Kenosha tribune & telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1856-1859, 1859-02-03
History of Parties.

the organization OF partlesj soIHSs upon
this little matter with great greedlneSS,
and makes it the text to establish our
ignorance, as well as that Of the Re
publican party in general. This method
Of attack is characteristic Of a class Of
men, who rely more upon bubble than
matters of fact in their Strivings to
make out case. There are some mat
ters of history SO generally known, that
even the Argus will not have the hardi-
hood to deny. During the Presidency
of Jefferson, the party which espoused
his principles and the policy Of his ad-
ministration was called the Republican
party. This party was continued un-
der the distinctive name of Republican
until the period when reconstruction
of parties took place; then the name
Republican was dropped, and another
name was assumed.
In the new organization of parties
which subsequently appeared under the
names of Wing and Democratic, it is
a matter of doubt which had embodied
in its ranks the larger number Of such
as had aforetime been denominated
Federalists. The presentc hiefmagistrate
of the United StatesiG aFederalist in his
Antecedents. So were some of the
principal leaders in the JackSonian or
ganization of like antecedents. Henry
Clay, styled the ''great embodiment" of
the Wing party, claimed to be of the
old Republican school. In every part
of the Union, there were found men of
political prominence in the Democratic
party who had formerly been Federal
lists, and also in the Wing party who
had once been Republicans. The pre-
tence, therefore, that the modern dem
ocratic party has any identity with the
Republican party of Jefferson is a mere
sham.
That the party, at the period it as
sumed the name of Democratic, main
tanned principles in affinity with the
Republicanism Of Jefferson is unques-
tionably true. The same may also be
said Of the Wing party. But the point
we maintain, and which is fortified with
historical facts, is, that the democratic
party has for a long series of years been
gradually drifting farther and farther
from the standard of JefferGonian prin-
ciples. The administrations of Jack
son, Van Buren, and Polk, although d.
verging far from the doctrines of uni
vsrsal equality and freedom as prSmul-
gated by Jefferson, were much less pro-
slavery than the administrations of
Pierce and Buchanan. Any measure
so Ubiquitous as the repeal Of the Mis-
souri, Compromise would have been
spurned by Gen. Jackson, as we'll ~ by
later administrations. SO also the doc
trine that the Constitution carries sla-
very into all territory of the United
States without the force of municipal
law, would have been regarded as q
monstrouS atsurdity by democratic ad-
ministrations few years ago.
Another point demonstrable from
past political history, is that there has
been a gradual transfer of the power of
the Democracy from the North to the
South, until the South has now con-
trolling majority of the party in both
houses of Congress. The causes which
have conduced to weaken the Democ-
racy north, and to strengthen it south,
are clearly traceable to the concession
of rights to the demands of the South.
The repeal of the Compromise, the en-
actment of the infamous Fugitive Law,
and other like wrongs for the benefit of
slavery, have each tended to ALLEVIATE
the best men in the democratic ranks
In the northern States-to weaken its
moral and numerical power and to
swell Its potency and influence south
The present democratic minority in
nearly if not all the northern States, as
well as the present political complexion
of the present U. S. Senate, makes this
statement apparent. The tendency is,
therefore, to the final and complete dis
organization of the now so-called Dem
Ocratic party-a result for which the
country will have cause to rejoice
The Madison ArgaS, or any other Jour
nal, may attempt to distort these facts,
but they nevertheless are the history of
past political events, which cannot be
diSproved.
PACIFIC RALRoAD.-The Pacific