The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1869-10-08
"The Dead Issues of Democracy" ;"


"The Dead Issues of Democracy"
[From the New York Evening Express.l
Several of the Democratic Journals,
some ais far Off as California, are discus
sing what are, and what are not. the
dead issues of Democracy. 1t is admit
ted on all, sides, that many issues die
Thomas Jefferson was Democrat, and
the founder of his party-bnt many of
the issues ofhis day are dead, stone dead,
though few, If any, of his great princi-
pies. His hostility to the Navyis dead /;
his gunboat theories are dead. His lit
tie misunderstanding with George
Washington are dead. His French pro-
clitities are all dead, but most Of the
great principles of his day are as hUing
as ever, ,A--such as his hostility to con-
solidated, or, in others monarchized,
or oligarchic government, with one
great controlling centre,-his love and
respect for State rights, his hostility to
the favoritism Of legislation-such as
banks created for the benefit of the few
Only-s-high protection nioAsbpo! !n,fng .a-
riffs, etc, etc. All these are issues, il
possible, more alive in 1869 than in
1S00,-when, on them, he overthrow the
Federal party, and came into power,
which he, or the men of his mode of
thinking, kept until 1S60-Gl, when all
were oterthrown in the election of Mr..
| Lincoln.
But there are certain dead issues,-
and Slavery is one of them. for exam
pie. The Democrats never defended
Slavery, only defended it, in, and Under,
the promises and guarantees of the Fed
eral Constitution,-as did Mr.. Jefferson
in 1916, in his famous letter to John
Holmes, and as he did on the annexa-
ton of Louisiana, full Of the elements
of Slavery, in the early part of his ad-
ministratiOn. There are other dead is
sues, and among them, what are known
as the extreme ''principles Of '9S," which
ran into secession, though the true State
Rights principles, as expressed by Mr.
Madison near the close of his life, are
or ought to be livelier than ever. Or
in other words, Secession, Or NuliGca.
ton, and all its brood, are dead. The
peril is, now, of running into another
extreme of Capitalization, or Concen-
tration. because the States are dead
and this peril is liUing issue. The U.
s. Bank issue is dead issue,-while
the Federal brood of Banks is very
lively issue.
The war is dead issue. 1t was a very
unnecessary war, and there never would
have been a war, had the Democrats
continued in power, while the Democ-
racy, in time, as In New York and Penu-
sylvania, would have abolished slavery
without war, and as they were abolish
ing it in 1882. when Federal abolition
ism began its bitter personal assaults in
Virginia; but, nevertheless, the wal
now is as dead All issue as slavery. We
cannot raise the slain dead on either
side. We cannot repudiate the taxes
made necessary by that war, though we
can Justly say that the debt would not
have been half what it now is, if THE
Democrats had been in power; for
when the war became inevitable, they
would, on the instant, have levied the
taxes necessary to pay therefor, so that
our obligations would not have been
sold for forty cents, and that in paper
now redeemabe in gold. But what are
live issues, are the inequality of the
Taxes. the severity Of the TaXes,-the
unwisdom Of the Tax Legislation, theil
oppressive, iniuriOua character, the de.
struction they have already created tc
our commerce. and the damage they
have Inflicted upon our manufacturing
interest, in shutting it out from th'
markets of the world.
The fact is, we are full Of lire issues
of great Importance to the country, ant
great profit to our party, and quicker
we drop all really dead ones, the better
There is no use in trying to race will
dead horses. When things die, bur,
them, though never, nerer, NEVER bur.
great principles, for in them there i
| eternal resurrection