Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1886-08-19


multitude, whose condition is humble in the
contrast to believe that this disparity should
be enlarged, confirmed and protected by posi-
tive institutions 1t is to effect this object
that in all free governments q strife is inces-
sanity carried on to withdraw power from
the greater and combine it in the smaller
community. But how is this to be done in q
country like ours? By what means can the
smaller or aristocratic body hope to succeed?
The present contest is an answer to this ques-
tion, ana this hope to make evident before
1 have done by adverting to facts known to
you all.
The security of freedom will be found to
consist in the universal confidence enter
tanned by the people in their own ability to
direct public affairs through agents selected
by themselves; in the exemption of the vot-
ers when exercising the elective franchise
from the coercion of imroper influences, and
In the fidelity with which delegated power is
exercised in reference only to the general well
fare. Those, therefore. who desire a change or
modification of the Government will seek to
impair that confidence, to corrupt those agents
and to establish q system of artificial infiu-
ences which may be extended through all the
relations of life until it becfnes apparently
the present interest, though 1t be the ultimate
and certain ruin of the people. to yield to
this system and surrender the Government to
its control, Whether there has ever existed
In our country party entertaining such
views as these is question that may be
tested by the further inquiry whether any
body of men has ever persevered in a sys-
tematic opposition to the known and Oft
repeated will of the nation, attempted to
thwart the operations of the Government
and to acquire power by acting upon public
agents and by the aid of a system such as that
have described.
And now 1 appeal to each and all of you,
and ask If such party does not exist, and
has not existed from the beginning of the
Government7 I appeal to the history of the
past and to our present condition in evidence
OF the doings and motives of this party.
ask the venerable men of this assem- bly-you
whose bleached locks announce life coeval
with the liberties of your country-I ask you
what party was that, what men were they,
who at the commencement attempted to
stretch the Federal Constitution over the sov-
ereignty of the States, ana to reduce the
whole body of the nation under the stern
tyranny of one consolidated Government3
What men were they who, having the admin
istration of National affairs, Illuminated their
alien and sedition edicts against the people
of the country, who silenced the press with
the terrors of the Jail, who struck down the
citizen into the dungeon for daring to ques-
tion their official acts, or for the crime Of be-
ing suspected by public informer, paid for
his suspicions2 Was it not the same party
who, when rebuked by the National voice for
these their acts and dislodged from power,
turned upon the people, in all the desperation
of detected guilt. and boldly attempted to re-
gain authority by open and downright usur-
patton? Yes, In contempt of the popular
will, and at the hazard of a civil war, did this
party, day after day and night after night,
plot, ballet and intrigue, In the House of Rep
resentatives, TO place Mr.. Burr at the head Of
the Government. AS IL determined to crush
our infant institutions at q single blow, they
toiled to vest the Chief Magistracy in o man
who had not received one vote for the office.
and who, at that very moment. was cherish
ing treason in his heart. This they did to
exclude Mr.. Jefferson, upon whom the
people had bestowed their sunrages.
Why, therefore, should we be surprised that
the same party who then reviled that man
with the deep rancor OF personal malignity,
who sought TO deter him from the perform
ance Of duty BY the threat of impeachment;
why should we be surprised, I ask, that the
same party now luxuriate In the defamation
of his memory, and that the same vampire
spirit still broods over the emtombed patriot
of Monticello? But. fellow-cttizens, what did
this party when foiled in these machinations7
Did they say to the people, you have elected
Mr. Jefferson-we opposed the deed-you have
willed it-and therefore we will await his
measures, and test the man by the standard
of his actsf No, from the first moment of his
Administration he was assailed with a fury
that never nbated. They denounced his meas
ures, first in anticipation, and again after
time and trial had most clearly evlnced their
Justice and policy. It was in vain that the
people, by their elections year after year. re-
peated and reaff1rmed their confidence In the
President, and their approval of his meas
ures., The Federal party redouoled their re-
sistance as often as the country renewed its
appreciation. Mr.. Jefferson was proclaimed
a Jacobin. The intense horrors of the French
Revolution, the ferocious guillotine with Its
murderous AK, its bleeding platform, its
women; all the appalling incidents of that
dreadful scene were grouped together and
displayed before the American people as SO
many black and bloody witnesses against
Democracy, II excesses, its turbulence. its
dangers-aRainst the right and intelligence Of
the people to govern themselves.
Mr.. Madison, who succeeded Mr.. JEFF
ferson in the confidence OF his country, and
IN the honors of its first Magistracy, sue
ceeded him likewise in the hatred of the
aristocratic party. He, too, incurred their
pious and impious maledictions. No mat
ter how obvious might be the justice, the
policy, or necessity of his measures they
were resisted with violence proportion
ate to their effect in promoting the common
welfare, for no other reason than because
such a result would Justify and confirm the
nations confidence in the President. War
was declared against Great Britain, and the
more desperate of this party eagerly seized
an opportunity, SO suspicious, to signalize
their friendship for the enemies of their
country, It was O war originating in q sense
OF public wrong. and declared by the voice of
an injured nation. No wonder. then, that the
Hartford Convention should assemble, under
the approving smiles of England, to con-
centrate all the British feeling that existed
and direct IL against our Government, with
the full force of disciplined power. But the
nation triumphed; and these malcontents,
doomed to see the arms of their foreign ally
expelled from our shores, shrunk back to
elude the indignation their conduct had ex-
cited.
Thus, after sixteen years OF the most fu-
rious opposition to the will of the people,
30 often expressed, did this party, upon the
election of Mr. Monroe, retire in shame and
dishonor from the contest. But though re-
tired, they did not despair. Their troops,
beaten and exhausted, were Withdrawn,
only to await the period when the people,
trium phant and apparently secure, might re-
lax their vigilance and be more successfully
assailed by the secret concert of an enemy,
who, from being silent and invisible, seemed
no longer to exist. That period soon arrived.
The public will being neutralized by d.
vision the Presidential election was, in 1924,
transferred from the nation to the House of
Representatives. There was nc Burr to elect,
but there was q jackson to defeat The peo-
pie were once more helpless, and another op-
portunity was presented of grasping power
in defiance Of them, which did not escape the
ever vfgllant ambition of their enemies.
The Federal Government was thus usurped
by the aristocracy, who. having strengthened
themselves by alliance with men hitherto
among the favorites Of the country, now
laid It down as O fundamental article of their
faith that the representative was no longer
to be paralyzed by the will OF his constituents.
To avert the public eye from the scrutiny of
their conduct, the attention of the people
49, -. Ty-,,z 80 Tor1