Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 May 1884 — THE COMING CAMPAIGN. [ARTICLE]

THE COMING CAMPAIGN.

■Stirring Address of Ex-Senator James R. Doolittle at the Iroquois oius Banquet, Chicago. ■ Mr. President and Gentlemen: I feel ■ "very highly honored to be called upon to rejf spond to this toast, but I must confess that I I am at the same time greatly embarrassed, I for it Is but a very short time that I have ■ been a-ware es the fact that Gov. Hubbard ■ would not be here himself, to whom I .hoped I to have the great pleasure of listening. But, I Mr. President, what means this toast —"The I Coming Campaign/'” What is involved in it/ I What are its issues? Who are its leaders? 1 'These are the questions that come at once to I our minds. In answer to the first question, I What are tobethelssi.es?” perhaps what I we have heard to-night already presents at I least three or four of thg great issues In the I oompaign. Mr. from KeriI tuoky, is called upojroo respond to the first, I *‘lllo Republic—Afrlndivisible Union of Ini -destructible btateA” 1 think the very order I in which you have placed these toasts has I put the issues that are involved in | the struggles between the two great parI ties of this country in ‘the ioreI most rank. "An indivisible union [ of indestructible States.” That is not the j -doctrine of the Republican party. The Republican party m its very ideas and logic today go just as far from the Constitution [ when they say the States have no rights which the Federal Government is bound to respect as the secessionists in former days, when they said the Federal Government has no rights that the States are bound to respect. The one extreme is but the rebound of the other; neither is the true doctrine of the Constitution. Under our Constitution the States are sovereigns, and the Federal Government is sovereign, but neither is absolute sovereign, thank God I Roth are limited sovereign and are limited by the Constitution of the United States. To the Federal Government is given just so much sovereignty as the Constitution gives. To the States is reserved ail the sovereignty which is not given to the Union. This is the true doctrine of the great •Constitution under which we live, livery American citizen lives under a double allegiance—his allegiance to the Federal Government, which makes the Federal Union, or the Union of -the States, one nation among the nations of the earth, which makes this great -republic—United States—the greatest nation upon the earth, although but at the end of its first century, and which before the end of the second century will dwarf every other nation on the face of this globe. And he at the same time owes an allegiance to the State in which he lives, allegiance to the Federal Government in national affairs, allegiance to the State in all domestic affairs, So that every American citizen, from the cradle to the grave, has two sovereignties, like two guardian angels, walking close by his side—the sovereignty of the Federal Government, which protects him as an American citizen all over this world, and the sovereignty of the State, which defends him in all his private relations. My friends, let me ask you what sovereignty is it that defends me in my home with my wife, my children? The sovereignty of the United States has no more to do with it than the Queen of Great Britain. It is the sovereignty of the State whore I live that defends me in my relations to my wife and children, while, -if my child is robbed from mo, it is not the Federal Government that interferes, but it is the State of Wisconsin that interferes. If a burglar enters my house at night, what sovereignty punishes him? The United States has no more to do with it than Canada, but the sovereignty of the State of Wisconsin seizes him, drags him before its tribunal, sentences him to the State Prison. If a man in the streets should murder your friend, what sovereignty punishes him? Not the sovereignty of the Federal Government, but the sovereignty of Illinois. Illinois takes him to prison; Illinois calls on Illinois judges to try him, Illinois juries convict him, • and when sentenced to be executed it is the Sheriff of Illinois that hangs him. My friends, this great sentiment lies at the very foundation of our whole existence in our American system. We have a sovereign GovernmenfUf the Union—especially by the Constitution—to make us one nation—one indivisible nation and Union—that cannot be dissolved, which prevents States or foreign nations from dissolving it. My friend said that the States within this Union were indestructible ! Why, the very Constitution makes them indestructible. The Constitution says in so many words the United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government. What does -that mean? It means that every State is an independent republic within itself, in its own affairs. That isthe very idea of the Constitution, and yet I tell you, Mr. Chairman, and you, gentlemen, that, lying at the bottom of the Republican party, in its very heart of Reart, t and in its logic, they do not believe m the constitutional doctrines as to the States in this Union. They are just as far from it, just as false to the Constitution in their ideas of centralism, as were the secessionists in their ideas of secession—that they could break up the Union and destroy the Government by secession. But there is another idea expressed in that remarkable letter which we have heard this evening, a chracteristic letter which' shows the greatness of its author. When speaking of our Constitution it was Gouverneur Morris, he says, who says the Constitution is a good one, or whether it is a good one or not depends on how it is construed. The construction by the Republican party of the Constitution is this: That Congress can do whatever it is not expressly forbidden to do. Now. we deny that doctrine altogether. We insist that Congress has no right to do anything except what the Constitution says it may do, for which it is necessary to do, in order to carry out what the Constitution has expressly given it power to do. Now, on this great question there is a great issue between the Democratic party of to-day arid the Republican party of to-day. The Republican party of to-day goes the whole length of construing the Constitution, giving to Congress every power which it does not expressly forbid. That, I think, is another great issue, and I will take them right in order. Next comes the other great issue of civil-service reform. I say nothing, and attempt to say nothing, In addition to what has been said-by the distinguished Senator from Ohio. I will only do this—do what is sometimes done after a, very great sermon, when some layinan is called on to say a word by way of improvemerit. I will simply say this by way of improyement—not. that I improve his discourse, but in the way of improving the occasion—that the first thing, in my opinion, absolutely essential to civil-service reform is to elect a Democratic civil-service reformer for President. I will tell you the reason why. Not because there are not a great many good, men jn the Republican party that would be very glad to reform the civil service, but, because all experience has shown, and I believe any honest Republican will admit, if you will take him by himself and sit down in his office or oy his fireside—he will admit that all experience shows that no party which has been in power for twenty or twenty-five years, and gets into that corrupt state in the civil service which we have fallen into—that any such party has the power to reform itself. No party ever did it. It goes on from bad to worse. The only way to reform it is for the people to take hold of this matter and put the party out of power. That will give them a chance to reform. That will give them an opportunity to reform, and, besides all tiat, if a good Democrat oomes in as President of the United > Btates, then I think fair play will be extended, so that Democrats as well as Republicans may aspire to be examined before a Board of Civil Servioe Reform; that if they are found to. be honest, and found to be well qualified and capable, why a Democrat might possibly get into an office. We all know now that of these hundred thousand you speak of I do not suppose there are a thousand—l doubt if there are five hundred—Domocratsto be found in the whole service of the Government. There are as many Democrats in the country as there are Republicans, and we think a great many more. Why then should such a state of things exist, that not one single Democrat is anywore to be found in the civil servioe? Now, my friends, I ought to stop here I ought to have stopped before, but allow me to say ono or two words more and than I am done. There is another principle in this canvass—this coming campaign—that I oun

