Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1859-05-17

Is this, fellow-citizens, the system of govern
ment which our noble and free-born ancestor
bequeathed to us2 Is this government of tn
peopze2 Is this o Democracy, in the virtuou
and honorable sense in which only free peopl
would accept it, or is it not rather On otagarchs
of the worst and most degrading character
sordid oligarchy of mercenary Office holders ant
Office. seekers | have the satisfaction to know
that there are Democrats in Virginia, at least
who repudiate such a system-who will no
permit themselves to be manacled with sucl
vile fetters-who will assert their privileges q
freemen, their dignity as men.
In free country there will be, there must b,
parties But to be vrtuous and honorable, ant
to merit the support of the people they must b.
founded on principle, and honestly pursue th'
public good as their aim-not the acquisition .
power for mere selfish and interested ends.
See fellow -ctizens, how this natural and le
gitimate constitution of parties has been per
verted of late in this country, by the corruptini
influences of the new system of political ethic
taught and practiced by the party in power
What were the distinguishing principles of th'
Democratic party, professed in the days of it
purity, by its great founder, Thomas Jefferson
simplicity and economy in the public expense
jealous limitation of executive power-a sacred
regard for the freedom of elections-a stern pro
hibition of all official interference with them
peace and honest friendship with all nations.
With Democratic traditions, and even profes
sions of simplicity and economy, your two las
administrations have, in six years, carried up th'
annual expenses of the government from 40 II
80 millions of dollars, q speak approximately
and in round numbers, having exhausted
surplus of 20 or 80 millions, and now living
from hand to mouth, on the baggarly and ruin
Gus expedient of loans while at the same time
we have seen Democratic members of Congress
by an act of unprecedented cupidity and IN vi
olation of all decency, as well as the spirit o
the Constitution, doubling their pay, and voting
the increase into their own pockets by retro
spectiye provision, and surrounding themselves
at an enormous waste of the public treasure
with luxurious accommodations and extravagsni
allowances, that put to shame all we read of ori
entail magni6eence and self indulgence.
With like professions of democratic Jealousy
of executive power, your President modestly
calls upon the representatives of the people tc
transfer to him the power of peace and war-to
give him in effect, the sole treaty making pow
er-to place millions of the public money al
his discretion-and to invest him with military
protectorates over foreign States. With the
same professed allegiance to democratic princl
pies, he tramples under foot the sacred regard
incucated by the founder of the democratic par
ty for the freedom of elections, and brings the
whole patronage and influence of his high Office
to control elections in the States, from the hum
blest representative trust mp to that of Senator
of the United States Succeeding to the Demo
cratic maxim of peace and honest friendship with
all nations, he threatens all by bellicose denup-
caticns, in order to keep up the tagging spirit
or party devotion by factitous appeals to nation
al pride and honor.
Gan such party as this be said to be found
ed upon any public principle Z If it is, it is up
on principles directly the reverse of those which
were taught by the author and acknowledged
oracle of the democratic faith-which gave
that great man the confidence and support O
the people-and which originally established the
ascendency of the party in the councils OF the
nation. Will the intelligent and patriotic peo
pie of this country permit themselves to be dup
ed by mere name, seductive as it may be
when every principle which belongs to it in it
proper Interpretation, and in its ancient ant
honorable traditions, is openly renounced ant
disregarded by those who now assume itY
But l may 60 further, and ask if there IS {
single principle of any sort held in common BY
the members of the now dominant party2 The
favorite and prominent measures OF the presen
administration are the thirty million Cuba ap
propriation-the transfer of the warmakinl
power-the Mexican protectorate-the Pacific
Raroad-a protective tariff, and, until lately
the Lecompton Constitution. Is there any u
Mon of opinion in the party upon single one
these measures? No, fellow citizens, there i:
division and dissention upon all of them-fa
grant intestine war upon some-and upon 9TH
ers, it is hard to decide whether majority o
the party agree with or differ from their Presi
dent and chief in the measures recommended b.
him.
| But still, with rare exceptions, they adhere tt
and sustain him. AS the living representative
and embodiment of the party, he is to be sup
ported at all hazards. The political ascendancy
of the party--the power of dsposing of the Off
ces, employments, emoluments, solid personal
benefits of the government, is not to be jeopar-
ded by indiscreet scruples about matters of 81
little comparative Importance as principles an(
the general interests of the country. Such, fel
low-citizens, are the results of the modern sys-
tenn of party discipline-of the code of politica
morals inculcated by the party in power. Wha
is it but to proclaim by their act, the justice o
the sentence pronounced years ago by distin.
guished statesman of South Carolina "that the,
are held together only by the cohesive power o
the public plunder."
One of the chief arts by which this party ha
so long held possession of the government, to th
serious injury of the country and in spite of th
reprobation of their measures by large and un
questionable majority of the people of the Uni.
! ted States, is the fabrication of sectional issue
and the fermentation of sectional jealousies to di
vide the country, and thereby to prevent hume.
rous masses of virtuous and honorable men il
both sections, who cordially agree in detestatiol
of their practices, from uniting in any efficien
cooperation to displace them from power. Th
great Instrument of popular delusion whicl
they WELD for this purpose, and to which alon
they owe their unnatural foothold in the South
is the inoessant and pernicious agitation of ques
tions connected with slavery.
They put themselves forward as the specia
and exclusive friends Of the rights Of the slave.
holding States. They oficiously volunteer t.
make political issues for the South and when
by means of these Fictitious issues, they hav
inhamed the South and secured her votes, par
of them equvocate about the meaning and i'm
port of their pledges, and others betray her int
false and untenable positions, where she is doom
ed to humiliating defeat, and where, worse thai
all, she is shorn of that which has hitherto con-
stituted her chief and in itself invncibe strengt
the prestige of character for high mora
principles that would disdain communion will
fraud, unfairness, or indirection of any sort
Let the late Democratic eclaircisement in tn
Senate of the United States on the true meaning
and import of the Kansas Nebraska Billet tn
humilating history and sequel of the Lecomp-
ton Constitution and of the English bill-sa.
how far this representation is justified by facts.
No fellow-ctizens, never should the Soutl
consent to barter her principles and honor TO
such miserable, such delusive support as this
She has never glined anything-she never cal