Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1888-08-03
a THoUaaTFuL Article.
What Is tho Grand issue in the Coming
Presidential Campaign

Ihere are three parties In the contest,
each of which. will put forward a special
idea, on the ground of which it will ask
for the s~uffrageso of the people. The Dem
ocratic party will push free trade to the
front, while the Republican party will
magnify protection, and the third party
will glorify prohibition. AL these are
questions of living interest to the nation,
and deserve careful thought and treat
one of them is fundamental. On every
one of them men may honestly agree to
differ without imperiling the life or even
the well being of the republic.
But there is one question of supreme
and fundamental Importance involved in
this contest about which patriotic men
cannot differ, and on the right settlement
of which depends the life Of republican
institutions. That question is one of q
free ballot and an honest count. If these
cannot be secured, it is idle to talk of q
constitutional government. Let it not be
forgotten that this is government of the
people, and that the fundamental principle
on which it rests is the rule of the ma
jority. Just the moment the majority,
by q free ballot and an honest count, is
made impossible, that moment the foun-
dation of the government is gone, and
any attempt to exercise its functions is
practically revolution oil u%surpation.
Only a majority expressing its will
through honest ballots, honestly counted,
has any right to rule in this country. A
majority secured in any other way, either
by putting the voter in mortal peril or by
suppressing his ballot, is simple anarchy
and rebellion. And the government adj
ministered by such a majority would be a
fraud, having no right of authority under
the constitution, and no claim to the re-
spect and obedience of the people.
And is not this the style of government
under which the American people are liv-
ing today? Can any Intelligent and can
did man suppose that Grover Cleveland
legally elected president of the
United States2 A solid south means in
timidation and fraud. 1t is simply notori-
GUS that the Republican vote is suppressed
throughout the south wherever it would
endanger Democratic supremacy. Louis
lana has g majority of 5000 colored peo-
pie, every one of whom would vote the
Republican ticket as naturally as a duck
takes to the water, and yet in the recent
election the Democrats carried the state
by more than 60, 600 majority. Mississippi
has a majority of 170,0 900 colored people,
&AA Sutl tnO 6babo ID CDlIlcd ny ONSI-a
whelming Democratic majorities. South
Carolina also has a colored majority of
some 900, 000, but all the same the Demo-
Gratis roll up their immense majorities.
Now does it need to be said that a fair
vote and an honest count would give all
those states to the Republicans, and that
if either of them had been permitted to
cast its vote fairly and legally, the pres
administration could not have been
The usurpation, therefore, is
complete, and the question is, how long
can the government stand after its foun-
dation is gone, and how long will the peo-
ple consent to have their rights taken
from them by violence and fraud2
Is it not clear, then, that the supreme
issue in the coming election is the rule Of
the majority-the fundamental law Of
the republicf That law has been in s
pense these four years, SO that the very
existence OF the government is Threatened
for Lack of constitutional support. 1t is
all very well to talk of free trade or
tariff or prohibition as affecting good gov
eminent n way or another, but it is idle
to exalt an incident of good government
the Importance of q basal principle,
inpel res the the life of the government
itself.
In the dark days of the war we forgot
i~ncidentals and went for the main thing
the life of the nation. For this we laid
upon the altar eight billions of treasure
and 800, 600 splendid lives. But now
when the constitution is equally violated
and u%surpation and revolution are lording
1t over US, there are men who are shout
ing themselves hoarse over certain evils
Incident to the government, while they
are exerting their direst might to destroy
the party that saved an imperiled ma, on,
and that now stands battling for the very
foundation of the government as ex-
pressed in a free ballot and an honest
count. These men claim superior in
~telligence and virtue, and yet seem de-
termined to strike down the only arm
stretched out to rescue the country from
those who are putting in jeopardy its
peace and life. The issue of today. is the
issue of twenty-five years ago; only shifted
from the battlefield to the ballot box. It
Is still to be determined whether the
Union, under the constitution and accord
ing to the constitution, shall be preserved
in it's integrity or whether it shall per-
ish at the hands of lawless and usurpine
men.
The Republican party saved The Union,
and It's mission will not be ended until
the vote thrown in Louisiana and Missis-
sippi and South Carolina shall be as free
and as honestly counted as it is in Massa-
chusetts. Matters of policy can be dis
cussed and emphasized according to their
nature and relative Importance, but when
we come to a question which involves the
very life of the republic there can be but
one opinion and one course of action.
The Democratic PARTY was the party of
treason and rebellion, and is weighed
down by a history that ought to sink it
forever. It Is now the party of usurpa-
ton, and has no more right, by an honest
vote and a fair count, to control the gov
erIimert of this country than it has to
control the government of England.
This is the party, however, which Ger.
tain cultured, high toned gentlemen, like
President Eliot, of Harvard college, pro.
pose to help to another usurpation. In
order that free trade, or some other hobby
may prevail, they would put the republic
in mortal peril of its life. These are the
men from whom the youth of the country
are learning their lessons OF patriotism,
of honor, and of civic duty as American
citizens. They started out under the
banner of civil service reform; they have
ended under the banner of the cheat, the
spokesman and the usurper.
If the republic is to survive 1t will bt
by keeping its covenants and walking il
the order of its own constitution. They
will serve IL best who hold it to its fun
damental law, and who will stand by tht
party that will stand by the guarantee.
of the Observation-Disclosures Mass.
Enterprise.
Colored Voters Neither Knaves Nor Fools
Fred Douglass well and truthfully says