Daily national Democrat., 1858-08-20
rhe ODa MAN powrr.

Inc 1ecOMpJOn huullneutul NOh"i OHi4'0t
and lingering remnants of the Old Blue
Light Federal Party, of which James Blu
chanan was a prominent member at the time
that he desired to let out the last drop of
Democratic blood from his veins, (by the way,
We do believe the last drop has gomez conte- i
that the President is, in all cases, the head of
his party, and that it is not fealty to party
to oppose him in anything at all and that,
therefore, the Douglas men have renounced
their allegiance to the Democracy by oppo
sing the Kansas policy of President Blu
chanan. Well, if there were ever so much
weight in this assertion, it argues a strange
inconsistency in those who makeit, when we
come 10 consider that these very preachers Of
the Lecompton doctrine OPPOSED the Presi
dent in the Senate in nearly everything ex-
cept his Kansas policy, and violently and
abusively opposed him in his Nicaraguan
and his Army policy, in particular. Let
them live up to their own doctrine before
they attempt to force it upon other people |!
But, admitting that they were ever so con
sistent, what truth, sense or reason is there
in the assumption which they put forth p
There is none whatever We deny emphati-
cally that it belongs to the nominee OF a
party, either before or after his election, to
prescribe the principles by which the party
is governed. Platforms are constructed by
the masses of the party, as represented in the
conventions and those platforms are after.
wards ratified in the mass-meetings and gen.
eral action ofthe party at large. The noni-
nee ofthe party is pledged in all cases to
stand upon the platform, and faithfully to
carry out its principles. Ifhe abandon that
platform, and fail to carry out those princi-
Piles, he is justly denounced as a traitor to the
party which elected him. James Buchanan
has worth;ly won that title According to
his own showing, in his dilly -dallying argu-
mentation over the Kansas question, there
was but one understanding oF the doctrine of
the Democratic party in relation to the for
nation of State Constitutions in the Terri
tories, and that was that they were to be sub
m!tted to the people and yet, he deliberately
docs violence to that common understanding
of the party, 10y declaring that, although
such was the general understanding, vet in
the case of Kansas, because one portion of
the Union was camor,us for her admission
with slave constitution, he would depart
from that broad and general Interpretation
of the Kansas Nebraska Bill and the National
Democratic Platform ofls56-that platform in
which he had with ludicrous andP Pharasaical
solemnity, decared that his personal identity
was lost, and that he was no longer James
Buchanan. What right had he to give a
different Interpretation to the doctrines OF
the party from that which the party itself
had given If he believed, when he was
nominated, in different construction, why
was he not manly enough to say so, and not
suffer himself to be supported upon n princi
pie to whose inviolability he did not sub
scribe
But to argue the absurdlty of the PROPOSE
tion that the nominees of party are to die
tate its principles, at least to argue it with
sensible men, is an absolute waste of time
The idiotic shallowness of such a proposition
is apparent at the first glance For instance
suppose that President elected by the Dem
ocratic Party should recommend to Congress
the establishment of United States Bank
would the party have to accept the advocacy
of a United States Bank as a part of their
creed According to these Lecompton. wise
acres, it would
Some persons are surprised that MIR. Bu-
chanan should suppose that he could change,
by a mere fat from his own mouth, the
whole spirit, character and course of the
Democratic Party, and establish one.man
power in this Nation We are not at all
surprised. Mr. Buchanan is to day as good
a Federalist as he ever was, and the Federal
lists always did distrust the capacity of the
people for selfgoyernment, and long for O
Capitalization of power in the hands of the
Federal Authority Mr. Buchanan has lived
too long. too, in England, is too much of q
natural aristocrat, and has become too mucl
imbued with English and European notion,
of the science politics, to ever become il
his old age very warm admirer of the mas
ses or a very thorough champion of popular
sovereignity lie would dearly love tc
WELD kingy scepter, but, knowing that he
cannot wholly do that at this early period
OF American Freedom, he is anxious to come
as near it as the gullibility of the people and
the trucking subserviency of Federal hire
lings, will allow. His treachery to his coun.
try and to his party deserve thes rebuke
which he is bound to receive at the hands OF
an indignant people.