Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 July 1879 — TIMELY WORDS. [ARTICLE]

TIMELY WORDS.

In the House of R ?presentatives, on the 27th ult., a scene look place which is not likely to be soon forgotten by those who participated in it. The Republican conspirators put forth Mr. Gaifield to champion their views of government, and it is understood that he performed his task to their entire satisfaction. His views were more extreme than any that had been expressed in favor of centralization and a change in this form of government Garfield was replied to by Hon. Frank H. Hurd, of Ohio, and right royally did he respond to the patriotic sentiments of the country. He effectually demolished Garfield, and left him, as truth leaves error, withering amidst his worshipers. In closing hi i speech, Mr. Hurd said; Mr. Chairman, this extra session has made up the issue between the "two parties. The Democratic party declare that the army shall be kept from the poils; that jurists shall bo impartially drawn; that the test oath shall be repealed, and that the Federal authority shall not interfere with elections witiitn the States. Upon those questions the Republican party take issue with us. Confidently appealing only to the patriotism of the country the Democratic party goes into this contest. Never in all the history of this land have more importrut questions been submitted to the American people for their determination. They relate to the pure administration of justice; they concern the gravest questions of constitutional law: they affect the fundamental principles of civil liberty. Every man who runs for any office iu any State, and every citizen who goes to tiie polls to deposit his ballot, is interested. The whole method of ascertaining the popular will in the Republic is involved in the issue.

So far-reaching are these principles that if upon this issue the Republican party shall be successful, then all the power over elections in States would be drawn to the central Government. The States would lose their places in the federative system, and whether the army shall be used at the polls or not would be a question not of right and of constitutional law, but of executive discretion. Such a result means the end of. the Republic and the uplifting of tie empire. Can there be any doubt as to a controversy like this? In Russia, where absolute despotism silences individual ooiniou, it might be doubtful. In Germany, where imperial power sustains itself by an immense standing army, It might be doubtful. In France, where the people under monarchs and emperors for ages have slumbered, it might be doubtful. But here in free America, with the traditions of our British aucestors, and with the sacrifices and triumphs of our American forefathers in behalf of civil liberty, it can not be doubtful. [Applause.]— Shall civil liberty perish upon its own threshold and by its own fireside?— Shall the beacon-light which has shone from our shores for the encouragement of struggling freemen everywhere flicker in its socket and go out oven as they arc gazing upon it? Shall the sun of free government in this continent, ere it roaches the meridian, sink in the night? Shall the shadow and the cloud of the army darken our free fields and free rivers and free lakes and free prairies, and pollute the air so that a freeman cau not breathe it? The century of tri umph just ended protests; the bright prospects of our future protest; the hopes of ti e world protest; and what is pr e iealtv of more value, the Democratic: party, with its majority of halt a million or American people, protests. Gentlemen, the contest will soon begin Ay, it has already begun. I ; hear the whispering o: A merit , a in. -

quiry; I hear the mutterings of Anglo Saxon resolve; I hear the tread of the legions forming, with the banner of civil liberty above them. The contest has already begun; and God give victory to freedom and the right! [Loud applause.} It is reported that Mr. A. F. God-» dard, of Sacramento, California, is planning an excursion party of fifty or more observers, to be stationed along the route of the total eclipse of the sun in California, next January. The grandest point of view will be selected; and it is anticipated that much pleasure as well as scietific profit will result from the expedition. M. Ferdiand de Lt sseps, in a lecture at Amiens, stated that the first sod of the Panama Canal would be turned on January 1, 1880, and that with 40,000 navvies, including some Chinese and 15.000 Brazilian negroes, the work would be completed iu eight years. The new steamer Arizona, which passed Sandy Hook at half past five, June 17. arrived at Queenstown at 20 minutes past 7 the morning of June 25. The actual running time was 7 days 9 hours and 23 minutes, the fastest transatlantic trip on record. This is 1| hour less than the time of the Britannic, in Augttsl, 1877. A curious ancient Mexican library has been found in the ruins of a vast palace at XRyi, near Chiapas, in soutl - eru Mexico. The writings are inscribed on terra-cotta tablets half an inch shick, and are supposed to be saered records, but the language in winch they are written is not accurately known.—L. l A.'Commerciu].