The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-09-29
WASHINGTON, D. C.
A HIGH AND DESERVED COMPLIMENT


The Richmond Enquirer, the great organ o.
the Southern Democracy, pays the following
high and just compliment to its Northern All
lies" The editor of the Enquirer is a good
thinner. He says:
Look at some of the instances at the North
where the Democracy have SO long remained a
minority. They are powerless to secure popu.
lar election to public Offices Their leaders
have ceased TO be responsible to the public
opinion OF the communities in which they re-
side. Wholly unaccustomed to defend or ad-
vance political measures before popular assem-
blages, shut out from the grand theatre of pOlit-
zeal contest and selfrelant exertion, their po-
htical career has been reduced TO mere iness-
ing to secure Offices by Federal Executive APP
pointment.
The business of President making consti-
tutes their main political stock in trade. Una
BILE to achieve anything towards the election Of
a Presidential candidate, their entire exertions
are confined to securing claims upon the favor
of some Presidential aspirant by assisting him
TO procure a nomination. They thus become
mere trading politicians - bartering caucus
tricks for Federal offices-and, like all mere
mercenaries when disappointed in the quid pro
quo, they soon join the ranks of the enemy. Thus
II is that, In so many instances, small Demo
cratic minorities at the North so rapidly be-
come beautifully less, until the Democratic
party Of whole community dwindles down to
a mere coterie, which, on the election of a
Democratic President, finds Federal spoils in
its immediate neighborhood, sufficient to an
swer all It's political wants in the way of public
Jobs rnd public offices. 1t then becomes the
interest and the policy of the little band of prn-
oipal managers 20 keep tie party IA the State iR
a minority, and an the smallest possible minor
1ty. These men are not unfrequently heralded
through the newspapers az 'forlorn hope -
a band of devoted patriots, standing firmly op-
posed to overwhelming ajorities-undergoin
privation and defying popularity in an unselfsh
devotion to political principle. Lucky dogs!
They laugh in their sleeves, and pocket Federal
money and wear Federal honors in proportion
altogether unattainable by Democratic MAORI
ties. Quietly, cozily, 'harmoniously' they get
on together, until some fraction of the faction
discovers that another fraction is continually
assimilating all the choice bits of Federal pat
ronege for It's own separate enjoyment. Then
comes snarling and reviling and fierce conten-
tion-and the consequence is, finally, that the
two factions select different Presidential as
pirants, each with the hope of excluding the
other from all share in the spois. Prominent
Southern Democrats, who were present at Gin
cinnati, state that they were referred to con-
stantly as umpires to settle squabbles of this
sort, where each of the contestants did not hest
tate to avow that share of the spOils was all
he was seeking, both discovering at last that
they were only cutting each others throats, and
each finally DESTROYS of an equitable arrange
ment which would secure him half the pudding,
since he could not get the whole"