Jefferson and the
first resolution declares that the main.
tenance OF the principles promulgated
| in the Declaration of independence,
and embodied in the Federal Constitu.
ton, is essential 10 the preservation of
our republican institutions, and that
the Federal Constitution-'the rights of
the States'-mark that sentence, the
rights of the States, and the union
of the States shall be preserved Four
years later, in 1860, at Chicago, il de
clared its firm resolve, in the fourth
resolution of its platform, that the
maintenance inviolate of the rights OF
the States, and especially the right of
each State 10 order and control its own
domestic institutions according to its
own judgment exclusively, is essential
TO that balance of power on which the
perfection and endurance of our politI-
cal fabric depend. In the same plat
form il denounced the use of the veto
power to override vote of the peoples
representatives. Fellow citizens where
does it stand today Not on that
ground certainly. Ii has ceased to talk
of Jefferson and has come to regard
the rights of the States with a spirit of
| hostility that is as fanatical as the
spirit of a pernicious and malignant
sectionalism can be. Then its orators
we're won't to wake the echoes with de.
nunciations of the Federal power used
to enforce a sectional policy. Go to
your libraries, my fellow. citizens, and
see what early Republicanism had to
say when Federal bayonets formed a
square in which Anthony Burns was
marched down State street TO be re.
manded to slavery. They spoke less
contemptuously, l assure you, Of the
| rights of the State in that connection.
| But the successors of the men who re-
sented the presence of the Federal
troops TO enforce Federal laws on Mas
sachusetts soil would have US believe
to-day that the Union is not safe and
that liberty is not secure unless the
Federal Government may encircle every
ballot box with its strong arm, and
shadow every citizen with q Federal
spy. Is this Republican liberty2 Are
the principles of Jefferson for which they
declared in 1856 and lS60g Are these
these the rights of the States which
they declared then to be of essential inn.
portance9 Or Is this the mailed hand
of Capitalization, copying from the pat.
projects and sub projects at every bal
lot urn, and his gendarmerie TO superin.
lend the votingf
"what else did they declare for in
those earlier platforms For economy
in the public service, against frauds
and corruptions In the Federal metrop.
olis,' and the systematic plunder or
the public treasury by favored parti.
sans. Brave words we're these-Demo.
cratic words--words upon whose fair
promising wings they mounted to pow.
er. Did you hear anything like them
from Chicago in May last? No; but
you heard instead, above the falsetto
scream Of sectional hatred, the voice Of
Flanagan inquiring, what are we here
for if not for the ofIicesY' And that Is
what they were there for, and. so far as
they are concerned, 1t is what they are
fighting this campaign for"