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Proceedings of the Electors of President and Vice-President of the United States in Maryland, 1789-1980
Volume 208, Page 186   View pdf image (33K)
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directed by our first Constitution to meet here and select Senators for
the State.  The present occasion that epoch of just a Century
and a year ago, when arms yielded to the law; when the rule of the
soldier was superseded by the rule of the Statesman; when George
Washington sheathed his sword and surrendered his Commission
to the Continental Congress in this chamber resigning the power
of Commander in-chief of the Armies of America to become a private
Citizen of Virginia.  Then the Arts of peace succeeded the rough
ways of War; then the rule of reason followed the rule of force.
               Now the people of Maryland have appointed us to vote
for Grover Cleveland, of New York, for President of the United States
and Thomas A. Hendricks of Indiana as Vice President.  In conjunction
with electors appointed by twenty states we will this day elect
them to these high Offices.   It seems to me that this selection of these two
Citizens is second only in importance and significance to the surrender
of his Commission by Washington in 1783.  For twenty four years
the government of the Union had been founded on force and not on the will
of the people.  During all that time it has been administered by a party
by right of conquest, and not by right of consent.  During all that time
one section has claimed to be master, and the other section has been treated
as unworthy of trust.  During all that time one party has insisted that it
alone was patriotic, and has ostracised the other party as destitute of
civic virtue.  he election held here today and throughout the United
States, is the repudiation of those false ideas and false claims.  It is
an assertion by all the people of all the States of the equal rights of States,
of Citizens and of parties, and of the right of the people to change the party
in administration and replace it with its opponents.  It is a declaration
by all the people of the equal patriotism and equal virtue of all the States,
and that hereafter there shall be no disfranchisement of Sections, of races, nor
of opinions.  The election of Cleveland and Hendricks means all
this and more.  It means that there shall be a reform in methods and a
restoration of the principles of the Constitution in all the departments of the
government.  It means that the corruptions that have grown out of civil
broil and been fostered by irresponsible administration shall be utterly and
entirely eradicated.  That the government shall be controlled by the whole
people and not by the party of a Section, and that parties shall be directed
for the common weal and not for private gain, and that they shall be
administered by the public will and not by corrupt managers and manipulators
for their own ends.  That the ballot box shall be preserved pure and
inviolable, and its decisions be respected and enforced whether the
majority be one million or one.  This election, as I appreciate it, also
means and is intended to declare that there is such a thing as a public
conscience, which, though long dormant, is now vigorous and active, and


 
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Proceedings of the Electors of President and Vice-President of the United States in Maryland, 1789-1980
Volume 208, Page 186   View pdf image (33K)   << PREVIOUS  NEXT >>


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