Year: 1874




lOgy OF Governor Dix.


The democratic State platform is, in the
main, an excellent body of sound political
doctrine expressed with commendable brew
lty 1t differs from most platforms put forth
by party out of Office and wishing to get in.
by making no arraignment on specific charges
OF the State administration it seeks to dis
place Such charges are the ordinary staple
of such manifestoes by party out of power.
No act OF Governor Dix is thought deserving
of censure in the bill of indictment for put
ting him ON his trial before the people.
convention of his political opponents could
find nothing which he has done or neglected
to do since his Inauguration as Governor which
they thought the public sentiment of the State
would uphold them in denouncing. When
the chief magistrate Of State has so clean an
official record that his lynx-eyed opponents
can discover no blot in it, and virtually ac-
knowledge by their silence that it is faultless,
the party which has determined to renominate
him may proceed with great confidence. He
is to be put on trial without charges, without
an Indictment, WITHOUT an accuser, with moth
ing in his official conduct as Governor which
his advocates are called upon to plead to or
explain.


While his discharge of public duties thus
escapes criticism for lack of materials the
platform of his opponents is strong indorse-
ment of his well-known political principles.
The platform takes admirable ground on the
currency The voters of the State will be
reminded by it of Governor Dix's able and
vigorous letter last spring indorsing Grants
veto of the imitation bill. Every monetary
and fiscal doctrine of the platform-and
these are its main substance-is a perfect
reflection of the lifelong and tenaciously held
views of our present Governor The citizens
of the State are asked to put him out of Office
by men who cannot make an acceptable and
popular declaration of principles without
transcrbing his. 'Behold l called thee to
curse mine enemies,' said Balak to the
blessed them altogether" Instead Of censur-
ing Governor DIX the authors of the Syra-
cuse platform have proclaimed their approba-
ton of his political principles by adopting
them as their own.


The fifth declaration, favoring payment of
the national debt in coin and maintaining
public faith, is something very different from
war note against Governor Dix. 1t is q
castigation Of political friends, not of politi-
cal enemies 1t is meant for the democracy
of those Western and Southwestern States
who have recently denounced the government
for entering into such an obligation. The
democracy of New York publicly wash their
hands Of the financial heresies of their Wes-
tern brethren, entering q plea of not guilty
for themselves instead of arraigning their
adversaries. In republican platform such q
declaration would not be merely defensive
but an offensive weapon. In democratic
platform it is an involuntary tribute to the
soundness Of the republican position on this
subject. If anybody is wounded by it it is
not Governor Dix.


There is one declaration of the platform
in which well sounding phrases are substi-
tuted for sense the confusion of thought
being SO great as to convey no ineligible
meaning We refer to the proposition ''to
limit and localize most jealously the few
powers intrusted to public servants, NUM-
cipal, State and federal" What idea is meant
to be conveyed by jealousy localizing the
federal authority? In its proper nature
it is not local but general, including
in its scope those common concerns
which interest the whole country alike. The
true democratic doctrine is, and always has
been, to delocalize the federal power, to with
draw and restrain it from every object Of
merely local interest, to keep it entirely apart
from every subject of governmental regula-
ton which does not affect the common welfare
Of the whole country. Localizing the federal
power is either phrase without meaning or
it means something just the reverse of what the
democratic party has always held Localizng
the powers of the State governments is equally
Objectionable and undemocratic if it be not
meaningless. 1t cannot mean the restraining
of State authority within State limits, for
nobody has ever held the contrary. But OBJ
viously State Jurisdiction is coextensive with
the State territory and it ought not to be
'jealously localized" but jealousy delocal-
lied in the sense Of withdrawing it from
things of purely local interest and the avoid
ance of local legislation by the enactment of
general laws which apply equally to the same
subjects in all parts of the State The true
democratic method is to discriminate wisely
between general and local powers giving to
the federal government such as cannot be
localized in the States and to the State gov
ernment such as cannot be safely intrusted to
the municipalities. From the very nature of
the case all proper federal powers are general
and not local.


had O convention at Utica, in which they have