Staunton vindicator and general advertiser. (Staunton, Augusta County, Va.) 1858-1860, 1858-08-07
From the Cincinnati Enquirer.
The History Of the Democratic Party

commencing its career with the existence
of our government has administered it Sd
triumphantly and brilliantly. with but brie
Intervals, ever since. There are but few
things which inspire more pleasurable e.
motions than happy memories Of the past
and that organization or association which
has an honorable history, appeals most
strongly to the confidence and feelings Of
men, The annals Of our country, for tie
last sixty or seventy years, are thlckly
|strewed with the story Of the continned and
repeated triumphs Of the democratic party,
and of its illustrious representative men,
over the opposition, which has been array
ed against it in so many ferns and phases.
The sympathies of youth. and of all who
admire greatness and glory, cannot but be
enlisted in favor Of that party which has
given to the nation ten Or eleven Of its fif-
teen presidents which has persistently
shaped its national policy which has origi-
mated and carried every great measure that
has tended to the aggrandizementa and honor
Of the country which has always been in
tensely patriotic and American in it's feel
ings which has never once struck the flag
Of it's organization, but which has success
| fully beaten and overwhelmed half dozen
different parties ard combinations that have
been arrayed against it, ard which has,
over and over again, been endorsed as the
only party that was fit to rule and shape the
destinies Of America
When it commenced its remarkable cas-
reer Of triumph, the Union consisted of but
thirteen states, and, under its auspices, a
gainst tremendous opposition, nineteen
new states have been added to its national
constellation. It acquired an empire from
France and another from Mexico it
brought a separate republic (Tesas) into
the Union; won the golden soil Of Califor-
MIA, and, by these immense acquisitions, it
made our boundary extend from one great
ocean Of the world to the other--for the
Atlantic washes its eastern and the Pacific
its western shore. It looks forward to.the
time when Cuba, the queen Of the Antilles
and the gem of the Gulf Of Mexico, shall be
added to our brilliant coronet; and, when
manifest destiny shall carry American
institutions and the American flag into
realms that at present lie far beyond cur
political vision. No other political org ami
cation that was ever formed in this Union
is calculated to inspire the Sc feelings, but,
on the contrary, they call up "reminiscences
that we would tain Danish forever from our
recollection. In the commencement of our
history, the federal party was the great op-
ponent Of the democracy. At its head
were many Of the illustrious patriots Of the
revolution. It contained large amount Of
private responsibility and public virtue, and
at first it bore off the laurels Of success from
its great antagonist. But, alas, follies and
treasons soon darkened its escutchcon its
high handed proceedings under the admin
istration Of John Adams, in 1898, and its
want of patriotism and it's British proclivi-
ties during the war Of 1872 its malignant
violence against its country in that strug-
gle finished its career, and ever since the
name Of ''federalist," in political sense,
has been considered to be opproDious. -
Next came the s'hatiohal republicans" a
bigh-sourding designation, but its career
was ephemeral and brief, end is associated
in our mind with exploded and enron sous
ideas Of government, whose history it is un-
pleasant to recall since they are only redo
lent CT defeat.
Then came the anti-mason crusade, which,
for while, in some sections Of the country,
was very popular, sweeping everything be-
fore it and threatening that venerable and
illustrious society with ruin, as well as the
time honored democratic party, against
whom it was politically arrayed. But the
tornado soon spent it's force; those who had
been largely governed by impulse and feel
ing in support Of it became sensible that
their fears Of Masonry were but phantom,
conjured up by designing political dema-
gogues and knaves for their own beneft,
and in few years the crusade was dismiss
ed as most ridiculous and ill-advised po-
litical movement. It's successor in the po-
litical field was the wing organization, that
name having been chosen because it was l.
Identified with illustrious revolutionary me-
mories, and, therefore, likely to be popular.
For twenty years it struggled hard against
the democracy. It was led by men ofgen-
ius and talent-it was powerful in numbers,
but it accomplished nothing. AS its meas
ares were behind the progressive spirit Of
the age and were lacking in genuine Ameri-
can feeling. the masses felt that it could
never be entrusted with the direction of the
government. When its great leaders were
| laid IN their graves, it was disbanded by its
adherents as failure, as they fastened te
connect themselves with other organiza-
tons. With the career Of the two yarties
which rose upon its ruin, the so-calEed "a.
merican' and republican" our readers are
familiar, and we think all will agree thai
they have conferred no glory upon The
country and reflected no lustfe upon theil
organizations Defeat and disaster have
THUS far attended them, although, in thei,
infancy, they are characterized by the do
tage Of age, and it requires no seer to pre-.
diet that in short time they will follow theil
successors to the tomb Of an unregretted
past, and that a new organization will take
their places to confront and to be subdued
in turn by the democracy.
Amid all these mutations and changes the
latter have preserved unbroken their organ
)ization and principles. They have seen,
successfully, the fall of federal Grafton.
al republican" esantimasonic," "whig,
and they are about towitness the complete
collapse of their republican American oppo
nents Their flag, which was first given tx
the breeze by Jefferson. and which was car
Tried through his administration and that O
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