The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1880-10-28

and tendency of the democratic party is to
belittle, to degrade, to cripple the ration
al government, to subordinate the nation
al government to the power of states. In
other words, the idea is that the state of
South Carolina is bigger man than Vi cle
Sam; that a feeble state may by public
action, by fraud, by violence or law con-
troll and imperil and tie up the power of
this government of ours. Their effort is
to belittle the national government, to re-
duce it to the abject condition it was in
during the time Of James Buchanan,
when that poor old man, at the beginning
Of the war, said. Secession was allwrong,
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 ques-
ton of the construction Of the constitution,
but grows out of what is sometimes called
in politics the resolutions of Kentucky
and Virginia in 1898. At that time there
parties that have row no existence. The
democratic party, or rather it was called
the republican party in those days, by the
Kentucky resolutions or the Virginia res
olutions resolved that this government,
this national government, was a compact
between states, each equal to each other,
and that the constitution was nothing but
the form OF government agreed upon by
the states-as states created this govern
ment so states might DESTROY ii. In other
words their idea was the idea of the reso.
lut;ons of 1885, that this was a new con-
federacy OF states, an agreement made be-
tween states permitting the government,
and when one of the states disregarded the
terms of this agreement, that it alone had
the power to judge-that is as the state
Joined in making this government it could
join IN destroying it. So thus this govern
ment was government of states. We on
the other hand believed with Chief JUS
tice Marshall, one of the most exalted
names in history, that this was govern
ment 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, a
name that will live as long as the name of
America lasts: [Great applause His
people, by the people and for the people.
[Great applause.
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, that the laws
are 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 measure. [Great applause. That is
the origin Of the confederacy. But it has
one or 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 other
hand, these resolutions did not prevent the
growth or development of the country;
they did not prevent the purchase of Lou
isiana by Thomas Jefferson, and they did
not prevent the signing of the second bank
bill by James Madison. But things drifted
along, until 1880 under the astute mind of
John g. Calhoun, different and more
practical 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 UNI
der the resolutions of 1898 he claimed
that South Carolina could null;fy them.
John &. CALHOUN said that the tariff laws
were unconstitutional, null and void, and
that South Carolina, one of the states that
made the government, might withdraw its
consent to that government, il might null
lily these laws, and lie convention in
South Carolina actually framed the laws
of the state by which they proposed to null
lily the laws of the United States, which
required the collection of duties in Charles
ton. Then it was that there was man
president of the United States who did not
believe in modern democracy-And
Jackson was then president of the United
States. When he heard of this act of
John 4. Calhoun. he issued his proclama-
ton, and every part of that proclamation
might we'll form part Of any republican
platform. [Applause.] 1t 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 the
laws must be enforced by the people with
out respect to any state lines, and he told
John &. Calhoun: IF you attempt to car
ry out your threats, by the eternal God I
will hang YOU" [Great applause.] And
the worst of it was that these people be-
lieved he would, and he would. Great
applause. And so that controversy set
tied down. Then, my democratic friends,
a strange dissolution occurred in the dem
ocratic party. After General Jackson had
retired from the presidency the democrat
ic party gradually drifted to the
southern states. The south wanted
to build up the institution of
slavery. They therefore put forward this
doctrine of state rights more and more,
and the democratic party in the north be-
plause. Time was when Wisconsin was
when Indiana was democratic,
when Illinois was democratic, when Ohio
was democratic, when Iowa was democrat
ic, when the power of the democracy was
in the northern states, But gradually. I'M