The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1885-01-22
The Principles of the Fathers.
NUMBER At


who, forgetful of the thirty years Of
struggle, which might justly
be styled the Jeffersonian period, dates
his democracy only from the last term
of Andrew Jackson's political life.
This would be too late to give it much
root. In 1882 another generation had
arisen, and new questions and diverg-
ing interests and persoual ambitions
had interveued to obscure and cbliter-
ate the issues of the past
Aud l pity the banqueters on st.
Jackson's day, who met at Columbus
lately, to commemorate the battle of
New Orleans, and listen approvingly
ta speech in which the Resolutions
of '9S'' were classified. branded. and
laid upon the same shelf with The
twin relies of slavery and polygamy."
A strange time and place to disparage
Virginia ant Kentucky
How Cant ,tk-on at New Orleans
with fi- Tenuesseaus, and the 1e-
nowned " hunters OF Kentucky: ,"
them there, and lhsy were there To
fight as they had voted for fifteen years
against Federalism
How came Richard NJ Johnson and
George Crogan with these same armed
disciples of Jefferson. not long before,
to he fighting in Ohio and Michigan,
to save the Inhabitants from the ten
der merries of the Indian tomahaWk k
and British Proctor?"
| General Harrison tells us in the vote
he gave upon the Resolution of 1920. .2l
| in the Ohio Legislature copied in q
former article. Ohio and Kentucky,
children of Virginia, had not then
grown old enough and cold enough, to
forget maternal obligations.
The very day that Jackson was
| lighting to save the Beauty and
Booty" of the City of the Southwest,
which had been promised to the in
vading soidiery, the ardent Clay, ol
kentucky, was hurrying home from
Europe with treaty of peace which
he had conquered few days before al
Client for the same purpose.
Aud only three days before, Daniel
Webster. with "a others, came out OF
the Hartford Convention. where they
had been secretly closeted three weeks
while near by 81 blue lightsn were
burned nights on the coast to indicate
to British vessels safe places for land
ing. They had adjourned to meeI
again at no distant day, at the City o
Boston But Calhoun in Congress
Clay in Europe, and Jackson at New
Orleans, were more than a match fol
all our enemies at home or abroad
They had made that adjourned meet
ing highly impracticable.
1t is a public calamity that thes'
three prominent Jeffersonian defender
ever permitted causes of difference t.
spring up between them. They be
came bitter and lasting, and probabl!
mainly had their origin in the dis
turbances that followed the appoint
ment of John Quincy Adanls to Sec
retaryship in Monroe's administration
These differences finally shaped tn
courses of men aud measures. widel.
different from what might have beel
reasonably prophesied.
Adams had rendered essential ser
vices to Madison's administration
writing articles severely condemnini
the course of the Eastern States in tn
war, and as ambassador, with Clay, il
effecting treaty of peace. During tn
eight years of Monroe's administration
he had wholly co operated with JEFF
fersonians. and in the election of 1872
he received fair proportion of th'
votes of the people for President. HI
never sought to defend the Hartford
Convent N, as Webster did. In tht
admission of States he acted with ths
democrats, and made no assault on the
doctrines of the Virginia Resolutions
or the acts of South Carolina and hel
statesmen as to Slate rights.
But this division of the subject will
deserve attention more appropl lately
| in the future. SOnorOus sentences
coming from a stricken conscience,
and appeals to the sun, with the white
of the eyes, not to reveal what he
looked down" into through the win
dows of that Connecticut Convention,
do not make credible or creditatle his
tory-at least, so said James G.. Blaine,
| q few years ago, when he proclaimed
his convictions that dishonor and
treason were dressed in transparently
| thin disguises about these times in
| Massachusetts,.
Whatever choice the present times
may make in the use of words; what
ever excuse or justification the new or
der of cOnstructionists and political
| architects may invent, one set OF
pafchments will endure, and these are
the records of the votes of the whole
body of the people from 1890 to 1920,
and still farther, upon the Virginia
and Kentucky Resolutions of '9a and
| '99. AS said before, it was close in
fourteen electoral potes, IN 1920 they had onil
one, and in 1924 they presented no tickel
at all.
Is it presumptious to say, upon these
records. that SO far, in point OF time
the people who voted were emphatic
ally 1.-THE Fathers" and that they
were JeffersOnians 2" Certainly they
were not Federslists.
| 1t has not been my aim to discuss
the doctrines of the Resolutions of 1913
L have sought only to show how they
were passed and sustained, how the,
were proclaimed and assailed, and how
they finally were sanctioned, conse
Grated aud canonized by all the sacred
ordinances of the ballot box, in tn.
hands of the Fathers of our country
The campaign lasted a quarter of s
century. Foes at home and foes abroad
had tried their weapons, and had Al
last worn them out against the shield.