Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1880 — A CONSTITUTIONAL REPLY. [ARTICLE]

A CONSTITUTIONAL REPLY.

[From the Cincinnati Enquirer.] The charge is made in many of the Republican journals, and is really believed by some people, that the election of Gen. Hancock to the Presidency would disturb’ things; that it would mean the payment of the rebel debt, reimbursement for emancipated slaves, payment of rebel claims and general cussedness. This is the Republican argument of this campaign. It has been the Republican argument of each political canvass for fifteen years. It would seem that the argument might some lime wear out, but, though this garb is worn, it is still worn. The Republican debaters, on the stump and in the press, have, really, no other argument. In some of the organs of the Republican party this line of argument, this attack upon the purposes of the people of the South, is so vicious and malignant as to make those .organs the malicious enemies of the business prosperity of their own neighborhoods and the enemies of real union in this country. The growing prosperity in the Southern States is the most considerable source of the growing prosperity of the country. The four great cities that compete for the Southern trade know this. New York, Baltimore, St. Ijouis

and Cincinnati are not ignorant of the fact. Productive and purchasing ability have enormously increased in the Southern States. Three of these four Northern cities' treat tho Southern people as though they were citizens of the same country, with whom enlarged commercial relations would bo agreeable. In this city, which is geographically a Southern city, and ivliiclt has recently been moved into the heart of the South, which is the largest Southern city, and the closest to the Southern people, tho attempt is made, for political effect, to treat the Southern people as enemies and. traitors and public robbers. Republican orators and organs aud manipulators prate about the payment of the rebel debt, of rebel claims, and recompense for slaves that were emancipated, etc. This is the strongest, and really the only Republican argument in this canvass. These arc the things it is alleged the Democratic party will do on gaining possession of the Executive Department of the Government, and it is not, alleged that in any other way tlie Democratic party could or would disturb the peace and harmony and business of tlie country. The entire Republican campaign for the Presidency rests upon this assertion, which is called an argument. What is the reply? To say that the statement is an unmitigated lie should be a sufficient reply. All men should know this. To point to the conduct of the House of Representatives, which has been Democratic for six years, aud to the conduct of the Senate, which has been Democratic for two years, should be a sufficient reply. Democratic legislation has produced public economy, and has been followed by universal prosperity, the prosperity that laughs over the land to-day. But there is still another answer, a constitutional answer, a final answer. The crimes it is alleged the Democratic party will commit are impossible. It is beyond the power of the Congress or the Executive to do these things. Tlie Fourteenth amendliiend of the constitution of the United States declares : “The validity of the public debt of the United States authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation-of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.,” This is the constitutional reply.