Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-04-07
PAHrIsANsErP IN TINS COUNTRY.


follow, and, if he writes wisely and truth
fully, will impart lessons of the greatest
pith and consequence TO the future inhabi-
tants of the world. This is not our task.
1t is for US to furnish a most important chap
ter OF facts TO the general fund Of this his
tory, and to use our present circumstances
to the best advantage.
The parties Of the past, so far as they
may be identified by their distinctive tenets
respectively have passed out OF existence.
The party that arrayed itself against WASH
INGToN, as displayed in opposition to both
his military and civil administration Of the
affairs of the Government died still-born.
Then came the brief issues, and fierce as
brief, on the alien and sedition laws. And
next the gradual process Of the solidifca-
ton Of public opinion, as exhibited in the
outgrowth Of the Federal and Republican
parties; but these were, though something
more tenacious Of life, comparatively
short in their reign. Following was an in
terregnum Of personal squabbles between
the contestants for place, which was still
more ephemeral. The leaders and the peo-
pie saw that these bases Of party life would
not endure, and hence there arose, in the
rapid progress o. our national development,
and in the exigencies produced by the en-
largement Of our organized boundaries, and
the conflicts Of interstate and sectional in
terests, new questions of policy, as impor-
tant as they became exciting. Then came
before the country two great and, we may
concede, equally patriotic parties-the Wing
and Democratic. Their respective policies
were broad and comprehensive, reach
ing to the very foundations Of the popular
interests and prosperity, and involving
the true construction and exposition Of the
organic law Of the Union. These had their
day; and their days were the very halcyon
period Of our party history-often, it may
be, embittered By the acrimony of heated
conflict, and swayed by the alternating emo
tons Of joy and sadness, following victory
and defeat-but still marking the golden
era Of patriotism, and the generous and
noble rivalry to achieve the great
est good to the greatest number, within
the purview of the Constitution. Neither
designed the invasion Of public liberty
both abided the public law-and each ac-
cepted in full the decisions rendered at the
ballot-box. One Of them persisted at length
under the wand Of reiterated defeat. The
other continued, but under change of
circumstances, and under the pressure Of
questions which were thrown in its pathway
with constantly increasing vehemence, it
was riven in twain, and finally ceased as an
effective organization TO control the admin
istrative destinies of the country.
Then came an era of commOtion and strife,
in which all parties were lost in the hot blast
Of civil and sectional war. The Democrats
and their opponents Of every shade
and name throughout the South, united in
secession or revolutionary ordinances, and
went hand in hand in preparations for re-
and shoulder to shoulder in the ac-
tual tug of war. Throughout the North the
Democrats We'd with their opponents in the
alacrity with which they rallied to the de-
fence of he flag and the integrity Of the
Union, and marched, hip to hip and arm to
arm, with the most devoted of their late po-
litical antagonists. Thus, for the time be-
ing at least, passed away all parties in both
sections Of the country. A few in the South
and few in the North-passing, in the
of the hour, as Unionists or
tories, or as copperheads or traitors-were
found who opposed the great mass of their
fellow-ciuzens. But neither ex-
erted positive force sufficient to change or
retard the momentous events then trans
piring And for all practical purposes, the
North and the South may be considered to
have been opposing units in sentiment and
in action-the one asserting an accomplished
severance Of the Union, and the other, its
entity and supremacy over all the States at
any time composing it.
BY force Of arms the latter prevailed
md now comes the day of restoration, and
he laying down Of those great rules by
which the country is hereafter to be guided.
That day is now. The operating motives
md the proximate causes which brought up
m us this condition Of things are now mat
ers Of history, and only to be regarded as a
light TO our feet in the course Of a national
Quincy, which all should desire to make
prosperous and happy. 1t is neither neces-
AIRY nor proper that in such a work, the
homes; and patriotic laborer should inquire
# his fellow next him, whether he voted |
or CLAY or Polk, TAYLOR or CAss, PIERCE
" SCoTT, or any other Of the partisan rivals
# the days anterior 10 the war. 1t would
pc time thrown away, and would subject the
luestioner to a suspicion that he was not al
ogcther as earnest and devoted in the work
before him as he ought TO be.
Yet it seems inevitable that partisanship
$ law among all selfgoveming peoples.
No more can they all think precisely alike
han they can have faces precisely alike. If
We cannot and should not have the old, we
must have new parties. But these must be
formed on the new exigencies in which
The country is placed, and not upon the
long disused platforms of whiggery and de-
Namesare iinmaterial, and should
be merely designations of bodies Of men
agreeing in principle Those Of Democrat
and Republican are no more applicable to
the present than are Wings and Democrats,
Opposition, Iunkers, Silver Greys, or
know-nothings. 1t is worse than nonsense
to couple with any party name the ideas at
taching to it in the past The alignment OF
the American people now and in the future
must necessarily be on the principles and
policy which are now uppermost in the pub
lie mind. These are getting to be well
known. The one is represented by ANDREW
JoHNsoN--the other BY SUMNER in the SEN