The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1880-06-25
Let the Flag Wave and the
Cannon Boom!!

ne DemOcrallc Natlonal convention me
at Cincinnati on Tuesday. Judge Hoadley
was chosen temporary chairman. On takius
the chair hemade the following speech:
JI. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Ma
tiOndi ErecutiUe Committee | obey this cal
to the chair of this convention with grateful
acknowledgment of the confidence reposed
in me. 1t shall be my sedulous care to
prove worthy of your nomination. Fellow.
delegates, fellow Democrats thanks for youl
welcome, your generous welcome, my best
response to which will be, my only adequate
response can be-the strictest impartiality in
the exercise of power during the brief period
it is committed to me. | shall make mis-.
takes; trust you will forgive them. I an
sure you will, as soon as satisfy you that al
though as delegate am the Jealous friend
even the partisan of my favorite candidate,
as your presiding officer shall know neith-
er friend nor foe Of any candidate, but dis
charge my duty with absolute fairness aud
fidelity of purpose. Of this you have my
pledge.
Gentlemen of the convention, our faith
ers distrusting popular choice, established
in each State an Electoral College, to whose
unpledged action they sought to entrust the
election of the Chief Magistrates of the Re-
fuuiiO' Aucii Sniiuicu, ny tAperltuCe, nave
wisely modified the constitutional scheme
by an unwritten amendment, which com.
bines the advantages of the electoral system
with the direct popular vote, while it pre-
serves to each State its just weight of infu-
ence upon the result. Conventions of dele
gates chosen by the people of two or more
parties have already presented candidates
for popular acceptance at the coming elec.
tion, and another great College of Electors
is now assembled in this hall The office
you thus fill though not defined by law, is
of transcendant legal consequence. / need
not say that in this assembly it will not be
doubted that you are not delegates from Con-
gressonal districts, but representatives of
those indestructible units of our indestruct-
ible Union-the States.
DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES.
Custom has defined your duties. They are
to construct platform and to nominate can
didates. You are not, however, called to-
gether to create creed, but to apply a
known principle to present public affairs.
The Democratic principle does not date its
birth from your assembling and will not
perish with the success or the defeat of the
candidates you nominate. 1t is eternal,
divine fire, burning in the hearts of men. 1t
quickens the thought of the statesman, nerves
the arm of the soldier and doubles the ener.
gy of the toiler. 1t is found in the Roman
precept, Suum cuique tribuere, and in the
self-evident truth of the American patriot
that all men are created equal. 1t is the un
relenting foe of despotism and of commun-
ism, whether open or sought to be hidden
under the guise of paternal government. Its
benefcent office in political affairs is to Sc
cure to every man the utmost possible liber-
40 Of att tyta mil
every other. Yours is not therefore the Of
flee of invention, but of promulgation; not
to discover, but to declare; to apply the
Democratic principle to the changing affairs
of human society, and that this pinciple
may have living force in public concerns,
you will nominate candidates whose election
will insure its full fruition during the next
Presidential term. These duties no Demo-
crat doubts that you will worthiy perform,
but you are calledto their discharge this day
under circumstances of no common moment
circumstances which may God in His
mercy grant shall in the history of our Re-
public never recur.
CHEERS FOR TILDEN.
Four years ago the Democratic party. in
convention assembled at st, Louis, an
nounced to the country its platform and nam
statesmen of the nation both then and now
worthy of the most enthusiastic political
devotion and the most ardent private friend
ship; and Samuel j. Tilden (cheers) and
Thomas A. Hendricks were elected Presi-
dent and Vice President of the United
States-elected as fairly as George Washing.
ton 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 the electors
rejected; that in the Executive Department
government by the people has ceased since
March 4, 1877, is a living monument, seen
now of all men aud to be remembered in all
generations, of the fraud of the Republican
party of its infdelitv to Republican princi-
Piles, of its willingness to sacrifice the right
of popular election, the vital principle of
republics" rather than relax its hold upon
power and of the loyalty of the Democratic
party even to the forms of law; its confidence
that the will of the people must finally pre-
vail, abiding In which it patiently waits for
the full fruition of its hopes until March 4,
1881, but no longer, no longer, unless de-
submit repeat, we shall submit and again
wait-but if again successful, no cunning
device of dishonest arbitration shall deprive
us of our rights. The Democratic party will
never again appear before tribunal falsely
called "of justice tribunal deaf to the
appeal of testimony, hut not blind to the
beckoning finger of favor.
RETRIBUTIvE JUSTICE.
But though it failed to inaugurate our
candidates, our cause was not for moment
wholly lost. Retributive justice visited with
out delay the immediate authors of this in
fanny. The courts Of Florida had thwarted
the conspirators who proposed the theft Of
It's State Government, and the storm refusal
of the Democratic House of Representatives
I, appropriate man or dollar TO continue
thn snbiupaiion Of south Carolina and IsooIs.