St. Mary's gazette., 1866-05-03

Who Shall have the Flagf
AZ the time Is approaching when the
.,nxsrr.tiyc n,aases Of the country VII! Dc
tancI upon to unite under some party or
~,,;z,,;on in order 10 make their power
elective at the baIlo.-box. an interesting
;nou;rv arises, whether they shall svall
themselves Of the presen. Democratic or
pani1a.,on or invoke other agene'es to sys-
.ema,izc their strength In other words.
the inquiry is, who shall hare the fias
shall i. be borne BY the Democratic party
az .hall another organization be called INTO
existence and intruspsd with the eolors OF
the great conservative army?
Apart from the welfare of tins army ana
II. efficiency against the enemy, VIC have
ourselves, 10 feeling in this matter. Ii "
;,,n,,.rriaI T., us whether an old or rcw
ORGANIZATION shall lead, provided IT leads
!, success. Our supreme object is to up
hold our sncien. Constitution and to save
the country FROM anarchy. TO effect thy
object, VIC are prepared to abandon any
party or to join any party. Inc only
.oue,,iou with ourselves is, what party or
organization can be made most available
to accomplish this end. We have en-
deavored to solve this question with an eye
single to success, and the solution at wnlcn
we have arrived is, that the Democratic
party should have the Flag
In the first place, this party has an his
tor;c name and carries with it all the au-
tbority which is derivable from prescrlP-
ton. 1t is party powerful in numbers
thoroughly drilled and already in the held.
In fact, since tho accession of President
johnson to the Presidency, it is the only
narty that has seen service against the rad
icals. In its contests with these. II it has
not always achieved success, as IN the la'e
Connecticut election, it has always COM
manded respect from, the vigor and skill
fulness of its blows and from tho general
mower it has manifested. Nor should the
strength shown by this party in the late
Presidential election be overlooked. In
der the most unfavorable circumstances, 1t
pollcd in the Free States alone eighteen
hundred thousand votes and came within
thirty-fuur thousand votes OF eEecting its
candidates. 1. not only still retains this
strength, but the recent elections show
that it has added to it. To dsband pow
erful army like this, flushed with recent
victories and already drilled and equipped
for service, and TO dishand IT to make ex-
pertinent with new and untried political
machinery is, in our best judgment, to run
great risk and certainly to incur very
grave responsibility. AT least, the onm
il with the friends of this experiment to
show. and to show clearly, that the Dem
ocratc party eau be transferred from its
own to another organization without detrl
mcnt 10 us slTcnTtn, ana L Is aiSo Win
them to show uhy it should be transferred
and merged into an organization which
At present has not even an existence and
which is certain to be relatively weaker
than itself As we have. observed above,
it is immatcrial to us what party shall
lead or what shall follow, provided the
conservative force of the country can be
mobil.ed snd directed as unit against
the common enemy. As this cannot be
done without consultation and debate,
and a. it is important that it should
be done at once. and rs we'll that it should
be done here as elsewhere, We hope soon
to see q movement inaugura.cd in Mary
land to marshal the whole conservative
force Of the State under one common ban
ntr.t