The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1886-08-19

Such is the condition, such the arrogant
language addressed to our misfortunes, and
such the alternatives. by one of which we
must inevitably abide, If, instead of seeking
the prime causes of existing evils, we look
only to those OF a secondary character. For
it is in vain that we ascribe our calamities to
the banking system, while we leave unex-
plored the secret power which first cpgen-
dered and now sustains that system, with all
its machinery of organized despotism. But
where is the source of that power? By what
agency has the whole frame of society been
shocked and disordered?
To these questions foiled ambition returns
its accustomed answer. The measures of the
late and thesinflexibility of the present Ad-
ministration of the General Government in
refusing to reverse those measures-those are
the causes of this strange -conjuncture in our
public affairs. Such is the charge-such the
answer proclaimed in the face of the world,
and in contempt OF truth, by men who brave
the peril of detection and claim the first office
In. the Republic as the reward of their hardi-
hood. Is this charge true? 1t is a charge pre-
ferred by the same individuals whom you
have SO often rebuked for like charges against
the very same officers; made then, as now,
upon the assumption that you might be
duped, and they promoted through your Gre
dulity. I ask, is this charge true? If it be,
then fellow-citizens, is our condition melan-
choly indeed; for it discloses the frightful
fact that our Government is poised upon an
inpracticable basis. 1t demonstrates that
the American people have, through long
series of years, misplaced their confidence in
agents selected by themselves, mistaken the
effects of all public measures, or persevered in
sustaining them in utter disregard of their
disastrous tendencies; that, in the election
and reelection of those agents, they have
shamefully abused or basely prostituted the
elective franchise, and that, therefore, the
only remedy for the evils of the times is that
by which this franchise. thus abused, may be
wrested from the hands of imbecility or
guilt. If, on the contrary, this charge be
false. then most criminal are they who give it
publicity. They are criminal, not only AS re-
vilers of the innocent, but also because their
efforts most manifestly tend, not merely to
shake the confidence of the citizens in the in
tegrity of their agents, but to impair likewise
their confidence in the sufficiency of their
own abilities to select those agents and judge
of their measures. In announcing these
gloomy tidings to the Nation, these men, in
effect, appeal to the voters to surrender the
right of suffrage. as the only hope of avoiding
the repetition of former follies and of defeat
ing the recurrence of misfortunes eman ating
from them. Are we prepared to comply with
this demand? II this be our purpose, let it be
done in form and without confusion. 1t is
due, in reverence to the memory of our IA
theirs, that expired liberty Should, at least. be
decently inurned. 1t is due, also, in justice
and mercy, to the world of mankind, that its
funeral should be solemnized in a manner to
impress the living and coming generations
with the ruinous, fruitless. unsvailing folly
of attempting to plant, upon the sanguinary
soil of revolution, tree indigenous to no soil.
and which, in the course of nature, must
wither and die, short of a longevity commen-
surate with human existence.
But. if we are not prepared to MAKE this sur
render, and if it shall appear thatthe embar-
rassments of the times, SO far from having
originated in the causes assigned by these
men, are, in fact, deducible from the opera
ton of the very principle they now urge as
the only remedy, then you can more Justly
estimate their sincerity and patriotism. No,
fellow-citizens, the affairs of a great nation
are too ponderous and unwidldy 10 be disar-
ranged from their parts or diverted from
their accustomed course by Temporary or for
tuitous causes. They move onward in their
natural channel with the general momentum
of society, obedient to certain universal laws
of inva-iable uniformity. When, therefore,
as at present, any great irregularity is observ-
able in the ordinary condition of things.
it's cause Is to be sought in some gen.
eral principle proportionate to the effect, and
which will usually be found to have acted
long, openly or in secret, to produce it. To
what, then, is to be ascribed this wreck of the
monetary system-this stagnation OF ire
deemable paper-this simultaneous seizure,
by the banks, upon the whole revenues of the
Government? Such effects, SO wide, so calam-
Z Ioxr 6nor,
into the future, could never have resulted
from causes comparatively limited. Society
would cease to exist if its affairs were thus
subject to versatility, confusion and disorder
from impulses SO disproportionate as these.
So far from this is the truth, that our
condition is to be traced, and traced
only, to the workings of q principle CO.
eval with the Republic itself. This prin-
cipIe is the principle of aristocracy,
which, arising in the pride and nurtured
by the prosperity of men, affects to view with
horror the unchecked freedom of the people,
and seeks to limit the dominion of the public
will by establishing over all the empire of a
privileged few. In the structure of our Gov
ernment the genius of Democracy finds no
antagonist. 1t diffuses power through the
entire mass with indiscriminate equality to
all the parts, thus rendering the means OF
susceptibility of injury. Instead of an aris-
tocratic order of individuals, our system has
substituted what may be termed an aristoc-
racy of States, not with the privilege of op-
preston, but for the purpose of guarding
more efectuaily the sacred rights of the citi-
zen against the possible combinations of re-
mote interests acting through the General
Government. This system is no compromise,
resulting from conflict of hostile orders,
pre-existing among the people themselves. It
was, as it has been said the British ConstiIu-
ton was not, struck out at a single heat by
men who at the time stood upon a level and
intended to remain so. But the principle of
aristocracy is Inherent in the nature of asso-
ciated man. Excluded. therefore, as it is, by
the positive forms of our fundamental law,
it still struggles to 1ngraft itself upon our in
stitutions-not. indeed. as yet by open vfo-
lence or specific charge, but by influences
com bined, secret and insidious.
Yes, fellow-citiZens, to such a depth has it
struck into the hearts of men, SO many are
the Dosoms in which it abides, that it forms
at this moment the ample basis of a party,
strong in mum pers, strong in resources, high
in hope, and of purposes desperate and deter
mined. Such, be assured, is the party now in
opposition-a party. the natural, the fnvet-
crate enemy of Democracy, of equal rights, of
equal oolgatlons; party the fostering
parerst of all those monopolies that already
darken the face of the land, and which,
should this country ever be doomed to thraIl-
dom, will be pointed to by an enslaVed pos
terity as the sepuIchral monuments of de.
parted freedom. Call it by what name you
will. it Is the same, unchauging party that
arose with the Government, It yields to the
same impulses, moves to the same object
employs the same means now as then. Ou1
system being already fixed, the wall is up
and these men can not, therefore, openly
plant the baleful standard of their faith. But
they are not the less determined upon their
object. The very difficulty of the enterprise
far from aIlaying, infiames their ardor and
enforces their purpose. Their efforts have
been, and still are, first to control the public
will in the periodical delegation OF power
and, secondly, to corrupt the representative
principle by prostituting public agents after
the delegation is made. This. they are fully
aware, would as effectively subvert the popu.
lar sovereignty and bring the people to sub
jection if the elective franchise were
wrested from them by the less perfdious