The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1858-08-31
Chr 40tstern gRmorrat.
CHARLOTTE, N. C.
THE HISTORY OF THE DEMOCRATIC
PARTY.
From tie Cincinnati Enquirer

may we'll feel warm glow of pride and salts
faction when they look back to the glorious hlsto-
ry of that organization, which, commencing Its
career with the existence of our government, has
administered it SO triumpantIy and brilliantly, with
but brief intervals, ever since. There are but few
things which inspire more pleasureable emotions
than happy memories of the past; and that organl-
zation or association, which has an honorable his
tory appeals most strongly to the confidence and
feelings of men. The annals of our country for
the last sixty seventy years, are thlcky strcwed
with the story Of the continued and repeated
triumphs of the democratic party and Of It's illus
triors representative men, over the opposition,
which has been arrayed against it in so many
forms and phases. The sympathi"s Of youth, and
Of all that admire greatness and glory, cannot
but be enlisted in favor Of that party which has
given to the nation ten eleven of It's fifteen
Presidents which has persistently shaped It's ma
tional policy; which has originated and carried
every great ACKNOWLEDGEMENT and honor Of the coun-
try; which has always been intensely patriotic and
american in its feeling; which has never once
struck the flag of its organization, but which has
successfully beaten and overwhelmed half a dozen
different parties and combinations that have been
arrayed against it, and which has, over and over
again, been endorsed as the only party that
fit to rule and shape the dcstiuies Of America
When it commenced its remarkable career of
triumph the Union consisted Of but thirteen
States and, under It's auspices, against trCmcnd-
opposition, ntaetcca new States have been ad-
ded to its national constellation 1t acquired
empire from France, another from Mexico; it
brought a separate republic Crcxas) into the
Union; won the golden soil OF California, 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 ca tern and the
Pacific It's western shore. 1t looks forward to the
time when Cuba, the queen Of the Antilles and
the gem of the Gulf of Mexico shall &c added tn
brilliant coronct, and when manifest destiny
shall carry American institutions and the Ameri-
can hag into realms that present lie far be-
yOnd political visioH.---No other political
organization that was ever formed in the Union
is calculated to inspire these feelings, but
the contrary, they call up "reminiscences that
we would Elin Danish forever from our recollcc-
ton. In the commencement Of history.
the Jcdcrat party was the great opponent Of
the democracy. vt its head were many illUsrious
patriots Of the revolution. It contained a lar.-c
amount of private responsibility and public virtue
and at first it bore off the laurcs Of success from its
great antagonist. But, alas, follics and trcasons
soon darkened its escutcheon; its high-handed pro-
ccedings under the administration of John Adams
IN 1893, and its want of patriotism and its British
procvities during the Of 1912; its MALIGNANT
violence against its country in that struggle finish
cd its career, and ever since the name Of 'tedcral
Opprobious. Next came the national rcpuhli-
cans, Understanding designation, but its career
was cphemcral and brict, and is associated in Cur
mind with exploded and erroneous ideas Of govern
ment, whose history it is unpleasant to recall
Then the antmason crusade, which for
while in sections Of the country was very
popular, sweeping everything before it and threat
cning that venerable and illustrious society with
ruin, as well as the time honored democratic party
NVhn lrt he
tornado spent its force; those who had been
largely governed by impulse and feeling in sup
port of it became sensible that their fears Of Ma
sonry were but phantom, conjectured up by de-
signing political denagocues and knavcs for their
own benefit, and in few years the crusade
dismissed most ridiculous and illadvscd rolit-
cal movement. It's successor in the political field
was the whig organization, the name having been
chosen because it was identified with iluStrors
revolutionary memories, and, therefore, likely to
be popular For twenty years it struggled hard
against the democracy. 1t was led by men of
genius and tatent-t was powerful in numbers
but it accomplished nothing. AS its measures
were behind the progressive spirit of the age and
were lacking in genuine American 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 disbandcd
by its adhcrents failure, n they fastened 10
connect themselves with other organizations
with the career OF the two parties which upon It's
ruin, the so-cacd American" and "rcpubiicans
our readers familiar, and think all will agree
that they have conferred no glory upon the coun-
Try and reflected no lustrc upon their organizations
Defeat and disaster have thus far attended them,
although, i'll their infancy, they characterized
by the dota@e of age, and it requires no seer to
predict that in a short time they VIII follow their
successors to the tomb of unregretted past, and
anew organization will take their places confront
and to be subducd in turn by the democracy.
Amid all these mutations and changes the latter
have preserved unbruken their organization and
principles They have seen successfully, the fall
nf federal" ''tiatonal," republican,, 'antima-
sonic" ewing" and they arc about to witness the
complete collapse of their republican American
opponents. Their flag which was first given to
the breeze by Jefferson, and which was carried
through his administration and that of Madison
ana Monroe long period of twenty-fo years
and which was temporarily lowered by the younger
Adams, was again taken up to win fresh victories
by the hero aud patriot Jackson-which has ac-
quired new and recent glories by Van Buren,,
Tyler, Polk, Pierce and Buchanan, our later chief
magistrates.-still waves in triumph over the ma
tioual halls in Washington. With the exception
Of the brief and ingorous administration Of John
Q. Adams, the cphcmeral reign Of Hrrrison and
the weak Taylor-Fill'nore dynasty, the democracy
have been in power uninterrupted, since 1S01-I
SO lone a tenure of nnDular favor in q reouh6e,n