Year: 1872

Something AbOut Judge DaVlS-W nat


he Did 20 ReDreBs Military l4aWleas-


ness-What Gov. Parker has Done


From the Washington Patriot, Mareh2.


Decided and pronounced Democrats
both in the popular and the technical sense
Of the word-ss We are, 1t would be the
veriest affectatiOn in the world for us, as
journalists, to deny the action Of the "Labor
and Reform" Convention in Ohio is in
some aspects very impressive. Had the
gentlemen who met at Columbus commit
ted the folly Of nominating individuals hay-
ing no afiliation to either Of the great par
ties of the country, but who were the mere
representatives of its own special opinions,
they would have at once sunk themselves
to a mere obstructive third party, TO be the
proper aim of all manner of political in
trigue or, if that were resisted, TO be in
significant in their very isolation. Had
they formed their ticket by choosing both
their candidates from one of the great par
ties, they would have forfeited all claim to
anything like independence, and, by ad-
verse discipline, would have been crushed
out of existence. A very superior discre-
ton has guided their counsels, and hence it
Is their action is impressive. They have
nominated no technical labor man, no In
ternational, no Radical, but one COnserva-
tive Republican, learned jurist, and one
pronounced, unequivocal Democrat.


Strange as it may seem, nevertheless it is
strictly true, that the nomination Of Judge
Davis and Gov. Parker embodies and as
serts the one great principle of the suprem-
acy Of law, and especially that supremacy in
antagonism to military usurpatiOn. 1t was
Judge Davis who delivered the opinion Of
the Supreme COurt-and that, too, before
the ashes of war were entirely cooled
which denounced and crushed forever
the infamy of military commissions.
Every one who recalls the dark
DAYS of civil strife and judicial
prostitution, and Gen. Ambrose Z. Burn
sides satrapate in the West, will remember
an order issued to suppress Democratic
newspaper in Chicago, five hundred miles
from the scene of war, and that when the
brave people of the Northwest, irrespective
of party, rose in peaceful revolt and ap-
pealed to the Federal Judiciary for redress,
Judge Davis not only granted 1t in the form
in which t was sought, but sent word to
Abraham Lincoln that if the aggressive out
rage of his military lackey were persisted in,
there would be organized and popular re-
sistauce, and that he, David Davis, would,
IL need be, put himself at the head Of it.
And Mr.. Lincoln never did himself greater
honor than by accepting the advice, as he
instantly did, of his long-tried and trusted
friend, for he Immediately revoked the Of
fensiA order.


So much, In this respect, for one Of the
candidates. As to Governor Parker-New
JERSEYS favorite son--is there a Democrat
in the land who does not feel that such
selection does especial honor to the party
which makes Il Here, too, IS an especial
tribute to the supremacy of law, for it Is
Mr.. Parker's boast that, while Governor Of
New Jersey during the agony Of war, while
he strained every nerve and muscle TO give
support to the Federal Government, he gave
notice, and stood by it, that, within the
limits of New Jersey, there should be no IL
legitimate Federal intrusion.


This nomination means pointed antagOn-
ism to the Administration. Every one re-
members the contest and its issue in New
Jersey, last autumn. Il was the squarest
fight, down to that time, ever fought over
the merits of Grantism; and the Admins
tration SO regarded it. Mr.. Parker was in
every sense the opposition candidate. He
stood forth as the champion of those great
principles Of patriotism and personal and
official integrity which the President and
his rings have made it their business to
trample under foot, and he carried his State
triumphantly. The Administration felt the
importance of the issue, and, as all remem-
er,brought every agency into play in order
TO defeat him. Gov. Parker's success was
the first open check to Grantism, and in
recognizing the fact, and selecting him as
one of their candidates, the great array Of
Labor Reform throughout the country, be
the ultimate complications andresults what
they may, is openly enlisted against the
common enemy of Federal usurpation and
abuse. We content ourselves with this sim
pie statement of actual facts.