Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1867-08-08

Chained to n Corpse. -...
From Harpers Weekly.
The speech Of Mr.. Gross, editor Of the
Democratic German paper, the Stats
Zeitung, delivered in the Convention at
Albany was not only an admirable state
ment of the propriety of manhood suf-
frage, but ii was an illustration Of skill
full party tactics. IL took exactly the
position which the Democratic party as
sagacious organization should have
taken at the end of the war. The logic
is simple. Slavery, upon which, as q
special issue, parties rested, being gone,
the true policy was to abandon all the
old prejudices and measures founded
upon it, and to accept the situation
With the fall Of slavery, and I'm the sit
uation of the country, 1t was evident that
the colored man would be politically an
equal citizen. Slavery being gone there
was no reason for insisting upon keeping
him DISTINGUISHED; and could the man
ayers of the Democratic party have been
sagacious enough to perceive 1t, there
was chance of restoring the old party
under new name.
AS it is, the Democratic party is an or
ganization of opposition upon principle
which wholly reverses the course of re-
construction, repudiates the theory of
the war, and leaves every great national
question unsettled. The Democratic
policy is to treat the States exactly as II
nothing had happened but riot; it has
been suppressed, and that Is the end of it.
Nothing more puerile can be conceived
than such view of the situation. 1t is
craftsmanship which omits all the facts.
1t is folly which finds no significance
in the terrible words spoken to king:
"Sire, it is revolution" And until the
f,1I - tl,.nSa
no such party can hope for restoration TO
power, except by some chance Of an alli-
ance with a vote at the South unfriendly
to the Government and the Union.
So long as this is the course OF the
Democratic party; 80 long as its organs
sneer at loyalty and applaud treason by
innuendo; so long as men who honestly
gave time, money, personal service, and
uncompromising devotion to the country
during the war perceive in those papers,
with distaste and disgust, the sympathy
with the utterly un-American spirit
which has SO long ruled the society of
the South, just SO long they will suspect
and spurn the Democratic party. Every
where, as in the New York Convention,
it appeals and panders to hostility OF
race which can lead to nothing but evil
when the subjects oft are equal citizens.
Even Democrats of character and posi-
tion serve an imaginary public which
demands the sacrifice oflibcrty or Justice;
or, knowing their constituents, they
stultify themselves by yielding to an ig-
noble prejudice. Could they once cast
this kind of subserviency aside We could
hope for a sudden restoration of uDiver-
sal prosperity. ..r -cfl..grs
AS it is, however, the better men are
in fear of the worst. The demagogues,
oh l.,tA Il
tage at all hazards would instantly ex-
pose to the Indignation of ignorance a
man who took high ground and sought
to plant the party upon it. And from
this springs one of the chief perils of our
politics. For when the intelligent and
catholic consciously defer to the dicta-
tion of the ignorant and passionate the
Government becomes essentially base in
itself and humiliating to every honora-
BILE citizen. Nothing is more certain
than the intimate relation between NOR
rails and politics. AS the sence of a
moral law dies out of the mind of legis-
lators the state approaches anarchy. Yet,
if legislation is to be dictated by the
worst part of the population and by the
worst feelings, how long can We hope
that morality will linger In politics?
Now, there is this essential difference
between the two great parties in this
country, the one has the inspiration of
the moral sentiment and the other has not.
Wedo not mean that all Republicansare
are good men, or all Democrats bad men;
but we do mean, as we said before, that
the tendency of the Republican party is
to lift its worst members up to its best
principles, while that of the Democratic
party is to drag its best men down to a
wretched policy. This is unavoidable,
but it is undeniable.. Thus the Demo
cratic policy for a generation may have
been interpreted by its wisest and SINGER
est men as merely State-Rights,, while
the Democratic rallying-ory has been,
"Down with the niggern On the other
hand, the reproach incessanty urged
against the Republican party by the
most acrimonious Democratic journals Is
that it was really led by the extreme rad
icals. But surely, even IL this should
lead to the cry of Up with the nigger"
which is the more inviting of the two
cries to an intelligent and generous man?
Is society, is this country, likely to be
more benefited by feeling and policy
that degrade or that elevate any class in
the community? 1Ir.s
So long as the Democratic party cling
to the old issues they are chained to q
corpse; and they have no secret charm
to make the dry bones live.
Human Body and the Hour OF Day,