The New era. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1865-1871, 1867-02-14
THE ORGANIZATION OF THE DEMO
CRATIC PARTY!


country have awakened the deepest So
licitude in the public mind, and the
friends of constitutional law and liberty
are everywhere consulting as to the best
mode of preserving the Government
from overthrow and destruction by the
wicked men who are conspiring against
it. We are rejoiced at this appearance
in the political si1y-it is ominous of
good-and if we all rise in our might to
hail it with heart and soul, mind and
strength, we may save our great insti-
tutions, the inheritance of our great and
illustrious fathers from ruin. The two
Wing and Democratic parties of this
country, after many years of struggle,
have ceased to contend against each
other, and the great questions Of policy
which.so long divided them have been
settled and determined. The lines Of
distinction between them upon great
fundamental principles of constitutional
construction were never SO marked as
their distinctions upon measures Of do
nestle policy. 1t is we'll known that
many of the most prominent and lead
ing Wings Of the country were men Of
the strongest States Rights faith, and
had been distinguished members of that
party. at periods when the principles Of
that faith were prominently and dis
tinctly at issue before the country.
Without going into detail, it will only
be necessary to refer to the fact that
Henry Clay, the founder Of the Wing
party, was himself aStates' Rights man
of the strictest Sect" and the leader
and champion of that party in Congress,
in the crisis of the war of 1912. He
never abandoned that faith, and took
more than one occasion in the midst of
his illustrious Senatorial career to testify
his attachment to its principles. Perhaps
no one of our illustrious statesmen of
more modern times was more the dis
ciple of Mr.. Madison's teachings than
he was. The faith, as taught by the
great father of the Constitution, Mr..
Madison, guided Mr.. Clay in all of his
great discussions of constitutional law,
and he never failed in times Of diff
Guilty to refer to him, and to the sound
principles instilled into his mind by the
illustrious George Wythe, of Virginia,
as the great Gamaliel at whose feet he
was brought up. In burning eloquence,
in his discussion of the great Com
promise measures, in the Senate of 1888,
did he hurl back the charge that he had
departed from the States Rights faith
No, ne said,) my States Rights faith
Is the SAGE nov as it was in my young
er days, When l received it from the lips
Of the illusvious George Wythe, of Vir-
ginia." VIII him in this faith stood
the large bods of the Wing party of
the South, at east seven-tenths of it,
besides large portion of it in the
North. In his las. great speech before
the kentucky Legislature, short time
prior to his. death, hs again sealed his
attachment to tie great principles of
States Rights faitl, We do not meap
to say, that if he haobeen alive, that he
would have countenal.ed the Secession
movement of the Sout., but we at the
same time do net hesitateo say, that if
he were alive today, he N,uld be the
foremost man in the van in A,dino tbe
onposition against tue wild anu acl lass
men who now are attempting to- j, tbe