The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1868-08-13
From ths Nets York Post:
For whom Should the Young Men


What ticket should the young men OF
the country support2 A large number
of young men will cast their first vote
| for President at this next election.
Doubtless they want to support that
ticket whose election shall most benefit
the country. They do not wish to do
that of which they will have to repent
that he. voted for Buchanan, and had
been sorry for it ever since; and Gene
raj Sherman is not the only one who
entertains such regrets.
To the young men we have few
words to say. Everybody knows that
before a very long time passes, there
must come about reorganization of
parties. Those who have studied most
thoughtfnlly the political and indus
trial condition of the country are per-
suaded that many important interests
are neglected, and that the country suf-
fers in different ways, because this re-
organization of parties has been SO long
delayed and that it will continue to
suffer until parties are formed upon
the real questions of the day-which
are taxation and finance.
In the present canvass neither of these
important questions takes the lead.
The Democratic party had the power, If
it's leaders had possessed the necessary
wisdom, TO make these questions prom
"
plished facts, to take for granted the
reconstruction of the Southern States,
and to fling out of the arena of politics
all the old questions, which preceded
and grew out of the war; and to an
nounce policyof equal civil and po-
litical rights, and With this a policy OF
Justice, wisdom and good faith, upon
the questions of taxation, internal and
external, the currency and the debt.
But the Democratic leaders have
neither the courage nor the wisdom 10
place themselves in the advancei they
cannot or will not see that the attitude
OF protest, which they have held for SO
many years, is not the attitude of VIC
torious party. They protested, in 1860,
against the spread of liberal opinion
on the slavery Question-and were beat
en-. They protested in 1864 against the
war for the Union, and demanded an
immediate cessation of hostilittes-and
were still more badly beaten. In 1868,
they still protest-against reconstruc-
ton at the moment It is accomplished
in nearly every State: against the debt,
when the people have made up their
minds to pay it honestly; against the
negroes voting, when they have voted
in every Southern State.
Now, in the first place, it is plain that
so long as the Democratic party thus
disputes the validity of accomplished
facts, SO long as its sole policy is to go
back to carry the country back over
old tracks, to undo what has been done,
to begin again the turmoil through
which we have just painfully passed
just so long is any true progress inn
possible. The old questions must be
put aside before the new ones can come
up for argument. 1t is the Democratic
party, therefore, which bars the way to
progress; and when it is swept out of
the way then ouly can we come to that
discussion OF other questions most i'm
portant to the whole country, which is
so necessary and Imperative.
1t is, therefore, for the general inter-
est and welfare that the Democratic
party should be beaten in the coming
election; tor thus only can these ques-
tious which it attempts to revive be put
aside forever. The party protested
against emancipation until it was
beaten In 1864; but that defeat settled
the question, and put the slavery ques-
ton out of our politics for ever. SO, in
1868 defeat of the Democrats will
compel even them to accept the recon-
structioD, now already accomplished,
and suffer the country to pay attention
TO other and more important matters.
But this is not all. There was Il
time when the Democratic party was
the party of progress, the party OF
sound ideas, OF generous instincts, the
party of Justice, OF human brotherhood,
of equal rights, of freedom. Then its
leaders had courage, they were aggres-
sive, they were not afraid to attack
wrong wherever they found it, or to
maintain the right wherever it led
them. Ifit we're that now; if it had in
il even any of the old leaven of right
eousness, it might be well 10 support
it, and keep it from destruction. But
quality remaining; it Is the party of
hate, OF inhuman prejudice; il has plant
ed itself on injustice and disbonOr.
During the war 1t was ready to sUrreu-
der the Union; since the war it is ready
to disgrace the nation by repudiating
the debt. It denies justice. and boast
fully appeals to tue baser passions of
the multitude.
Is that party with which the young
men OF the nation, generous, full of ar
dor, loving liberty, having faith in
mankind, believing also in the irresis-
tible progress OF this great Union in in
telligence, virtue and wealth, can join?
Here, for instance, is this question of
paying the debt, which is treated by
the Democratic party as though this
nation were bankrupt debtor, ruined
in substance, without health, or
strength, or future. But what young
man believes this? Who of them does
not feel his heart inspired with the
faith that the American people stand
just upon the Threshold OF long and
glorious career? Who of them, with
warm bloodHn his veins, does not scorn
to tarnish the honor of this growing
nation by wronging its creditors? Who
ofthem does not know that the pressure
which seems SO severe now, to the men
without faith or hope, will pass away
SO completely and rapidly that our
children will no more comprehend it
than we comprehend the dark days
after the Revolution, and will no more
forgive us for faintheartedness than we
forgive the fainthearts of the ante-revo-
lutionary days.
There appears to be no hope of an
honorable future, or indeed OF any
future, for the present Democratic par
ty. Its leaders are possessed by ideas
which are not in consonance with the
spirit of the age. They must, in the
nature of fittings, linger out their days
in an attitude of vain but bitter protest
against facts and events. They are
the true reactionaries, who, in the
rough speech of a western man, ego
about treading on the coattails of pro-
gress, and crying out Whoa! whoa"
They have shown themselves during
seven or eight most important years.
unable to catch up with events; and
their position is that of man running
after railroad train, and vainly fling
ing up his hands in rage with the fly
ing locomotive.
We have not been az all our readers