The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1857-11-12
What Is Democracy 2

EepatoF from Ohlo, gives the 1oloWlh9
answer 10 this question. 1t is eloquent
and just:
democracy Is a sentiment not to be
appalled,, corrupted or compromised, 1t
knows no baseness, it covers to no dan.
ger, it oppresses no weakness Fearless,
generous and humane, it rebukes the ar
rogant, cherishes honor, and synpathiscs
with the humble. 1t asks nothing but
what is right. Destructive only to des-
potism, it's the sole consevator of liberty,
labor and property 1t is the law of na-
ture pervading the law Of the land. The
stupid, the selfish and the base in spirit,
may denounce it as vulgar thing; but
in the history of onr race, the DEMOCRAT
ic principle has developed and illustrated
the highest moral and intellectual attrib-
utes of our nature Yes, that is a noble,
magpanimous, and sublime sentiment,
which expands our affections, enlarges
the circle Of our synpathies, and elev~tes
the soul of man, unit! claiming an equal
ity with the best, he rejects, as unworthy
Of his dignity, any political immupitles
over the humblcst Of his followers"
We cut the above from a late Gin
ton Democrat We have published this
noble definition of Democracy several
times before, but it is so refreshing to re-
call sqch sentiments as compared with the
.Dred Scott decision Democracy, that We
cannot publish it too often
The Democrat must presume on the
dullness Of It's readers, OR it would Hot give
them this description Of genuine Democ
racy, while it defends and supports the
Democracy which sustains such doctrines
as the following. The Democrat goes
hand in hand with the following papers
and their sentiments:
WHITE SLAVERY. - The Richmond
Enquirer, a leading Buchanan paper in
Virginia, uses the following language:
"Uutil recently, the defense of slavery
has labored under great difficulties, be-
cause lis apologists for they were merely
apologists) took halfway grounds. They
confined the defense OF slavery ts mere
negro slavery, thereby giving up the prin
ciple, admitting other forms OF slavery to
be wrong,
THE line of defence, however, is now
changed. The south now maintains that
slavery is right, natural and necessary,
and does not depend upon the difference
of complexion. The laws of the slave
states Justify the holding OF white men in
bondage"
Again a leading South Carolina Blu
chanan paper says:
Slavery is the natural and normal
condition of the laboring man, whether
white or black The great evil OF north
ern free society is, that it is burdelcd
with servile class of mechanics and la
borers, unfit for self government, and YET
clothed with the attributes and powers Of
citizens, Master and slave is a relation
in society as natural and necessary as that
of parent and child; and the northern
states will yet haVe to Introduce it:
Owe repeat, then, that policy and hu
manity alike forbid the extension of the
evils of free society to new people and
coming generations,
s'TWo opposite and conflicting forms Of
society cannot, among civilized men, CO.
exist and endure. The one must give
way and cease to exist, the othor BECOME
universal: If free society be unnatural,
immoral, unphristian, it must fall, and
give way to slave society-a system old
aS the world, universal as man"
The MusGqgee (Ala:) HereId, ANOTHER
valiant Buchanan organ says
l.Free society we sickcn at the name
What is it but couglomeratipn of greasy
mechanics, filthy operatives, smalI-hsted
fappers, aud mpon-struck theorists? All
the northern apd especially the New Eng
land states are devoid Of society fitted for
well bred gentlemen, The prevailing
class one meets with is that of mechanics
to be genteel, and small farm
ers who do their ovn drpdgery, and yet
who are hardly fit for association with
southern gentlemans body servant. This
is your free society which the northern
hordes are endeayoring to extend into
Kansas"
The Richmond (Va.) Eramiaer, an
other Buchanan paper, uses the following
language;
"We have got to hating everything
with the prefix free, from free negroes
down and up through the whole cata-
farms, free labor, free society,
free will, free thinking, free children, and
free school-all belonging to the same
brood of damnable isms. But the worst
of all denominations is the modern svstem
Of free schools, which has been the cause
and prolific source of the infdelity and
treasons that have turned her cities into
Sodons and Gomorrahs, and her land in
to the nesting places of howling Bedlam-
tics. We aboninate the system because
the schools are free"