Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 May 1888 — TRIUMPHANT DEMOCRACY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TRIUMPHANT DEMOCRACY

What It Has Accomplished in the Three Years of Cleveland's Administration. It Has Shown that It Is Competent to Administer the Affairs of the Nation. Haring Banished the Gigantic Phan* toms Which Arose in the Mirage of War, In Place of Hate, Bevenge and Fury, It Has Substituted a Beign of Peace. -Eloquent Speech of Gen. John Charles Black, at the Iroquois Banquet, in Chicago. After a quarter of a century the Democratic party returned to power. There was great need for its restoration. The body politic was sick nigh unto death. Public trusts had been violated that private fortunes might be aggrandized ; the credit of the nation had been voted in aid of private enterprises ; its imperial domain, broader than ever ruled by the Roman, had been given into private hands ; the public service became a harbor for unworthy characters, under misapplication of the revenue laws

the honest citizen was plundered and the rogue became the confederate of the official; searches and seizures were the preludes to compounded lelonies ; the measure of Federal taxation had grown to intolerable proportions ; grievous and iniquitous tariff laws were cunningly woven with fair laws into a system that built up colossal fortunes for the few at tbe cost of the multitude; they created a condition ■of affairs in the midst of which the monopolies flourished and the burdensome trust laid its controlling hand on the necessaries of life. The flag of the republic disappeared from the ocean; only a few rotting Bulks remained of the great navy which in earlier days had made the fame of the American sailor familiar in the remotest quarters of the globe; the tenure of party had been lengthened by the threat of the sword ; the pathway of the citizen to the polls had been hedged by bayonets ; the ballot had been prostituted and the highest office had been by mingled fraud and for*e wrested from the rightful possessor and bestowed on the usurper; all the wounds of war-were kept unhealed and torn afresh that the partisan might continue in control; reviving fraternity was the scoff of the times; hate was cultivated as a virtue, and revenge ■exalted as the noblest emotion; faction sought to re-array one section against the other; to overwhelm local government and buUd on the ruins of equality in state affairs the stupendous structure of an armed, magnificent central power that should deaden liberty and shine with the splendors of despotism; the plain government of the Constitution was giving way to the new majesty ot force, and corruption, and licentious power. To the existence of this condition of affairs I ■call as a witness a distinguished Senator ot the Republican party, who dencunced the “prostitution of the judiciary, and the escape from their merited punishment by resignation of those who should have been impeached ; the iniquitous use of the financial power of the great corporations which, having -been created by the people, had taken every step in their progress by fraud; the almost public sale of official privileges ; the shameless avowal of the doctrine that power should be gained in the republic by bribing the people by offices created for their service ;” anl all this with scarcely a disturbance of tho official conscience or a disruption of the party relations of the guilty. I submit in evidence the public record of the country, which shows the shameless distribution of exalted offices among those who had dishonored tbe republic, aefiel its laws, set aside its solemn procedures of election, and nullified the will of the people. I submit in evidence tne facts established to the satisfaction of tbe public conscience and judgment that repeatedly in national struggles the elective franchise had been prostituted by the shameless use of money thatmade free elections almost a farce and free government almost a failure.

