Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1855-02-01
MONTPELIER:
WRECK OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.

paper for publication, should be addressep
post aid, to the Editor.
WRECK OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.
When we look upon the old Democratic party,
and reflect how strong it once stood on che rock
like foundations which its illustrious founders,
Jefferson and Madison, had laid for it, in the
purest, wisest, safest principles of justice and
equality, that ever were embodied, perhaps, in
one political system, since civil governments
Here instituted among men-how firmly inn
planted it became in the affections of the people
how disinterestedly they labored to sustain it
In its purity and power, and how rapidly all
other parties and factions of the day shrunk and
dwindled iato insignifoanee before the moral
NECESSITY Of its creed, and the strength Of its or
ganization, 80 long as the great principles OF
that creed we're kept inviolate-when we reflect
on all this, and ok upon it now, and see it
broken, discovered, wrecked and ruined, with no
hold on the hearts Of the people, commanding
from them no respect, and finding no defenders
except among hirsling press, which the govern
ment patronage the party now happens to WELD
has corrupted-how great and lamensable APP
pears the contrast
But what has wrought this great change J.
What has caused this pslpabls transition from
purity to eorruption-from q condition of
strength so promising Of duration to one so
nearly bordering on dissolution! There must
be some potent cause to produce 80 remarkable
q result. What sit! Can there be any among
US SO blind and obtuse that they do not see and
knew what it is-and that do not know and see
that it is Savery-nething but Slavery-that
has caused the ruin of that once pure and pow
erful party! When the old Democratic party
Grst left their high ground to take lessons from
source so perfectly antagonistiea| as the Slave
Power, they should have known the consequence
They knew that Democracy was but another
name for Freedom, that Slavery was Despetism,
azd they also knew that Froodom and Despotism
cannot long exist together. And yet, knowing
all this, they have gone on yielding themselves
nore and more to the fatal influences of that
Power, till all their old cardinal principles are
overshadowed and lost, and they stand before the
world a Democracy but in name, deserted by
their best men, and kept together only by - the
cohesive force Of the public plumber" with
which but two short years remain to furnish
them.
Now can party thus apostatised and lost,
ever retrieve itself 1t could do so easily if it
would, and that by the most plain and sir pie
process. Let it at once and forever disenthrall
itself of the foul emhrar,e of the Slave Power,
return to the path where it lost sight of the
great landmarks Of true Democracy, resume
them for its guidance, and it would again find
itself in credit with the honest masses of the
country, and soon be clothed with its old irwin.
cibility. But will it do so We confess that We
have but little hope that it will Its bad odoI
and pro-slavery losses at the North, will tempt
Its Interested leaders to turn, as their only hope
to tie South, and seek to secure it's entire vote
by still deeper subservience to the Slave Power.
trusting to carry enough of the Free States, by
party machinery, to elect a next President, who
shall keep up the mockery of the name of g
Democratic administration. But this course
whether crowned with success or not canno,
fail, We think, to pat a finishing stroke to theil
already totterlng party, and consign it to depth
from which it can hope for no resurrection.
We look, therefore, upon the old Democratic
party as utterly ruined and destroyed, But, on
it's ruins, another and true Democratic party
will arise, who will 60 back to Jefferson and
Madison for their platform, who, by precept and
practice, will hold Freedom and Democracy t.
be Identical, and on whose eventual success, a,
we view it, rests the last hope Of American lib
eFty. That party is the Free Democracy oof tn.
country. Let all those who honestly desire t.
be Democrats in deed as we'll as in name, pom
der long before they refuse to enroll ,hemselve
under its bright and unspottei standard.