Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1864-11-01
"DEMoCRACY.n

there more direct and glaring mis-appli-
cation of a term, than the appropriation
of the word " Democracy" as applied to |
the Copperhead party of to-day. The
accepted definition of the word is, ga gov
eminent BY the people; form of govern
ment in which the supreme power is
lodged in the hands of the people collect
lively, or in which the people exercise the
power of legislation" The government
of the United States never was DE
mocracy" in the strict sense of the word;
yet as the representatives of the people
were placed so Immediately under the
popular control, there was some degree of
propriety in giving the term Democrat"
to the adherents of the great national
party which first adopted it as its distinc-
tive appellation. That party advocated
the fullest extension of the right of suf-
frage, and the people collectively" chose
their own rulers, and dictated the charac
ter of the legislation which should govern
them. The word was well chosen. for it
appealed to the hearts and embodied the
ideal of the down-trodden and oppressed
of all the earth, whose aspirations through
long generations had been for freedom and
the vindication of the principle that man
is capable Of self-government. When
they saw in actual existence a government
based upon that great principle, and
party in that country bearing the title
of Democracy" what wonder that
they fastened to affiliate with that
party. Its very name was the sum
of all that was great and good in
government. They did flock to that ban
ner in hosts that rendered that party,
through long decades, almost invincible.
The lines of difference between the Demo-
cratic party and its great antagonist were
only percepible in nice questions OF in
ternal policy, upon which the most honest
and wisest men, and purest patriots might !
easily disagree, and the charm OF the
party name was potent to decide the wa
vering. So, through long generations,
the Democratic party was the dominant
party in the land; and in those days the
word Democrat conveyed a tolerably
correct idea of the principles of him who
bore it. What does it signify now and
what are the principles, objects, ends and
aims of the party who to-day style them
selves the democracy: They are
allied, heart and soul, with the leaders of
the rebellion; with men who boast of
their "aristocratic birth and breeding,
and laugh with naughty scorn at the idea
of an equality between themselves and the |
hardy sons of toll whom they contemptu-
ously term the "mudsills of society"
The internal governments of their States, |
50 far from being Democratic" gov
eminent of the people collectively" has
heen based upon system by which more
than third of their population has been
disfranchised. This class of the popula-
rion, though themselves disfranchised,
were duly enumerated, and made to tell
against the votes of free white men in the
North in the proportion Of three to FIVE.
South Carolina, the prime mover in this
rebellion, was so far from having dem
ocratic" form of government, that at no
time since the formation Of the Federal
Union would new State have been adj
nitted into the Union with similar con-
stitution-the Federal constitution pro-
viding that the constitutions of new States |
should guarantee to the people republi-
IAN form of government. The same
spirit of aristocracy, and contempt and
hatred Of democracy, pervaded the whole |
ruling classes of the South. An article
which we have just read from DeBow's
Rsrie,c. than which there is no more or
thodox exponent of Southern sentiment,
~ays:
The real civilization OF a country is in its
lristOcracy. The masses are moulded into
soldiers and artisans by intellect, just as
natter and the elements Of nature are made
.nto telegraphs and steam engines. The
,Ioor, who labor all day, are too tired at night
20 study books. II you make them learned,
they soon forget all that is not necessary in
the common transactions OF life. 10 make
IN aristocrat in the future, we must sacrifice
. thousand pauPers. Yet we would by all
means make them-make them permanent,
30, By laws of entail and primogeniture.
L. ro,tlas n Sp,al
minority; the duty 10 obey is inherent in the
,reat masses of mankind. All government
pegin with usurpation, and is continued by
force. There is nothing to which the South
.ntertains so great dislike as universal sut-
rage. Wherever foreigners settle together
n large numbers, there universal suffrage
viii exist"
The same expression has been repeat
edly made by one and another Of that
=. wise few" who have so long ruled and
governed the masses of the South. Their
preference for a monarchical form Of gov
ernment has been but thinly and carelessly
yelled, and the proposition to create "or-
lers of nobility" was outspoken long ago.
It IS with this people, these haters Of de-
nocracy, these loathers of popular gov
,rnment, these despisers of " mudsills,"
:hese boosters of aristocratic blood, these
yearners after titles of nobility, these
,ighers after kings and thrones, that the
Copperhead party of 1864 have stricken
hands and made common cause
and yet they call themselves the
DEMOCRATIC PARTY! And still, men
whose hands are hard and horny with
he tod which these aristocrats deem de-
graduation, men who point to their own
honest record as their patent of nobility,
men who acknowledge no king save the
hing OF Kings, will still rally to that cry
Of " Democracy" though it is as mean
ingless to-day as the faded inscriptions
upon the ruins Of buried Pompeii. Il
seems as though such men, like Poe's "a
ven with its Nevermore' knew but the
one word" Democracy" and that no
matter by what dark embodiment of des-
potism and treason and crime that word
ne crnaked thew follov hl;ndly aod haal