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Speech Of Hon. Jere Black At York, Pa.

Speech Of Hon. Jere Black At York, Pa. image
Parent Issue
Day
15
Month
October
Year
1880
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Tliis goyernment of onrs, though badly damasrecl by fcwenty ye:irs of mïsmanagement, is stil] wórth firtst cost and can-iage. It was framed by the wisdom of sages; héroes have devoted thcir blood to il; and rightly administered it promises more happiness and greater prosperity to us and onr children than liave ever been enjoyed by any equal portion of the human race. Ás i wnole its orpanism is not t'ree from complications, for it was made to secare the rights qL the separe states as wel! as tl ie necesuary powers of the states united, and so to ad j ust them that the libcrlies of the peópte conld not be invaded by èither. It néeds no argument l'roin tliis to show that whosoever, by military idrcë, breaks down tbe rigbts of the states or tramples on thfe libêrties of the people, is girilty óf ti'eason as mu'ch as he who violently resista the authority of the federal goveiiiment. for the life of our politica! syslem is as certainly destroyed one way as another. The United States could not propevly govem the interna! affuirs of a state if they would try; they have no machinery that fits a loca! goyernment- no rnles for the protecÜou oi' individual riirhts or tlie eni'orcement of private obligationa. Wherever they have put their arliitrary farce in the place of a state governm ent they have converted lavv inlo mllianism and made usticc a mockery. Besides, when a state or a number of states, through the agency ol' the general government, or ótherwise, undertake the government if another state in domestlc affairs, THE rr. GOVEKN.MDNT OF THE STATE sq controlled is as certain as the deatli Of a man when the lieart is cut out of hia body. No community lias been decently, peacefully or honestly Roverned by strangers, whose wishes, feelings and interests are different from itsown. If aliens, by accident or foree or fraud, everge you ander their feet they will inevitably rule you for their ovni pleasiire and ptander you for their own pmiit. without the snnillest regard for your benelit or your rights. Ask Polaud, stpuffgling in the bloody grip of Russia, if tliis be not so. Lo'arn from the history of Switzerland what she auffered under the accm-sed yoke of Austria before slie threw it off.' tío to the far past, if you picase, and let Italy teil you Ihhv she sufferednnder tlie rule of the (iaul and the Goth. Or come down to the present day. Interrógate Ireland. and slie will answer by pointing you to seven centuries of unmitigated outrage as the steady practice of au alien goveriinieiit. always dishonest, treacheidus and cruel. If 'tliis does not satisfv you, then cast your eyes for a moment on the unspèakablè infamies of the carpewmg domination in everv state wbere they were allowed to get á foothold. Why, fellow-citizens,' this necessity for home rule as the onl safeguárd for life and propèrty was the great principie which the continental corigrBss thundered into the ear of the world wlien it declared that each and everyone of these states should be sovereign, independent and free to regllulate its own internal affairs, accor lïng to the will of its own people, and to the maintenance of this principie they pledged their honor, devoted their lives and expended their fortunes. On this point of STATE SOVEKEIGNTY, as between themselves and against the outside world, they were thoroughly unanimotis. No one thought of denying that such was the relation created by tlie success of the revolution. A federal government was agreed upon, clothed with certain powers which the states eould not exercise efficiently or well in their separate capacity. These powers are carei'ully enumerated, and the compact expressly provides that the powers not granted are reserved to the states and the people. It was a political corporation, strictly lirnited Inthe ternis of its charter. The man who will gay in the face of these undeniablefactst'hat the doctrine of state rigtats is a political heresy, or that tlie states are not supreme and aovereijm to tho whole extent of their reserved powers, lacks either the mental or the moral qualiflcations of agood citizcn; he is unfaitliful to the plainest duties; heisonlyfor "treason, stratagem and spoils." It is vain to say that this is a matter of opinión upon whicb men may eonseientiously differ. It is no question of interpretaüon; the words of the constitution are express. There is nothing plainer in the decalogue. You might is well say that the eighth commandment commands you to steal, as to assert that the federal constitution extinguishes state sovereignty. To hold that this is and was originally a selfexistent nation, which made the states and was not made by tliem, is as inconsistent witli the genesis of our institutions as it would be with the Mosaic history to declare that Abel killed Cain. Wheii yon hear a man deny that the states have any riglits except what the nation (with a big N) has bestowed in its mercy and may take away in its wrath, yon may assure yourself that he is insincere and dishonest. Such a theory is not only without truth, but without plausibility, and can not impose upon a person of common understanding. In all this I am not pleading for an abstraction. It is the very core of the practiced controversy which has been going on for a centníy between the friends and the enemies of honest goveiinuent in America. It can not be otherwise than transcendently important; for the destruotion of state sovereignty is the destruction of popular liberty. You cannot under our system have a f ree people without independent states. Our constitution also provides for the secumy or