Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1880-09-30
Election, Tuesday, October I:

| u ptAlAOil VI PONCI NlllCL
can find no warrant in the Constitution
and that we regard the recon
Struction acts $50 called Of Congress, as
such, us usurpati0ns, and uncOnstitu-
tional, revolutionary, and void"
1t indulged i'll the most gloomy fore
bodingS us to the future if the recon-
StructiOh policy were pursued, and,
speaking of Congress, held this solemn
language: Under its repeated assaults,
the pillars of the government are rock
ing on their base, and, should it succeed
in November next and inaugurate its
President, we will meet as a subjected
and conquered people amid the ruins of
liberty and the scattered fragments of
the Constitution"
1t concluded lis declarations, dennuci-
ations, and resolutions concerning the
aggressive measures of Congress ard its
dismal lamentations over the frightful
calmamities impending in the future by
an unqualified endorsement of Andrew
Johnson in these words: "That the Pres
ident of the United States, Andrew
johnson, in exercising the power of his
high Office in resisting the aggressions of
Congress upon the constitutional rights
of the States and the people, is entitled
to the gratitude of the whole American
people, and in behalf of the Democratic
party we tender him our thanks for his
efforts in that regard"
To all these doctrines the Democratic
party has in the year 1880 pledged itself
anew with special emphasis, for it has
| placed at the head of its ticket one who
was in full sympathy with that platform !;
who so expressed himself at the time of
its adoption by the Democratic Conven-
ton; who helped to make up the history
out of which the platform itself was
constructed; who in New Orleans assist
ed Andrew Johnson in resisting the
"aggressions of Congress; who attempt
ed to nullify the reconstruction meas
ures, which this platform denounced as
usurpations, unconstitutional, reVolu-
tionary, and void who, in furtherance of
that scheme, revoked the policy Of Gen.
Sheridan; who left the field of duty, to
which he had been assigned by. Andrew
Johnson, in disgust, because Gen. Grant
stood behind him and revoked him and
his policy; who endeayOred 10 restore
rebel civil authorities in a State in which
Congress declared mo legal State gov
eminent or adequate protection for life
or property" then existed; and who in
most vehement language denounced any
one who assumed that he did not thor
oughly concur in and endorse this plat
form, upon which lie General Winfield
Scott Hancock) declared that he unquali-
fedly stood.
The declarations of principles, thus
from time to time made by the Demo-
cratic party, are emphasized by the ac-
tion of that party in Congress upon all
measures looking to the reconstruction
of the Union upon Il solid and just fOun-
datiOn. That party opposed the four
| teenth constitutional amendment; for In
the vote upon that amendment III the
Senate every Democrat voted nay, and
| in the House the negative vote was a
solid one. The reconstructiOns acts
were opposed by the Democratic party
| by solid party vote. 1t also opposed
the fifteenth constitutional amendment.
The vote stood-in the Sraate, yeas 80,
all Republicans; nays 13, all Democrats,
including James r. Doulitiic; in the
House, nays Al, all Democrats.
The amendments having been adopted,
it steadily and sOlidly opposed all legis-
latiOn looking to their enforcement. The
! enforcement bill passed the Senate May,
1870, encOuntering there Il solid Demo-
cratic opposition, and alsoa solid Demo
cratic opposition in the House. 1t has
repeatedly refused to affirm the validity
of the fourteenth and fifteenth cOnstitu-
tional amendments. This steady and
persistent opposition to those great
measures has extended to the States.
The Democratic Legislatures of the
States of New York and Indiana with
drew the previous ratification by prece-
ding Republican Legislatures of those
amendments. In 1871 a resolution reci-
ting the action of the Indiana Legisla-
ture, and reaffirming the validity of those
amendments, encountered in the House
negative vote of 76, all Democrats, and
that party also opposed by solid vote
the Ku-klux amendatory enforcement
acts.
In 1872 but four Democrats could be
found in the House to vote for reso-
luton ratifying the validity of those
amendments. In 1875 it opposed by a
solid party vote in the House and in the
Senate the supplementary civil rights
bill; and in National Convention assem-
bled in 1880 it declares, 1--WE pledge our
selves anew to the constitutional doc
trInes and traditions of the Democratic
party as illustrated by the teaching and
example of long line of Democratic pa
triOt5 and statesmen"
On these great questions the Democrat
ic party is, from its history, doctrines,
and traditions, shown to have been, and
to be, reactionary and revolutionary.
Denouncing the reconstruction meas
ures in 1868 as usurpations, revolution
ary, unconstitutional, and void, and re-
newing it's pledge to its former doctrines
and traditions in 1880, it is fair to as
sumo that, if the opportunity presented
by the enlargement of the Supreme Court
to have that doctrine judicially declared
unconstitutional, the Democratic party
would avail itself of such an opportuni- |
ty, and wreck not only those reconstrHc-
tion measures, but the constitutional
amendments which have their founda-
ton upon them. This is no merely i'm |
aginary peril we are abundantly fore
warned. The havoc which would come
from the successful carrying out of DEM |
ocratic doctrines and traditions, invOlv- |
ing all business interests, all legitimate |
enterprises in ruin, is too obvious to re- |
quire comment. In 1872, made wiser by |
long-continued defeats, the Democratic !
party undertook to conceal its heretical
notions of State sovereignty under the |
jingling phraseology of home rule and
local self-government. Repudiated in
1872 and again in 1876, in its platform in
1880 it is content to declare in general |
terms, Opposition to centralizationism
and to that dangerous spirit of eneroach-
ment which tend to consolidate the pow
ers of all the departments in one, and
thus to create, whatever be the form of
government, real despOtism;" and
again, by its third plank, for "hOme
rule" These are merely different cover
ings for the same idea, and taken in
connection with solid SOuth-a South
made solid by midnight raids, by sys-
TEN of terrorism which drives all Oppo-