Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-06-23
Judoe Hoadseu,s address.

Mr., Chairman and gentlemen of the national ex.
ecutve committee: obey this call to the chair OF
this convention with grateful acknowledgment of the
confidence reposed in e. 1t shall be my sedulous
care to prove worthy of your nomination. Fellow
delegates and fellow Democrats thanks for your vel
come, your generous welcome, my best response to
which will be, my only adequate response can be, the
srictest imparalty in the exercise of power during
the brief period it is committed to shall make
mistakes. trust you will forgive them. am
you will as soon as L satisfy you that although
as Delegate am the jealous friend even the par
tisan of my favorte candidate, as your officer
shall know neither friend foe of any candidate
but discharge my duty with absolute fairness and
fidelity of purpose. OF this you have my pledge.
ELECTORAL COLLEGE.
Gentlemen of the convention: Our fathers, dis
trusting the popular choice, established in each
State an electoral college, to whose unpledged action
they sought to entrust the election of the chief mag
istrates of the republic Their children, taught by
experience have wisely modified the constitutional
scheme by written amendment which combines the
advantages of the electoral system with the direct
popular voe while it preserves to each State its just
weight of influence upon the result. Conventions
Of delegates chosen by the people of two or more
parties have already presented candidates for pop-
lar acceptance at the coming election, and another
great college of electors is assembled in this hail.
The Office you thus fill, though not defined by law,
is of transcendent legal consequence. need not
say that in this assembly it will not be doubted that
you are not delegates from congressional districts,
but representatives of those indisructable units of
our
INDEsTRUcTABLE UNION OF THE STATES.
Custom has defined your duties. They are to con-
struct platform and to nominate candidates. You
are not however, called together to create creed,
but to apply known principle to present public af-
fairs. The Democratic principle does not date its
birth from your assembly, and will not perish with
the success or defeat of the candidates you nomi-
nate. 1t is eternal, a divine fire burning in the
hearts OF men. 1t qu1ckens the thought OF the
statesmen, the of the soldier and doubles
the energy of the toier. It is found in the Roman
precept, "Suum Cirque Tribuerc," and in the self
evident truth OF the American patriot, that all men
created equal. 1t is the unrelentDg foe of des
potism and of communism whether open sought
to be hidden u1der the disguise of paternal govern
ments. Its bonefcent Office in political affairs is to
secure to every man the utmost possible liberty of
action consistent with equal liberty to every other
Yours is not, therefore, the Office of inven-
ion, but of promulgation; not to discover, but to
to declare and to apply the
DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLE
to the changing affairs of human society, and that
this principle may have living force In public con-
Germs you will nominate candidates whose election
will insure its full fruion during the next Presi-
Dental term. These are your duties. No Democrat
doubts that you will Worthily perform them. But
you called to their discharge this day under cir
cumstances of no common moment-circu instances
ii
tory Of our republic, never again recur.
-Four years ago the Democratic party in convention
assembled at st. Louis announced to the country its
platform, and nominated as its candidates
THE FOREMOST STATESMEN OF THE NATION,
both then aud now worthy of the most enthu-
siastic political devotion, and the most ardent pri-
vate friendship and Samuel J. Tilden and Thomas
A. Hendricks elected President and Vice Pres-
dent of the United States, elected fairly as was
George Washington or James Monroe. That they
were not inaugurated, that the chief magistrate of
this nation has for more than three years been one
whom the people and electors did not elect that the
executive government by the people has ceased since
March 4th, 1877, is living monument seen now of
all men, and to be remembered in all generatons-of
the fraud of the Republican party of its indeity to
Republican principles, of its willingness
to sacrifice the right of popular election,
that vital principle Of republics rather than lax its
hold power and of the loyalty of the Democratic
party to the forms of law of its confidence that
the will of the people must finally prevail, abiding in
which it patiently waits for full uon of its hopes
till March 4, 1881 But no longer, no longer unless
defeated at the polls. If beaten fairly we shall SUBJ
nit repeat, we shall submit, and again wait but
ii again successful no cunning device of dishonest
arbitration shall deprive us of our rights. The DEM
ocratic party viii never again appear before trbu
nal falsely called Of justice tribunal deaf to the ap
peal of right but not blind to the beckonng finger Of
favor.
RETRIBuTIvE JUSTICE.
But though we failed to inaugurate our candidate,
Retributive justice visited without delay the imme-
diate author of this infamy. The courts Of Florida
had thwarted the conspirators who proposed the
theft of its State government and the stern refusa
Of the Democratic House of Representatives to appro-
pirate man or dollar to continue the subjugation
of South Carolina and Louisiana forced the op-
pressor to relax his grasp. No trace now remains
of the carpet-bagger government of the South ex-
cept the $170 100000 of increased public debt they
contrived In seven years of misgovernment to heap
upon its impoverished people.
THE LOUISIANA OUTRAGE.
Yes, another trace remains. Louisiana, entitled
by the constitution to two Senator's is represented
by one The seat of the other is filed by delegate
from band of outlaws never recognized as gov
ernmeat, long since deposed, some to fatten upon
the federal treasury and some to eat the bread of
exile.
The years that have passed since the theft Of
the Presidency have been years Of penteous harvest
The labor of the husbandman has reaped rich re-
ward The earth has been tickled with the hoe and
has laughed with the harvest.
THE BENSON OF THE MOST HIGH
has been upon US, and the opportunities afforded by
his most gracious favor wisely employed in the
omies of two successive Democratic Congresses,