Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1904-08-11

Touches on Colorado Labor War.
Asserts Necessity of Tariff Revision.
Regulation of Trusts-opposes Mill
tarism and Imperialism.
/ Esopus, N. Y, Aug. 10-The speech
of acceptance of Alton Brooks Parker
in reply to the committee which noti-
fed him of his nomination for the
presidency by the Democratic party is
as follows:
Mr.. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Com
/ mittee:
l have resigned the office of chief judge
| of the court of appeals of this state in Or
4 der that l may accept the responsibility
that the great convention you represent
has put upon me without possible preju-
dice to the court to which had the hon
/ or to belong or to the eminent members
of the Judiciary of this state, of whom /
may now say as a private citizen am
i justly proud.
At the very threshold of this response
] and before dealing with other subjects
| / must, in justice to myself and to re-
lieve my sense Of gratitude, express my
/ profound appreciation of the confidence
Proposed in me by the convention. After
nominating me and subsequently receiv-
! ing communication declaring that re-
/ garded the gold standard as firmly and
irrevocably established, a matter concern
ing which felt it incumbent upon me to
make known my attitude so that here
after no man could justly say that his
support had been secured through indi-
rection or mistake, the convention reiter-
ated it's determination that / should be
the standard bearer of the party in the
present contest. This mark of trust and
confidence shall ever esteem as the high
4 Il. &c.
mean honor that whatever may be the
fate of the campaign, the future can in
no degree lessen or impair.
The admirable platform upon which
the party appeals to the country for it's
confidence and support clearly states the
principles which were so well condensed
in the first inaugural address of Presi-
dent Jefferson and points out with force
and directness the course to be pursued
through their proper application in order
to insure needed reforms in both the 1egis-
lative and administrative departments of
the government While unhesitating in
its promise to correct abuses and to right
wrongs wherever they appear or however
caused to investigate the several admin
istrative departments of the government,
the conduct of whose officials has Gre
ated scandals, and to punish those who
have been guilty of a breach of their
trust; to oppose the granting of special
the expense of the many; to practice
economy in the expenditure of the mon
eys of the people and to that end to res
turn once more to the methods of the
founders of the republic by observing in
disbursing the public funds the care and
caution a prudent individual observes
with respect to his own, still the spirit of
the platform assures conservative instead
of rash action. the protection of the inno-
cent as well as the punishment of the
guilty; the encouragement of industry,
economy and thrift; the protection of
property and guarantee of the enforce
ment for the benefit of all of mans in
alienable rights, among which, as said in
the Declaration of Independence, are "life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness"
Liberty as understood in this country,
means not only the right of freedom from
actual servitude, Imprisonment or re-
straint, but the right of one to use his
faculties in all lawful ways, to live and
work where he will and to pursue any
lawful trade or business These essen
tial rights of life, liberty and property
are not only guaranteed to the citizen
by the constitution of each of the sew
eral states, but the states are by the
fourteenth amendment to the constitu-
ton of the United States forbidden to
deprive any person of any one of them
without due process of law.
Occasionally by reason of unnecessary
or impatient agitation for reforms or be-
cause the limitations placed upon the de-
partments of government by the consti-
tuition are disregarded by officials desir-
ing to accomplish that which to them
seems good, whether the power exists in
them or not, it becomes desirable to call
attention to the fact that the people, in
whom all power resides, have seen fit
through the medium of the constitution
to limit the governmental powers con-
ferred and to say to departments created
by it. THUS far shalt thou go and no
farther" To secure the ends sought the
people have by the constitution separat-
ed and distributed among the three de-
partments of governna ent-the executive
legislative and judici;tl--certain powers
and it is the duty of those administering
each department so to act as to preserve
rather than to destroy the potency of
the coordinate branches of the govern
ment and thus secure the exercise of all
the powers conferred by the people.
Thomas Jefferson. in a letter to William
G. Jarvis touching the perpetuity of our
Institutions, written many years after he
had retired to private life, said, IF the
three powers of our government maintain
their mutual independence of each other
it may last long, but not so if either can
assume the authority of the other It
must be confessed that in the course of
our history executives have employed
powers not belonging to them. Statutes
have been passed that were expressly for
hidden by the constitution, and statutes
have been set aside as unconstitutional
when it was difficult to point out the pro-
visions said to be offended against in
their enactment. All this has been done
with good purpose no doubt, but in
disregard nevertheless of the fact that
ours is a government of laws. not of men,
deriving its Just powers from the consent
of the governed. If we would have our
government continue during the ages to
come for the benefit of those who shall
succeed us we must ever be on our guard
against the danger of usurpation of that
authority which resides in the whole peo-
pie, whether the usurpation be by Off
Gals representing one of the three great
departments of government or by a body
Of men acting without a commission from
the people.
Impatience of the restraints of law as
well as of its delays is becoming more
and more manifest from day to day
Within the past few years many Instances
h