Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1886-09-16
THE NORTHWEST
SPEECH OF
Hon. John f. FOllett
Delivered at Batavia, o., Sept. =, 1880

Delivered at Batavia, o., Sept. 1885
The Republican party has long boasted
of its record, to which as q stereotyped
portion Of its platforms, 1t "points with
pride.n So long have these words stood
along side of the equally trite words in
its platform, 'grand old party" that
outsiders have been perplexed to deter
mine whether to designate it as the g.
o. p. orp. W. p. No honest citizen, no
friend of free government, which can
be maintained and perpetuated only by
strict adherence to constitutional Obli-
cations and strict enforcement of con-
stitutional rights and guarantees. No
man who deprecates open and shame
less violation of law and reckless disre-
gard of the Constitution for purposes
will point with pride to the record made
by that party in the State of Ohio in
these later years, and especially in the
last two years.
IT is FAR FROM PLEASANT
For one whose interests are identified
with this State, who is proud of the
State, of its position and achievements,
to scrutinize the acts of the leaders of
the Republican party of Ohio during
the past two years and review the rec
ord it has made. That record, indeli-
bly, stamped upon the proceedings of
both branches of the Legislature char
acterizing every Executive act and in
teriacing every Executive order which
it was supposed could in any wise affect
or serve to promotethe interests of the
Republican party, ratified, sanctioned
and approved by the Republican Judges
of our highest Courts, who are bound
by their office and their oaths to sup
port, conserve and defend the constitu-
tion, and to uphold and maintain the
laws made in pursuance thereof, is such
a record, as every true prtriot would
gladly erase with his tears, and, if nec-
essity requires, with his blood.
do not propose at this time to re-
view the record of the Republican par
ty of Ohio as made in 1884, through the
instrumentality of Lot Wright and his
thugs, called Deputy MarshaIs, armed
with British bulldogs, revolvers and
ether-like quiet, orderly and peaceable
instrumentalities, for preserving the
purity of elections. Some of the men
who planned and instigated that out
rage upon the ballot-boX, that concen-
trated essence of the political villainies,
are now feasting upon the plunder of
the people, thus consummated but most
of them are now fostering and rotting
IN their political graves. The willing
tool, the Jealous instrument employed
for the consummation of that infamy.
is now folded in the bosom of the Re-
publican party of Warren county, where
at each primary election the party
his fine Italian hand is seen. the pecu-
liar methods taught him by the partv
leaders are developed, and the only con-
ISOLATION honest patriots can feel is in
the fact that, either he, or the Republi-
can party, in that county so long and
largely in the ascendant must die, un-
less it be true that the party there
thrives and fattens on corruption. The
success of the Democratic party at the
national election in 1884, the wisdom
and earnest patriotic devotion to the
methods and practices of good govern
ment, shown by President Cleveland
IN the very beginning of his Admins
tration, and the cordial approval of the
great mass of the people, of his declared
policy to lnaugurate and enforce effici-
ency, honesty and economy, as the per-
vading principle by which each of the
Executive Departments should be gov
erned, and honesty and capacity as es-
sential requisites for positions of trust |
under his administration, seems to have
had the effect of so alarming the lead
ers of the Republican party, while con-
templating certain dissolutions, as to
entirely deprive them of discretion,
and what little wisdom they may have
had in times past and to impel to such
excesses and to such acts of folly and
madness as should drive from the sup
port of the party every intelligent, hon
est patriotic, fair-minded Republican.
And such would be the result of the
DISREGARD OF LAW,
The violation of the constitution and
the trampling under foot of the rights
of the people which have characterized
and UNANIMOUSLY immortalized the acts
of the present Republican Legislature,
eounseled and instigated in great
measure by the Republican Chief Exc
cutive and leaders of the Republican
Judiciary, were it not that the cardinal
principle of the Republican creed is that
"the end justifies the means,n and laws,
constitutions, the rights of the people,
the most cherished and sacred safe
guards of liberty, are to be brushed
away like cobwebs when partisan ends
are to be obtained.
1t is in this view, and this view alone,
that we are able to account for and
trace to their origin the opinions of our
Courts to which / have alluded,
and to understand the real mo-
tive that brought them forth. Men
honest in all other things, and at all !
times, who can hold and balance the
scales of justice with firm and steady
hand, and can apply the settled and
infieXible rules of law, without fa-
vor or partiality, though to do so may !
be detrimental to the interests of their
dearest personal friends, when the inter-
ests' of their party are involved, and
saey hear the crack of the party whip !
and the ominous threat of the party
leaders and press, make haste to show
their party fealty by obeying party be- :
hests.
THE DARKEST F0REBoDING
To our free representative Government t
comes from the utter destruction of the {
of the people in the proper !
decision of any case in which partisan !
questions or partisan interests are in
volved. Prior to the organization of the
Commission, upon which sat {
six Judges of the Supreme Court of the {
United States, upon whose Judgment, {
tao,rit txy Il q hii;fxy n