The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-03-19

The standing objection to this Democratic |
doctrine is, that tits principle OF disintegra-
tion. But, in good truth, it is the only eifec-
tual safeguard against dsintegration. In point |
of fact, our history proves that the State-rights
marty has not been o party of disintegration, |
but the party of agglomeration and perpetual |
new accessions. Every enlargement of our
territory has been made by the Democratic
party. Against the herce opposition of its
ouponents it purchased Louisiana, annexed
1eTas ACQUIRED California and New Mexico,
purchased Florida, asserted and maintained
onr claim to Oregon and it made repeated,
tbouob unsuccessful, attempts to gain Cuba
Instead of the narrow belt of States along
the Atlantic coast, of which the Union was
o,iginollv composed, we owe it to the Demo
crntic party that our flag waves over the best
norton of North America. Nor is it mere
accidental coincidence that the greatness of
onr country is thus due to the Democratic
marty which annexed every rood of land
which has been added to our original
territorv: and that most of these acquisitions
have been strenuOusly opposed by the Federal
or Wbip party. The acquisitions and the
opposition to them have been the necessary
logical result of differing party principles.
The State rights party saw no danger in terri
torial enlargements, believing that local self
Government would prevent any clashing of
local interests and that territorial expansion
would enlarge the area of free trade, and
multiply prodigiously our national wealth.
strength, and weight. The opponents of the
Democratic party who were always for accu-
mulating power in the Federal Government,
feared territorial aggrandisement as a source
of division and weakness. Each party
correctly from its own principles. A vast
Union is compatible with free government on
the State-rights principles incompatible with
it on any other principle 1t was the anti
State-rghts party which dissolved the Union
by its aggressions.
There are some truths in politics which
rest upon the same sure foundation as truths
in physics, because they result from the
necessary operation of physical laws. The
moulding influence of climate and diet (diet
changing with the products of different climes)
on the human constitution, and through that
on human feelings, sympathies, and modes of
Judging, is as well established as any fact in
natural history. In accordance with this
physical fact, we find the political fact that all
vast empires which have heretofore hsd
durable existence spread out east and west,
through the same range of latitudes, and
never had any great extension north and
south. There is no natural principle of cohesion
between peoples who have long been subject
! to the influence of widely different eli
I mates (See DR.. Draper's excellent scien-
tic work on this subiect.) The negroes
| and whites who have long dwelt in the South
feels towards each other the repulsion felt by
both for the Yankees and by the Yankees for
them and herein the South has it's best
guarantee against the efforts of Yankee poll
ticians These diversitiess of feeling among
the inhabitants of our vast territory will more
and more increase until they reach their
maximum, as our population becomes more
stable and better acclimatiZed. 1t is therefore
in the order of nature, if we are to remain
ital {ln4N tO tha 1Di
pie of local selfgovernment or exchange our
free institutions for a monarchy. With the
State-rights principle re-established, we can
annex Canada and Mexico, and bring in Cuba,
without danger of disruption. Common de-
fense against foreign powers and free COM
merce among ourselves are topics on which
we can easily think alike, because our inte-
rests are the same but that a people spread
through so many latitudes should ever be-
come homogeneous in local feeling, is not to
be expected.
These truths can no more be put out of eX-
istence by the temporary depression of the
Democratic party, than the solar system can
be annihilated by an ecclesiastical deere. The
national success achieved while they were
respected will always come in aid of their in
trinsic evidence, and secure new crops of dis
ciples. The Democratic party can never be
destroyed, because truth and its evidence are
indestIuctible. 1t may very like be super
seded; but only after the full accomplishment
of its work in the universal admission of the
truth on which it is built.
In respect to other great questions, the
Democratic party rests on truths equally per-
manent and indestructible. The State-rights
| principle stood foremost in the Democratic
| creed, and next to that metallic currency
and free trade. The first was most strenu-
ously debated in Jeferson's time; the two last
in Jackson's; they all came out victorious,
and so remained Until the abolition maelstrom
engulfed them in its vortex. But that agi-
tation has run its course, and presently all
these Obscured truths will find Jealous apos-
ties and multitudes of new prOselytes. While
the precious metals remain the currency of
the world, who believes that the hard money
theory can be permanently exploded in this
country Coins will again clink in the pockets
Of our citizens the Democratic party, true to
its old creed, will be the chief agent in re-
storing sound currency and low prices.
Until the laws of nature change, and the
bowels Of the earth yield more suitable sub
stances for money than gold and silver, the
Democratic party will stand on solid ground.
As the advocate of free trade, it is also close
to nature, whose infinite variety of produc-
tions in different parts of the globe is an ever
lasting decree for the free interchange of COM
mOdities.