The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1880-03-11
DECOY DAN DIDATES FOR THE
PRESIDENCY.

The New York World, in comment
ing uponthe late effort of the Republi-
can organs of Mr.. Tilden to injure Mr..
Bsysrd as a candidate for the Presi-
deucy among Northern Republicans,
who, in the event of Grants nomination,
would be inclined to oppose him be-
cause of third term antagonisms, says:
What Mr., Bayard did in June, 1861,
before any seal of legality had bean set
by Congress upon that war was to en-
treat his iellow-citizens to pause and
consider whether it might not still be
possible to save the country from all
those then gathering horrors. He saw
the preliminary evils of civil strife all
around him in passionate mobs, and in
the steady kindiing of feelings of fra
tricidal hatred between the citl-
zens of q common country. To him,
doubtless, in June, 1861, standing
there on the very frontiers of the
North, it must have appeared at least
as clearly as it did to Mr.. Tilden writ
ing in his residence at New York in
february, 1868, that the organization
of the Republican party was "either
political blunder or political crime,
creating q conflict IN which the gov
ernmeut would probably perish"
The World wants to know what hon.
est Democrat or conservative citizen of
this Union will cay to-day that if the
abolition of slavery and the formal
abandonment of the doctrine of seces-
sion could have been achieved without
plunging this country into the untold
miseries of that awful civil conflict, we
should not hare been a happier,
freer, more prosperous and more
united people than we now sre7
In the Democratic convention held IN
Albany in 1861 to promote a peacea-
bic settlement of the questions at issue
between the two sections, Mr.. Tilden
joined in laying before the con-
vention an address and resolutions, in
which the right of the Federal govern
ment to coerce sovereign state was
denied in the most emphatic terms. 1t
runs:
Rssolced, that the Constitution
clothes our government with no power
to coerce sovereign states In their po-
litical capacity. The coercive power
of this government Is a coercion OF
laws, not arms, and can not only be
made eifectusl over the state by the
! authorized civil SCENTS of the govern.
ment for the execution of those laws.
Where such SCENTS no longer exists any
attempt at forcible execution of the
laws through any other channel Ii
nothing more nor less than war; and
the Constitution vests no power il
Congress TO declare war against any
portion of this confedercy. II the Re
publican psrty will but do justice t
the South, there will be no need o
coercion.
SO Mr.. Tilden thought in 1861. ant
1868, and sgain in 1854, when he as
sisted in placing Gen. Mcclellan on
platform declaring the war "a failure.
The World contends that the only psr
pose which Tlden proposes to subserv'
is to terrify the Democracy at Cincin
nah into s'decoyn policy with ode
coy candidates. Such a purpose shoul'
be repudiated. Every Democrat VIII
has the common courage 10 avow hi
true opinions IN regard to the dead Is
sues of the past. as well as IN regsrI
to the living issues of the presen
md the common sense to Sc
that if the people Of the Unite'
States desire to put the true an
outspoken leaders OF the Democrat
party into power to-day, they viii d
50 only on the condition that. the