Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1858-09-30
From The National lntelligencer)
Modern Democracy. Where is it,
and what is it?

(
naond Enquirer, in some recent friendly allu-
sions to this Journal for which we tender
our best acknowledgements, took occasion
to express the hope that, a. a future if not
an early day, We might be found arrayed
with it in the Jealous support OF the Demo-
cratic party. That we may not be suspected
of any Indifference to these good wishes,
(for we are sure they were so considered by
The Enquirer, however differently they
might be construed by others,) we have to
say, as the most that we can promise at
present, that We will take the subject into
consideration as serious and deliberate as
the hoaleperseuaeat we are expected to ac-
complish is radical and novel. Having ar
rived at an age which naturally renders US
! cautious of sudden and precipitate move
ments, and perhaps, even in our younger
days, haviI g never been so wonderfully en-
dowed as some with capacity for the per-
formance of startling feats in political 'fex-
ibility,' we must at least be allowed to pom
der seriously the precise duty which would
! be demanded at our hands, in the event that
we should find ourselves disposed to make
common lot with "the Democracy"
We may say, then, that, even if animated
| by the best intentions to hasten speedy
realization of the kindly wishes uttered by
our respected friends of The Eaquirer, we
| fear we should find ourselves greatly EN-
bairassed in taking the initiative steps to-
ward such an affiiiaton as they designate;-.
! for we candidly confess that we do not fully
understand the nature of the obligations
under which we are expected to come, or
The degree in which we are asked 10 desert
| the principles and measures we have here
tofore espoused, iE case we should proceed
tc Justify the anticipations of The Enquirer.
Before we "join the Democracy" we must
at least be permitted TO inquire what SORT of
Democracy it is to which we are invited to
give in our allegiance, for we are sure that
any one who should now set OUT in search
of .sthe Democratic party would return
from his wanderings not a little mystiied
and puzzled by the Protean shapes he had
encountered under that name. For some
cause the Democratic trumpet no longer
gives forth a certain sound, and we find the
broken SO ,adrons of the faithful not only
going into battle under the conduct of dill
ferent and rival leaders, but even, through
mis- axe or (what could be much satder to
contemplate) through the bitterness of their
divisions, actually firing upon each other in
way and with an execution that makes
service at present in the Democratic ranks
no very engaging paslime, even in the eyes
of one who might otherwise be tempted to
offer himself as a recruit.
What, then. we ask, is the ''Democracy"
which our fiiends Of The Enquirer would
commend TO our adoption! la many of the
Southern Democrotc journals we read much
os what are ca led "Houthern Rights Dem
ocrats,' as contradistnguished from
"National Democrats With the ni,e
shades of difference between these schools,
as with the broad line of demarcation that
apparently divides them in such irreconcil-
able hostility, we are not as thoroughly ac-
uuainted as we should deem necessary be-
fore assuming to pronounce upon their re-
spective claims TO represent the pure and
unadulterateG principles of the original
parly. If we turn our attention to the Nor
thern States, we there find still more
sorry spectacle Of unfraternal strife among
brethern once of the same political house
hold. Divided and subdivided into clans,
which seemed to have little in common
save the familiar and much-abuSed patrony
mic of the family, they present the spectacle
of administration Democrats" and "Anti-
Administration Democrats" "Lecompton
Democrats" and "Anti-Lecompton Dem
ocrats,. Democrats who hold the "Engli>h
conference bll'' to be a "iinal;iy" against
the speedy adm ssion of Kansas, and Dem
ocrats who scorn the thought of respecting
that compromise" Indeed, Northern De-
mocracy, in its permutations and comb!na-
tiops, has come to demand for its descriptive
titles almost as many names as are common
lv artuched to a Spanish Infanta; for have
we not "Anti-Lecompton- -English-confer-
ence-bill Democrats" and Democrats who
were once "Lecompton," but now unfor-
tunatey Notwithstanding
Time indeed would .ail us to tell of Dem
ocrats who are. in favor OF free trade and
direct taxation; Democrats in Louisiana
nevertheless think sugar entitled TO some
projections; Democrats in Pennsylvania who
have no objection TO Mr. Boyce's report, as
pointing the goal o: Democratic prog ress,
but who ask that, in consideration for such
a concession, the duty should be raised on
iron and made perpetual; Democrats in
Kentucky who think that Mr.. Clay's Amer
lean system" was rery mistaken theory
of political economy; but who hold that
tax on imported hemp is highly expedient
and constitutional; Democrats in New
England (immoderate iE their demands be-
cause modest in their numbers) who think
that "the textile fubrics" should be treated
with some consideration by those who pat
ronse sugar in Louisiana, iron in Penn
sylvania, and hemp in kpntu sky; but who
still are willing to sacrifice large per CEN
tage for the sake of s'.harmony,' as that
term is understood in Democratic parlance.
The intelligent reader will easily compre-
hend on this head the theory of Democratic
unity in diversity. as the same as capable of
being inferred from hese.apparently para
doxical propositions; it is that every Dem
ocrat may properly strive to procure pro-
lection for the products OF his own State il
only he will set his face like flint against
the protection of products peculiar to every
o, ner State. And hence, too, the secret Of
the ingenious process by which they are
able to combine the advantages lha. result
from the advocacy of free trade in general