New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1880-07-28
ACCEPTANCE LETTER OF GEN.
CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

ACCEf lANCE LIZ En- UT ZEN
CHESTER A. ARTHUR.
THE OvERsHADOwING ISSUE.
New York, July Is. l88G'-Dea
Sir-I accept the position assigned t.
me by the great party whose actor
you announce: This acceptance i'm
plies the approved of the principles
declared by the convention, but recen
usage permits me to add some expires
sion of my own views. The right anC
duty to secure honesty and order ii
popular elections is a matter so vita
that it must stand in front. The au
thority Of the national government tc
preserve from fraud and force cleo
lions at which it's own officers are cho'
sen is chief point on which the two
parties are plainly and intensely op'
posed. The acts of congress for ten
years have in New York and else
where done much to curb the violence
and wrong to which the ballot and
count have been again and again sub
jected, sometimes despoiling great ci.
ties, sometimes Sitting the voice of a
whole State After stealing not only
in congress but on the bench and in
legislatures numbers Of members cho.
sen by the people, the Democratic par
ty since gaining possession of the two
houses has made these laws the object
of bitter. ceaseless assault, and despite
all resistance has hedged them with
restrictions cunningly construed to
BATTLE and paralyze them. This aggres-
sive majority boldly attempted to ex-
tort from the executive his approval
of various enactments destructive of
these election laws by revolutionary
threats tat a constitutional exercise of
the veto power would be punished by
Withholding appropriations necessary to
carry on tho government, and these
threats ware actually carried out by
refusing needed appropriations and by
forcing an extra session of congress,
lasting for months, and resulting in
to this usurping demand,
which are likely in many states to
subject the majority to the lawless
will of the minority. Ominous signs
of public disapproyal alone subdued
this arrogant power into a sullen sur
render, for the time being, of part of
its demand. The Republican party
has strongly approved the stern refus.
al of it's representatives to suffer the
overthrow Of statutes believed to be
salutary and just. It has always in
sisted and now insists that the govern
ment of the United States of America
is empowered and in duty bound to eff.
fectually protect the elections denoted
by the constitution as national. More
than this, the Republican party holds,
as the cardinal point in its creed, that
the government should by every
known to the constitution, pro-
tect all American citizens everywhere
in the full enjoyment of their civil
and political rights. AS a great part
of it's work of reconstruction, the Re-
publican party gave the ballot to the
slave as his right and de.
Tense. A large increase in the num-
Der of members of congress and of
the electoral college from the former
slaveholding States was theimmediate
result. The history of the recent
years abounds in the evidence that in
many ways and in many places, espe.
cially where their number has been
great enough to endanger Democratic
control, the very men by whose eleva-
ton to citizenship this increase of re.
presentation was effected have been
robbed of their voice and their votes.
It is true that no State statute or con-
stitution in so many words denies or
abridges the exercise of their political
rights, but the means employed to bar
their way are no less effectual. It isa
startling thought that the increased
power derived from the enfranchise.
ment of the race now denied it's share
in governing the country, welded by
those who lately sought to overthrow
the government, is now the sole re-
lance to defeat the party which re-
presented the sovereignty and nation
ality of the American people in the
great crisis of our history. The Re-
publicans cherish none of the resent.
ments which may have animated them
during tho actual conflict of arms.
They long for full and real reconcile
alton between the sections which are
needlessly and lamentably at strife.
They sincerely offer the hand of good
will, but they ask in return a pledge
of good faith. They deeply feel that
the party whose career is so illustri.
GUS in great and patriotic achieve.
ments will not fulfill it's destiny, until
peace and prosperity are established
in all the land, nor until liberty of