Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1880-08-12

to have political combinations extend
ing from the school district to the town
ship, from the township to the county,
fIom the county to the Congressional
district, and in the Congressional dis
trict to oyerspread the State, and to
unite with like people holding like senti-
ments in other States, and sending dele
gates to their common Conventions
nominating candidates for the various
Offices that they have to ELL, correspond
ing with each other in regard to the
means requisite to carry into execution
their common ideas, and so 70 have the
party in each locality extending from
that to every other center of political
life and influence, until it overspreads
the whole country. All that is involved
in the right to vote freely, and the exer-
else of that right, the acknowledgment
of that right, the respect for that right
in the sense in which / have spoken,
meaning respect for the rights of others
as well as your own, is the vital princi-
pie of free government.
Free Government is carried on by po-
litical combinations, by parties. A Dem
ocrat, for whom l have the sincerest
respect, at ratification meeting held
the other night at Music Hall in this ci-
ty, Mr.. VIM. S. Groebeck, gave detini-
ton of despotism when he said it was
Nation with but one political party,
and if you will reflect a moment, you
will ses that that is what it is; that the
thing which distinguishes and divides
free governments from despotisms is the
existence in the former of political par
ties, that by their action and free inter-
action and their reaction upon each 9th
or are able to promote the intellectual
activities and moral sympathies which
lie at the basis of all free, representative
constitutional government. lCheers.
Now, then, there are certain States in
his Union that tried 10 get out of it,
which to-day exactly answer that de-
scription of despotism, and they are just
what they are defined to be. They are
States in which there is but one political
party. There is Louisiana, there is Mis-
sissippi, there is Alabama, there is GeOr-
gia, there is South Carolina in which
that statement, if it is not absolutely
and exactly accurate, is approximately
so. Now, why is that2 Is it because
all the people in the States, by some pro-
cess of reasoning and judgment, have
arrived at exactly the same ideas in pol
itics?
/ Or is the fact otherwise, and that is
that while there is but one active party
that dominates the Government, there
are other people, individual persons,
who disagree with that dominant senti-
ment, and yet do not embody tnat disa-
greement in a political organization.
fnll ar& 10 mn
in attempting any discussion of the fact
nor paltering with it in a double sense.
1t is the burning fact of our politics to-
day; it is the dangerous fact in our poll
tics to-day, and it furnishes the conclu-
sive reason, if there were no other, why,
for the safety of free institutions, it is
necessary to prevent the Democratic
party from entrenching itself in the
strongholds of National power. Great
applause.l Because that party avowing
all the time its love of individual liber
ty, processing all the time its devotion
to the Constitution and the rights sacred
under it, protesting all the time to re-
gard all men as equal before the law has,
in fact, by force, by violence, by the
most fragrant and flagitious frauds, ut
terly suppressed and annihilated the
voice of all opposition. Applause.
They boast of the anticipated success
of the Democratic ticket in t he Presiden
tial election. What is the ground of
that boast? Because they start their
claim of figures with 1873 Electoral votes.
How do they know they have 13S Elec-
toral votes? Ah, you know, and / know,
and all of them know why. Because
they will not tolerate any attempt by
the Republican political organization to
organize together the Republican senti-
ment in those States for the purpose of
contesting them. Do you hear of any
meetings in those States
Why not? Do you hear of Democratic
bolting in those States? Once or twice
you may, and then the crack of the rifle
-as in the case of Dixon, in Yazoo
heard. So that-and it is the
great fact standing out in bold relief in
our politics, as they shape themselves
and present themselves before US this |
lay, and which no intelligent and honest
nan can deny-the Republican party in
hose States is suppressed by the over
violence and fraud of the |
Democratic party. Applause.
And l want to be entirely understood. |
don't want to be understood as firing |
off shots at people that are away off. |
When say the Democratic party, dc
not mean merely the Democratic party |
n those States; l mean the Democratic |
party in Clifton [applause], who helped
,hem, who supported them, who sympa- |
,hized with them, who unite their for
tunes with theirs, and who are glorying
n the condition which have described, |
because it starts them out with the ad- |
vantage of 1873 Electoral votes in the
count which is to take place between |
anw and nAYt March,