160 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



of office, they could not, from any fear of the 

 consequences, refuse to perform. 



" Thus would result two Presidents and two 

 Vice-Presidents claiming each to be lawfully 

 chosen, and demanding recognition at home and 

 abroad. 



u The logical result of such a state of affairs is 

 civil war ; or possibly but hardly, in the light 

 of contemporary experience among our neigh- 

 bors one or the other party might content 

 himself by asserting his rights upon paper, 

 and be satisfied with the empty honors of a 

 pronuneiamiento. But such a course is scarcely 

 to be expected from a race which carried on the 

 wars of the Parliament, which executed Charles 

 I., deposed James II., threw off its allegiance 

 to George III., and preserved the Union against 

 attempted secession, at a countless cost of blood 

 and treasure. But if acquiescence were possi- 

 ble, it would not be peace, prosperity, and plenty 

 for the people. Usurpation never brings con- 

 tentment or confidence. The springs of indus- 

 try would be dried up, and the fountains of cap- 

 ital cease to flow. But, what would be worse, 

 the respect for the Constitution, essential to 

 free government, would be destroyed in the 

 minds of more than half the voters of the coun- 

 try. It would be generally accepted that usur- 

 pation was to be the law of succession, and by 

 common consent we would be glad to take ref- 

 uge in military despotism as the only pana- 

 cea ' for all our woes.' The experiment of 

 free government would thus utterly fail at the 

 close of the first century of its existence thus 

 confirming the experience of all history as to 

 the ultimate decadence of free nations. 



" But if the usurpation were not acquiesced 

 in, civil war with all its horrors would ensue, 

 and the strife would penetrate into every house- 

 hold in the land. The end no man could fore- 

 see, save the refuge, sooner or later, in the all- 

 embracing guardianship of an imperial ruler. 



" In either event, then, the objects which the 

 Democratic party had most at heart in the re- 

 cent struggle would be utterly lost. These ob- 

 jects were not the election of any man to the 

 presidency, or the establishment of any special 

 financial policy as contrasted with that of our 

 opponents. In fact, the platforms of the two 

 parties were scarcely distinguishable from each 

 other in principle. What we aimed to secure 

 was 



"First, reform in the Administration, by 

 which the personal character it had of late years 

 assumed should cease to exist, and public of- 

 fices filled by men who could comprehend and 

 act upon the old-fashioned principle, which has 

 been better formulated in the constitution of 

 Massachusetts than elsewhere within my knowl- 

 edge, that 'government is instituted not for 

 the profit, honor, or private interest of any 

 one man, family, or class of men.' 



" The second and still more important ob- 

 ject, underlying, indeed, all other motives, was 

 to preserve the Constitution from being de- 

 stroyed by the use of the military power in the 



elections, or in the maintenance, in the several 

 States, of government not resting upon the will 

 of the people. 



" A series of statutes doubtless the inevitable 

 fruit of the war of the secession had been 

 enacted, under color of which the Federal 

 authority had been used in a manner which 

 excited the alarm and called for the condem- 

 nation of patriotic and thoughtful men without 

 regard to party. Especially in the State of 

 Louisiana, in 1872, had been enacted a scene un- 

 precedented in our history, filling the minds of 

 men with fear for the permanence of constitu- 

 tional government. By the order of a drunken 

 judge, signed in the dark hours of the night, 

 away from the domicile of justice, the lawful 

 government of a sovereign State had been 

 rudely overturned, and the usurping power 

 which had taken its place was sustained by the 

 arm of Federal power, acting through files of 

 soldiers invading the halls of legislation, and 

 dragging from their seats the representatives 

 of a people to whom a republican form of gov- 

 ernment had been guaranteed by the Constitu- 

 tion of the United States. 



" The pretended and fraudulent government 

 thus created had been kept in its place only by 

 the military power of the Federal Government ; 

 and when once overthrown by a sudden breath 

 of popular discontent, it had been promptly re- 

 stored by the orders of the President of the 

 United States, through his Secretary of War, 

 the military and not the judicial branch of the 

 Government. Against this violation of the 

 Constitution the best men of all parties did not 

 hesitate to protest; and yet, when the late 

 election came to pass, this fabricated govern- 

 ment still existed in Louisiana, controlling all 

 the machinery of justice, of legislation, and of 

 election. Its returning board possessed an 

 odor peculiarly its own, with which every 

 voter in the United States was familiar. Many 

 of these, who had heretofore acted with the Re- 

 publican party, perceived that, if this practice 

 of military interference should become incor- 

 porated, by the tacit consent of the people, into 

 the permanent fabric of the Government, the 

 Constitution would be destroyed, the principles 

 of liberty undermined, and the way prepared 

 for the early establishment of a military des- 

 potism. Hence, reluctantly, but moved by con- 

 victions of conscience, they joined themselves 

 to the Democratic party, and engaged, as they 

 believed, in a death-struggle for the preserva- 

 tion of their rights and liberties. 



" Now these rights and liberties, for which 

 we had made so gallant and successful a fight, 

 would equally perish whether a President 

 should come in by usurpation, even if acqui- 

 esced in by the people, or whether, if not acqui- 

 esced in, civil war should be the result. 



" There was no escape from this deplorable 

 position except by agreement between the con- 

 servative and patriotic men of both parties, who 

 prefer the good of the country to the success of 

 party, upon some method by which the incom- 



