Wabash express. [volume] (Terre-Haute, Vigo Co[unty], Ind.) 1841-186?, 1860-08-15
WHOLE NO. 935.
DeuOeracV.

Democracy.
Four years ago the Democratic party
went into the battle for the Presidency
upon the Cincinnati platform. That plat.
form was Of itself cheat and swindle,
admitting and being interpreted different ly
in the two sections of the country. The
party then united upon cheat and acted
harmoniously together. After President
Buchanan was elected md the policy of his
Administration was beginning to assume
shape. 1t was discovered that it would be
difficult TO meet the Interpretation given of
the Cincinnati platform by Southern. and
at the same time accommodate the views
entertained ofthat instrument, by Northern
Democrats. When the leaders Of the party
met at Washington aud looked each other
full In the face, they found, that, although
they had Pi Piscticed a fraud upon the people,
It was more difficult for them to deceive
each other.
In relation To the government Of the
territories and the right of the shareholders
- eeNc AHci INTO the same, me
northern and southern wings of the Democ-
racy took issue. The President went with
the South, and said that slavery EXISTED in
Kansas and Nebraska as perfectly as it
did in Georgia. Mr. Douglas pretended to
battle this doctrine with his fiction Of Pop
ular Sovereignty, and southern men resis-
ted it. Thus divided in sentiment. the
Democratic party went into a national
Convention, quarreled, broke asunder, fell
into fragments aud dissolved, never again
to be united. All over the country for the
last two or three years men had taken
sides. They were for the Administration
or they were for Mr.. Douglas. They were
Popular Sovereignty Democrats or they
were Administration Democrats. The line
was distinctly drawn. Douglas sustained
the Supreme Cour. in its Dred Scott decl
sion, and at the same time advocated his
doctrine Of Popular and Squattsr Sover
eighty. The one decided that the slave
holder had the constitutional right 10 take
his slaves into the public domain. and the
other declared that the people, in their
Legislative capacity. could take away
from an American citizen a right guaran-
tsed to him BY the Federal Constitution
The humbugry of the positions assumed
by Mr.. Douglas. therefore, became appa-
rent and the supporters Of the Admins
tratioa became more xealous in their cause.
The Administrstion men were more con
sistent, more true TO themselves, more
logical and more honest. The Douglas
wing became at last, what il is now, mere
-vorshippers-magni6 admirers of
q man whose coat tail is very close to the
ground. They cling frantically to the for
tunes Of demagogue and they are about
to receive a merited reward.
No honest man could have been consei-
sntiously an Administration Democrat
and then become a Douglasite, and no
sincere Douglas Democrat could ever be-
come a supporter Of the Administration
Although the doctrine of Popular Sover-
eighty when coupled with an acquiescence
in the dictum enunciated by the Supreme
Court in the Dred Scott case, is an unmanly
humbug, still, to say for one moment. that
the right Of the STAKEHOLDER TO take his
slaves into free territory could in any par
ticdlar be interfered with, was so opposite
to the opinions entertained by Southern
pro-slavery Democrats, that the gulf be-
tween them was absolutely impossible,
and none but an unscrupulOus political
vsulter could ever leap it. Hence the two
wings met at Charleston and Baltimore,
looked each other in the face, suarled and
snapped. grovled and fought and divided
on Mason and Dixon's line. AdminisLra-
tion Democrats and Administration Office
holders, who were honest and true to the
principles they had ad Vocated, who were
honest and true to the friendships they
had proiessed-who were honest and true
TO themselves and those who had been and
were then their patrons although living in
the North, clung honestly and truly to the
fortunes of the Administration Many who
are moved without thought. act without
consideration or are impelled by motives
purely selfish followed the hurza of the
crowd and Mr.. Douglas. Many who de-
sired place above all things else, left the
Administration ranks, sacrificed their
principles and advocated humbug. With
the profoundest sincerity they changed
from the advocacy OF what all men will
ever regard dOctrinal, to the esPousal oi
what the laughing world will always de-
aominste. as a cunning humbug.