Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1863-09-03

During the last seven or eight years the
Opposition in Massachusetts have not had po-
litical strength enough to excite very pro-
found alarm. When all the grades of the
flock have been gathered into single fold
as it sometimes happens-it still presents the
spectacle of minority sufficiently small to
CRAFTY the most select taste, but notvery use
full for any purposes Of political organization.
Always essentially-almost always unreserv-
edly-"democralic, it is only on rare occa-
sions and for special objects that i: masks its
hard faceand glovesits iron hand. This yearit
has no entangIing alliances and wears no dis
guise. If the democratic mountain moved
little toward Mahomet last year, this year
Mahomet and his disciples have gone dutiful-
ly over to the mountain. Old wings, for
many years the enfans pe1du of our political
household,
I'm wandering mazes lost'
almost from the hour when their great idol
asked himself the pathetic question, "Where
shall go?" and answered it by straigltway
going over to the enemy, a few "Natiye
Americans exhumed from the oblivion
which has swallowed up nearly every man
whom the wild anarchy of know-nothingsm
whrled to the surface; spectres and shadows
of the imperial Caesars who so recently
sported with the crown jewels of the
commonwealth as if they owned them, and
as # all the rest of mankind were tributa
ry to their pride,-have at last, through PEN
ance and humiliation, found their own place
in the bosom of the democratic church.
The alliance is a curiosity in political alehe-
my, but is not otherwise Of the slightest pub
lie Importance. 1t does not add materially to
the strength of the democracy, or essentially
change its character. The new corners are
required to descend to its level rather than
suffered to lift it to their own. There is the
same paraphnaia in its sacrsty and the same
priests at its altar. Others may change their
robes and creeds-they never. The single
object which the democratic party has pur-
sued for twenty years-to have the govern
ment administered in the interest of the slave
powers apparently its single object still
though half the party is now in the third year
of rebellion and the slave power is stag
gering to its death. 1t was the instrument
which the statesmen of the rebellion used first
to corrupt, then to destroy, the government;
it is the organization still through which alone
the rebellion gets help and encouragement in
the loyal states. Before the war, the con
slant, faithful, accomplishing vassal of slave
Gin he. IL. 81
relenting enemy Of the government in all its
important war measures; it has done equal
service for the enemies of the republic, both
while maturing their conspiracy. and while
prosecuting their parricidal war. Whatever
evil has resulted to the country has come in
the line of its often declared and neyer-vary-
ing policy. Whatever good has been achiev-
ed in the way of national development and
progress has come in spite of its efforts and in
defiance of its policy. Tried only as a poti-
cal instrumentality for the details of its of
Tending or before the higher tribunal of the
worlds opinion as the natural enemy of lber-
a! ideas, of enlightened political progress. of
all generous and humane craftsmanship, it is
IN general and in detail the grand stumbling
block in the path of public safety AMI public
honor.
The fragment of the party in Massachu-
sets, though reduced to ineffectal numbers.
was never known to shrink from the work
which its superiors assigned to it. Properly
rebuked twelve years ago for its brief coali-
uon with party of modern ideas and respec-
table ambition, it has not from that time to the
present expressed a thought indt pendent of
the national democracy, or INDUCED a hope
which any opponent OF the government might
not welcome with an eXultant amen. You
will search in vain the authorized record of
its conventions, or the speeches of its recog.
nized oracles, for a syllable of remonstrance
or reproof of the secession conspiracy during
the time that it was maturing within the ma
uonal organization, and with the KNOWLEDGE
OF It's leading men. You will listen in vain
Tor whisper Of disapprobaton of the system
"Hose vast poiltlcal power, concentrated in
the hands OF the democracy of the south. was
all thrown against the government, when tbo
government was helpessly under its control
You will watch in vain for the faintest sign of
sympathy from any person speaking by ifs
authority, with the earnest and manly indie.
nation all patriots feel, when they remember
how this great nation went down in the dust.
to be reconciled with slavery, and how it was
then betrayed. During all the struggle that
has followed, so full of inspiring occasions for
generous sentiments and manly deeds, here
has been party that has had no heart for
them-choosing rather to prolong vain war
1are against the advancing public sentiment of
the country, than to draw the sword of inst
oisuain against the barbarism that is fighting
to overwhelm it.
NS VAN to expect that the champions of
thiS out-grown and many-tmes defeatad corso
Will yet abandon their work. The nor,,, tla.
was indifferent to the bloody work of AIuo
and the Inquisiton, could not no Lii
for service that belonged to William &c a.
ange and the brave knights who followed
him. In every stage of this grand war for
the rights of man, whatever form it has as
sumed, whatever fields it has consecrated
there has always been between the two COM
batants a party protesting hostility to both,
but invariably throwing its influence on the
side of the oppressor. Humanity, civiliza-