not overlook. Ire member that in 1878 we elected our President and our Vies President —a-d I remember another thing, that the leaders of the Republican party in the House and Senate—l will refer to them by name—they are both dead now—l refer to Mr. Garfield in the House and Senator Mor on in the Senate—su&tantially pledged themselves, as leaders of the i-epublioan pa: ty. ani pledged the Republican party to the leaders of the Democracy, that if they would join in appointing this commission—this high commission—part to be composed of the Judges of the Supreme Court and part of members of the House and members of the Senate, that they would oonsent and the commission would absolutely do wbat it was made for, to wit, try the question whether there was a fraudulent vote in Louisiana or not. I remember, too, that Mr. Garfield, after making that speech in the House, and Senator Morton in the Senate,twent onto that commission—l have not forgotten it, I have never forgotten it-—that after they went onto that commission. when it was proposed by one of the gentlemen who sits in this room at this moment—l refer to my distinguished friend. Senator Trumbull—it was proposed to prove before that commission that those returns from Louisiana were false and forged and fraudulent, and that the Tilden electors had received nearly ten thousand majority in Louisiana, that commission decided that it would not do the very thing it was made to do, to wit, try the question. That the mission decided that they would not hear the evidence, but would decide the case upon the old hoard returns. And I remember another thing, and my friend, the Mayor, who sits before me, authorizes me to tell. When Mr. Garfield came back from that commission ihto the House, Mr. Harrison met him, and says he, “Mr. Garfield,how in heaven’s name could you vote against trying that question after making that speech in the House?” and Mr. Garfield turned upon him. “Carter,” said bp, “if you had the cards wouldn’t you play them?” a I undertake to say that in in the pledges given by the leaders of the Republican party to the Democratic party, to have that commission try this question, and in the breaking of those pledges, the honor of the Republican party is gone—it is gone forever—and the result was that Mr. Tilden, who had nearly 10,000 majority in Louisiana, was defeated in the office, and Mr. Hayes, who was defeated by nearly ton thousand majority in Louisiana, was put into the office at the very same time that a commission appointed by Hayes himself went down to Lousiana and declared that the Democratic candidate for Governor in Louisiana, though he received 10,000 less votes than the Tilden electors, was elected by 7,000 majority. "Now, I will tell you, my friends, this outrage and wrong goes unpunished as long as the Republican party is in power. It is unreveriged, but I wHI tell you the people of this country have not forgotten it. So, too, there is one. thing more I remember. In 18:0, when Gen. Hancock was our leader, it was well known thatfn many of the States his majority was assured, but in Indiana, by the very money that was stolen by these “star-routers” —Dorsey and his crew—the money distributed In Indiana bought votes, defeated Gen. Hancock, and elected Mr. Garfield. That, too, is unavenged and unpunished and unforgiven. Gentlemen, I could speak of some other issues to come into this campaign, but I will not occupy your attention any longer. I will simply say this in reference to the coming campaign: Let us be united, with one heart and one mind and one soul. Let us call upon the whole country to come into this great struggle, that we may not only elect a Presldbnt in the United States, but, when eleoted, inaugurate him.