Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-07-27
WHY THEY SHOULD BE DEMO.
Gratis.

IL lS SOlileJlIucS dSkcU WHY Juc ptOplc
of Utah should be Democrats and vote
the ticket of that party in preference to
the ticket of the Peoples party. We will
endeavor to briefly state why the people
of Utah should be Democrats.
The Democratic party recognizes as its
fundamental principle the saying of
Thomas Jefferson, who may be
said to be pre-eminently the
father and founder of the Democratic
party, that "the only orthodox object of
the institution of government is to
secure the greatest degree of hap
piness possible to the general
mass of those associated under it,"
1t is a recognition of the truth of expert
ence that governments are a necessity,
while they are to some extent an evil.
In mans association with man in
large numbers there must necessarily
be some abridgement of individual
rights. Those rights which pertain to a
man in what is usually termed state of
nature, which is but state of savagery,
and reliance upon self prowess for the
protection and vindication of individual
rights, when exercised in community,
may be an infringement upon like rights
of others. For such things to be permit
ted would be to introduce anarchy and
the law of retaliation. There must some
where be lodged power to control these
things, and where shall it be-?
AS the rights to be protected are the
rights of the citizens, so from them must
come the power to protect them. The
Democratic party breaches the doctrine
that with the people of a locality should
be the control of the concerns of the
locality, because they believe that none
are SO competent to deal with those con-
Germs. On this point we can do no bet
ter than to quote from Jefferson again
Writing to Joseph G. Cabell from Monti-
cello, under date of February End, 1916,
he said, concerning this great division of
powers:
'Let the national government be in
trusted with the defense of the nation,
and its foreign and federal relations; the
State governments with the civil rights,
laws, police, and administration of what
concerns the States generally; the coun-
ties with the local concerns of the coun-
ties, and each ward direct the interests
within itself. 1t is by dividing and sub
dividing these republics from the great
national one down through all its subor-
dinations, until it ends in the administra-
ton OF every mans farm by himself by
placing under every one what his own eve
may superintend, that all will be done
for the best. What has destroyed liberty
and the rights of man in every govern
ment which has ever existed under the
sun? The generaiizing and concentrating
all cares and pO,Uers into one bodg, no |
matter whether of the autocrats of Rus |
ria and France, or of the aristocrats of |
Venetian senate"
Nothing truer was ever said as to the |
cause that has destroyed liberty and the !.
rights of man in every government which
has existed under the sun-it is concen-
tration of all powers and cares into one
body, and as Jefferson says, it makes no
Inference what that body is. In Utah
hose powers and cares have been concen-
rated in the hands of the leaders of the
dominant church. They were concen-
rated there because they were church
eaderS; take from them church leader
hip and they would have no following.
t is time that the people of Utah took
,harge of their own political affairs, for
N no hands are their rights and
lDertles so secure as their own.
When they surrender their control to
'thers they do but give those others the
'ower to enthrall them. The people of
Utah should become Democrats because
he Democrat owes allegiance to no one
'ut his country, and he maintains the
quality OF all and the superiority of
one. The Democratic party is the party
local self-government, and believes in
ne inherent power of all citizens to man.
ge their own concerns. If the people
re competent to manage their federal
nd foreign relations, why should they
OF be able to manage their local affairs +? :
et the people of Utah look at the names
the candidates on the Democratic
cket, and ask themselves whether those ,