The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1868-10-07
from the New York Herald
Reunion of the Northern and Southern
DemOcracy..The Party of the Future.

Oh 1t was hardly Wltnln Tile lll1lC OIL pOSSiDlil-
ty that the Democracy could triumph in the
pending canvass, for, in the very nature of
the case, their position was such as to ava
ken the misgivings of the people. They
necessarily stood before the country in an
attitude of hostility to the party that could
with some show of justice claim the conduct
of the war as portion of its record and
the popular intellect, which generalizes on
broad facts and does not weigh nice points,
could see no difference between opposition
to the party of the war and opposition to
the war itself. This was made worse by the
impenetrable stupidity of Democratic wri-
tiers themselves confounding the same things
and arguing as if the best way to expose the
folies and blunders of the Northern war
party was to glorlfy the Southern armies and
depreciate the courage of the national soldiers
and the abilities of national generals. Thus,
by the popular view and by the coppery in
stinct of its own writers, the Democratic
party was at once debarred from assuming
that attitude in which alone there was a
possible victory for an opposition party
the attitude, namely, of party that, ac-
knowledging and accepting the result of the
war, wages its strife against the abuses and
shortcomings ola political organization cor
rupted by the possession of too much power.
Thus debarred from that only sure course,
the Democracy was from the beginning
doomed to defeat.
Certain of the democratic leaders saw
this-not the Northern ones, for they are
fellows rich in bully and braggadocio and
the mean cunning of jobbery, just in pro-
Po'tioi Us 'A'~y arn poor in that true capt.
tai OF party-educated thought applied to
the solution of political problems. North
ern democratic leaders were summing mn
the total of spoils they would gather when
they won, as the beggar of Bagdad counted
the price of the chickens that were in bis
basket of eggs; and while they were thus
busy the Southern leaders--the same men
who ruled our system by superior sagacity
in days gone by-were weighing the chances
of the conflict and devising the means by
which victory was to be secured sooner or
later. These men saw that the contest of
their party in this canvass against name
that so carried the story of the war as
Grants did was hopeless, and turned their
thoughts to what might practically be done
this year. They gave up tile candidate to
be named by the North on condition that
the North would give them their vital
points of principle in the platform. This
was a cheap victory. They could afford to
let the North name the candidate, for it
made no difference who he might be, since
it was so nearly an absolute certainty that
he must be beaten, while in securing the
platform they were enabled to identify a new
consolidated democracy in the very hour Of
its birth with that policy in regard to the
Southern States that must eventually have
the sympathy of the whole people. They
gave up the candidate and the New Yorker:
named him. The position of our city demo
Gratis on the Presidency is this: if there is {
man in the White House whom they car
manage they would like to have democrat
ic President; but if they cannot manage
democratic President they would rather hav,
President of the other party. This is a!
in regard to The city spoils. A Presider
they can manage will put their own men il
the Custom House and the Post Office, ant
all will be harmony between the nationa
plunderers and the municipal plunderers O
this free metropolis; but if the President j
one who will put other kinds of democrats
here to distress the municipal stealers ant
provoke division on tickets, they woul,
rather have President to put in republi
cans, from whom they will be safe. This i
their political philosophy, and in the con
trast between it and the political ideas tina
moved the Southern leaders we see the tru
difference between the two classes of men,
The Southern leaders are looking, there
fore, in this fight solely for its effect on tn
future. They know that they cannot vii
this year-they must apprehend that the
may not win for two or three campaigns t
come; for, in view of the vitality that Gran
will give, in view of the development q
political purposes that will characterize hi
administration, it is at least possible tina
his party will receive from him an impuIs
that may carry it triumphantly many year
into the future.