Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1880-11-02

man equal to every other, each and the
master OF himself, having the right to
cast one vote and no more. TGreat ap-
plause.
The tendency of Republican measures
is to strengthen this national govern
ment. In the last twenty years our gov
ernment has advanced from the feeble
confederacy existing before the war to a
GREAT AND POWERFUL NATION,
with an army and navy, small it is true,
but with q country and people strong
enough behind that little army and navy
to make all the world respect us. TGreat
applause. On the other hand, the ideas
and tendency of the Democratic party is
to belittle, to degrade, to cripple the
national government, to subordinate the
national government to the power of
states. In other words, the idea is that
the state of South Carolina is a bigger
man than Uncle Sam; that feeble state
may by public action, by fraud, by vio-
lence or law control and imperil and tie
up the power of this great government of
ours. Their effort is to belittle the ma
tional government, to reduce it to the
abiect condition it was in during the
time of James Buchanan, when that poor
old man, at the beginning of the war,
said, "Secession was all wrong, but
there is no power in the government to
put it down." Laughter. That was
his idea. Now, my countrymen, what
was the origin of this? This difference
of opinion does not fairly grow out of a
question of the construction of the con-
stitution, but grows out Of what is some
times called in politics the resolutions Of
Kentucky and Virginia III 1898. At that
time there was q great political dispute
between parties that have now no exist
ence. The Democratic party, or rather
it was called the Republican party In
those days, by the Kentucky resolutions
or the Virginia resolutions resolved
that this government, this national
states, each equal to the other, and that
the constitution was nothing but the
form Of government agreed upon by the
states-as states created this government
so states might destroy it. In other
words their idea was the idea of the res
olutions of 1898, that this was a new con-
federacy OF states, an agreement made
between states permitting the govern
ment, and when one of the states disre-
garded the terms of this agreement, that
it alone had the power to judge-that is
as the state joined in making this gov
ernment it could join in destroying it.
So thus the government was a govern
ment of states. We on the other hand
believe with Chief Justice Marshall, one
of the most exalted names in history,
that this was government of the people,
made by the people, supreme among the
people, that would disregard state lines
or to use the more homely language of
Abraham Lincoln, name that will live
as long as the name of America lasts.
EGreat applause. His idea was this is
government of the people, by the peo-
pie and for the people. Great ap-
plause.
Now there is the broad line between
those two great parties, the Republican
party believing that this is
A GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE,
and that their voice expressed
through congress makes the law
under the deciding power of the
Supreme Court, and that the laws are
thus made without regard to state lines.
Great applause. On the other hand
our Democratic friends believe that this
is a mere confederacy Of states, which
may be dissolved at the pleasure of the
states, that any state may set at defiance
and disregard any measures. Great ap-
plause. That is the origin of the con-
federacy. But it has one OF two strange
developments. Some of the young men
around me may not be familiar with the
history of those times, and will speak
to them before I go to other questions of
more immediate interest. Up to 1880
this construction of the resolutions of
1898 had not occurred to any one. On
the oJher hand, these resolutions did not.
prevent the growth or development of
the country; they did not prevent the
purchase of Louisiana by Thomas Jeffer-
son, and they did not prevent the sign
ing of the second bank bill by James
Madison. But things drifted along, un-
til 1880 under the astute mind of John
@. Calhoun, a different and more practi-
cal construction was given to these
resolutions Of 1898. John G. Calhoun
was opposed to the tariff laws, those
laws which imposed duties on imported
goods, and under the resolutions of 1898
he claimed that South Carolina could
nullify them. John G. Calhoun said
that the tariff laws were unconstitutional
null and void, and that South Carolina,
one of the states that made the govern
ment, might withdraw it's consent to that
government, it might nullify these laws,
and the convention in South Carolina
actually framed the laws of the state by
which they proposed to nullify the laws
Of the United States, which required the
collection of duties in Charleston. Then
it was that there was man president of
the United States who did not believe
in modern Democracy-Andrew Jack
son was then president of the United
States. When he heard of this act of
John @. Calhoun, he issued his procla-
mhtion, and every part of that proclama-
tion might well form part of any Re
publican platform. Applause. It
contains the very doctrines we now
avow. He said that this was a
NATIONAL GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE,
that the people must obey it, and that
L. L. L