The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1880-09-30

EeRaIQ TO the 1n6CGuuOn OF slavery which
caused it, or the reconstruction which followed
loyal clements of the country
But it is impossible for the party to blot out
its history, or to escape the just responsibility
to the public Judgment, for its unfaithfulness
in the greatest crisis Of the republic.
. This is the hoary headed party which asks
the country to forget its history and intrust it
with supreme power. Looking to its past ca
reer on the financial questions that have ar
rived, it is impossible to foreten what it would
do if once in power. Whether it would stop
resumption, and issue more greenbacks until
they should become as cheap as they were in
1856 to 1869 whether it would suppress the
banks, and compel them to wind up and collect
their loans, amounting to some $500, 000, 900 or
$500, 600, 600, in which event many debtors,
both Democrats and Republicans, would be
ruined or whether it would sustain the re-
sumption which it has so long denounced, are
all questions which cannot be answered from
the past words or the past actions Of the Demo-
cratic party. If that party should come into
power we should be at sea on all financial ques-
tions. Neither capitalists, nor business men,
nor workingmen could tell what to expect The
only hope would be that the party would again
be inconsistent and carry out the Republican
policy of resumption which it has uniformly
opposed. Nor would that hope be brilliant, in
view Of the actual condition in which Mr.. Blu
chanan, the last Democratic President, left the
credit of the country.
There is absolutely no hope for the Demo-
cratic party to obtain majority of the votes of
the American citizens by a fair election.
Nothing but fraud can give them success.
This deep, unspoken conviction in the Demo-
opposition to the election laws of Congress,
which are intended to guard against fraud. We.
are now prepared to understand the course Of
that party against the Supervisors and United
States Marshals. If that old party had never
before forfeited the confidence of the votors of
the republic it has done SO its refusal of
appropriations of the funds raised for the pur-
States for their services. It has come to this,
that the Marshals on their own account have
had to raise money to carry on the courts or
the courts must stop. Many of the Marshals
have advanced out Of their private means or
borrowed from others the means to carry on the
courts and prevent the administration of justice
from absolute failure, while the treasury was
overlooking with funds raised by the people for
the very purpose of paying all the officers and
agents Of the Government.
All this has been done by the Democratic
party to prevent the enforcement of good
and necessary law which they could not repeal:
Will call your attention to an important fact
which shows the unfaithfulness of the Demo-
cratic party to the constitution and its amend
ments, notwithstanding their platform profess
sions.
The Fifteenth amendment provided first that
:" The right of citizens of the United States to
vote should not be denied or abridged by the
United States or by any State on account of
race, color, or previous condition of servitude u
And, secondly, "That the Congress should
have power to enforce this article by appro-
pirate legislation"
This article applies as well to State as to ma
tional elections. Congress in 1870 passed the
act to which I have referred, and which was
constructed by the Supreme Court as Ihave al
ready stated. That Congress was Republican,
and intended by that act to enforce the Fiji
teenth amendment in the States as well az the
United States: But when the question was
brought before the Supreme Court in the case
of the United States VS.. Reese, 80 U. S. r. 214,
in 1876, it was held that the language of the act
legislation to enforce the article, at State
elections, where it was most liable to be de-
feated. In the meantime the Democrats had
obtained majority in the House of Repre-
sentatives, and they have refused sc to enact
any appropriate legislation" to enforce that
important article. AS long as either House of
Congress shall remain in Democratic hands the
colored men Of the South will wait in vain for
any such legislation. A Democratic Congress
will never enact any " legislation" TO enforce
the right of colored men to vote at State cleo
tons, under the Ffeetnth amendment Its
dependence upon the solid South for its poiti-
cal power will forever prevent it.
The question is thus plainly presented to all
the lovers of liberty and republican equality,
whether they desire that every citizen of the
United States, of whatever color, shall have and
enjoy bis right to vote at State as we'll as at
national elections. If you desire that this es-
sential political right Of all the citizens of the
United States shall be indicated and made
secure, there is but one way to do it, The Dem
! ocratlc majority in Congress must be dislodged
| by the ballot. Vote the Republican ticket.
! Every vote given to the Democratic party, as il
is now constituted, is vote against the enforce
ment of the Fifteenth amendment.
| The Fifteenth amendment does not enforce
itself. It requires legislation BY Congress, and
you are to say by your ballots whether appro-
pirate legislation shall be enacted to enforce it
Let us see to it that that part of our nationa
constitution which provides for universal suf
frage does not
| Keep the word Of promise to the ear, 4
And break it to the hope.
| The Democratic House in 1876, before thu
last Presidential election, made desperate
effort to repeal the election laws of Congress b,
attaching repeating clause to the Appropria
! ton bill, but failed through the Republca,
| Senate. If they had succeeded they would
have carried the election by fraud and intimi
dation. This they knew as well before the cleo
] ZION as aICer. MOI WILL Cley ever forgive I'M
! Republicans for'the loss Of that election. Hence
the desperate effort to everbear the Presiden
by the present Congress-, and attaching the re
peal fathe Election law to the appropriate,
bills. They know that if they can get rid O
these laws they will double their chances Of sue
cess in the next Presidential election, becaus
they will more than double their chances of sue
cessful fraud and intimidation.
In this contest we have seen what fabrica
lions Of charges they have made and publishe,
far and wide, and how utterly groundless thos
fabrications are. But their last argument, use
when all others have been exploded, is the sam
as that which was used by the rebels before an
in the war, viz: that the laws are unconstitu
ional. This is an unfailing resource, to whicl
every man or party can resort. tits privileg
of an American citizen, on the stump or i
Congress, to declare any law on the statut
book unconstitutional. To justify their faction
opposition to the enforcement Of the Election
law. by refusing appropriations to carry on tn
Government, they say it is demonstrations
They set up what they call the doctrine Q
State rights, and urge that when Congress pro
vides for the protection Of Congressional cleo
tons against fraud by repeating an
fraud by tissue ballots, and by intim
daton, it is encroaching upon the rights 9
the States, although the States have habituall
suffered such frauds to be perpetrated. Stat
rights are sacred, and no good Republican de
sires to impair them. But the right to regulat