Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1883-08-23
DEATH OF JERE BLACK.

Jeremiah ;. Black, who died at York,
Pa, Sunday, although he had not held
a political office in % years, and had
during all that period been in opposi-
ton, was nevertheless one of the most
conspicuous figures i'm the country to
the day of his death. Educated in a
political school, whose principles lave
been cast down and trampled under
foot by the inexorable march of events,
he adhered nevertheless to those prin-
ciples through good and evil report
with tenacity and fidelity which re-
called the best time and best men in
American politics. Ii was not the
democratic party to which Black paid
such devoted service, but the demo
cratic principles which the party long
ago abandoned - the principles of
Thomas jefferson whose application in
the beginning of the century saved
democratic republican institutions in
America and prevented the country
from drifting into the hands of an
aristocratic oligarchy and possibly into
the hands of monarchy.
Black was a dem ocrat in the best
and ancient sense Of the word, and
applying the principle of individual
equality to social entities, he believed
that communities us well as individu-
ais should govern themselves. The
doctrine of secession was an absurd
and licentious extension of this princi-
pie, as immoral and as illogical as that
OF the criminal who secudes from ali
'ocial restraints and repudiates all So
cial responsibilities, Black was too
hard-headed thinker to run any prin-
ciple into The ground in that fashion,
and he opposed the reparatiSt tenden
cies of the sovNh as vigorously as he
did the centralizing tendencies OF
which nothing but vigorous stretch
of the central power could preserve its
existence, and in that crisis philoso-
piers of the Jefferson school like
Black, found themselves left alone and
impotent between two warning elc-
ments which had 10 time for the dis
cussion OF nice points of political phil
osophy. Such m,n as Black, howev-
er, have served n useful purpose III
this country. They have served as a
conspicuous and permanent mark of
the point from which both sections of
the country departed so widely in diff
ferent directions, and their constant
warnings have undoubtedly done much
as the passions of the conflict passed
away to draw both sides back from the
extremes they reached toward that
happy and reasonable median line OF
state autonomy, which in this country
is SO admirably suited for times OF
peace and domestic harmony.
But it was not Blacks principles
alone that made him SO conspicuous.
Had he thrown himself into the Re-
publican party-as Stanton and the
Camerons and thousands of other dem
ocrats did-his genius would have won
him foremost place, for it is doubt.
full il the country ever produced a
keener lawyer, more acute and forci
BILE debater, or statesman more IA
miliar with the history OF the country
and with all its political traditions. -
lie was born ia 1910, was admitted tC
the Pennsylvania bar 53 years ago, o,GnG
was chief justice of that State as Ions
ago as 1851. His preemincnce at the
bar and in the politics of Pennsylva
ria led President Buchanan to appoint
hIm as attorney general in 1857, anC
when Casa in December, 1860. retired
lie succeeded the latter as Secretary O
State.
1t is pretty clear now that Black wa
largely responsible for that singula
policy of Buchanan's, founded upon
oiIiCb uiiu StNtlcls lOklCoi ihNei Bitto
tion of the constitution, which wa
untitled for the crisis only, because TIL
constitution itself was untitled for il
The disappearance Of Buchanan AM
Black end their policy, marked a
sharp constitutional revolution a
did tie disappearance of the fedora
party in the beginning of the century
The constitution Of Jefferson and Mad
ison disappeared; the constitution O
. Hamilton and the Adamses WAS agaii
put into working order. The word
were the same, but there was still
vast difference between the two. Bot
hal their uses, and each, carried to
far, degenerated the one into anarch
and disintegration, the other into til