The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1880-01-23
DEMOCRATIC ADDRESS.
! appeal . .As Demoerasy or orsaan.

OSaatuAAsSS oc l'uOAASA VIC AottSWAbSs
and most earnestly commend IL to your
attention:
There never has been time in the
history of the Government, when moro
than now it was incumbent upon Dem
ocrats to stand by the old traditions Of
their party.
The constitution, or rather consti-
tutional union, is upon trial.
The mon who stand in the high
places of the opposition, and who voice
its opinions, in tho arrogance Of their
power, are seeking to destroy the last
vestige of constitutional Limitation
which is the essence of constitutional
law and under the speeious cry of a
"Strong Government" or ''the National
Idea" they hide the real issues and per-
vert even their own followers. Since
this Government was organized, in the
constitutional law, has always been and
must ever be, both the National and the
Federal idea. We are one as a nation
but many as States. In whatever
appertains to treating with the other
peoples of the world and to those pow
ers specially delegated by the States to
the National Government, we are u ma
ton; but in that which touches a pri-
vate, as distinguished from the public
rights of the citizen, we are union Of
States.
These States have never surrendered,
and never can, tho unconditional and
absolute right to manage in their own
way the internal domestic affairs ol
their own citizens.
The recent extra session Of Congress
has passed into history, as the occasion
of contest between these two ideas.
There they met in deadly conflict
and the pernicious theory that this
country is purely nation survived the
contest only because they could say to
us, and perhaps truthfnlly, as of then
your States are not now limited or cir.
cumscribed in the exercise Of their con.
stitutional rights. That session ended,
and the masses of the opposition, ap-
parently forgetting,-or perhaps re
membering the lawlessness, the shame
less lawlessness Of the "sirong Man" in
Louisiana and in South Carolina, with
one accord are calling for that same
hand to DO placed at the helm Of the
nation, and at the throat Of the States
! Do Democrats. does the country need
more to emphasize Il is recent struggle
and does il not come to US with the in
tensity of the most earnest conviction
that the peril to constitutional liberty
can be averted only by stern and un
faltering adherence to the old fashioned
faith of the father of tho party.
| Republicans, even in their best days
and before the lust of power had eater
away the honesty Of conviction, saw The
truth and as loudly almost as ourselves
spoke for the untrammeled right o
each State to order and control exclus
lively its own domestic affairs.
The Republican convention of ls6t
at Chicago, which nominated Abraham
Lincoln, among other planks in thei
platform, had the following:
THAT the maintenance inyiolate o
the rights Of The States, and especially
the right Of each State to order an6
control It's own domestic institution
according TO its own judgement, ercls'
sirely is essential to that balance OF pow
er on which the perfection and enduT
ance Of our political fabric depends; ant
we denounce the lawless invasion b.
armed force Of any State or Territory
no matter under what pretext, a
: among the gravest Of crimes.
How stingingly this honest Republi
can declaration rebukes their party o
to-day, and the great captain who ha
been twice President But the part,
has advanced. Less than eighteei
months ago the Republican Convention
of Iowa, where the Republican ide
T has fed and fattened on itself in yer,
, literalncss, declared that the nationa
! power gave and protected all and erer
right Of the citizen. And this is th
Republican idea of to-day. 1t domi
mates their party completely, control
;; them absolutely. To continue them
selves in power, they invoke and us
; upon all occasions this "power of tn
nation" and, as in 1878, they crush re
moFselessly either the legislative or ju
! dicial power of the State, whichsoeve
Z may stand in the way of their purposes
/, Fellow Democrats, this pestilentia
} heresy carries with it more of peril t
the existence Of our Republican inst
tntions than all the other dangers tina
f surround us. This is Union, but
union Of States; and if one is indivis
BILE, the other is indestructibIe; or NOR
aptly and as an able Democrat has pu
it, an indiyisible Union Of indestructi
BILE States"
The dangerous sentiment that speak