The leader., 1895-10-22
MIR. THOMpsON's SPEECH.
NONE so BLIND AS THOSE WHO WILL
NOT SEE.

The recent speech of Hon. r. II.
Thompson before the Brookhaven
Democratic club deserved more than
the passing reference The LEADER gave
it at the time; but pressure of other
matters on our columns has until now
prevented our referring to it as the
subject matter of the speech and the
reputation of the speaker deserve.
Mr.. Thompson began by apologizing
to his audience for lack of preparation
for making such speech as might be
expected of him, and before he had
finished he assuredly demonstrated to
every well-informed person present
whose mental vision was not obscured
by the scales of partisan blindness,
that his alleged lack of preparation
was real.
He first argued that there never had
been and never could be but two polit-
ical parties in this country to amount
to anything, one of these favoring a
broad construction of the Federal Con
stitution and the Capitalization of pow
er in the Federal Government, and
the other contending for local self
government and strict construction
of the constitution, reserving to
the States all rights and powers of To-
cal self-gov eminent not specifically
delegated to the Federal head. 1t was
coyly admitted that the two great par
ties representing these divergent poll
cies in the past had not always been
the present Republican and Demo
cratic parties, but the manifest i'm
preston sought to be created right in
the face of party history in this coun.
try, was that these two political par
ties would ever endure, and that no
Populist, Prohibition or other new po-
litical party need attempt to supplant
either. Then it was boastfully pro-
claimed that the Democratic party is
prominently the party opposed to all
centralizing tendencies and the party
of States rights and local self-govern-
ment.
Mr.. Thompson seemed to assume
that the members of the Brookhaven
Democratic club knew nothing about
the Northern wing of the party uniting
with the Republicans and helping to
whip the South back into the Union
for applying the States Rights doc
trine. He likewise assumed that the
Democratic club had never heard of
all the Democrats in the House of the
81 Congress Democrats and
all, except about 4-voting to override
by Federal legislation all the State
and county laws prohibiting the sale
of intoxicating liquors; and that
Democratic Congress and Administra-
ton have continued to disregard such
laws, to the extent of issuing U. S.
permits. He had doubt
less forgotten, or thought the boys in
their enthusiasm had forgotten, that
Democratic House voted to send a
committee into North
ern State to investigate the regularity
of congressional election, and that
Republican Senators, as we'll as Demo
Gratis, helped to defeat the Federal
Election bill. Also that the only Dem
ocratic president elected in a quarter
of century signalized his admins
tration by sending Federal bayonets
into two States, over the protests of
the Governors of those States, to quell
a local riot.
Again, Mr.. Thompson, in the exuber
ance of his enthusiasm, posing as a
Simon-pure exponent of this party Of
local self government, forgot, or as
sumed that his hearers had forgotten,
that he helped to get law passed by
a Democratic Legislature, taking away
from many of the very men he was ad
dressing, the privilege of electing their
own Mayor and Aldermen here in
Brookhaven. Also that as a member
of Democratic Constitutional Con-
vention and as Code Commissioner, he
favored comforting on the chief execu
tive of the State an appointing power
and clothing him with an influence in
the local affairs of the people not
equaled in any Republican State of
the Union.
Understand, The LEADER is not CEN
surfing or condemning Mr.. Thompson
for his action in this regard; we are
only citing it to suggest the transpar-
ent inconsistency of his speech and
the absurdity of his claim that the
Democratic party is the jealous guar
dian of States Rights and local self
government and favors according to
States and local communities the larg-
est control of their own affairs.
We can't undertake in short news
paper article a review of all Mr..
Thompson said. Suffice it to say he
reached the climax of his undi-
gested and illogical speech when he
ridiculed the party Prohibitionists as
set of visionary cranks and declared
that Prohibition is moral and not a
political question, and that it is foolish
and impracticable to try to build up a
political party on any such issue.
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