The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1881-02-05
the Mission Of the Democratic Party.

principles anu OPINION VI tuc uliSSioh
of the Democratic party:
The events and processes of more
than d generation have taken the con-
troll of Governmental affairs away from
the intelligent rule of the masses and
vested it in power as yet formative
and underlined. Among these were the
civil war, the creation and peculiar
manipulation of the public debt, recon-
struction outside the Constitution, uni
versal negro suffrage, a plethora OF
paper money, loose public morals, enor-
nous growth of private fortunes. and a
close connection of the Government
with the banking interest. Each had
its weight in sapping the foundations of
a government by the masses and In
shaping our course toward different
rule. Whether that rule is to be suf-
frage, qualified and rarified, or suffrage
controlled by the power of aggregated
wealth or monopoly, or Senatorial
oligarchy, or hereditary Government. is
beside the present inquiry, save as they
each and all show distrust of the people
and build their foundations upon uni
versal suffrage, debased, corrupted and
dominated.
The tendency toward a so-called
stronger Government is as manifest as
are the causes that have given it form.
1t is in the nature of things for govern
ment to grow stronger at the expense
of the governed; but the plain proof of
the existence of this tendency is found
in the opinions of the Federal Judiciary,
in Federal legislation over matters
heretofore within the control Of the peO-
pie of the States, in the modes OF exc
cution of those statutes, by which
local rule, local courts and personal
liberty are overthrow, and in that
ramifcation of Executive patronage
which sends its mandates to the ex-
tremities, and at will gathers in a sim
gle hand enormous contributions and
INSCRIPTIONS obedience from 10000
paid officials. Executive patronage
will bring us to a master" A net
work of oificeholders, bound each to the
other, welding time, and money, and
power of place to pack primaries, die
tate nominations, crush independent
thought and action, and subordinate
local control to the will of an Execu-
tive who governs in the name of par
ty, points the road with unerring GER
tainty to the end that Franklin, the
wise man, predicted. Further guide
boards on that road are seen in large
donations of money by corporations,
monopolists and wealthy men, to sup
plement the power of the Executive and
carry elections in the interest Of an
aristocratic class who dislike and dis
trust the people; in the domination of
employe by employer; in the marked
ballot; in the third-term candidacy and
pilgrimage on the stump; in the Ma
tional and labor organizations, which
are but over jealous protests against
this tendency, but in that ill concealed
demand for energetic Government,
which has been the fundamental thought
of the opponents of Democracy since
the days of John Adams.
The issues of 1899 and 1900 again
confront the people. The theories of
OF that day are again to struggle for the
mastery. The Government of the Re-
public is already centralized. The
canvass of 1880 teaches this. The
Federal Executive has been felt from the
ward caucus to the vaults of the
Treasury, from the primary to the
Presidential election. A high Federal
official quits his place to take a nomi-
nation for Governor OF the pivotal State,
and at once the Executive arm is ex-
tended to his support. Marshals, detec-
tives, Collectors and all else that are
needed locate themselves within the
State, and its suffrage is debauched and
its undoubted will reversed. A suffrage.
first debased, then corrupted, then
obedient, is Capitalization in its worst
form. This but one means to the end
sought. The mission of the Democratic
party is decentralization. Its duty is to
restore the Government fthe Republic
to the intelligent rule of the masses OF
the people. 1t must teach and practice
the doctrines of its illustrious founder.
1t must appeal to the people themselves
in their own interest. 1t must preach
the eternal truth that the individual
citizen is the unit in Government;
from whom proceeds all power,
in whom is vested all rights save
those which are granted by him
for the good of the whole. The people
at the base, the States and the Fed
eral Government, each supreme within
its sphere. is the system to which ii
looks for liberty, and it must teach that
he who looks to paternal Government,
to Capitalization, or to empire. looks to
despotism. Care for and perfect the
Government, and it will protect the lib
critics of the people, was the thought OF
Hamilton. Give intelligence and infor.
nation to the people, teach them that
it is their Government, and their inter.
est to preserve law and order, was the
thought of Jefferson. Paternal Govern
ment and vigor in the Federal head on
the one hand, information to the masses
and energy from the extremities on the
other. The former gave the Republic
alien and sedition laws, direct taxation,
Federal Marshals and centralized rule
in 1879. The latter swept these out OIL
existence in 1900, carried us successful
ly through two foreign wars; acquired
an Empire of territory and governed