The Plymouth weekly Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1860-1869, 1863-03-26
TINE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.


organization of the government under the
Constitution, down TO the election of Mr..
Lincoln. it is the Democratic party that
has maintained the honor, extended the
territory, controlled the policy, formed
the traditions, anb made the history Of the
county. We ask the men who so indus
triously traduce the Democratic party and
impute to it reasonable purposes, to con-
slider the fact that it is this party which
conferred on the old Union the greatness
and glory which gave it security at home
and consideration abroad.
1t was mallgned when it opposed the
Alien and Sedition laws and elected JEFF
ferson; it was yehemently opposed when it
purchased Louisiana; it was denounced
when it made war with great Britain to
maintain the rights of our commerce on
the seas; an infuriated ou,cry was raised
against it when it annexed Texas, prose
cuted successful war against Mexico an d
brought in California and other valuable
territory. But time and the unanimous ap-
proval of the next generation have, in ev-
cry instance, vindicatcd the wisdom Of the
Democratic party. Every Federal Sena-
tor. except Dayton, voted against the rat
ification of Jefferson's treaty for the pur-
chase OF Louisiana, and the Federalists in
the House opposed the measures necessa-
ry for its execution, but who, in the next
generation, would have be, willing to see
that vast and magnificent TERRITORY. which
stretches from the mississippi westward.
again in the possession of foreign power!
Who was there, ten years after the annex
alton of Texas, that would have been base
enough to have willingly seen it given up?
What old opponent Of the war with Mexi-
co wishes California out of the Union? The
Republican party, it is true, during the
whole period of the struggle by which it
rose to power and destroyed the Union
was in the habit of declaiming against
what they called the peryersion Of the gov
ernmen, IN the acquisition of territory on
our southern border for extending the
area of slavery; out the republicans dare
not now confess wish to see these acqui-
sitions out of the Union. By fighting to
retain what they opposed the Democracy
in acquiring, they make tacit admission
that the Democrats have always been in
the right and their opponents always in
the wrong.
The Democratic party, in the face of vi
olsnt and abusive opposition, began and
conducted the only two glorious wars we
have evsr bad under the Constitution; in
the face OF similar opposition it carrid the
national flag and extended the national
authority over territory three times as ex-
;ensiye as was possessed at the formation
of the government: it made the Monroe
doctrine the tradition and manifest desti-
ny" to supremacy on this continent the
sentiment and hope of the country; it has
been the .embodyment of that national
pride and irrepressible ambition by which
a young country marks out for itself a high
career and attalns greatness and empire.
The qualities which have enabled the Dem
ocratic party TO make the history of the
country are mainly these two: boldness
and true national instinct. The boldness
of the party is evinced by the fact that all
its great measures have, from the moment
they were announced, encountered a storm
of infuriated vituperation, before which il
never for q moment qualed, but which it
always met with resolute defiance. The
correctness of its national instincts, which
has proved truer guide than the sagacity
of statesmen, is established by the fact
that though its measures have always
been furiously opposed at the time. they
have been universally ipdorsed by the
ne 1t generation. 1t is only by these mas.
ter qualities Of boldness and true nation
al instinct, that our country can again be
restored to unity and health, which is but
another form of saying it can be done only
by tie Democratic party.
All the seperate measures OF the Demo
cratic party have been the logical conse
quence, or, to speak more correctly, the
natural and spontaneous ou'growth of the
instructive i'opulSe toward national great
ress, which has always been the ruling
passion of the party. 1t is this which has
fed its thirst for territorial aggrandize-
msnt; which has given birth to the Mon
roe doctrine, which has inspired the hopes
Of manifest destiny, which has taken fire
at every sfront TO our flag on the seas, and
declared the deck Of every ship that car
ries that flag as inviolAble as the soil OF
the national territory. This same instinct
has taught the Democracy that immense
erritories avail little without correspond