Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1869-09-08

to the dogs because the President has seen
fit, after eight years of hard labor, to take
some relaxation in " holiday contempt" of
the sufferings of certain American citizens of
revolutionary proclivities in Cuba and Ire
land. This heinous conduct and the sea-
sickness of a Secretary make the administrs-
ton a failure.
Still, with this advantage, the opposition
cannot agree upon any such principles or
platform as should enable it to claim the
confidence of the people. 1t is asserted that
the party no longer rests under the old in
cubus of slavery, but every movement it
makes shows that the old policy is still a drag
and that the ruts of tradition are too deep
easily to be cleared. The changes in public
sentiment, and the altered condition of the
country from the hard experience of the last
few years, have no weight or influence with
the party of the conservatives, and in spite of
their assertions to the contrary, every one of
their meetings devotes its time and energy to
galvanizing the old dogmas into an appear
ance of vitality. They have carried Cali
fornia, having for their test of political ortho-
doxy, opposition to the radical measures
of Congress, including the Fifteenth Amend
ment, and the appointment of negroes to any
Office" So in other states, they refuse to
accept principles and results in which the
South, the section most directly interested,
willingly acquiesces everywhere else expert
ence has taught no lesson. The money Of
Packer, the strong personal influence and
presidential aspirations of Pendleton, may
this year carry Pennsylvania and Ohio. If
so it will be a local and temporary triumph.
No party without unity of purpose or broad
and comprehensive plan of action can hope
to succeed. Petty filings and personal criti-
ciems will do we'll enough for an opposition,
but such tactics alone cannot control a state,
much less the whole country; and till the
Democracy are able to make and keep a
united stand on some live issue they are not
to be feared.
Senator Sherman has lately addressed a
political gathering in Ohio, and with his
usual acumen tells some plain truth in a way
all can understand. He says:
The platform of the Democratic party de-
nounces the tax on tea, coffee, sugar and
salt, as a measure for the benefit of New
England. Now | never knew before that the
articles enumerated were New England pro-
ducts. l supposed sugar, tea and coffee to
be chiefly imported, and that salt was not a
New England product The reference to
New England in the platform shows a spirit
of petty sectional strife. The Democratic
platform declares in favor Of limited hours of
labor. In the Democratic states, except
New Jersey, there are no laws fixing the
hours Of a legal days work. A Republican
Congress passed the law fixing eight hours as
a legal days work in Government workshops. |
This platform declares in favor Of free
homesteads TO actual settlers, in view of
the fact that when a Republican Congress
passed a Homestead law, the last Democratic
President, Buchanan, voted it and it was
only when we had a Republican President
and Congress that such a law was passed and
went into operation. Now the Democrats
meet in convention and %solemnly declare that
they are in favor of free homesteads. They
declare that they are opposed to grants of
public lands to railroads, yet the first bill
passed Congress for such a purpose was in
reduced by Mr. Douglass, a Democratic
leader, and gave millions of acres to the Hi
nois Central Railroad Company. Thus it is
that a great party condescends TO plAy the
demagogue in the construction of pfatforms
made simply to catch voters.