Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1896-10-04
THE DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM-ARBI-
TRARY FEDERAL INpERFERENCE.

cratic platform of 1896 and the denuncia-
tons of it by the bowling Hannacrats
and Hannarchists, we invited and chal-
lenged any of them who felt so disposed,
to show by argument and reasoning a
single statement therein of principles
which could not be INDICATED by the
highest democratic authority and tradi-
ton speaking on the same head. No one
has yet attempted this achievement,
which still lies open to the courage and
enterprise of any and all corners. We
have no hope that it will be undertaken
by any sensible man, for no one of intel
ligence and judgment can fail to discern
its impossibility. 1t is easy for ignor-
ance, stupidity and malice to assert even
the most monstrous and untruthful prop
ositions. To maintain them by argument
and logic is quite another thing.
The following paragraph of the plat
form of 1896 has excited more, perhaps
of the wrath and vituperation of the enc
mics of the democratic party, than any
other-not excepting those on free coin
age, and the income tax and the action
thereon of the supreme court:
eve denounce arbitrary interference
by federal authorities in local affairs as
a violation of the constitution of the
United States, and a crime against free
Institutions; and we especially OBJECT to
government by injunction as a new and
highly dangerous form of oppression by
which federal judges in contempt of the
laws of the states and rights of citizens,
become at once legislators, judges and
exeeutioners, and we approve the bill
passed at the last session of the United
States senate and now pending in the
house of representatives, relative to con-
tempts in federal courts, and providing
trials by jury in certain cases of con-
tempt"
Our language has been ransacked by
corporations and their parasites to find
terms in which to denounce the utter
anees just quoted, and they have found
some violent or vicious enough to please
them Even anarchist" and revolution
airy" have been too tame and mild to ex-
press their opinions and feelings on the
subject
Let us see what there is in them to call
for such an outbreak in the premises.
1t requires no more than a casual read
ing to see that in the language used there
is not word directed against the exer-
else Of legitimate or constitutional powers
of any sort, by federal authorities. The
sole object of attack and denunciation is
the arbitrary interference by federal au-
thoritfes in local affairs" This it is, and,
this alone, that is reprobated by the plat
form 'as violation of the constitution
of the United States, and crime against
free institutions" The mention of gov
eminent by Injunction" and the obiec-
ton to it 'as a new and highly dangerous
form of oppression" is only a speeifica-
ton of particular form of arbitrary
interference by federal authorities" pre-
viously charged in general terms.
More than one hundred years ago, in
1891, the people of the United States in
the ninth and tenth amendments to the
constitution, declared as rules for constru-
ing that instrument. First, that the
enumeration in the constitution of certain
rights shall not be construed to deny or
dlsparage others retained by the people,"
and second, that the powers not dele
ACTED to the United States by the con-
stitntion, nor prohibited by it to the
states are reserved to the states respect
lively or to the people,"
From that time until now the demo-
cratic party has maintained increasingly
the doctrine that the federal government
is one Of delegated and limited powers
and that all its lawful authority must
come from affirmative grants of power
made in the federal constitution strictly
construed, while all authority outside of
that so granted namely, the unlimited res
iduum of absolute sovereignty. still rests
in the states or the people. None but the
enemies of true democracy have ever as
serted any different doctrine, or ever will
do So Indeed. it may be well called the
soul and life of democracy, without which
1t could not live for a moment. 1t had
been articulatey embodied in the articles
of confederation. and it was thus now
perpetuated in the constitution of the re-
public.
The first serious question or transgres-
sion of it was by the old federal party in
the enactment of the alien and sedition
laws in 1898, which called forth the cele-
brated resolutions of the legislatures of
Virginia and Kentucy in that year. and
Mr. Madson's report on the subject re-
asserting and vindicatng the doctrine
and expressly declaring those obnoxious
laws unconstitutional and void These
resolutions were prepared and approved
by Mr.. Jefferson and Mr. Madison. the
great fathers and expounders of democ-
racy, and in their protest against those
arbitrary interferences by federal au-
thorities in local affairs" the democratic
party was born, as truly as the United
States originated in the immortal declar-
alton penned by Jefferson against the ar
bitrary interferences by the British king
and authorities in the local affairs of the
colonies, which are therein enumerated.
The alien and sedition laws DESTROYED
the federal party, which deserved destruc-
zion therefor. The great principles con-
tended for in those famous resolutions
met with universal acquiescence, If not
absolutely universal acceptance. They
were broadly reafirmed in the earliest of
democratic national platforms in 1910 and
in 1914 and in 1913, and specifically and
expressly in those of 1852 and 1856, which
last was affirmed as a whole in 1860 by
both the Breckenridge and Douglass
wings of the party. In that of 1864, in the
very midst of war, it was repeated In SUBJ
stance with increased intensity and earn
eStpHsS while thar of 1863 ;r 6IIaa .,,i+1,