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Patrick A. Collins Of Boston Address The Democrats Of Massachusetts In Convention Assembled

Patrick A. Collins Of Boston Address The Democrats Of Massachusetts In Convention Assembled image
Parent Issue
Day
24
Month
September
Year
1880
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Let me urge you, gentlemen, wtien yon leave thishall, to leaveitwith a resolutton that this yearno hamlet Bhall escapo a thoroúgh canvast, that no democratie votesnall remain unregistered Qt unpolled,-and that the-Masaaclnisetts Democracy strengttaen the hands of President I tancock by senduig at lenst liverepreseiitativestoConKress. In üne work befare us we nmsL be united linn. tolerant of one another, harmonious in onr councils, vigorous m our canvass. Thcrnis work forllic thinker and doer, And glory for all wheu tho goal 9 won. Let the tost of fellowship be devotion and allegianoeto the principies o the democratie party. Not,"when did he joinV' bul, "is he a gooit democrat today?" We need recruits, and the Hfe nil brains and energy they brlng Witb them. l?ut the test must lip democracy. With all divisions at an end, all diaSensiona buried, the democratie column marches on to certain victory. 15y the verdict of the American peowle. to be recorded in less than nine weeks, tlie sceptre of power will pass from the usnrper into the kniglitly hand of the soldier-statesman, Wmfïeld S.Hancock. Aftcr twcnlyyears of exilethe old den. ocratic party will return to power; will return to nene tne sianaers 01 us enemies; to crush the spirit of centrallzation and despotism; to abolish forever bureaucracy, waste and extravagance; to restore the Union, tranquility md peace: toreesUbÜBhthercign.pf liberv thé Constitution and the 1 ►WS. Tt has seen tlm birth, and lias uveO to spe Uie deuUi oí all other great politecal ornnizutioiis in the Union: for the republican party also. to all Intenta and purposes, is doomed and dead, and awaite but the oflices of the nndertaker to cease cumberhig thls earth of onvs. Tt will snrvive no nationnl dereat. i ne moral misslon of the repabhcan party ended long ago. Whatgayeitexistence, cncvT and life was the question ot slavery: and vhen, by the will, the bloodand devotionof the soldier, the statesman and the agitator, the Blayes were made f roe and established in nvil riehts and citi.enship, its trué work ii-ia rlnilfi. All i t.S POÜCV lllll all ÜS islation since have been directed to the sole end of insuriüg its own ascendency bv fomenting sectlonal discord, by assaulta upon the franchise and individual liberty, by attacks upon the Oonstitution añil the (rnarded rights of States. Though the echoes of the last rebel camión (lied away in the Southern spring air fifteen yearsago,we still hear nothinfr from republican statesmen but the cries of war andrebèllïon. For tueir oun cruel, unpatriotic, selfisb purposea theystrive tokeop the Union severed and postpone the day of settled peace. If the republican party, after twenty vears of unclmllenged control of the êxecutive, conl'esses that the work of restoring the Union has not yet been aCcompflsbed, it is time to commit the bask to other hands. It lives to-day upon its early reputalion. It exists because thinzB evil and good do exist. It holds together,not because it cliaropions any great cause or principie or advocates any great measures for the common weal, but hecanse it supports and is suiiported by 100,000 offlce-holders, dispenses the public patronage and deala out the pul ilic moneys. Take away these props and the rotten strueiure i.uis. llow the leaders in tliis day of tribulation must long for the good oíd times The eiect got the offices, óown to tide-wnter; The people toot skinnin' as mild na a tater. But as a party, its career has been marked by the most blundering incoinpeteney, the most wasteful èxtravastence, the grossest corruption. It blun'dereil into finance and blundered out acrain at a loss, according tothe confessioii of its statesmen, of $l,000,000;000, caused solely by its blundering. In the fourteen years of its absolute sway, before it was checked by a democratie congress, it spent, etemding interest, the enonnous sura of ?ö,S74,888,734, aeainst 31,504,000.000 spent in theseventv-tlurc vt-M-a of tiio iiiitional e.Tistenco liefore. 'ÍSUu-h oï ttus, as thé record shows, was pure waste and slieer robberv. In the cafpet-bag era it stole from the prostrate and impovenshöd people of the sonth morethan S200.000,000 more. Tlie professed friend of tho negro, it lert nim poorer uiau n iuuiiu him, bis future labor mortgaged to pay the debts created by its rule, a minea citizen of a plundered state. And flnally, to rid him of all possible burdens, it stole his little savings by the beneiicent machinery of tlie bank, established for his special benefit. It stole morethan 200 000,000 aoves of Lhe public domáis, and conferred it, witn bonds and intereat amountíng to more than $100.000,000 upon itscreatures,the monopolista. It plundered rigbt and left, by its taxes and its tariffs, things great and small, and ivlien it seemed there was nothmg el se to steal, it stole the presidency of the United States. And now this reekless robber, gorged with the plunder of twenty years of such stealings as no country but this could bear, placidly asks its victim for forgiveness and confldence, another lease of power and a chance to reform. For another grave reason the republican party bas forfeited the confidence of the country. It is a party without fixed principies and without respect for the constitntion,the rights of states, or personal iiueuy.