The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1890-07-30
A CALL TO DEMOCRATS.
The First Duty of fhe Party IL
TO Resist the Eucroachnienls
OF Federal Power.


10 Resist the achnienl,
OF Federal Power.
The following is from speech o.
Hon. Samuel ]. Tilden, at the Dem
ocratic State Convention held a,
Rochester, New York, in 1871:
"The Democracy advances tc
fghtanew the battle against central.
ism and corruption to which it was
first led by Thomas jefferson in the
nation and by George Clinton in
the State of New York.
"The equilibrium of our whole DO.
litical system is in danger OF being
overthrow and a despotic and cor.
rupt centralism established. The
whole value of the arrangement by
which our world is kept in its place
in the solar system is the balance
between the opposing forces. Ii
would matter little to US which OF
these forces should be allowed to
prevail. If the centrifugal tenden-
cy should dominate, our planet
would shoot madly into the realms
of endless space, far away from the
source of heat and life, until every
living thing upon its surface would
perish.
"If the centripedal tendency
should prevail, the earth would rush
with inconceivable velocity toward
the sun, until it would be engulfed
in the burning mass. So it is with
the adjustment of powers between
the State and Federal governments;
disunion and Capitalization are
equally fatal to good government.
D'sunion would generate the CEN
talism of military despotism in the
separate States; centralism attempt
ed on areas and population so vast
would break the parts asunder. and
fill the continent, as it has filled
every other, with rival nations.
"Our wise ancestors devised the
only system possible to avoid these
opposite evils. They formed Fed
eral government to manage our
foreign relations, to maintain peace
and unity between the States, and
to administer a few exceptional
functions of common interest; and
they left the great residuary mass
of governmental powers to the States.
"The creed of the Democratic par
ty is comprised in two ideas: First,
to limit as much as possible all gov
Ornamental power, charging always
and everywhere the domain of indi-
vidual judgment and action; second
ly, to throw back the governmental
powers necessary to be exercised as
as faa possible upon the states and To-
calities approaching in every case
the individuals to be affected.
"Thcse ideas dominate over the
Democratic party, and find it their
best representative The opposite
ideas, to meddle with everything
belonging to the individual,
and to centralize all governmental
powers, express the tendencies of
the Republican party.
"Under this inspiration the Fed
eral government is rapidly seizing
upon all the powers of human socie-
ty. 1t has assumed to regulate the
suffrage and threatens to take the
control of all elections.
al oppose centralism because it is
incompatible with civil liberty.
81 oppose centralism because it
creates an irresponsible power, and
an irresponsible power is always
corrupt. A government ruling all
the affairs of individuals and locali-
ties, from the Atlantic to the Pacific,
from the great lakes to the Gulf of
Mexico, would be the most incompe-
tent for what it would undertake,
the most oppressive, the most ire
sponsible, and the most corrupt gov
eminent of which history affords
any example,"