The Democratic sentinel and Harrison County farmer. [volume] (Cadiz, Ohio) 1851-1852, 1851-11-05
The Democratic ~Party--The Sc
oret Of its Success.

democratic party has a basis which viii en-
dure while human governments endure, and
that, as its perPetuity is beyond a doubt so
is its general success inevitable. Every car
dinal principle Of our faith aims at the en-
largemeht Of populAr rights while ever mea-
sure We advocate tends to preserve the re-
publican simplicity Of our system. Who
has Warred for the extension of the elective
franchise? Who has lsbored to prevent our
gov 'nment, both State and National, from
becoming the dispensers of spells and conse-
quently the sources of corruption? Let the
history of parties answer.
Look at the labors Of Constitutional reform
which we have achieved in NE different por-
tons of the country. Compare the new or
granic laws which have com out of the de-
mocratic crucible with those which these
new Constitutions superseded, and say, if
We have not accomplished a great revolution
in the matter of popular privileges. We
have not only achi 7ed these objects without
the cooperation of our opponents, but in al
most every instance in the face of their or
ganized and drilled opposition. How despe-
rately have they contested the ground, inch
by inch, when the struggle was between the
capitalist-the monopolist-and the people
The records of our own late Constitutional
Convention establish fully this fact, The
people are the safest and best repositories of
all political power at all times and under all
circumstances. This is the stone which the
builders of the aristocracies and monopolies
of the world have rejected; but which with
us,says the Hamilton Telegraph, is the ''head
of the corner" The man who claims to be
a democrat and is not prepared to endorse
that cardinal maxim to its fullest extent, Ell
Their deceives himself or tries to deceive 9TH
ers. We shall attain the nearest to perfec-
ton In government when we approach that
point where the popular voice controls every
branch of it as Immediately and directly as
the numerical and physical extent of our
population and soil will admit
No wing has the hardihoodt to openly con-
%trovert the maxim upon which free govern
ments are founded, and yet when we pro-
coed to apply this principle to The practical
workings of our government, they take the
alarm and raise the cry of a "partizan Judi
ciary," and predict the evils which will fol-
low the placing Of the law-adminissering
power where the ~law-making power has long
reposed-in the hands of the people. AL
though they s~tudiously avoid a direct issue
with this popular maxim they furnish many
incontrovertable proofs of their distrust of
the masses. All will r~ecolIect the Rhode
Island case where the friends of liberal laws
made an effort to deliver that State from the
thraldom Of charter conservatism, but were
partially defeated by the enemies of demo-
cratic progress, backed up by the silly order
of the Executive of the United States to aid
the foes of the people with the military re-
sources of the general government. All will
r~ecollect the gubernatorial contest in North
Carolina, a few years since, between Reed
and Manly, in which the issue made up was
the enlargement of the elective franchise.
The leading wing papers we're frank enough
to admit that this was the real issue, and that
it defeated Manly, their nominee. These
are but isolated instances out of a thousand,
all tending to demonstrate the opposite ten
denotes of the two political parties. A party
whose principles are grounded upon the i'm
prescriptable rights of men can never become
obsolete, and will never terminate its tri-
umphs until the conflict between the many
and the few is finally ended.
But what prospect of preservation or rath-
err galvanization have our opponents? What
one principle have they which bids fair to
sustain them? Havethey any one which has
its foundation in the inherent rights of men?
We know Of none. They never boosted,
event their palmiest days, anything more
than measures which involved some ques-
ton of commercial expedieney. And hence
we have seen that party, by some slight
change in the markets abroad or the crops at
home, robbed of all its political stock in trade
and left without a solitary issue with which
.H a. - r# ..aaat -#T -. .LHG#-RE Ia III
to go before the people. While the demo-
cratic party has preserved its name and
identity through all the changes and y[icissi-
tudes of the political world, the wing party
has changed its name and its measures al
most as often as a man would change his liz
men, and it would be a tedious task TO read
Il G inscriptions upon the tombstones Of the
innumerable "obsolete ideas which are
strewed along its pathway.
Who, in view of these things, would hest
tate to declare which organization was des-
tined ultimately and constantly to triumph?
True, We may attimes be defeated by unto
ward combinations, and although we write
this in the full flush of an overwhelming VIC
tory, we expect yet to see reverses and anti
cipate many struggles. But judging blythe
past and by the respective foundations upon
which the parties rest, we feel as confident
that ours will ever be the dominant party Of
this country as we do that winter will follow