Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1859-03-01

Plain IaIk 1y q Democratic Curm8ls
From the Eusaula (Ala.) Spirit q the South
HOW STANDS THE PARTY.
Under this heading our friends of the CO.
lumbus Times present some hopeful sugges-
tions as to the prospects of the democratic.
party. We wish we could take the same
view of it. To us, however, there is littI,. in
the present or the future of the Democratic
party to encourage the hopes of its Southern
members. While it was in the zenith of its
glory, battling for principle, ana standing by
the doctrines Of State Rights aud strict con-
sfructIon, we were proud of serving under its
banners; and even after it had eliminated
and had lost some of the features of its
better days. we honored it for what it bad
been; but we fear its glory has departed and
the days of its honor are numbered. The
only surviving relic of the golden age of
American politics. it withsiood the iproads
of seciionalism after all its rivals had fallen
prey to its rayages; and il still stands like
venerable oak III the forest but its whitening
leaves and decaying branches too plainly
Indicate that the same fell destroyer which
has laid low all its compeers, has begun his
insidiors work at its roots, and too certainly
portend the fate that awaits il. There is
not one bright spot in the future of the party.
All around its horizon. save where the setting
sun of its glory leaves a ray Of brightness
behind 1t, thick clouds have gathered and
hang like pail. The party may live
through another Presidential campaign. but
will not survive it. Another Democratic
Administration might hold its discordant
elements together thu ough another four years,
but the probability is, that Mr.. Buchanan,s is
the last Democratic Administration which
the country will ever see.
We do not found these predictions merely
upon the dissensions which anti-slavery has
sown in the councils of the party, that is
hsRf 81 i
work for its destruction. 1t can not harmon
iZe its forces upon a single political issue
that now engages public attention. We are
divided upon the Tarifupon internal improve
menis, upon the slavery question, upon
the Cuban and Central American questions
Our differences upon all these points are
radical and daily widening. What element
of cohesion is TO unite us? What but the
patronage of the Governmet. the power of
the party to confer Office, bask kept us together
for the last five years, and what is there in
the future that promises to he stronger bond
of union? Where would these elements of
cohesion be, when we once lose control of
the Government? Success alone can compact
the party. and it is doubtful whether even
success can do it.
Another inquiry: What is there now about
the national organization of the Democratic
party. that is worth an effort on the part of
The South to maintain it? What inducement
have zee to struggle to keep the party together!
IT. soul has left it. 1t is completely emascu-
lated, so far as its power to protect our
rights is concerned. 1t has required all the
patronage of the Government, and all the aid
and sympathy of its Southern members to
keep it on its feet in a single Northern State.
Withdraw these. and it would fall PROSTATE
and lIfeless before the first blast of popular
opinion everywhere at the North. 1t has not
strength enough in a single free State to rally
a popular majority in favor of one sound
plank in our party platform. Turn it loose
to fight single-handed the issues that are
raised in a national election, and it is doubt
ful whether there is one Congressional dis
trict in all the North where its leaders could
win an honest victory upon the principles
which we of the South claim as our party
creed. And what is such an organization
worth to us? What have we to hope for
from 1t ? True, If we can put it in possession
Of the Government, it can give places to a
few of our public men: bnt are we willing to
admit TO ourselves. or make confession to the
world, that. after all. there is truth in the
taunt of our enemies. 1.-The cohesive power of
public plumber is the only bond that unites
us? Or are we going to stultify ourselves
longer, by accepting few lOaves and fishes
as a make weight for the milk and cider plat
form of principles to be enunciated by our
national conventions which serve their pur-
pose during an electioneering campaign,
and are then put quietly away until another
similar occasion reproduces them?
We fear that our friends of the Times have
allowed their devotion to the time hon0red
name of the Democratic party, devotion
which is natural and which we do not mean
TO condemn. to color the picture which hope
has painted for its prospects. We wish it
could be realized. We wish the Democratic
party could stand where it has stood. high
above the waves of faction and sectionalism.
with its foot planted upon the rock of the
Constitution. and bearing aloft that banner
OF noble principles under which it has so often
marched to victory. We would love to serve
under its colors, and to such party we would
cling as the safeguard of the country; but its
old leaders have fallen; its sentinels have
been corrupted; its bugle blasts no longer
give certain sound; its banners are shorn of
their glory; and victory, We think, will no
longer crown them with success.