The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1856-06-18
THE DEM0GIsATIC PARTY AND
IT'S PROSPECTS,.


There is a moral grandeur, says the
PENNSYLVANIA, in the spectacle now
presented by the Democratic party of
the Union, with its platform and its can
didates, of no ordinary magnitude and
never did it enter upon a national con-
test with more brilliant augeries of sue
, cess. There is a moral grandeur in the
unanimity and the strength it exhibits
in all the States, because that unanimi-
ty and that strength has been purchased
by no temporary expedients of the hour
by no compromise with the miserable
heresies and wicked dogmas of brainless
fanatics-by no alliance with the secret
or open enemies of the Democratic faith,
to achieve a momentary triumph at the
expense of honor but by a steady, I'M
aiuchipg, unfaltering devotion to the
Constitution and the Union, throbbing
in all the strir gs of its mighty heart for
utterance, and speaking with but one
tongue through all its recognized organs,
which challenged the respect and won
the confidence of patriotic men every
Where, Observation-Disclosures STANDARD.
and gathered under the streaming folds
of its banners "high advanced" every
friend of we'll regulated Liberty and
Law.
We annot shut our eyes to the fact,
humiliating as it may be, that our polit-
cal history, for the past two years, has
been pregnant with dangers that mena
ced our very citadel of liberty itself
that has demonstrated beyond the shad-
ow of a doubt, that we have elements in
our midst at war with the very funda-
mental principles upon which our free
institutions are reared, and which, if not
closely watched, repressed, and crushed
out, may even yet, at some day not dis
tant, prove more destructive to our peace
and safety than, an external foe and Gan
army with banners" A secret party
suddenly sprung up, bound together by
themost disgusting oaths and obligations,
and Turing to its haunts and caves its
Neophytes, by the Syren voice and su-
gared motto of intense and exclusive
Americanism and a popular religion.
Regardless Of Constitution and Law, it
attempted to enforce its mandates, and
assuming the prerogatives of Deity him
self, it made accident of birthplace q
crime, aud a peculiar faith a sacrilege.
Like the assassin, it dealt its blows in
the dark, and the victim knew not the
quarter where the danger lurked, and
could hence make no provision for safety.
Through its system of stealth and Thug
ism, it controlled our electioDs, poison
ed, in some cases, the fountains of JUS
tice, dcsecrated our legislative halls,
and obtruded its blatant rawlings into
the temples of the living Cod. 1t made
war bravely in one State upon lonely
and e.r.eteotad-wonaen in another it
passed prosoriotivo laws; in another, it
got up a liot, murdered innocent and
defenceless men by wholesale, and made
"a mockery of the elective franchise
that mighty though voicelcss oracle of
freemcn- by driving TIE election Off
GERS from their posts, and burning the
ballot boxes.
Against this hydra-hcaded monster
of bigotry ard intolerance, it was the
peculiar mission Of the American De-
mocracy to wage all pnceasing and un-
compromising war. Had it hesitated
at this crisis-had it paused to count
the cost, and not at the very t~hreshhold
met and resisted the baleful serpent
that was tp;ning its deadly folds around
the pillars of the Constitution, and be-
Shining the temple of Liberty itself, it
would have been false to all the proud
memories of the past, and to all the
glowing hopes of the future. True to
its high mission, it bravely sprung into
the breach. 1t grappled with it like a
giant. It took and gave no quarter. It
drew the sword and never sheathed it
until the foe lay painting and bleeding be-
meath its feet, iinploring for mercy. This
achievement was the crowning glory of
our great old party. 1t equalled the
victory over the money power in the Glo-
rious days of JACKSON.
And now, this enemy driven from the
field, we await ga foeman worthy of our
steel" What phase the common ene-
my of our party may now take, or what
garb they may assume, we cannot tell
exactly, nor do we care. With Nation
al men, everywhere clustered around
our glorious ensign, and with such no.
BILE standard bearers as BUCHANAN and
BRECKENRIDGE, and with a platform that
knows no North, nor South, nor East,
West, we enter into this contest
with the most inspiring confidence of an
overwhelming triumph.
DZSCREDITS THE TALE.