ínriividiial rights by limiting the general government to certa in prescribid modes of executing its granted power. In the performance of its praper functions it must not kidnap a man, orrefuse him i writ of babeas 3orpus, or punish liim without a trial iy jury, or take his property without ust compensation. Does it need an argument to sliow that popular liberty and state supremaoy in matters of domestic concern are essential parta of mir political systemï Will any rationa! man aver that these vital principies eau be cut out of our goveinment without destroying its lifeï If a person who has b roken down tlie defenses of personal liberty or extinguished the just authority of a state by military violence shoiild he indicted for treason, what defense can he make wliich might not be made with equal effect by mie wlio is tried for resisting ;he federal government in the exeeu;ion of its purely federal power? I ïave put this question ptiblicly and irivately, in speech and writing. to the roi-einost jurists of the adiiiinistratioii larly, amoug others to their candidate 'or the presidency; and I have never yet got an answer which denied that I was right- morally, legally and logicilly right. But our opponents held the doctrine, and by some of their most influential nen it was openly avowed. that the jreat compact which our forefathers ïad made to respect the rights of the states and to maintain TUIS PERSONAL LIliEItTY OF THE CITIZEN was "an agreement with death and a covenant with heil." Taking advantIge of our supineness and want of concert, they got possessjon of the government. and a great civil war was the ttmsequence. We are bouhd to acknowledge, and we did admit in words ind deed, that it was our plain duty to lefend the general government, and üd it in the execution of its laws against all opposition. But no man vas willing to join in a revolution which would subvert its free principies and make it a despotism by obliterating he constitutional lirüitations of lts ower. To quiet our apprehensions, hey prol'esstd to take the same view of heir duty that we did; and they disinctly promised, ín the solemn form of resolution unanimously passed by wth houses of eonsrreae, that the war hould be waged solely to maintain the upremacy of the constitntion and not o imiair any right of atates or people. Upon llie f'aitli of this promise millions in llie noi-tli and bundreds of thousands inthesouth rallied to 1!ip standard of toe administration. But the promise was roosi perfldionsly hroken. The enemies of the constituí ion took that opportunlty to "feed fat the ancient grudge they bore it," bvoke down tlie right of the states, nortli as well as south, and oulraged personal liberty in every part of the country. I do not speak of unlawfu] wrong done to individuáis or communities dming the war. In such limes men can not restrain their passion, and the grealness of the end ihey aini at often olinds them to the immorality of the means they nse lor its attainment. Hut wRat excuse can be found for a bortv of men like the uongresB of 1K(7, which, in a time of profound ppace and by a majority of more than two-tliirds in both houses, passed the act taking away A1,L IÏ.LUHT8 OF SKLF-GOVEltNMENT from ten states and putting up, root and branch, the liberties of their whole popnlationVJ You may say, if you please, that in going back to these topics I am aeting like a Bourbon, ulio forgets nothing and learns nothing. I confesa that I can not farad the time when we had a free con?tiuitional government, and 1 have not tearned to admire the dishonest system which our enemies have put n its place. With my whole heart I desire the resloraüon of sound principies. If that be Bourbomam, make the most of it. Uut I have adverted to the se historical facts for a puipose. I wish to show why it is tlial eVery man w)io believes in the whole American systt m of governnicnt sliould be a friend of General Hancock. He is, and ahvays bas been, for it ín eveiy part. Ilissvvord defended Ihelawfnl aulhority of the uniori: he threw bis shield befbre the breast of civil liberty: it was hw great order that vindicated state sovereiunitv. Iluvina; done all the:;e things it can not be ilënied that he ought to be numbered among the greatest benefactors of bis country. But there are men who, to serve i'nterests that are not the interests of the country, oppose bis election upon certain false pretenses which disfrace themselves. and not liim or bis friends. The bighest politicians among his opponents have not hesitated to predict thiit the advent of democracy to power would be marked by the payment of the southern war claims, whereby the federal treasury would be snrely made bankmpt. This does not rise to THE DIGNITY OF A HU311HTG. As an electioneering device it is too nakedly false to be decent. Our candidate has exploded it by declaring that he would veto any such measure. There you háve a secure pltdge upon the honor of a man whose lif e is bitlierto unsullied by a single falsehood. I3ut to show the absnrdity of the thing, some little examimition ought to be given to its original character. I admit that an honest, just and legal claim of a sonthern man is as good as if it were held by you or me. and ougbt to be as promptly paid. Hut what are called "war claims of the south" are no claims at all, in any proper sense of the word. After the close of the war, the citizens or subjects of one belligerent cannot claim compensation for damages done to their property or persons by the other, in the prosecution of the war, unless there bas been a treaty of peace, in which such compensation was provided for. This was war- public war- so declared by both partfes- and all neutral powers treated them as belligerents. There was no treaty- the sonth simply gave up the contest because it was no