Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1880-09-30

1
whose maintenance they breasted the
storm, were not essential to the main
tenance of our institutions ON the broad
and enduring basis of ''the utmost in
dividual liberty consistent with the
highest general welfare
Jefferson, the founder of the Demo-
cratic party, and the men allied with
him, made bold and successful fight
! against those monarchical principles,
| which, under another name, came too
near molding our Government into
despotism. We get some idea of the
| influence of Old World institutions, Gus
toms and habits on the American mind
a century ago, when we read that it
was seriously proposed in 6 the Con-
gress" to fasten on the President the
awe-inspiring title of His High Might
ness.
And even in the Constitution of the
United States, after the confederate
system had proven failure and been
condemned. we still see too much of
that settled distrust of the people which
many OF the fathers entertained. o.
tensibly building the Government on
the right of the majority to rule, they
so constructed that a minority may law
fully prevent the majority from ruling
for series of years, as has more than
once been demonstrated.
The veto power is another feature of
the anti-democratic, or monarchical
spirit. 1t is the one-man power in its
most offensive shape, and if we are not
prepared to admit that the majority
ought not to rule, this prerogative
in Congress may make laws despite the
| Executive.
The provisions for electing Presi-
dent and Vice-President of the United
States still more forcibly illustrate the
then prevailing fear that the people
would go wrong and destroy the Gov
people were to select few very wise
and very good men who were to de-
eide, in their superior wisdom and vir-
offices in the Republic. 1t was not
deemed prudent to trust the common
people to select these officials. There
was to be an intermediate authority to
save the people from the danger of max
ing bad choice.
Not against the individual features of
same thing in effect-but against it's
spirit, Jefferson and his party rose up
to fight. They fought the good fight
and kept the faith. They vindicated
manhood. They set up the rights of the
people. They struck down the grow
ing danger of the hour. They gave
the country a strong impetus in the
right direction. They made splendid
history.
When that sturdy patriot, Andrew
Jackson, came to the front our Gov
eminent was being run, as the Repub-
lican party has run it, in the interest of
capital as against labor. There was
corruption on every hand. The ruling
power in Congress, in the Cabinet and
in all the channels of Government was
money. One great financial institu-
ton was the real controlling power.
Jackson, the bravest man OF his age
and as pure patriot as ever welded
power, struck down the giant that had
usurped authority. In all his acts he
carried out the idea that this was a
Government of the people, not of a
corporation, not the tool of CONSOLE
dated cash. He believed in the people,
for he was one of them. His Admins
tration is the pride of all men who are
capable of approaching genuine
Democracy when inspired by the lofti-
est patriotism and nerved by the reso-
luton of a hero.
The condition of the country to-day
calls for another era like those which
we have noticed. Capitalization needs
suppression if our institutions are not
to be radically and permanently chang
ed. If the right of the people to
manage their local concerns is not to
be lost, not to become as extinct as the
dodo, the Democratic faith must be re-
asserted with Jefferson's directness and
| vigor.
And, if the country is not to be at
the mercy of corporations and bond
holders, if labor is to have any chance
against the exactions of capital, if mo-
nopolists are not to fatten on the spoils
of honest industry, we must have a re-
assertion of the faith, and a reproduc-
ton of the courage, of Jackson.
And, with the hour, the man has
come. The Hancock era--the era to
which this patriot soldier and statesman
will give his historic name-is to be a
fitting successor to those of the two
illustrious Democrats whose Administra-
tions were the most brilliant in our
history. The election of Hancock will
Danish the Internal bane of sectional
strife. 1t will unite the North and
South in fraternal harmony. 1t will
send to the rear those corrupt and cor
rupting influences which have domi-
mated wherever the Radical spirit has
had full sway. 1t will bring out new
issues on which there can be no Sec
tional lines and no color line. 1t will
be the one thing needed to give us free
dom from all those bad influences that
came as the result of the war. Peace
and prosperity and career of unex-
ampled development and progress will
be the conditions of that brighter and
better epoch which will begin with the
Inauguration of President Hancock
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