The Placer herald., 1858-04-17
The Necessity of Union for the Republic
and the Democratic Party.

and the Democratic Party.
1t is very clear that without union, the
weight Of our Confederacy in the concerns
of the world, would be little more than that
of our sister State, Mexico, or that of the
South American States generally. 1t is the
union of the States and their harmonious
cooperation that makes us "American"-
a name now honored and respected through
out the civilized world. Without union, we
should be at war with each other, mutually
destroying, instead of building up each others
greatness, and engaged as Europe has been
for nearly three centuries, in fighting out
"the balance of power" While thus en-
gagged, it would be an easy matter for foreign
nations to take sides with one or another
party, and thereby even to get foothold
on the soil of our Republic. The truth is,
the Union once destroyed, our career as a
nation would be ended, and the great tex
pertinent of self.government" pronounced a
failure from the equator to the poles.
What the Union is to all of us as Ameri-
cans, that is the Democratic party and the
Uuion. 1t is the only party which, in pros
perity and adversely, in peace and war, amid
the madness of faction, and the blindness of
sectional prejudices, has honestly endeavored
to preserve the law, the Constitution, and
the patriotic feelings which bind us together
as one and the same people. Destroy the
Democratic party, and there will be no more
national organization on which to rest our
national hopes, no means Of preventing the
conflict of violent passions, no rallying point
for the patriots to prevent the dismember-
ment of our Confederacy.
But the Democratic party itself cannot be
preserved without retaining the vigor of its
organization and discipline. A man, in his
individual capacity, may think and act as he
pleases; but as a member of an organiza-
ton, he must be guided by the rules and re-
gulations the faith and aspirations of the
political body to which he belongs; because
the action, consideration, power and conse-
quence Of the party depend on the obser-
vance of those rules, and because without
them, no association of men for common
purpose can become even respectable, much
less powerful. A man may be individually
brave; but what would become of an army,
in which every soldier, or every company or
regiment claimed to fight "on its own hook:'
Would such an army, lrave as it might be,
not fall an easy prey TO its foe! The same
holds of party. 1t will not do for this or
that man 10 say, 81 am with you generally;
but you must excuse me if in this battle |
fight on the side of the enemy" 1t is bad
enough and cowardIy enough to run while
the battle is raging; but it is foul treason to
pass over to the opposite ranks.
The Kansas question, which is now agitat-
ing the two great geographical sections of
our country, is more than an ordinary patty
question; its speedy settlement is vital to the
success of the Administration, to the exist
ence of the National Democracy as party,
and to the perpetuity Of the Union. lnde-
pendent of its absolute justice, IFS entire
iawfulness and consttutionality, it is ques-
ton which must be got out of the way to
preserve public peace, and to make room for
other healthful legislation, without which
the Democratic party, represented as it is by
the National Administration, must stand de-
feated and disgraced before the country and
the world. 1t will not do for man to say,
81 differ from the President only on this sin
Gle point" it will not do to differ on 'that
single point" when it is in the way of all
OtnerS Oh WHICH uepenu lne uohof anu Sioiy
of our cause. We are engaged in great
battle with the enemy, and we cannot hope
to conquer him unless we stand together,
forget our individual differences, and act in
conformity to discipline and the established
rules of our party.
We cannot hope to form party outside
of the National Administration, neither can
any man in or out of Congress expect to
drag the Administration behind him. The
Administration is bound to crush these men
to preserve itself and the party, and every
honest Democrat will stand by the Admins
tration in this great process OF publication.
The party cannot have more than one COM
mander-in-chief, though it may have dozen
candidates for the Presidency. That COM
mander-in-chief is President Buchanan, and
it is fortunate for the party and for the coun-
try that we can look upon him, not only as
the expounder Of correct principles, but as
the experienced statesman and patriot, whose
whole energies are employed to maintain
them in their original purity and vigor.
Ncw York News.
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