Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1888-02-25
FEBRUARY %. 1888
Good Slgn.

A Good Sign.
We take Il that the Hon. CHAUvcEY NJ.
DrrEw. IF New York, is an nspirant to
tie Office Of President of the United
States. We are glad to be able to add
that in entering the list of candidates. rs
he did the other day in addressing the
onion League Club in Chicago, he dis
carded all talk about tie bloody shirt.
We have not the whole Of his speech be-
fore Us jus; now. but we have what wonld
Gil three OF more columns Of the ms
match. and we see IN II nothing sec
tional He refers, it is true, TO the
subject OF protecting the ballot, but
his remarks on this point seem
rather 10 look to protTtioG against
Anarchists and ignorant men and bad
characters generally than to the so-called
suppression OF the negro vote,
though, of course, he intended that the
NEGROES should understand that they,
too, were TO be protected. W Anyhow
Mr.. DEEPEN may be set down as having
made a campaign speech containing no
illusions to the southern people caicu-
lated TO arouse sectional feelings III their
breasts.
But the absence of the bloody shirt Is
not the only noticeable fact to be men
toned in connection with Mr.. DEPEw's
Chicago speech. He even dares to hint
that the States have some rights which
the Federal Government ought to be
made to respect. Nay, he even recog-
nizes the value Of southern statesman
ship. Read the following tribute to a
great Yirginian, and the candid acknoW-
ledgmen. flat for fifty years the theory
in defence Of which the war between
the States was fought Oh the part Of the
South was the accepted theory Of the
fathers of the republic and Their imme-
date successors. Mr.. DEPEw says:
"Douhtanj debate are the safetyyalves
of freedom. and Thomas Jefferson Gre
ated both. he feared the loss OF popu-
lar rights in ceufrllizatiOn, and believed
that In, reserved powers OF the States
were the oulr guarantees OF the liberties
OF the people He stands supreme III
our history ~ n political leader and left
10 successor. He destroyed the party OF
Washingto1. Hamilton, and Adams, and
built up an organization which was do
minant in the country for half a century.
The one question thus raised and over
shadowiug al others for IL hundred years,
half satisfied by compromises, half SUP
pressed 10y threats, at times checking
prosperity. at times paralyzlng progress,
at times producing panlcs, at times pre-
venting the solution of fiscal and indus
trial problems vital to ous expansion,
was, Are We a nation?
For Eearly fifty years the prevailing
sentiment favored the idea that the Fede-
ral compact was a contract between sove-
reign States. Had the forces of disunion
been ready for the arbitrament OF arms
the results would have been fatal to the
Union
We quote Mr.. DEPEw again:
But in the mean time the pendulum
of our politics has swung back from the
Jehersonian to the Hamiltonian extreme.
The Federal Government is everything;
the States, in a national sense, nothing. "
Mr.. DKPKw next declares for one term
for the President. OF Mr.. CLEVELAND
he says
1.-THE present Executive Is an officer
highly esteemed for singular honesty
and directness Of purpose, and remarka-
bic for inexperience i'll the duties OF
government and for ignorance OF the
great issues before the country. With
perfect frankness and honest intention
10 carry ont his pledges he detied the
traditions of his party in his bold utter
ances for civil-seryice reform"
Next, Mr.. DEPEw comes out in defence
of the rights of the States He says:
"While no act or thought should tend
10 resurrect the baleful doctrine OF State
sovereignty. We need to be educated in
the direction Of State rights. The inn
mensity of our nationality and its cen
tralizing tendencies create feeling of
dependence upon Government which en-
feebles the American character and is
hostile TO American liberty. Home rule
is the school and inspiration of manli-
ness and independence. The town
meeting brings power directly to the
people where it belongs, and clearly and
sharply draws the line between public
business and private business.
The World reports Mr.. DEPEw as say
ing that cat the beginning, in every
part Of the world, the doctrine that the
Government is the source of power, and
that the people have only such rights as
the Government had given, was practi-
cally unquestioned but the young re-
public began its existence with the new
dynamic principle that the people are the
nole source of authority, and that the
Government has such powers as they
grant 10 il, and no others"
How true that statement is, and how
clearly it shows that the southern States
demanded in 1851 only what they had
been taught to believe, and did believe,
to be their inaliensble rights, whatever
the northern people may have held to be
the true theory OF the Federal Govern
ment Surely, holding the opinions we
have mentioned, Mr.. DEPEw would not
condescend to call any southern man a
"rebel."
We may hope that the truth OF history
is destined soon TO come 10 light when a
northern Republican candidate for Pre-
sident OF the United States dares TO
set forth TO Union League Club such
facts as those mentioned by Mr.. DEPEw.
IL the southern Republicans were such
men as they ought to be they would sup
port for President no SHERMAN, nor
FoRAKGR, nor EDNUEps, nor any other
bloody shirt wayer. but some such man
as CaAuScEY III. DEPgw.
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The Washington correspondent OF the
Roston A9,,erfiser (staiwart Republicanl