CHAPTER VI.

FURTHER PRINCIPLES OF THE PARTY-STATE RIGHTSSECESSION THE RIGHT OF COERCION, ETC.

WE HAVE now gone through with a brief statement of the principles of the Democracy, as ascertained from the expressions of leading Democratic statesmen, and the declarations of the party in their National Conventions.

There are still other questions deemed necessary to more fully explain, giving reasons and circumstances under which they have become settled as Democratic doctrines.

To a very great extent they could have been settled by applying the declarations of prominent leaders, and of the resolutions in Democratic platforms to their solution; but, having, to some extent been the subject of discussion in the party, we have concluded to give a separate statement of each, together with the reasons upon which founded.

In some instances they assume the character of defences against charges made by the opponents of the party; and in others, as expositions of their views upon these particular questions.

They will be treated successively to as full an extent as our limits wi!! permit, and can be equally as strongly relied upon as the fixed and settled conclusions of the party, as evidenced by the utterances of leading members of the party, supported by its platforms and public assemblies, until no longer questioned.

THE PRINCIPLE OF STATE RIGHTS.-The rights of the States under our Federal Constitution had long been a question discussed, on which great differences of opinion had arisen, within the Democratic party. The views held by Thomas Jefferson, Madison and Andrew Jackson is the one always prevailing in National Conventions -the only body having power to settle the question for the whole party, viz: That the general government is one of expressly granted powers, in the exercise of which it is supreme. That these powers, faithfully and vigorously carried out are necessary to the general welfare of the whole. That all powers not expressly granted in the Constitution to the Federal Government, in the language of that instrument itself, are reserved to the States and to the people.

The Republican party at the time of its organization planted itself upon this doctrine; and in their platform at Chicago, when Abraham Lincoln was first nominated for President, they passed the following resolution:

"Fourth. That the maintenance inviolate of the rights. of the States, and especially the right of each State to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depends; and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter under what pretext, as one of the gravest of crimes."

So thoroughly had this Constitutional doctrine engrafted itself upon the public mind-found utterance in both of the great political parties, and in their platforms, that it ought to have been acquiesced in by all.

The National Democratic party still adheres to that idea. It is unalterably fixed in its creed; but it has not appeared in the Republican party platform from that time to the present, while the Democracy have reaffirmed the same upon every occasion. Ever since the days of Jackson's administration has the question of the right of secession been settled, so far as the power of a national party convention could settle it. No matter what individual members of the party may have said; no matter what State and District Conventions may have declared on the subject, the National Convention only of a national party, can finally settle national questions; and, therefore, no matter how frothy orators may "fret and fume, and tear passion into tatters" over a "secession Democracy," the record proves that the right of secession never was the doctrine of the National Democratic party.

The Republican party has frequently announced that our Government was not a league, but a nation; but no true Jackson Democrat ever disputed that proposition as he understands it. Jackson, in his immortal proclamation, said:

"The Constitution of the United States, then, forms a government, not a league; whether it be formed by compact between the States or otherwise, or in any other manner, its character is the same. It is a government in which the people are represented, which operates directly on the people individually, not upon the States; they retain all the power they did not grant. But each State having expressly parted with so many powers as to constitute jointly with the other States, a single nation cannot from that period possess any right to secede, because such secession does not break a league, but destroys the unity of the nation; and any injury to that unity is nct

only a breach which would result from the contravention of a contract; but it is an offence against the whole Union. To say that any State may at pleasure secede from the Union, is to say that the United States is not a nation; because it would be a solecism to contend that any part of a nation might dissolve its connection with the other party, to their injury and ruin, without committing any offence. Secession, like any other revolutionary act, may be morally justified by the extremity of oppression; but to call it a Constitutional right' is confounding the meaning of terms, and can only be done. through gross error, or to deceive those who are willing to assert a right, but would pause before they made a revolution, or incur the penalties consequent on failure."

Herein is set forth in the plainest terms the principles adhered to by the great Democratic party of the country. The Democracy have through all the past; through years of sectional madness and party strife adhered in conscious integrity to those views, that they have been denounced by enraged sectionalists-North and South --until reason has been again enthroned, and the nation. can see where they have stood all these years.

They constitute the only party which has a record upon this question, dating from its first inception to the present moment. Democrats opposed the New England secessionists who held the Hartford convention in the interest of northern nullification and seccession; they opposed the South Carolina nullifiers at a later date, and have as a great national organization, opposed the doctrine at all times, under all circumstances, and against all persons, no matter whether they claimed to be Democrats or not. But it may be said, as it frequently has been, unjustly, that when the rebellion was first organized, a Democratic administration did not do its duty to

suppress it. President Buchanan, elected by southern as well as northern votes, denied the right of secession. He was a representative Democrat, and he said in his message of December, 1860: "This government is a great and powerful government, invested with all the attributes of sovereignty over the subjects to which its authority extends. Its framers never intended to plant in its bosom the seeds of its own destruction, nor were they guilty of the absurdity of providing for its own dissolution. It was not intended by its framers to be the baseless fabric of a vision, which at the touch of the enchanter, would vanish in thin air; but a substantial and mighty fabric, capable of resisting the slow decay of time, and defying the storms of ages. * * * In short, let us look the danger fully in the face; secession is neither more nor less than revolution."

Thus, it will be seen, that at no time, even the most critical, have true national Democrats either in national conventions, or by their chief executives ever countenanced secession. Therefore, a Democrat, as such, subscribes to the soundest plank ever put forth by either party on the subject of the relation of the Federal to the State governments.

Fanaticism never stops to reason. Driven by honest impulses, it rushes to its object without regard to obstacles. So it was with the secession movement, and so it was with the political abolitionists of the North. Driven on, they ceased not their agitation until the clash of arms came. Slavery went down, and now it becomes the duty of every patriot to repair the injury done by war, and place our institutions on a more solid foundation than ever before. The disturbing cause is removed, and it is time for sober reflection and intelligent action, so that we