Year: 1875

ing letter was read from Judge


Black. s*


PHnApELpH1A, Dec. 2, 1874.


Gentlemen: l am honored by your


invitation to the dinner Of Demo-
ttcrats tomorrow evening at the Con


tinental Hotel, and / beg you to be-


lieye that nothing prevents me from


attending but an imperative duty


which calls me elsewhere.


l think | can understand how sin


cerely you all rejoice over the great


political events of the last two


months. If you wish to know what
kMyfeelings are must decline to tell
simply because / can not do justice
No Tie subject. Democracy-which
is the common sense and common
honesty Of the nation organized for
public pufposeRySEas supposed by
| LIS enemies to Be effectually killed ~
I fIt was but natural that the heart Of
Eeyefy patriot should burn within him
Wien he eGw it rising again, facing


the oppressor with front as deter


mined as ever, and denouncing cor


ruption in high places with the same


mighty voice which in former times


went over the land like the tones of
trumpet.


But let us not merely congratulate
ourselves upon the recent past
Think nothing, done until it is fin
ished& The victories of this year
will p6tSalB one House Of the Fed
eral Congress into Dur hands, and
we must wait q year to realize even
that. Our perfect independence
must be achieved III 1876 BY q strug-
gle which will prove that we are
worthy to be descended from the
men who. proclaimed the rights of
the States and the liberties of the
people hundred years earlier. If
Ne fail weSrnust sink into servitude
even more degrading than that which
we have endured for the last dozen
of years. If we succeed, then will
this puisant.nation, like the awaking
Samson, SShake hef invincible
locks" and start the new century
under auspices so grand that nothing
can arrest her free career.


We must bear it always in mind
that the triumph of Democratic prin-
ciples means the restoration of con-
stitutional government on basis
which will give absolute security to
the rights of men against the nights
of men, The broken walls of the
Constitution are to be built up anew
and made too strong to be thrown
down again by the rufians of the
''high law" Our opponents them
selves will become reconciled to the
principles of American liberty when
they pass into the minority and find
the magnanimous Democracy taking
every possible precaution to guard
them in their weakness against the
oppression which they inflicted upon
US in the days of their power. Peace
will come, too, sectional strife will
be ended, and the public robbers
who now swarm over the Southern
States will cease their nefarious oc-
cupation when we revoke the license
which the appropriate legislation"
of the last nine years has given them.


But we cannot reasonably hope to
accomplish the object of our mission
without much labor and faithful ex
ertion after the machinery Of the
Government shall be put into our
hands. Fifteen years of domination
by an anti-constitutional party has
utterly demoralized every branch of
the public service. These corrup-
tions have become so numerous and
SO diversified, have sent down their
tap roots so deeply, have been prac-
tised so openly, and have become in
a certain sense SO respectable, that
for many of them a mere change
of administration will not speedily
furnish a remedy. But the abuses
may be ended by the impulsion Of
the same moral force which carries
their authors out of public life.
When Hercules undertook the task
of cleansing the Augean stable he
did not use the fork or the shovel,
but turned the current of a river
upon it and SO swept all its filth to
the sea. The stream of public opin-
ion if rightly directed will in like
manner aid Democratic Admins
tration. This hydraulic method of
reform being necessary, the freedom
of the press and the untrammelled
right of the people to speak their
sentiments everything that let's the
water on should be sedulously en-
couraged and securely guarded. So
may it come to pass in due time that
we will remember the days of the
gag law, the practice of kidnapping
and the murder Of inno-
cent people by military commission
as we remember the years of mildew
and potato rot and cholera to only
shudder at them and try to prevent
their recurrence.


If I should close here you might
me. 1 have not the
least idea that we ought to unsettle |
which has been fixed and |
determined, or take from any human |
being a right vested in him by ex-
isting laws. We propose no counter
revolution. While we mean to be |
Just. we are determined also to be
liberal in the broadest sense of the
word. Tbs faith of the Government,
no matter by whom pledged, is ir-
revocable. The whole civilized world
knows that the public credit is safer
with us than with our opponents, and ]