The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-05-23
MORE pEMocRArrc DOCTRINE


 If there is one thing more than another that will make the implacables among the Northern Republicans go into fits it is a mention of the doctrine of States Rights Ever since the practical appii- cation of that theory came so near dis soluting'' the Union 1t is sore subject with them, and yet they are continually meeting with 1t in unexpected places. The Supreme Court of the United States rubs it fir whenever occasion offers. The decis- icns of that body in the various suffrage cases which have gone up from the Southern States have been founded on the doctrine of the Democratic teachers These decisions virtually hold that the regulation of suffrage belongs to the sev- eral States and that the Federal Govern ment has neither the right nor the power to interfere.
 This is gall and wormwood to certain Northern Republicans who are so solic- itcus-at voting time-for the rights of the colored brother. That he should not be allowed to vote early and often is a great crime in their estimation, and they insist that the Nation. with big N. shall take the South by the slack of it's trous- CTS and shake all the anti-nigger out of f.. Is not the negro a man and brother and are not all the men and brethren en- | titled to walk up to the polls and shove in the evidence of freedom and equality Yea and verily; also. likewise. Unless the 1 South is prevented from discriminating at the ballot box the country's done for. But 1t is not alone in suffrage cases that this monstrum horrendum pokes out its | head. It came out in the case of the an- archist, Turner. where no one expected 1t, for this was not a matter involving the right of suffrage but of the right of the Government to deny citizenship to a professed enemy of good government. In deciding that case, or in his opinion filed in the case, Justice Brewer said: | do not agree that Congress is author | ized in all things to speak for the nation, | and think too little effect has been given | to the Tenth Article of the Amendments 1 to the Constitution. that 'the powers not delegated to the United States by the Con- stitution nor prohibited by 1t to the United | states, are reserved to the States re- | spectively. or to the people," The pow | CTS the people have given to the general | Government are named in the Constltu- | ton, and all not there named, either | expresseiy or by implication, are reserved to the people and can be exercised only l by them.
 | Does not that sound very much like \ some of the doctrine taught by Calhoun and Yancey, and others of the extreme States Rights men? True. it has nothing in 1t excusing secession or anything oi that kind, but it is good Democratic doc Urine. as taught by the best opponents of Democracy from the organization of I ths Party. Not only that, but 1t is good l Southern doctrine. and adds still another evidence that the reserved rights of the several States are not to be taken away while we have sensible and logical Su- preme Court. As The Philadelphia Re- cord says: "The older and greater this country becomes the more 1t will feel the importance of that careful distinction
 between the powers of the States and
 those of the Federal Government upor
 which Democrats have insisted and which Republicans have done so much to ob
 scure."
 That is a correct statement. The only
 hope for the preservation of genuine
 republican government in the United
 States lies in the Democratic Party. Ev
 cry time the Republicans find an oppor
 tunity to strike blow at the rights O.
 the States they do so and thus under
 mine the very foundations of our system
 Of government. The hope for the perpet
 uation of our liberties lies in Democrat,
 supremacy and all Democrats should SC,
 1t and act on that knowledge.