The day book. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1857-1867, 1866-09-18
The New York State Democratic Plat.
form

form.
1t has been remarked by a profound aud
philosophic thinker that in all civilized count
ries the decline of aristrocratic power forms
an essential part of the general progress.
Ii might not be improper to apply this re-
mark in more enlarged sense, SO as to make
it refer to decline of power, held and WELD
ed unduly, as has been the aristrocratic by
any class, whether of political or religious
character, which enters into the formation of the
social system. For example, Whist unprejudi-
ced and reflective observer does not see mani
fest arrest of the general progress in the
retention OF power by the radical party, that
political class whose triumph would be one of
the most disastrous events that could befall
the south, and by consequence, the entire
country For. the body polite is like the
physical body, no member can suffer without
the others suffering with it, There is SYM
pathetic chain which embraces the whole, and
tne shock, no matter from what point it may
be communicated, is sensibly felt throughout
the individual links We argue then, that
party or class power, whether political OF re-
Hgious, is to be deprecated, and that all clas-
ses are safer and less liable to oppression,
which is the undue exercise of power, when
this dangerous element is, if We may so
express Our meaning, an equilibrio By this
we mean, when the amount oft possessed and
welded by any class or party is not so excas-
aivs as to render it difficult and improbable
By union Of all other classes to wrest its
exercise from the hands of the dominant
party. Long possession of power is also
dangerous circumstance, because time strength
ems the hold upon it and the clutch grows
more and more unrelaxing 1t is for these
reasons, apart from those which spring from
a knowledge of the savage measures contem-
plated by radicalism, and the bitter hos
tllity 1t entertains and cherishes towards the
South, that we hail the union of men and
parties throug hout the land, whose object is
the defeat of radicalisln and the full restors-
ton of the South to her constitutional rights
and guarantees. In other words we regard
the decline Of the radical power as an essen
tial part Of the general progress, and there
fore all attempts and all efforts any where and
everywhere, by any combinations of men, we
value as great public benefit and blessing
and to be encouraged by all right thinking
people,
The Democratic Convention lately held 10
the State of New York is one Of these
movements in the right direction and it has
therefore our cordial cooperation and sympa-
thies in its Endorsement of the PHILADELPHIA
Convention and its affrnatons that it holds
inyiolable the faith of the nation pighted by
the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States in the month of July 1851,
and by General Grant at -Appomattox Court
House, and President johnson in his procla-
nation amnesty 10 May 1865, (which fully,
lawfully and finally restored to all the rights
and functions of citizenship, the great mass of
the people of the Southern States, who in
their State Conventions and Legislatures full
filled every required condition, and who by
their delegations in the Philadelphia Conven-
ton gave every needful pledge of the sinceri-
t. OF their renewed allegiance and their &C
ceptance of the issues of the war" 1t like
wisehas our sympathy for all its solemn tera-
ton g that the centraliza ton of power in the
Union is fatal to the harmony of our polti-
cal system and dangerous to the liberty of the
citizen" and it commands our approval in
its appeal to the electors of the State to unite
with them " in determined effort to restore
the just balance of governmental power so
widely distributed by the fathers of the Con-
stitution, and to arrest that monstrous cor
ruption which is fast sapping public spirit
and public virtue and by such union and
earnest effort to enlarge the freedom,
tighten the burdens and promote the happi-
ness OF the people of this State and Union"
In the meantime we are bound to admit
that we are forcibly reminded by the present
state of affairs of the remark of King Phil
lipe to King John, when he informed the
latter that the" Devil was loose"
Domestic Economy