This condition was due to the preponderance in national aftairs of a political association bottomed on federalistic ideas. The mass of the American people of whatever party creed are patriotic. A great majority sincerely believe that our institutions are the wisest, noblest and best that have been established among men. But the fatal zeal of partisan organization, the irresistible party lash, drove honest men to the tolerance it not the support of this condition of affairs, sprung from the prevalence of Federal unfaith which distrusts the people and denies their power of sell-gov-ernment; a sehoal whose masters believe that they are wisir than ths people aud know better how to administer their affairs, control their interests and disburse their funds; a school wh ch believes that when the people do not think as they think, and act as they desire, the people should be bribed, cajoled or coerced in'o submission. This school believes that wisdom is given to the few and that governments are established among men for the glory of government itself; that from the glorv of the government comes the peace, repose and welfare of the citizen; that nothing is good which is not a»so showy aid magnificent This school of t'.inkers distrust the plain people, would rend from them their a'.tars, appoint their ministers, take charge of the private conscience, and mold the private appetite on a public taste created by the dyspeptic and formulated by tbe fanatic. The Democratic creed, bv reserving to the people all their uiidelegated rights, arouses watchfulness and develops patriotic jealousy of all public exp nditures and acts; it believes and teaches that the accumulations of the citizen should be his and notthe tax-pathsrer’s ; that the system of taxati n that lays heavy burdens on industry and wrests iroin labor its earnings to make splendid the instiumentalities of rule is unwise and subversive of the ends for which governments are instituted; it regards the government which is simplest, plainest and least expensive us tho best; it declares that the interests and wealth of the people are safest In their own hands, and tbat'they are in all emergencies the truest guardians of their own institutions. The Democratic party has looked with jealousy upon the encroachments of the federalistic idea which has sought to make the Federal courts tribunals of dispute in nefgh-

borhood affaire, and Federal armies the firs* and safest resort for disturbed municipal authorities. The Democratic party believes that the national power should be exercised only in behalf of national rights and interests ; that the plain people, even through much tribulation, should worn out, by lawful process, the solution of their own vexed questions and leave in the supreme power the right of interposition only in issues that affect the national dignity and repose. It dreads that deadness that falls on freemen when they summon intd neighborhood quarrels the bvermaateriog resources of a continental government, it believes that a free American county, a free American city, a free American State, contain enough of virtue, intelligence, and wisdom to bring their criminals to justice, to protect the public honor, and secure the public safety. The Democratic p irty, through evil and good report, through victory and disaster, has supported these tenets of a faith taught in the schools of the revolution, formulated by Jefferson and enforced by Jackson and his immortal coworkers. It bears no flag but the people's; its standard is the Constitution. Amid the splendid yet treacherous scenes I first depicted, at the call of the people for relief arose Democracy at last triumphant, and addressed itself to the restoration of power to the people. No greater task was ever laid on a human organization. Every avenue to ascendency was obstructed by trickery, by the fears of timorous allies and the sullen inaction of its defeated opponents All the machinery of government was in hostile hands ; the plainest outlines of public affairs had to be studied and mastered by the men of the Democracy. Unused to the'situation into which they were suddenly called they bore into the labyrinth of officialism in one hand the lamp of the explorer and in the other the scourge of the reformer. They have striven faithfully and well, and if much remains to be done, fellow-citizens, much has been done that will repay your consideration and evoke your regard. About to be summoned again to the bar of public opinion, a triumphant Democracy presents the record of its brief term of renewed office, and challenges calm review of its accomplishments. The triumphant Democracy has shown that it is competent to administer the affairs of the people in their interests ; it has dissipated the prejudices which obscured ths judgment and the fears which terrified the people; it has demonstrated that the American citizen, from what section soever of the country he may come, is able and fitted to participate in his own government. It has banished the gigantic phantoms which arose in the mirage of war, and in place of hate, revenge, and fury, has substituted a reign of peace, of common interest, and of fraternal regard. It has destroyed the dominance of section| and brought the American people to the'consideration of common interests; it points them to the common possible achievements and glories of the future. It has turned resolutely from the things that were sorrowful and blood-stained, and has advanced to those where the heart and the brain of the whole American people may find the highest fruitage of renewed affection and of maturing judgment. Away from the Red Sea, where our beloved perished, and the wilderness where God’s wrath smote us, it leads to the shore of a nation’s Jordan, and points to the land of promise where our children shall build the temple of concord and our sons’ sons eat the bread of peace.