longer able to carry it on. By the public law of the world, and by the rules which prevail, and have prevailed in all similar cases, the loss which any individual may have suffered is damnum abxque injuria, for which he bas, .uid can have no redress. Nor is the claim any better because it is set up by a person who in his heart was opposed to the government. The Hnited States supreme court have held that TITE PROPEKTY OF A i:M()N TAN residing in Virginia during our civil war was liable to capture or destruction, preeisely like the properly of a persen armed and Bghtms on tlie side of liis state. Both are public enemies, and the leg;;l riffhts of botli are determined, not by the ir personal sentiments concern ing the cause or object of the war, bnt by their citi.enship or domicil in the hostile territory. It rollows that all claims of that kind, no matter by vvhoni présented, arefalse claims which canhot be pai'd out of the public treasury without robbing it. Besides tlie people of the northern states (or the southein either for the matter of that,) can not le constitutionally taxed to raise money for such a purpose. The power to lay taxes and duties is yressly limited in the grant to certain specific objects- "to pay the debts and provide for common defense and general wnrfare of the United States." Certainly a claim without legal foundation is not a debt, nor can the payment of it be called a provisión for the common defense and general warfare. This accusation against the dtmocracy was made in 1876. üur tiren candidate, Mr. Tilden, lepelled it by declaring that he would pay none of these claims without special legislation. General Hancock goes fmther, and says that he would veto all legislation for that purpose, If I were autluiritv, as I am not, and never will be, I would go further still, and hold that all such legislation, nO matter by whom approved, or how passed, is void and of 110 effect. In this view the whole democracy is with us, or will be when the subject is fully considered. Tlie body of the soiithern people assent to it as fully as tlie rest of us, and the most popular of their representative men in both houses of congress liave said that such claims ought not to be made or allowed. To them, as to all men, WE OWE EQUAL AND EXACT JUSÏICE, aceording to the law of the land. If they wanbed more, as a condition of acting with lis in the cause of honest govemment, they would have to go out trom among us. We will neither buy them or sell them, and I rejoice to know tliat they are not in the maiket or open to any bida. ïlms the qiiestion is settled as f;.r as the democracy is concerned. Uut mark the acknowledged corruption of our opponents on this very subject. They themselves liave paid uncounted millions of these same illegal and unfounded war claims. I can jiot give tlie amount, and I do not suppose that anybody knows it accuratoïy, hut I have geen estimates whieh put it up to nearly $1ÜO,(WO,(X)O, which inay or may not be above the mark; hut the amomit makes no dlfference in the principie. Yon all know that they passed one or more special acts appropriating larpje sums as a donation out of the public treasury which wereput into the hands of partisan oominissioners to be distributed asa gratuity among their political friends in the south. The commissioners were expressly ordered by the terras of the act itself to confine their favors to loyal men, and so, In the language of Senator Morton, so '"buik! up a loyal party in the south." We all onderstand what is meant by loyalty in their vocabulary: a loyal man is one who votes their' ticket. And I cali this disüïbution of money among that class of persons a corrupt gift to bribe them. The repúblicas congress took the public money out of the treasury by a process not a whit honester than stealing and placed it, as Oakes Ames placed the stock of the Credit Mobilier, "Wheré it would do the most good." ïhey pretend to lie afraid that in case of Hancock's election some policy will be adopted detrimental to the interests of business. The expression of this fear is coniined mainly to offloeholders. among whom it is not impossible that General Hancock may think it is his duty to make some changes. lint In siiy that he would assent to any measúre affecting injuriously the private rights of his fellow citizens, or diminishing the general prosperity of the people, or crippling the industry of the country, is a mere absurdity. That the revenue laws may need some modilication is extremely probable. Modification of them are demanded by men of all parlies and all classes. Ry nobody will this demand be made more loudly than by General Gartield if he goes into Ihe state and speaks iiccordtag to his true eonviclions. Hut General Ilancoek is a just, prudent and consurvaüve man. I have no authority to speak for him, but 1 know whereof I allinn wben I say that he wil] assent only t(i such legislation on this subject as will give stability to business and certainty to the rewarda of industry; no siiddeii or radical ehanges to injure anybody, but only such as the best practical business men of the country will say that their true interest require. GEN. HANCOCK is of all men the least likely to wreek the ship of state by running lier wild upon the breakers. Let no man fooi you into fear for her safety while that steady hand is on her helm and that cuim eye look.s out apon the waves. There is one other thing which you must not omit to notice. I mean "the pro])ensity of our opponents, at all times and under all their different Dames, to cheut at elections. I cali it the anti-constitutional party, as the only one that fits them tlirough and through, but it has a long string of aliases and many disguises. In all of them, however, it shows but one plata, broitd mark of identity: that is, its utter