Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1900-09-07

| ulCtiOns lDuU us our ItepuDIIcan 1atn'
ers, when they had abolished slavery
in all our national territory, ordained
that no person should be deprived OF
life, liberty or property without due
process of law, it becomes our duty to
maintain this provision of the consti.
tuition against all attempts to violate
| it for the purpose of establishing slav.
| cry in any territory of the United
States by positive legislation prohibit.
| ing it's existence or extension therein;
| that we deny the authority of con-
| gress, of Il territorial legislature, OF
| any individual or association OF
individuals to give legal existence
| to slavery In any territory of the
United States while the present con.
stitution shall be maintained"
No exception was made in favor oil
slavery in the Sulus. Nothing was said
about the inability of the constitution
to follow the flag The Republicans
of 1856 believed that the government
of the United States had no powers
except such as the constitution gave
it.
The membership of the Republican
party then was as distinct rs its plat
form from that of today. Instead OF
l'latt and Depew, New York had in
the senate Hamilton Fish and William
I'll. Seward Instead of Hanna, Ohio
had Ben Wade. Instead of Lodge,
Massachusetts had Charles Sumner.
The original Republican party had
no Gallinger, Sewell, Penrose or For
aker in the senate, but it had Lyman
Trumbull, William Pitt Fcssenden,
Henry Wilson and John P. Hale. 1t
had no Cannon, Dolliver or Payne in
the house, but it had Elih,l b. Wash
burn, Nathaniel p. Banks, Edwin b.
Morgan, John Sherman and Joshua H.
Giddings.
And outside Of congress were men
like Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal
Hamlin, and David Wilmot and Owen
Loveioy. The Republican party then
was an organized conscience, as was
fitting in body that professed to fol-
low Jefferson, and it was as rich in
brains as in morals.
There was no thought at Philadel-
phia forty-four years ago of Quay
debauching the politics of the state in
which the convention was held. None
of the delegates who nominated FIRE.
mont could foresee that when another
Republican convention met in Phila-
delphia in the last year of the century
it would be welcomed by u Republican
mayor convicted of being the tool of
'boodlers and the accomplice of black
mailers; that it would be guarded by
Republican policemen who had helped
ballot-boN suffers TO debasc the fran
chise with $4,000 fraudulent votes; and
that it would see Republican gov
ernor and Republican senator owned
by Republican boss, whom nothing
but his power in the party had kept
out of Jail.
They could not foresee that the Re
publican party, which had been organ
lied on purely moral issue, SUBJ
originating all questions of material
interest, would become the absolute
property of trusts and corporations,
that Its entire policy would be die
tated aby pecuniary considerations,
and that 1t would embark on bloody
career OF imperial exploitation. tramp
ling the constitution and the Declara-
ton of independence in the mud for
the sake of further enriching men too
rich already.
The original Republican party, by
its nature, could have only short life.
1t was founded for a single purpose
to curb the power of slavery-and
when slavery was destroyed it's reason
for existence disappeared. All that
was permanent in its principles was
democratic. The difference between
a temporary and permanent party is
we'll exhibited by comparison be-
tween the first Republican platform
and the Democratic platform of the
same year. Not single plank of the
Philadelphia platform of 1856 could
be embodied in the Philadelphia plat
form of 1900. Everything that does
not relate to bygone slavery is so
glaringly homogeneous with the prac-
tees of the organization that now
calls itself the Republican party that
fit were. repeated now it would drive
the Republican speakers off the
stump. But the Democratic platform
of 1856, outside of the slavery ques-
ton, would be just as good today as
it was then.
The Democrats in 1856 began by
resolving:
THAT the federal government is one
of limited power, derived solely from
the constitution, and the grants of
power made therein ought to be
strictly construed by all the depart
ments and agents of the government,
and that it is inexpedient and dan
gerous to exercise doubtful constitu-
tional powers"
That is just as good Democratic doc
trine today as it was then, and it was
just as much so a hundred years ago,
when the Democratic candidate was
Thomas Jefferson, And there has
never been time when that doctrine
has been more needed than precisely
now.
The Democrats in 1856 said:
THAT justice and sound policy for
bid the federal government to foster
one branch of industry to the detri-
ment of another, or to cherish the in.
terests of one portion of our common
country at the expense of another,
that every citizen and every section of
the country has right to demand
and insist upon an equality of rights
| and privileges and complete and