The Democracy has held sacred and has far advanced the claims of the pensioner as the common debt of the common people to be sacredly, honestly and munificently paid. Never since the tender hand of peace first bound up the wounds of rugged war; never since the awful fruit of battle cumbered the red earth; never since men died and women wept, and children sorrowed, has greater munificence or more eager willingness been manifest than has been shown to the pensioners by the triumphant Democracy—which, God willing, shall for many years pour the nation’s reviving streams by the stricken and desolate. From the general sum of public taxation it has met and is meeting every lawful demand made by the wat, and it holds secure every substantial .fruit of victory. It has driven from place and power thousands of the unworthy, the corrupt, the extravagant, and is placing in charge of the Government men drawn fresh from the people, and who are animated by the desires, the wishes and the aspirations of a generation whose tide of young life sparkles in the sun of our new heaven ; yet in its vast sweep it leaves unscathed all achievements of righteous victory, and all fruits of national triumph. It leaves to history to gather “sacred ashes into sacred urns,” aud addresses itself to the living of the blossoming and fragrant present. It has faithfully collected the revenues of the nation; destroyed the scandals in the customs service; broken up the undervaluation system, and made the custom houses of the United States the clean outposts cf clean men en all our shores.

It has preserved the nation’s faith and peace with the Indian ; removed the ulcerous and irritating plunderers who wrought their nefarious practices under Government contracts in the midst of the tribes, and in its three aud a half years has led the red men again into paths of peace and decent relations with their white brethren; it has reawakened the trust that was dead in tne savage bosom ; it has taught him that the Cross of Christ does not, under a Democratic administration, stand for a disguised speculator, nor the American fla? for a trading booth. It is restoring our navy to the high seas, and in another four years of ascendency will set the starry flag on the old ocean home of conquest and renown. It has restored confidence in its methods and intentions to the business world, and to-day the volume of our trade is unrivaled at home and abroad in the past or present. Its traditional policies still welcome the immigrant to our shores, and make his children our children ; his hopes our hopes; his honor our honor; his prosperity our prosperity; and it is a matter of no concern whether his progenitors themselves “landed from the Mayflower or took a steerage passage in the Umbria. ” if only the true American is revealed in his life. Fellow citizens, what is the ground of complaint with this majestic procession of the triumphant Democracy ! Wnat is lacking in its accomplishments that would secure our glory, increase our prosperity or establish our safety? Its public officials are not defaulters. They have not formed rings. They are n.ot waxing fat with unholy contracts. They have not purchased or sold your franchises. They have not depleted your public treasury. They have not swelled the list of your obligations. They have notcorrupted your governmental system. Thev have not bought and sold offices. They do not dishonor your power. They have not neglected your interests. Why, then, should any American citizen impeach or demand its remoral? Pardon me for a classical illustration, old as human thought and true as human creed: When Ulysses and his companions landed from their journey and spread their feasts upon the sandy shore, there came upon them the obscene harpies, devouring and defiling their food; they were repulsed, and when tbe Greeks returned again to their tables again the harpies rushe 1 upon their would-be prey, and again they were driven afar. Will you invite back by the reversal of the Government policy ajid the condemnation of the Democracy the barpies who have sat at your public tables, the members of the “rings” and the 'combines?' The spoilers are still alive. They Pave not lost their cohesive power. They but await the opportunity to return and renew their nefarious demands upon your patrimony and your prosperity; and so surely as defeat shall befall Democracy just as surely will return that era and the dominance of tnose practices which are the inevitable sequence of the federalistic idea. Every starving monster whose fangs a triumphant Democracy tore from the flesh of the body politic is arrayed today secretly or openly against th it Democracy. In the campaign which is to come and which is now beginning you will be summon d by hate, revenge, and avarice to undo.the fair progress of three and one-half years of iratemal sway and to restore old organizations to power; to for, et rekindling fraternities; to divide the land upon sectional lines ; to dominate and overwhelm one sectio i by the numerical supremacy of the other; to continue a system of excessive taxation; and, iu the name ot national glory, to forget and destroy true liberty, prosperity, and equality. It shou d not be 1 It will not be I The instincts of the better American nature will pernjit no backward movement on the path of our restoration. The Democracy will continue dominant in the midst of a people of growing fraternal relations, whose rule is law, whose inheritance Is the whole American earth. Intrenched in the hearts of tho American people, it awaits the onset of its ancient foe, secure, serene, triumphant. To-wit : The Mystic Order of Owls is to-who?

GEN. JOHN C. BLACK