The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1854-08-04
THE OLD POLITICAL PARTIES.

IliE OlD POLIIlCAL FAX lies.
The New York Herald would be great
paper were it not for spiit Of disgusting
egotism pervading nearly all its; leaders. Ii
the news and commercial departments it has
no equal; but its editorials-heaycn hell the
man who writes them, whether it be old Ben.
nett, or some one else.
The date of the Goth contains an article
upon Political parties, and the " Independent
Press" We subjoin portion of it: RI
The trimmings and lodgings of the ad.
ministraton, the ingenious devices of Cush'
ing, the brutal policy of Guthrie, the cunning
expedients of Marcy, have all signally failed
of their objects. Abandoning the broad ma.
tiona policy which the people so forcibly de-
creed in 1852, the administration has simply
been abandoned. And standing by the peo-
pie as the exponent of public opinion, the
Independent press yields this day the power
which the administration has forfeited, and
has taken its place in the general direction OF
public sentiment. The central organ Of the
administration at Washington has become
even more contemplate in the public estima-
ton than the jackdaw Madisonian of Capt.
Tyler; and its echoes find no echo among the
honest masses of the country.
Briefly, through the progressive spirit OF
the age and the facilities of railroads, steam
ships, and telegraphs, in connection with the
independent press, the clique which CONTROL
ed the democratic party, and fattened upon
the spells Of victory, have been scattered like
"the den of thieves" from the temple. And
if, from the corrupt and incongraOus afhlia-
tons of ITS managers, the national democrat
ic party is broken to pieces upon the wheel
of largely enlightened public opinion, it is
but the Judgment Of justice, which, with an
infexibIe mpartiality, has melted the same
penalty TO the late formidable organization
known as the national wing party. The one
has filled up the schedule of its utilities, both
have exhausted public furbcarance with their
corruptions, and both are essentially deiunct.
As the lines between the old federal and re-
publican parties were oblterated in 1923,
and in the scrub race of 1924, so now we en-
ter upon new epoch from the decline, the
fall and dispersion Of the two great national
parties of the last twenty-five years.
The coincidence between the year 1923
and the present, is remarkable in this-that
all the existing indications, the demolition Of
old party landmarks, the noise and confusion
among all the old cliques and hucksters and
political thimble-riggers of the day, admonish
us to prepare for the contingencies of another
scrub race for the new epoch which is to be
formal ratified in 1856. The administration
has become utterly impotent-the central
Cabinet organ is but sorry humbuc-Tam-
many Hall has become standing joke among
the unbuttered dcmocracy-John Cochrane
and Elijah F. Purdy still "hold the President
in their arms" but, as has been shrcwdly
suggested, it is only to squeeze more office
out of him." The simple fact is, that the
newspaper press and the American people
fairly set out upon the high road toindepcnd-
ent political action together-they have tri-
umphcd together; for the triumph ofthe press
is but an element IN the victory achieved by
an independent people.
Greater triumphs have vet to come. With
all that has been achieved, the peope-the
honest masses of the people--arc still but
partially relieved from the tricks of trading
demagogues and spells seeking cabals. The
party press has yet to he divorced from the
spoils Of Congress and the administration; the
Kitchen Cabinet has yet TO be driven from
the White House; the uncean birds of such
old rookeries rs Tammany Hall are not yet
wholly cleaned out; and the. impudence of
vulgar spolsmen in our popular elections has
yet to be decisively punished. Then, again,
from the debris and the dniitwood and rub
bish of the late wing and democratic parties,
pav md corrunt nnliticnl coalitions and dis
organizing factions are sprnging into exis-
tence. We are threatened not only with the
tiercestand most dangcrousagitation between
the two sections of the Union, but with
war between religious creeds and different
classes of our fellow-citizcns, ominous of
wide spread mischief and confusion. And
last, though not least, we are warned by all
the signs Of the times of an approaching ii
nanca revusion, of q magnitude with the
schedule speculatons stock jobbings, bank
ing operations and swinding transactionsj just
beginning to be exposed