contempt for the right of iïee suffrage. In the time of the eider Adama they passed alien and seditiou laws. and kept up a staaüng anny for the sole purpqse of intiinidating voters. In 1800 Ilaniilton proposed that the governor of Xew York should cali the legislalure together and rtisfranchise the people of the state to prevent them Drom voting.for Jefferson. In 1837 I'ennington, governor of Xew Jersey, deliberately and in cold blood, with'a l'ull knowledge of what he was doing, falsely cerlified (he election of six whur members of congress, to Ihe intent that the organizution of the house should go into the hands of the ininority, and of this trick his whole party took all the advanlage it could. In 1838 Stevens, Eitner and others practiced TUK GltOSS AND IMPl'UEKT F11AUDS, which they tiied to carry throucrh witfi buckshot and hall. In 1840 this state uotoriously carried against ua by tlie syatem which was then ealled jpipelaying. For years together the knownothings organized their ruffian bands, habitually drove all the demócrata, from the polls in Baltimore, and kept the state under their infamous feet. At a later period elections in Maryland were regulated by an executive decree issued at Washington, and all state officers were, by brute force,put into the hands of a small, contemptible and corrupt minority. In Kentncky the candidates for whom the people might vote were j designated by a military order which was remorsely carried out. In Indiana the most scandalous outrages were ierpetrated. 1 think that nobody now denies that l'acker was elected governor and counted out in 18(56; nor can it reasonably be doubted that the majority against us in Philadelphia has been enormously swelled by the frauda of every year. In the sonthern states no pretense was ever made by the administration party of a decent regard for the rights of the legal vorer. Under acts of congress, which that body had no more right to make than the town council of York, nearly all the qualified electors were forced from the polls, and others without show or color of lawful right were brought up to stuft' the ballot boxes with administration tickets. It was by intimidation, rufflanism and false counting that THE CARPEJ-BAG GOVEUN JIEXTS kept themselves in existence for ten years. In New York and Philadelphia the paid hirelings (some of them penitentiary convicts) of the federal administration commitled the most frightful outrages at the last presidential election. Uut the incorruptible democracy was equal to all this. Unawed by influence and unbribed by gain they elected Tilden and utterly routed the corruptionists. The majoritv of the white people was a milhon, reduced to thiee lmnclred thousand by the black Jöte. Of the elector duly appointed there was a clear majority" of twentythree against them. No man was ever elected to any oflice in this country if Tilden was not elected president of the United States. Then came that enormous outrage whieh made the name of our opponents infamous forever. ïhey fraudulently altered the appointment of twelve electors, enough to give Jlayes a majority of one; and on that fraud they put him in. The corrupt knaves that assisted them are billeted on the treasury as a reward for their crimes; and we, the people are taxed to pay them for cheating us out of our birthright. There was no excuse for this that can be accepted even as a mitigation of the crime- no pretense of any excuse at all uiau was hol iounuea 111 perjury ana forgery, which aggravated its baseness a thousand fold. I confess I am disappointed in tho effect of this upon the popular rnind. I believed that THE THUNDERS OF UNIVERSAL CONDEMNATION would break over the heads of the men who had done this thing. But they took the moral measure of their party betler than I did. Doubtless there are many thousands who have determiued in their hearts not to trust any such crimináis any longer; doubtless the confidence of many men heretofore acting with them has received a sliock from which it will oever recover, but their oigani.ation is nearly as compact as it were before, and most of their leaders move with a step as alert as ever in support of a nominee who made himself especially conspicuous in the perpetuation of that great wrong. But the cheated millions that we had before ure with us still. The immense majority that voted in 1876 for state independence, honest government, popular liberty, peace between the sections and equal justics to all men, will vote again in the same way. To these will be iidded the thouswids in every part of the country whose conscience forbids them to support the particular kind of fraud to which this administration mves its existence. Still further will tlie great majority be swelle 1 by enthusiastic LOVE TOR THE IÍKAT DELIVBIIER who disinterestedly stood by the cause of liberty at the time of its extremest peril. The oligarchy that persecuted and sneered :it him theii shall painfully feel- Wbat freeinen can do when their hearts are on flre, For the liero they lovo, tïie chief they admire. Of course we will elect General Hancock as surely as we eleoted Mr. Tilden, and by a mnch larger majority. But the same men who cheated in 1876 may cheat again in 188(). They do not appear to have repented. They have not said or done anythintf to show that they would not commit the same crime over. Wbat thenï I can only answer: If you be men bear it not. The deliverer who léads us now has always been tme to the people in war and in peace; and no matter what betides us he is sure to be trne to us in the future. Let U8 also be trae to him in every emergency; tor bis danger is our danger, and if he falls by another fraud our rights will perish forever.

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Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Argus