American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1865-11-29
The Democratic COLLAPSE.

n
The result of the elections of last week
will be, it may be fairly conjectured,to ex-
tinguish whatthere was oflife in the DEM
ocratic party. Whatever hopes the man
ayers may have had of prolonging its ex-
istence have doubtless died out since the
detection of New Jersey. Its defeat in
that State is to it what the collapse" is
in cholera, al unmistakable symptom of
impending and inevitable dissolution
Until the occurrence of that untoward
event, there was hope even from such
mustard-plasters as Governor Seymour's
speeches, or such tickling of the soles of
the feet as Mr.. John Van Buren's jokes
But since New Jersey has given way, of
course all the doctors have put up their
nostrums and gone home, sadder and, we
hope wiser men. There is now little left
to be done but to prepare for the decent
interment of the old and once powerful or
ganization.
This sorrowiul event can, however,
hardly be said to have taken anybody by
surprise-probably the chiefs less than
anybody else. The symptoms of the
malady which on Tuesday last termina-
ted fatally showed themselves long ago,
aud the history of the party for the last
ten years have been little better than a
study in pathology. Such susceptibility
to morbifc influences was probably never
before witnessed in political organiza-
tion. There has hardly single question
come up during the last ten years on
which the country ultimately not simply
repudated as impoltic or inexpedient,
but stigmatized as repugnant to its NOR
al sence.
Not that there is anything very won
in party managers taking no note of the
moral bearing of the measures they sup
port, but the Democratic leaders have ex-
hibited what they and men oftheir stamp
consider far more discredible than want
of goodness, and that is want of skill in
their own calling. The whole art of a
successful politician in a free country
consists in finding out either what the
public is likely to do if left to itself, or
what he is likely to be able to persuade
it to do, and yet in this art the leaders of
the Democratic party, with all their long
experience, have shown themselves fatally
deficient. We hear great deal of late
of the blunders into which the London
Times, the Saturday Rcviep, Lord Rus
sell, Mr.. James Spence with regard to
the course the American people were
likely to take upon the various great ques-
tions which have agitated the country
during the last four years but their worst
mistake have, considering that they are
foreigners who never set foot in the
country, been trifing compared to those
committed by the Seymours, Pendletons.
Pierces, Vallandighams, and Curtises.-
We have no hesitation in saying, too.
that the worst attacks on our national
which have appeared in foreign journals
during the past four years, have not COW
cred half so much really biting insult, SO
much deep contempt for it, popped out
almost from every step taken by the DEM
ocrats in opposition to the Government
during the war, or in opposition to the
anti-slavery agitation which preceded it.
Almost every argument used by them in
depreciation of the anti-slavery movement
was drawn from the supposed indifference
of the people to everything to material
interests. To everything that was said,
or could be haid of the moral or political
evils of the growth of slavery, they had
but one reply, and that was to meddle
with it would cause the loss of Southern
custom. Whenever, too, they sought to
present the possible dissolution of the
| Union in darkest celors, its probable ef-
feet in destroying trade was tho eoasid-
Grafton which they always put most prom
inently in the foreground
| In their efforts, also, to put q stop to
| the war. the relied almost exclusively mp
on appeals to the very basest and most
selfish motives, fear, love of ease, love Of
money, and local Jealousy, and they did
so with confidence which proved what
very low estimate they had of their au-
dien0e. They did their best to ruin the
Government credit by talking Of reppdi-
alton as thing sure to happen. They
laus he'd at the notion that the American
people would ever be such fools as to
pay such la debt, even if they were able
to do SO. And they were not restrained
even by personal pride from soliciting
foreign interference. and trying to impress
foreign governments With the belief that