, 1880-08-30
SEATTLE, MONDAY, AUG. 80, 1880.
Democratic Principles.


from a speech by Wade Hampton, CON-
IN ending to the Democracy OF Virginia
"the principles for which Robert E. Lee
and Stonewall Jackson fought" This, it
Is argued. means secession and disunion,
and that is what Democratic ascendancy
will result in. The principles for which
Lee and jackson fought were identical.y
the principles for which Washington and
his compeers fought the principles upon
which the Union was based; the princi~
ples which have ever been maintained by
the Democratic party and are in issue
between the two parties to-day: the
principles of local selt-government in
contradistinction to centra! despotlsm.-
Lee and jackson were more sincerely
devoted to the Union and labored more
earnestly to prevent its disruption and
avert civil war than any of the leaders of
the Republican party. Neither OF them
ever voted Democratic party ticket, or
subscribed to the doctrine of notification
or n-misreprcsented as the Dem>
ocratic doctrine of State rights. Neither
of them ever claimed-but q small minor
ity OF the Southern people ever claimed
that a State had any right to nul,ify
a constitutional act of the General Gov>
crnment, or the right to secede from the
Union hut for cause which would Justify
revolutionary resistance. That doctrine
belonged exclusively to the Republican
party, as party no other political par
ty in the country ever openly advocated
and acted upon it. as witnessed by their
motto: This Union cannot exist part
slave and part free" and by their acts
in nullitylng the Fugitive Slave Law"
in every Republican State, and fercibly
resisting civil process of the United
States under State protection. There
never was more shameless fraud and false
pretence palmed upon an urreasoning
publican party is. or ever was a Union
party. or is entitled to the exclusive
credit, as party. of saving the Union.
There is not a recorded fact in its nis."ry
to justify such assumption. Its organi-
zati"n was exclusively sectional its in
spiration sectional hate; its every argu
ment an appeal to sectional prejudice
After denouncing and threatening the
South through every period of its exists
ence, hy every term of menace and insult
which could be employed to inclte the
fe rs and prnvoke the resentment of the
Southern people, the party had acquire
accidental power 10y little more than
One>third Of the popular vote, through
the divisions of its opponents. it Ibitra-
rily used that power to its utmost to de
feat the popnlir demand for any meas
ure OF assurance or reconciliation calcula
ted TO preserve the peace and maintain
the UnI~n. The three other parties
which had severally supported Douglas
Breckenridge and Bell, were ready t."
bury their differences out of sight and
sacrifice their personal aspirations and
party identity upon the common altar of
the Union; the Rcpuhlican party alone,
in its insolence of power held IN defiance
of the popular will. cried ou.: mo cons
cession!" No compromise ~ . No Union
with shareholders Without blood
letting the Union is not worth saving y
For years this party had denied and
secuted the equal right of the Southern.
States to control their own domestic in
stitutions in the Union; had nullified by
legislation one OF the most necessary
guarantees of the Constitution under
which those States had consented to be-
come Of the Union; had by the personal
signatures Of its seventy-nine Represents
atives IN Congress endorsed campaign
document which bore the motto 'Down
with slavery or down with the Union
deitied and made its patron saint guer>
lila captain who entered the State of
Virginia in command of band of armed
assasslns with the avewed purpose of in
citing servile insurrection and give to
rapiue and ruthless violence the defence>
Jess homes of the white people of the
South, and in every way possible short
of nctaal violence, sought to provoke the
people of the South to the commission of
some overt act of resistance which would
offer pretext for their subiugation, or
constrain them to secede from the Union.
which would leave the Republican party