The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-08-28
IDAHO DEMOCRATS.
Chairman Reeds Speech Before
the Boise Convention.
THE PRINCIPLES OF JEFFERSON
Are Set Forth as the Only True and Safe
6uide for Popular GOvernment-Ihe
Nominees Names.

BOISE CRY, Ida, Aug. 26.-TSpecial tele-
gram to THE HERALD. The Democratic
state convention was reconvened this morn
ing at 10 o'clock when report on perma
nent organization was had. The report,
which was adopted, made Reed, OF Nez
Perces. chairman. After President. Reed
was escorted to his seat he made speech
as follows:
Gentlemen of the Convention:
1.-The distinguished honor you have con-
lerred by the election Of me as permanent
chairman of this patriotic and intelligent
convention, the first Democratic conven-
ZION in Idaho, calls for the most profound
gratitude. ] cannot fully express to you
my high appreciation of this mark of your
esteem and confidence. 1t is great privi
lege TO be permitted to serve even as pri-
waite in the ranks of the Democrats of
Idaho, but to oe selected to preside over the
highest councils of the party is pre- emf
nent distinction, OF which the most exalted
might well be proud. 1t is fit and appro-
pirate, fellow Democrats. as we gather
around the camp fires of our party, to
take council for the contest and conse-
crate ourselves to the peoples cause, to
run back in memory to the morning of
March 4, 1901, when its great founder,
without pageant or parade, gave utterance
to the fundamental principles that under
lie the Democratic party. On that memoir
able day Thomas Jefferson rode on horse
back, clad in studiously plain clothes with
out attendant to the capitol, dismounted
tied his horse to the fence and walked I'M
tremendously into the Senate chamber and
in his inaugural, breathing boundless phil
anthrodhy, uttered these remarkable
words: 4 am about to enter, fellow-citizens,
on the exercise of duties which comprehend
everything dear and loyal to YOU 1t is
proper that you should understand what l
deem the presidential principles of our
government ard consequently of those who
seek to shape its administration. l will
compress them in the narrowest compass.
They will be equal and exact Justice to all
men of whatever state or persuasion. re-
hgious or political. Peace, commerce and
honest friendship with all nations: entang-
ling alliance with none. The support of the
state governments in all their rights
as the most competent administration of
our concerns and the surest bulwarks
against anti-republican tendencies. The
preservation of the general government in
Its whole constitutional vigor as the sheet
anchor of our peace at home and safety
abroad; Jealous watch of their right of
election by the people; a mild and safe cor
rection of abuses which are Topped by the
sword of revolution where peaceable
means are unprovided; absolute acquies
cence in the decisions of the majority, the
vital principle of republics, from which
there is no appeal but to force the vital
principle and Immediate parent of despot-
ism. A well disciplined militia our best
reliance in peace, and for the first moments
of war, till regulars may relieve them.
The superiority of the civil over the mill
tary authority; economy in the public ex-
pense, that labor may be lightly burdened /:
the honest payment of our debts and the
sacred preservation of the public faith ;
the encouragement of agriculture and of
commerce, as its handmade: the diffusion
OF information and the arraignment of all
abuses at the bar of public reason: freedom
OF religion; freedom of the press; freedom
OF the person under the protection of the
the habeas corpus; trial by jury impartially
selected. These form the bright constella-
ton which has gone before US and guided
our steps through the age of revolution and
reformation. The wisdom of our age and
the blood of our heroes have been devoted
to their attainment. They should be the
creed OF our political faith the text of civic
instruction, the touchstone by which to try
the services of those we trust, and should
we wander from them in moments of error
or alarm, let US hasten to retrace our steps
and to regain the road which alone leads to
peace, liberty and safety
''His accession to the presidency and the
delivery Of that inaugural marked not only
an era in the onward march of the republic
Of civil and religious freedom, but
the opening of glorious epoch in
human progress. A few years ago
in correspondence with that noble friend
OF liberty, that grand tribune OF the peo-
pie statesman, Democrat grounded in
the faith and tried in the cruciabie OF his
party by service, and for seventeen wears
practically leader in the House of Repre-
sentatives-Samuel j. Randau-to whom I
-
clearest exposition of Democratic faith.
MS reply was: 4 sincerely believe Jeffer-
sons first inaugural delivered March 4.
1901, contains the clearest and most inter
esting statement of the Democratic faith,
And then ] turned the pages of history
again and found that these same principles
constituted the best elements of the free
government of ancient times, that they
shone along the succeeding ages through
the annals of the British government that
are found in Magma Charta, the Declare
ton of Independence, the constitution of the
United States. In the farewell address of
washington, in the state papers of the
early Presidents, in the speeches of great
statesmen and in the platforms of party
conventions down to the present day. For
sixty years before the civil war great and
good men, guided by those principles, gov
erned this country, added to its domains
along the Atlantic seaboard the magnifi-
cent territories of the almost boundiess
west, stretched across the Rocky mountains
to the far off shores of the Pacific opened
up TO the sea the borders of the land to the
south, through which flows the Father of
Waters" on the shores of which are laid
deep the foundations of mighty states,
numbered among their advocates a Jeffer-
son, Madison, Monroe, Jackson, Polk and a
host of noble and patriotic statesmen. and
made this land of liberty and an asylum
for the oppressed OF every cline. / find
these principles enunciated in the plat
forms promulgated by the Democratic
party and on these principles let us lay the
foundation Of Democracy in Idaho. upon