The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1868-06-20
POLITICAL PARTHs.
FFoHa RGTpeTSs Weekly.

success of party doctrines and meas
ures, but merely the acquisition of
place and patronage. If, for example,
the leaders of the Republican party
had supposed that the elections of last
year indicated total revulsion OF pub
lie feeling, and had therefore refused
in their National Convention to approve
the reconstruction policy of Congtess,
or to declare for equal rights, or for the
national honor, by paying the debt
according to the spirit as well as the
letter of the contract; had then nomt-
mated Reverdy johnson for President
upon the ground that he had advocated
the emancipation amendment, and had
succeeded in electing him, would any
body have been so solemnly waggtsh
as 10 call it a Republican victory3
What is a Republican victory but
triumph of Republican principles at
the polls?
So of the Democratic party. If 1t
should AGO uiesce in the Republican re-
construction; declare for the honest
payment OF the debt as understood by
the national creditors; agree to uuiver-
sal suffrage, and elect Mr.. Chase be-
cause he was opposed to the policy OF
impeachment-howw would his election
be a Democratic triumph? Those VINO
voted what would be a Democranc
ticket would indeed have control OF the
patronage of the Government, but at
The price of the professions. and habits
and policy of the party. To suppose
such a result is to suppose such tota!
want of conviction, of consistency and
OF political honor in the party. leaders
and followers as to expose them to
universal contempt.
II is often a rhetorical convenience to
compare party to an army, but II Is a
very deceptive comparison. Political
parties have their origin in human ma
ture, Men are naturally tories and
Liberals, as they are naturally hopeful
and generous, or skeptical and selfish.
Imagination or temperament have
their part in determining our political
afnnities, as they have in all human
relations. The same division is appa-
rent in religion and in science. a party
is not merely body of men arbitrari-
" organized to oppose another body,
and constantly changing its position 10
secure an advantage. 1t is the growth
of natural tendencies, and applies to
varying social, industrial, or political
questions the same unvarying princi-
pies. Thus modern political history is
the story of one contest under thou
sand forms; the struggle between pop
ular power and that of individuals and
classes. With every century its aspect
Is very different, but the struggle ID
always evident.
In this country there had always
been Tory and Liberal party. The
Toryism and Liberalism have revealed
themselves, of course, according to the
issues of the lime. Within the last
generation the overshadOwing issue
has been the supremacy of the slave
power. Ignorance, passion, material
ism of every kind-all the baser feel
ings and aims of The country not with
out exceptions-were naturally united
In the support of that supremacy; and
the party name by which its advocates
were known was Democratic. Its
struggle, although prolonged and pow
ertuI aud bloody, was unsuccessful.
Slavery WINS abolished, and the party
prestige Disappeared. But "a party
which additionally attracts the igno-
rant class OF the population Is neceSsa-
rily immense, and is peculiarly sus-
coptible of admirable discipline and or
ganization. Intelligence begets indie
pendence.
Now the sentiment OF hostility to
equal rights, the prejudice of race, the
jealousy of free education, indifference
ID true nutional honor, all the meaner
tendencies, passions, and Influences,
still remain, and. politically, they are
still attached 10 the Democratic party.
If the leaders OF that party can per-
shade It's Convention not to express
these tendencies and sympathies, and
to nominate a candidate who is politi-
cally identified with opposition to
them, the result will inevitably be
either that the sincere Tories, the reac-
tionSries, the repudiatOrs, and the
honest believers In the white mans
government, will hold their tongues
and wear a mask In order to gain
power, or they will decline to follow
such leading. If they take the latter
course, the Democratic party will be
divided into two factions, one of which
cries aloud, "Down with the niggerW
while the other thinks it merely, but
SAYS nothing. II they take the former
the question will be merely whether
the cause OF equal rights is safer in the
hands of a party OF its hereditary enc
mics than in those of its proved friends.
It is very true that when great issues
change the composition of parties
changes also. But the same spirit and
tendency still inspire them. The mis-
take is In surprising that the change in
the issues of our recent political stu
alton is completed. No war is ended
this Presidential campaign, is the last
battle in the long and sore struggle of
Slavery to ruIe-the country. Nothing
can secure the reconstruction which
takes precedence of all other national
questions whatever except the success
of the Republican party. Until the
nomination of Grant and Colfax the
whole Democratic party sneered at the
Republican reconstruction. The World
said, whether that policy will stand
depends upon the result of the Presi.
Dental election" And because the
World and its party, foreseeing the in
evitable election of Grant and the sup
port of the reconstruction. as the only
hope of peace and ofanopportuity to at
tend to the national financial questions,
suddenly profess acq uiescence in that
policy, and shout for candidate iden-
tilted with 1t, is anybody likely to sup
pose that policy more secure in charge
of those who, four weeks ago de-
nounced 1t as revolutionary and uncon-
stitutional. In accepting their nomi-
nation Mr.. Chase would virtually say,
81 believe that Horatio Seymour, Geo.
81. Pendleton, Thomas ii. Seymour, the
Mcclellan party of 1854, and Forrest,
and Beauregard, and the ex-rebels, and
the mob who yesterday cried down
with the niggerP are more likely to
secure justice, and peace, and liberty
in the Union than the Republican
party" Does anybody seriously sup
pose that he does believe it? Yet,
under the circumstances of to-day,
what else would his acceptance of the
nomination of this party, on whatever
platform and under whatever profess
sions, signify? It might be an excel
lent proof of the thorough dominance
of the Republican principles and policy
that the Democratic party were forced
to ask him. But what would 1t prove
in regard to Mr.. Chase himself?
a great political issue, intrenched in
the tradition, interest, and feeling of a
nation, does not disappear because a
party terribly pressed upon the eve of
an election decides to be silent upon 1t.
1t does not disappear, but 1t is evident.
ly about to pass away from Its COM
maadinp prominence, The present ut