Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1858-04-14
rI@ The United States has attained

q. The United States has attained
to its present national greatness, under
its government, for the most part con-
Quoted by the Democratic party. Ac-
cording to the croakings Of the oppOsi-
ton (under thousand aliases) we have
been constantly going to ruin. Every
few years, from the day of Mr. Jeffer
son down, some question has come up
on which Federal Wing Abolition OPP
position has taken issue with the De
mocracy, and on which they have con-
dcrnned the democratic policy, as tend
ing to the swift destruction of the coun-
try. The democracy has pursued the
even tenor of It's way, generally carry
ing the day against al opposition, and
the results are manifest in the uneXam-
pied greatness Of Il nation so young
We have now another Of these ques-
tons in the proposed admission of Kan
saS with the Lecompton Constitution.
President Buchanan, on the issue, is
abused onl y as Jefferson, Jackson and
Polk were before him. But the Presi-
dent is right, and will be sustained by
all true national democrats; the ques-
ton will be carried, and Kansas will
come in. The majority will be small,
as it generally is on closely contested
struggles between parties;-But the
victory will be none the less important
to correct principle and the perpetual
ton Of the Union.
The foregoing article we clip from
the Stevens Point Paery, a journal
which is the very quintessencc of hun
kerism. From its tone, one would
judge that the Democratic party now
stands forth in immaculate purity, as
honest and gallant as in the days Of
Thomas Jefferson.
Without saying anything in regard
to the motives that influence the Edi-
tor of that sheet, or of the personal in
terest, for the preservation Of which he
doubtless supports and defends the Le-
compton iniquity, let US inquire wheth-
CT our national prosperity is owing to
the policy Of the Democratic party, as
1t exists at the present day.
The old Jeffersonian party was, we
admit, properly called Democratic. If
the policy Of its founder, and the iber-
al opinions that he entertained and ex-
pressed, had always ruled the councils
Of our nation, the present year wo1lid
have found us far in advance of even
our present position; and whatever ma
tional greatness we can boast of now,
Is undoubtedly owing at least in part,
to the operation of those principles,
feebly carried out as they have been.
So far the assertion Of the Editor Of
the Pinery is correct; but beyond this
it is destitute of even the shadow Of
truth. The similarity between the old
Democratic party, and that which now
exists under miSnomcr, is about the
same as that Of black and white. 1t is
true that that party, under its assumed
name, has exercised preponderatiag
influence in our government. True
that they have met with astonishing
success in political strife. But what
are the means by which that success
has been attained? What are the Gle
ments that constitute its organization?
1t does not triumph by the force of prin-
ciple, or the power Of reason. It does
not even meet Its opponents fully and
fairly upon question Of right But
without scruple as to the manner of &C
compHshing their objects and realizing
their schemes of political ambition, its
leaders hesitate not to resort to the
grosseSt iniquities. They bring to bear
every element of political power The
patronage Of the executive, the federal
troops, and every attribute of power
and influence that pertains to the Chief
Ma4j~tvacy Of the nation, is made sub
scrviont to party schemes and sectional
Interests, and, welded by these cham
p1ons Of Democracy, becomes means
Of prospective reward, and present in
Limitations.
This is the way in which that cor
rupt party, miscaIled Democratic, has
for years achieved its success. 1t has
fearfully refrigerated from its original
standpoint. From a liberal and COM
prehensive party advocated by the
Fathers of the Republic, it has narrow
ed its creed down to a single question,
that if slavery, forgetting, in its blind
devotion to q sectional conservatism,
other great questions Of equal, if not
more vital Importance than this. That
question it has made the test Of party
faith; and woe to him who fails to come
up, or rather down to that Standard
1t has been an essentially corrupt,
proscriptive party,
1t is only necessary to refer to the
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