The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1889-10-09
THE DENTOCRAcY.
4 Article that Young Men
mould Read and Ponder
tly Representative w. Il. VII.
son, Of West Virginia.

lNaAonal Democrat
With which party should a young
man. who takes his politics not by
linheritance or by dictation from
lotl1ers, but by his own intelligent
and Independent Judgment, identify
Ihiisself2 Who're will he find senti-
meQts and policies that are worthy
of his adoption and ardent support2
suFel y not in the Republican party.
This is today tho party of reaction,
Iswhlle he belongs to the future. Its
LEADERS are generally men past the
prime Of life, who naturally believe
in perpetuating conditions under
which they won leadership and their
p ae.ieLed power. Their state:
mandship consists accordingly in
efforts to maintain war passions as
a lasting sentiment, and war taxes
as permanent policy. Tho young
voter can find neither glory for him
self nor benefit for his country by
= y
supporting them in either effort.
The great sectional issues, slowly
I.ripening from the foundation of our
Government, were fought by the
men of quarter of a century ago.
Every question submitted to the
arbitrament of war has been settled,
and settled SO indisputably that a
search warrant could hardly find,
in all the land, corporal's guard
who do not understand and fully
acquiesce in that settlement. The
exceptions, ifany such there be, are
found among the old and the non
combatant The generation on
whom the storm burst met its fury
as constant and brave men. Honor
and abiding glory are with the men
who fought real battles and made
real sacrifices. But for those
doughty warriors who defy foes that
no longer exist, who delight to in
suit the vanquished, and to reopen
wounds that time has healed, and
who fill the arena with their varor-
ings and imprecations, there should
be only contempt to-day as there
will be only scorn and derision in
the future.
History is always on the. side of
the magnanimous. Her laurels are
laxishly bestowed on those who are
sturdiest in, the fight and most gen
erous in the victory, but she will
waive into deserved oblivion and
disgrace the whole host of tongue
valiant, post -bellum heroes, who still
yex our ears with their sectional
cries.
But if there are no titles or bre
vets in the army of the bloody shirt,
which self-respecting young man
should aspire or consent to wear,
are the general policies of the Re-
publican party worthy of support
There, too, he finds reactions. These
policies may be summed up in one
word, Capitalization. Centraliza-
ton of political power in the Feder-
al Government. Capitalization of
wealth in favored classes. 1t is
difficult to say which portends more
evil to free institutions, which is the
surest corrosive of individual man
hood and individual freedom.
The history of the growth of free
institutions is a history of the de-
velopment of local self-government.
That is their vitalizing principle
Under no theory or practice do we
reach the goal of government by the
people, that government that be-
longs to the people, not the govern
ment to which the people belong.
That government that deals With a
citizen at long range becomes his
master no matter what its name be,
or how its machinery may work
That government which he can hold
Immediately under his eye, on which
he can constantly keep his hand,
that is his servant.
Our Constitution, growing out of
the voluntary union of independent
States, made it possible to combine
the two soyereignties- State soyer
eighty forlocal affiairs-federal SOW
ereignty for federal affairs-a COM
bination that has been weightily
pronounced the highest reach of
constructive craftsmanship. The
party that overrides the autonomy
of the States, that seeks to have the
general government interfere with
and assume to control matters which
the States should and ought exclu-
sively to deal with, wars against the
fundamental principles of our insti-
tutions, the law of their life and of
their healthy expansion. Yet such
is the steady, unrelaxing gravita-
tion of the Republican party, and to-