2 
down, and are now looking forward with hope to a greater degree of 
usefuhiess in the future. For our part, we have no change whatever 
to make in our principles. The great political dogmas enunciated 
by the men of are as true to-day as they were then; and, 
though they have been forgotten by the people and trampled under 
foot by arbitrary power, it is only by a return to them that popular 
freedom can be saved from the dangers by which it is beset, through 
fanatics on the one hand, and designing and unprincipled politicians 
on the other. 
We see no reason, after a full survey of the whole political field, 
to despair of the ultimate success of the principles for which we have 
contended. Force has been applied, and it has not decided, because 
it was not competent to decide, that the principles of State Rights 
and SeLf-Government have ceased to exist. It is needless to pursue 
this subject further, as its force must be apparent to every unbiased 
and impartial mind. 
The future is before us, and as a journalist we shall perform oui 
duty hereafter as we have performed it in the past. We have, as we 
said, no change to make. The RECORD'S platform of principles re- 
mains the same. It will be henceforward its aim to be a truthful 
and unswerving exponent of State Rights, and it is therefore inflex- 
ibly opposed to the anti-Democratic policy of consolidation. Behev- 
ing that popular freedom in this RepubUc is dependent upon State 
Sovereignty, it is at war with all despotic encroachments on that prin-_^ 
ciple and the rights of the people. It shall never cease to advocate 
the supremacy of the Civil Authority, and to denounce and condemn 
the pretensions and usurpations of Military Power. 
In the future, as iu the past, the RECORD will continue the faitli- 
ful advocate of Democratic principles. It is true that recent events, 
brought about by a fanatical interference with the rights of States, 
and by an intolerance of the Constitution and laws made in accord- 
ance therewith, have caused a temporary revulsion ; but the princi- 
ples of the great revolution are only kept in abeyance^ and will, we 
beheve, be reasserted ere many years elapse. The people have yet 
to learn from experience that the lessons and teachings of the great 
statesmen who formed the Republic cannot be set aside unless by the 
total overthrow of popular freedom and self-government. No fact 
was more completely establislied, no principle more thoroughly viu- 
