The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1888-10-04
HON. A. w. TERRELL,
Synopsis of His Speech at Ia ylor
Last Night.

Synopsis of His Speech at Ia ylo,
Last Night.
! Special Telegram to the Statesman.
TAYLOR, September 29.-Hon. A. "
Terrell delivered an eloquent and abb
speech here o-night to large crowd. H,
spoke as follows:
Fellow-Citizens-Four parties, eacl
claiming to be national, now seek the suf
frages of our people. The prohibition
party, based chiefly on moral sentiment
demands change in the federal constitu
ton. 1t requires this change to improve
our morality by Furnishing any man whC
will make or sell an alcoholic beverage
and asks, among other things, for reduc
ton of import duties, and that combina-
tions of capital to control the price o
articles of consumption shall be sup
pressed. The union labor party begins it;
platform with list of grievances and 6
statement of economic conditions which
most democrats will admit, but commit:
the fatal error of arraigning both par tie:
I for the political sins of one. 1t announces
no guide for constitutional construction,
and contents itself with formulating poll
oies which are paternal.
The republican party begins its plat.
form, after twenty-three years of peace
with an expression of gratitude to the he
roes of civil strife; justities the methods
of plumber which it calls protection, and
closes with the strange declaration that
the only thing in a government of law
which law should not measure is gratitude
/ to soldiers who shed the blood of theil
! brethren in fraticidal war Impartial
/ history will brand this party as the only
one in all the annals of time that ever at.
tempted to peTpetuate its power
by such methods Even the RO-
man, though nurs5d in carnage
refused the triumphal arch for victories
gained in civil strife.
DEMOCRACY AND THE CONSTITUTION.
each of these parties is of modern
| growth, and all stand opposed by fourth
party co-evil in its origin with the founda,
ton of this government, and which is
. =
the constitution OF our country. The
democratic party prOclaims in its national
/ platform, as its chief claim for support,
devotion to plan of government reg.
ulated by written constitution, strictly
| specifying every granted power and ex-
| pressly reserving to the states or people
the entire ungranted residue of power
DEMOCRACY FOUNDED ON PRINCIPLES.
"And, now, let me declare at the very
o1tset of what am about to say, that for
nearly 100 years the national democracy
has remained through every vicissitude the
one and only party grounded in we'll
defined rules for the construction of the
powers delegated by the constitution to
federal agencies. All others have been
established and held together by an OPP
posite theory; by the fuctuating policies
of the hour. AS the guiding star of his
faith, the democrat reverences, as he un-
derstand5 it, the constitution of his
country, and demands that its grants of
power delegated by the people shall be
strictly construed in favor of the rights
| they reserved to themselves and to the
states. Like Jefferson, our great political
apostle, we remember the proneness of
man, when entrusted with power, to desire
more; that this power is always stealing
! from the many to the few; and, we re-
member also that over US there is no king
but the constitution, which, being
the expression of the peo-
pies will, contains checks and
limitations, born of apprehension and
placed there to restrain in due bounds
every federal agency. And so it is, that
whether in resisting the authority of
banks to issue a national currency, or
protesting against laws to enrich favored,
/ classes, under pretense OF protecting
them, one party, aud one only, has always
stood forth the champion of strict con-
struction. The republicans, for twenty
three years, defied and violated that great
charter, while pretending devotion to the
government that it created, and to this
hour have announced no rule but their
will for its construction. Ingersoll, the
great apostle of infdelity and of re-
publicanism, truthfulIy declared that the
south made bulwark of the constitution
during the civil war. His confession
adds nothing to history, for a greater re-
publican leader than he once proclaimed
| that the federal constitution was a League
with hell and covenant with death.
UNION LABOR AND PROHIBITION.
The union labor men are, for the most
part, sincere seekers after TRUTH they feel
the pressure of politico- economic forces
that makes it more difficult for a laborer
to secure a Impotence than ever before
Weary, with hope deferred, they have lost
patience. The prohibitionist, fred with a
noble zeal to better the moral condition
of his race, forgets how easily civil gov
eminent may be destroyed by intemper-
ate sentiment, and is now jeopardizing
all reforms to establish but one. To
these two classes l specially speak, with
the promise to utter no syllable to provoke
your anger in discussing your doctrines,
for when passion reigns reason sleeps.
Let US for moment review the
lessons now passed into history; tree
is known by Its fruits.
PROGRESS UNDER DEMOCRACY.
From 1901 20 1861 the democratic party,
led by Jefferson, Monroe, Jackson and
such presidents, administered this govern
ment, except for brief period When
they first assumed its control only three
Per cent of our people lived in towns and
CT les; orr fathers were rural men, who
understood the meaning of equal laws, for
they had Conquered the right to eni y