The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1866-07-13
OH A r L e S TO N
FRIDAY MORNING, JULY 1s, 1866.
PARTIES IN THE UNITED Sta TES.

~ 10 "oii eho 1"PAN o.NN S-s
of events, to pause and take retrospect; to
examine into first principles. Not unfre-
quently accident gives particular meaning
to O word or name, which originally was de-
signed to denote something quite different.
We have numerous instances of this in the
of common life. Almost the
entire range of metaphorical terms comes
under this category. But we have more
special reference to the political nomenola-
ture ofthe country.
Different parties there must always be, under
any government that permits even the least
Unpopular opinion. Where there
is full, unrestricted liberty of speech and
freedom of the press, we naturally look for q
great diversity of opinion. Disappointed or
politicians stir up factions. Per-
sistent agitation on the stump and the faoile
influence of venial press soon dignity the
handful of malcontents with the name of
party. And thus we have party after party,
the lines of demarkation, the principles
and programme-the planks in the platform
ever changing; as time rolls on and with his
relentless scythe mows down parties as he
does the individuals who compose them.
Whatever number of parties there may be
in country at any one time, or whatever
their accidental name,- e,-there is everywhere
q normal standard of two, the conservative
and the progressive. All others are the orea.
lures Of the hour, and must sooner or later
give way to the aforenamed cardinal divis-
ions. This must be the case, as long as
human nature shall remain constituted, as it
presents itself to US. The old fogy, in one
form or another, (more or less old fogy), has
been prominent figure in history and poll
tics, as far back as dates the human record.
We have no doubt there was Conservative
party in Sodorn, and also "Young Sodom,"
urging reforms, demanding an enlargement
of the franchise, etc. This might be substan-
tiated if the archives had not persisted on
certain memorable, asphaltic occasion.
The Constitution of the United States was
adopted only after long discussion, and under
protest by many of its adherents. These two
parties had their existence then; and few
years afterward we find them engaged in hot
and angry strife; WASHINGTON, HAMILTON
and ADAMS the protagonists in the Federal
ranks, JEFFERSON, BURR, MADISON and
others representing the new Republican party.
They called themselves Republicans, insin-
uating that their opponents were monarohioal
in their tendencies.
Later we find these two party names give
way to those of Democrats and Whigs. These
were the two watchwords for many CAM
paigns of political strife, until gradually the
platform Of the Wing party fell entirely
short of the wants of the times, that it was
thrown overheard bodily the late General
ScoTT being the chief mourner. The defeat
in the Presidential election of 1852 gave a
quietus to the effete organization. This oatas.
trophe was doubtless hastened by nesal-
lianee with the then notorious Know Nothings.
Simultaneous with the decline and fall Of
Whigdom, and as it wore complementary to
it, was tho rise and growth of the Repub-
lican party in the North. In contradistinc-
ton to the early Republicans in the days of
JEFFERSON, these were called Black Repub-
licans, from an idea that they specially af.
fected that color. This party may be said to
have had nucleus for many years in the
several Abolition and Emancipation Societies
of New England; but only began to be of po-
litical Importance in 1856. Ab is we'll known,
there was but one test to membership in this
party, viz: opposition to slavery or rather,
as the phrase of that day had it, to the ex-
tension of slavery. Orthodoxy on this point
covered a multitude of heresies and short.
comings in other doctrinal tenets. This was
the first geographical OF sectional party or
ganized in the Uuited States; of what benefit
to the country we shalt not now stop to con.
slider.
The keystone of the Republican party was
slavery; this removed the arch must tumble.
Accordingly we perceive numerous symptoms
of its approaching dissolution. Organized es-
peciaily to oppose slavery, now that its object
has been gained, there remains no further
Legitimate business for them. A majority of
them have been looking about for something
in which to intermeddle, and their efforts have