Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-05-08

Whole House ON the state of the Union,
and having under consideration the bill
III. r. 172s0 making appropriations for
year ending June 30, 1909
Mr.. Dalzell said:
Mr.. Chairman: For some time past
we have been engaged in the nominal
discussion of appropriation bills, but
in point of fact in the discussion of
party policies. Charges nave been
made, and countercharges, upon either
side of this aisle, and the merits of the
two great parties contending for mas
terry have been discussed by each
speaker, eulogistically Of his own party
and deprecatingly Of the other. The
time, in my Judgment, has not been
misspent. Such debate is characteris-
tic of the governmental system under
which we live, a system which was in
tended to be and is a government by
party. And while it is true that there
has been, as there always will be under
such circumstances, much of exagger-
alton and sometimes of misreEresenta-
ton, nevertheless dispassionate re-
view of all that is said will serve to
separate the true from the false.
The most noticeable thing in the dis
cussion thus far has been the measure
of. credit that our Democratic friends
are willing to cOncede to our Republic
can President The gentleman from
Mississippi [Mr. WilliamsI is willing to
do him honor in so far as he has been
guided, he says. by Democratic princi-
PIES The gentleman from Missouri
[Mr. Clark calls him one of the most
extraordinary men in American his
tory; declines to decide whether or not
he is a great man; suggests that the
answer be left to posterity, after the
manner suggested by Lord Bacon, who,
dying, left his name and memory to
mems charitable speeches, to foreign
nations, and to the next age" and
then. with that kindness which is so
characteristic of him, wishes him hap
piness, prosperity and length of days.
The gentleman from New York Mr..
Cockranl, with that candor and elo-
quence which are SO characteristic of
him, calls upon those who have shared
his views in the past to join him in
hailing the President ION his disap-
pearance from the field of contentious
politics, as a shining ornament of pop
ular government, a loyal exponent of
truth, an intrepid champion of justice,
a great hero in the glorious galaxy Of
American heroism."
While l am not of those who hereto
fore have shared the views of the gen.
tleman from New York, I beg of him
now that he permit me to be counted
as one of the company that shares in
his estimate of Theodore Roosevelt.
We are about to enter upon a CAM
Of VY,,it tod
States and for the control of this House
of Representatives. The issue will be
to some extent the platforms of the
contending parties to some extent per-
haps. the personality of the candidates;
but mainly. take it, the party records
And party records are to be judged not
alone by party professions, or by
achievements even; regard must be had
to the consistency Of party policies, to
the measure of party loyalty thereto,
and to the fidelity with which party
pledges have been kept
The Republican party invites the Is
sue upon every ground-on that Of it's
professions, its achievements, it's con-
sistency, and it's loyalty to principles
and pledges.
My eloquent friend from New York
(Mr. Cockranl in his speech the other
day did not confine himself to the dis
cussion of such issues as seem to be of
present and vital Importance. He in
vited O. review of the entire history of
party differences from the beginning
of the Republic to the present day. In
SO doing he advanced some claims so
amazing in their character as to invite
examination.
To Andrew Jackson, for instance, he
implicitly. at least, gives credit for the
saving of the Union. To him he at
tributes the first declaration that the
Federal Government possessed the
power to prevent by force a nullifica-
ton of it's laws; but in that he is mis-
taken Long before the time of Jack
son. George Washington announced the
same doctrine and sent Alexander
Hamilton at the head of an army to
cross the Alleghanies and bring into
subsection the rebels of western Penn
sylvania, who sought a notification of
the revenue laws. Applause on the
Republican side.1
The doctrine of the indestructihility
Of the Union. which the gentleman at
tributed to Jackson. is the antithesis
OF Democratic doctrine up uHlii 1ooo'
Until that time Democratic doctrine
continued to be the doctrine of the
Kentucky and Virginia resolutions of
Jefferson and Madison. namely. not
only that the Union was not indestruc-
tible. but that it represented only a
compact from which there existed upon
the part of individual States the right
to withdraw. If the gentleman from
New York is correct in saying that the
indestructibility of the Union was
Democratic doctrine i'll 1861. then he
has stripped the Democratic party of
the South, who sought to destroy the
Union, of every vestige of claim that
in so doing they believed they were
acting within their rights. When
they made war on the Union they
either believed in the doctrine of the
Kentucky and Virginia resolutions or
they were incxpressibly wicked and de-
serve the condemnation of history.
Nothing can detract from the fame
of Andrew Jackson, noble and fearless
patriot that he was; but it still re-
mains a historic truth that it was
weak. and paltering Democratic Presi-
...r- J;~&o~n1 IN tho advice of his