Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1859-07-08
from tie Phil. North American.

Dm0cHAT;c BrRLEsQUEs.- Very rapid
progress IS made by the Democratic party
toward g.. purely lUIicI1us position. accord
TO EmrIs3n's definition ul the sense
of the luGicrous which is % Seem one thing,
and to be quite another, or To make great
feint Of something, when nothing really nap
pens. Thus, child Is amused a. feint of
great physical ieats-at an attempt to leap,
which turns out a mere tumble, and so on
lndeh ltely. To perfect their developing
character Of the ludicrous, they have nomin-
ajed SAKE for Governor IN Vermont. SAKE
Is a man who understands humor. and who
knows well the propriety OF the nomination.
What Joke SO perfect that Of running tor
Governor on the Democratic ticket IN Yer
mout-whcrc 50 rat an illustration ot the
iudicrOus in the greatness OF the attempt
and The TaltrIness OF the reality SAKE can
couvuisa lis auditors at a lecture with his
Uungent sarc lsms, and his deXtrous balying
ot cas-, and probably he expects all the au-
dleuce of his gubernatorial race to laugh Is
his audience at the Universal Literary Insti-
tute laughed at his last lecture.
But, the truth is, we cannot laugh. Gl0o-
my thoughts and melancholy forebodIngs
come over us when we witness the perverSl0n
Of politics in this day and age. We cannot
look upon the exiStenceOf masses Of democrats
without an undefnabie sadness, and when we
see these in States remote from " hashlngton.
and where no earthly cause for their existence
is apparent, we almost fear that the ancient
theories of the composition OF the earth
are true, and that there are magazines
of evil under our feet everywhere,
which, when opened to the light.
emit influences fatal to the moral nature OF
man ana Suddenly degrade whole classes OF
the race. In Vermont, for instance, we can
account for the existence ofdemocrats enough
to Eli the Post-ofiices. Marshalships, and a
few ether posts. with 4 small stock tor ex-
port t. Washington and abroad. So in
Massachusetts,, and particularly in Boston,
from which last locality we have to draw
several classes of seryitors Of an Administra-
ton, who must, Of course, be democratic if
the Administration Is democratic And yet
more SO in Connecticut, from which artifc-
ers. and live oak and coal contractors must
come All these are needed in their several
places, and we admit the right and the duty
to be democrats on the part of sufficient
number for these various uses.
But that the people should be democrats
amazes US. Men wishing no Offices, and men
having no time for amusements and not de-
fONOOS VI JONpoOhOSS passes SOii tAS44SASASS
how such men should come up by hundreds
to the polls in a State like Vermont, to vote
the democratic ticket. To nearly all these
men, the allurements of office-holding cannot
be matters of real longing, unless, indeed,
the error sud to have prevailed in many STAT
Is Of teaching each youth as he grows up
that he may at some day attain to the Presi-
dency, is at the bottom of the mystery.
If the common school systems have in truth
so grounded this heresy in the peoples minds,
that every constituent man Of the masses be-
lieves that he shall at some day hold Office
under the federal government, we may have
here the explanation of the insanity which
induces hundreds, and even thousands, to
vote the democratic ticket when no other
cause can be assigned a -5--a
The current democracy is an excellent bur-
lesque upon sound politics. 1t is admirable
sonnd without sense: perfect feint. with
out performance; captivating shell without
kernel. We commend it to, SAKE and to
Emerson, and to the elegan. Hawthorne. who
can treat US to a pleasant rill from even
town pump.