The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1861-08-02
Party Movements ON the Democratic
Sides

Party Movements ON tho Democratic
Side.
We did not hesitate, while holding off.
cial relations with the Democratic party
which excused, if they did not absolutely
justify, criticism, to make presentment, as
the grand. juryman does, of its short-comS
ings, without malice or ill-will nor did we
seek to cover up its wrongs through fear,
favor, affection, or the hope Of reward. We
shall not hesitate now, when those relations
are voluntarily dissolved, to expose and con.
denim such of its movements as are preju.
dicial to the public good, and, especially
such as are calculated to embarrass the
cause of the Union against the efforts of the
traitors who seek its destruction.
Of this latter class, are all those move
ments lately made in some of the Northern
States, which look to reorganization of
the party upon basis of total hostility to
Federal Administration, and of partial OPP
position to the war. County and State
Conventions have been held in Iowa, Coun-
ty Conventions in Ohio, and Legislative
Caucus in Vermont, having this object in
view. The sentiments expressed at these
gatherings are denunciatory of the alleged
illegal acts of President LINCOLN appro>
batory of a compromise with the rebellious
States, which will secure peace, with or
without Union while, with strange ineon.
sistency of spirit, if not of terms, they re-
commend continued prosecution of the war.
All this talk about the exercise of illegal
powers by the President, we regard as not
only false, but absurd. The instinct ofself-
preservation is as strong in governments
as in individuals; and the mere fact of its
existence, is justification for the use of all
reasonable means to secure it, in the one
case, as it has always been held to be in the
other. 1t has not been pretended, by any
one, that President LINCOLN has, at any
crisis of affairs, used more power than was
necessary to save the government from in.
slant and total humiliation. He has gone
no farther beyond the letter of the law than
JACKSON did at New Orleans, when invest
ed with far less authority, and burthened
with far less responsibility, and for which
the Democratic party and the people made
the grand old hero twice President. He
has taken the responsibility" in true
Jacksonian style, and saved his coun-
try by his acts and whether such acts can
be justified by exact reasoning from the
letter of the law or not, they can both be
justified, and made an imperative duty, by
those instincts which, as we have said, are
common to governments and to individuals.
And that is enough. Any party that ig.
nores these instincts, which are laws more
binding and of greater force than any writ
ten code, not only shows lack of judg-
ment, but, in the peculiar circumstances of
our present condition, shows also a lack of
patriotism.
1t is not necessary to repeat here the rea-
sons which compel US to look upon the idea
of compromise with men in open rebellion,
as belonging to those governmental blun>
ders which are worse than crimes. The
birth of compromise, during hostilities,
would be the death of the nation; and the
men who counsel compromise now, are par
ricides in fact, if not in heart.
The effect of party organization to give
force to the sentiments which have thus
been put forth by Democratic conventions,
can only be to embarrass the national cause,
and give aid and comfort to the rebellion.
If the government has not, in fact, the re-
quisite powers for its own preservation, it
is not worth the saving; and great in
centive to the patriotic sacrifices of life and
treasure, which have added GROWING gl0.
ry to the American character, is thus de-
stroyed. Secure the popular belief in this
dogma, and the cause of the Union, be-
comes a dead movement energy or
vitality, heart or soul.
1t is prostitution of the name of party
which, in its day, was the conservor and
protector of the national honor and inter-
ests, to link it now with sentiments, and
for purposes, like these. We have no fear,
however, that the masses who, in former
years, and on patriotic basis, made De-
mocracy synonym for success, will respond
to these movements in its name. The lead.
ers in this attempt to reorganize the party,