Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 August 1877 — THE VIEWS OF SENATOR BECK. [ARTICLE]

THE VIEWS OF SENATOR BECK.

Against the Electoral Fraud—Against a Great Regular Army. [From his speech at Maysville, Ky.J The wrongs, the frauds, the usurpations of the Radical rulers have been so often and so successfully exposed that a large majority of the States and people have condemned and repudiated them, and to-day a Democratic President would be presiding over the republic but for the most scandalous and unblushing fraud ever perpetrated in modern history, which was bnly rendered possible by the most shameful cowardice and imbecility on the part of the Democratic leaders. We have again verified the adage that “an army of stags led by the lion is braver than an army of lions led by a stag. ” But our principles are not impaired, nor our positions weakened, either by the frauds of our opponents or the cowardice of our leaders. “Truth is mighty, and public justice certain;” even those who profited by the wrong have been compelled to do homage to the justice of our demands, and remove the iron heel of the Federal soldiers from the necks of the last of the prostrate States of the South. All the leading Republican papers are demanding ap. increase of the Federal army. Taall such ideas the Democratic party are absolutely and unalterably opposed, No evil can be worse than that proposed by tlite Republican press and party; it is an end of liberty regulated by 1 law; it is the boldest and most unblushing demand for a centralized, consolidated Government which has yet been advanced. An army, such as is demanded, under a President like Gen. Grant, would become at once masters of the situation. When it strikes, as it is far more likely to strike than any other organization, the death-knell of liberty will have struck; the Prietorian Guards will name and maintain the Emperor. I know of no instance uuder Radical rule in which Federal soldiers have not been the ready tools of their masters. Gen. Terry destroyed the Legislature of Georgia. Sheridan and De Trobriand crushed out liberty in Louisiana. All

were ready to march on Washington, and eject, if necessary, a Democratic House of Representatives last winter, under the lead of their masters. We have had enough of Federal bayonets regulating State affairs, and will not lay the liberties of the people, their constitutions and rights, at the feet of any dictator. It is the height of impudence for a party that has striven to break down State authority, that has absolutely prohibited in many of the States the arming and equipping of State militia or volunteer military organizations, to pretend that the men of the State are not to be trusted with preserving the peace within their own borders. Do they pretend that the material of which the regular army is composed is more patriotic, more intelligent, more devoted to maintaining the rights and preserving the lives, liberty and property of the people than the citizens of the respective States who may be organized on the call of their Governors for that purpose? They read history strangely if they arrive at such conclusions. The Democratic party stands by the constitution and all its provisions, and will provide means to enforce them, without the danger of a great standing army. The framers of that instrument were wise enough and far-seeing enough to provide for all such contingencies as have recently arisen. The neglect of and contempt for its provisions, under the consolidating process of the Radicals, has caused the disgraceful scenes we have just passed through.

Article 2 of the amendment to the constitution adopted by the First Congress provides: A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not bo infringed. Mr. Jefferson, in his first inaugural address, among other invaluable principles which he laid down for the guidance of the people, said: A well-regulated militia is our best reliance in time of peace, and for the lirst moments of war, till regulars may relieve them. Warned by the lessons of the past, and recognizing the wisdom of the fathers, the Democratic party will do all that is necessary to organize and maintain in each State a “well-regulated militia,” with officers in all regards equal to those in the regular army, who will recognize their obligations as citizens even when acting as soldiers, and with men far superior to the mass of the Federal soldiery—a militia that will have the respect of the people, and which will enable the State authorities to suppress promptly all sorts of lawlessness. We make no war on the regular army, as such. We resist the uses to which it has been put, and we will abolish it altogether rather than see them repeated. The ballot-box must be kept sacred from the bayonets; State and Federal Legislatures and courts must not be broken up by Federal soldiers, no matter who orders these things to be done ; but we will maintain such a standing army as will protect our frontier, guard all the Federal property, and do all that the individual States cannot and ought not to do. That done, a militia organized, equipped and paid by the State, composed of such material as each State has in abundance, will not only never strike except for liberty and law, but will be both able and willing to suppress all who oppose or seek to overthrow either.