- Our system rests upon man and manhond suffrage, not upon property. It is the government of all the people for the goud of all. Yet all the fegislatton of this party touching these questions has liad the tendency to limit, obstruet and annnl the rights of manhood suffrage. The democratie party contends that the men and not the money of the republic shall rule it. In the discussion of the Florida case the slippery Garfleld "congress has no more power to interfere with the state (in the selection of electora) than it hasto inferiere With the election of ollicers in England." And listen, in the same discussion, to our ownastute Senator,GüorgeF.üoar: "When the state has aoted no power can reverse its action for mistake in law or in f act, for fnuid or for any cause whatever. unless it be a power hifiher than the st;ite on wlicli the constitution has expressly conferred such authonty; but there is ïio such power higher than the state." If it had been neoessaiy for theirpurpose tosay theexactlyopposite lliiu.ir tliü.so ominent statesmen would have said it; but it was necessary to lnvo!;e state sovereignty then in order to sanction and consummate the iniquity that Gartïeld went tothe south to assist in perpetrating. They wrencnea ana strained and linally cast aside the consLitntion when itfailedto warrant thiiir ruttiless and despotic acts. They ground iinder the righfe of sovereign states when it promised tliem continuance m power, and tliey pushed the doctrine of state rights to the extreme limit m order to use it as a means and a cover to the commission of the most atrocious act of f rand in human history. Since then they have clamored and shrieked for a"strong governinent,"andastrong central arm to reach to every citizen and houseliold in the land. They plead for a st rong central desj)otism directing all and overawing all. We contend for the svstem established by the fathers, a federal anthority for federal purposea onlv, as strong as the Constitution lias made it but not a whit stroiiRer, ana eacn state sovereign, snpreme, independent and nnassailable witbinits vn Bphere. We contend also for the largest uberty of the individual and the least possible government, state or federal, consistent with the welfare of society. We object to the omnipreaent and inquisitorial nose of autbority tlinist everywhere mto our concerns. We contend that this is a repubUo of free, wlf-governing men- an indestructible Union of indestractible sovereign states. In this canvass Ilamillon and Jeffcrson are face to fiioe again. It is probably the last struggle between the two tlieories of government for us- imperialism and democracy, and Imperialism goes down. The repnbncaB party is weighed and found wantinp; and its honr has come. "Therefore the wicked sliall 'not nse aaain in iudgment nor sinners in the council of the just." .lames A.Garfleld isa leiiitimateproductof therepublican botbed. The party would sèarcb iu vain for a truer retresentatrve of its I &reogth aud its weakuess. 1 ty, plausible, adroil . sinnous, time-sevvm ! and hYpocritical, a lanrcr editiofi nf llayoa and a more shrewd preTOrjcator than Colfax, he is reputjlicanistn incarnatie. Elis record is written by his party associates in a spasm of vïrtne, and his sponsors are now employed in the hopeless task of explaining it away. His chosen biosrapher, indorssd by lus national commlttee, patheticaMy aays: Most mpii denounced, all regretted, nonedefended whathe had dono." Now lu'savs Uerticlnotdo it. In tbewordsof the Psalmist: "He liath opened a pit and dus it, and lic has fallen into the hole he made." With the advent of President Hancock and a democratie consrress Wlll come the end of sectional strife and the relegation of war issues to history, the restoration of the union and the sovereignty of the statea with[n it, the reestablishment of peaceand the adjustment of the adnrinistration to a státe of peace, a return to the practica of riffid economy in public expenditures. the complete snhordination of the military to the civil anthorities.the conservatión of wliat remains of tho puhlic doraain for the henelit of tho people, tho vindication of personal Uberty and the ritfhts of man, the reign of order, hnv and tho constitution.- Brother democrats, I hail you with the dawn of the day of deliveranoe. Before tlie days of Dr. Biill's Cough Syrup, a person trouWed witha cough always oonsulted his pliysician. Now he only invests 23 cents and is cured aftera'few dosea.

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Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Argus