St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-04-07

local self government everywhere necessary
for their health, and for their capacity to sup
port the government Of the union. This
government of ours has more than one vital
part, it has more than one seed of life itself.
If the states are stricken down the govern
ment dies, and if the government is stricken
down the states fall to pieces, like columns
with no support.
But what do we see? We see, gentlemen,
the result of power long continued, growing
with what it feeds upon. We see the results
of power growing in insolence, and disre
garding the ladder by which it mounted to
its present place. Gentlemen, there have
been encouragements to this growth, coming
lately from quarters little to be expected.
There have been encouragementst to this doc
trine which may justly alarm any
thinking man in the nation, for
they have come from quarter or quarters
little to be expected, from the head and flush
of party excitement, from the bitterness of
that strange thing called party spirit We
may expect eXcesses, but from the serenity
of the judgement seat was it to be expected,
that that for which all men struggled, that
is coeXistant with the liberty of the person,
which is the right of property, should have
been moved from a patristic constitution
on the quicksands of mere party majority,
under the decision of the supreme court of
the United States.
Gentlemen, a sense OF unbridled power in
the majority is illustrated almost every day.
The power of taXaton-the most sovereign
that can be given into the hands Of any ruler,
no matter what may be the form OF govern
ment-the power OF taxation is now openly
proclaimed, not to be used only for the pur-
A.. 10 do
necessary to maintain this government, but
it may 90 further, and ought to go further,
should the will of the majority decree it. and
cover the entire field of taxation, and with
the agencies of the federal government,
raise all the money that the states
may need for local purposes. But
it doesn't stop here. Such a system is
gross INVASION a confusion of ideas, an over
throw of every intent of this supreme law of
the land. But it goes further. 1t declares
whether the federal government needs it or
not, or whether a state government shall
need il or not, it shall be laid for the purpose
of transferring the property of the many into
the pockets of the few; that the hand of the
government shall be laid to adjust, in the
discretion of majority Of congress, the
qualities of fortune or ability, or skill or
worth of the various citizens over whom the
government rules. Why, gentlemen, what is
the tariff law, or any other law, upon such a
basis, but the system Of legalzed commun
ism.
Gentlemen, let me most earnestly and re-
spectfully adjure you here, so near the great
commercial center and great commercial
heart of the Union, in your igreat, strong,
rich, prosperous city, let me adiure you to
consider that the safety of property lies in
obedience to law. | know that that, in the
years gone by, for reasons it were not neces-
sary to 90 far to find, the doctrine of State
rights the doctrine Of q strict construction of
the constitution, met with disfayor in the
Northern mind, because it was most vigor-
ously asserted, for the defense of the insti-
tuition, then imbeded in the letter and sub
stance of the federal constitution. Gentlemen,
there is no doubt about the fact,
that there was a feeling Of odium in the
northern mind, when state rights or strict
construction was maintained, when they
weie called in scorn "Virginian distractions"
or the like. They thought they were right in
the defense of the system OF African slavery,
though it was against the moral sense of the
northern people. Now that slavery has gone,
and thank God it has gone forever, the south
and north sing alike in chorus and in har-
is dead.
Gentlemen, that reasoning that the rule of
construction that strict insistence upon the
rights of local self government, of maintain
ing the harmony of federal and state author
ity and yet not permitting either to overrun
and destroy the others, that conscientious re-
gard for the supreme law of the land exists
to-day, for it is here, and 1 beg for you to
take it up to insist upon it, to make it part
of your political action, if you would secure
the blessings of liberty to yourselves and
your posterity."
Senator Bayard was freely applauded dur
ing the delivery of his speech.
BLACKBURN.
Representative Joseph G. Blackburn, of
Kentucky, replied to the toast: ''War taxes
not for the times of peace" He alluded to
the struggle twenty years ago between the
north and south and said that none, to his
knowledge, on the broad continent, COM
planned of the decision which was rendered.
The taxes arising from this war, continued
now, would be eXtortion, and should not be
exacted. 1t was not just or fair to perpet-
uate this extra burden on the already bent
backs of the tax payers Of this land. Hewas
not an advocate of free
luxuries, but he was an advocate of the free
necessaries of life. He frankly confessed
here, that he was an avowed and absolute
free trader. Loud applause. He was no
revolutionist; he would not disturb single
industry; but he would put his party on the
road that looked to the reform of tariff
abuses He wanted to see the American reg
istrv open for American ships. He wanted
to see the owner of ship register it and
I,n IIo
wanted revision of the navigation laws; he
wanted reduction of the tariff on material
for building ships, and he wanted to foster
American commerce and carrying trade. He
said he would 90 home to his people and tell
them that in Brooklyn he found himself sur
rounded by men representing the wealth and
business interests of the great metropolis,
bound to thems by common tie of shaping
the destinies of this country, to bring it to
economic government, and manly and fair
system of the levying taxation. This was the
issue of the parties to-day, and on this they
must stand or fall. Great applause.
M'LEAN.
''The Demo cratic Press" was the theme of
Andrew Mclean, editor of the Brooklyn
EAGLE He opened with glowing tribute to
Senator Bayard, Mr.. Pendleton and Con-
gresham Hurd. He said there was no Dem
ocratic journalist who was not revenue re-
former and there was no Democrat who
could be at variance with their pleading for
revenue reform.
THE SCHOONER RETURNS.
The Filibusters Land in Cuba-Federal