Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1869-09-24
The Democratic BOurbOns.

s,1res in harmony with the actual SITUATION
Tbe SIGNS OF the contest abound on every
side. The different tone OF the platforms
in the various States and the character
and antecedents OF the candidates OF
which we spoke last week, all reveal the
want of common conviction and COM
mon purpose in the party. 1t begins to
appear, however, that the progressive
wing of the party yields to the Bourbons,
and that one more effort will be made to
prolong the angry debate out of which the
war sprang.
This contest in the Democratic party be-
gan with its organization under Jackson.
General Jackson was substantially JEFF
fersonian. He was in favor of restric-
ton Of government to the lowest terms,
and although he approved tariff for de-
Tense, he was opposed to national sys-
tenn of internal improvements and magnif-
cent enterprises. Long before General
jackson thought of the Presidency, Mr..
Calhoun, whose general political philoso-
ply was much less sound than Jackson's,
had fixed his heart upon it. His instinct
indicated 10 him his chief rival, and dur
ing the Presidency of Monroe Mr.. Cal
houn was hostile to "the hero" who did
not suspect it. Jackson's election present
ly made Calhoun his open enemy. The
first contest between them was the nullifi-
cation movement of 1882. Jackson was
honestly Union man, and heartily de-
spised as well as disbelieved the Southern
theory Of the government. His proclama-
ton was as admirable and sound as Web
ster's speeches, and he made preparations
TO keep the peace and enforce the law
In the latter resolution his party support
ed him. But in his Message of 1882, pre-
Wiz tO ho 10 of hn wiz
commended the policy that Calhoun de-
handed From that moment the Cal
houn element in the Democratic party
grew stronger, until it absolutely con-
trOlled it., and the war that was always
latent in, that element broke out.
The conduct and event of the war
proved that the people rejected the Cal
houn theory while they destroyed slavery,
for whose protection the theory was
urged. The Democratic party, as party,
passively opposed the war; and at its end
the party organization remained. The
internal conflict was therefore inevitable.
There were the party traditions, the
Southern alliance, and the hatred of the
negro, with the old party leaders, apollo
gists of slavery, and supporters OF the
Virginia and Kentucky resolutions-in
fact, the Calhoun men, on one side; and
party, young proselytes who held philo-
sophically to the limited functions of gov
ernment and who insisted upon abandon
ing the plainly closed issues of the last
generation. Of this wing the New York
World became the organ; journal skill
fully and intelligently managed, but
whose tone of light mockery has always
paralyZed its influence and destroyed its
power.
Inethe Democratic National Convention
of 1868 the two wings of the party met
and tried conclusions. Calhoun reap
peared in the flesh as Wade Hampton, and
he swept all before him. The New York
managers had secured the meeting of the
Convention in Tammany Hall itself, and
intended to secure their preference in the
nomination But the wilier the New
York plotting the more conspicuous was
the triumph of South Carolina. One of
the ablest and most honorable of New
York Democrats, Henry G. Murphy, re-
ported the platform, and the New York
trick of nominating the New Yorker, Ho-
ratio Seymour, succeeded. But Mr. Muir
phys platform was reputation, and Mr..
Seymour, who had opposed reputation at
Tweddle Hall, accepted as his own
the regulating platform of Tammany.
was simply whether the people would sur
render the results of the war, and the
election of General Grant was the answer.
The progressive wing Of the party was
compelled to submit to the BourbOns of
the Convention, and their hopes of the
prompt abandonment of old issues and a
bold dash at the future in the nomination
of Mr. Chase being baffled, the progress.
sives made a show of falling into line; but
after the premonitory thunder of Maine
and Pennsylvania the World called for a
change of front, which was a confession Of
inevitable defeat. 1t came, and the new
men naturally supposed that it would in
struct the Bourbons. But they forgot that
nothing can instruct the Bourbons. The
World hailed the nomination of General
Rosecrans in Ohio, urged that of General
Hancock in Pennsylvania, and rejoices
over that of John Quincy Adams in Mas
sachusetts. 1t has stringently set forth
that common sense demands acquiescence
in what is actually accomplished. But it
pleads in vain. The Bourbons conquer.
General Rosecrans, in declining, echoes
the World; and the Bourbons nominate
in his place Vallandigham's candidate,
Rendleton, the chief national representa-
tive of reputation; and in Pennsylvania
Asa Packer, an extreme Bourbon; and
answer john Quincy Adams speech, adj
vising general remuneration Of old issues
by the stolid declaration of the platform
that they change nothing.
Not content with condemning the wal
by replacing Rosecrans, a Union general
by Pendleton, Vallandigham Copper
head and repudiator, and by preferring
Packer to Hancock, the Bourbons now
begin to demand the head of the chairman
of the National Committee, who opposes
reputation They will not demand it in
vain. Everywhere, also, the Bourbons
insist upon opposition to the Fifteenth
Amendment, and the refusal of equal rights
to the colored citizens. 1t is the reac-
ton nationally attempted last year at
which they now aim in the separate States.
And so complete is their victory that the
World itself, whose one principle of party
action since the surrender of Lee has been
the abandonment of issues that were plain
ly settled, attempts to prove that Mr. Pen
dleton's proposition to pay the bonds in
currency is not bad faith, and that the ne
gro contest must be continued. The pas
sage of the Fifteenth Amendment, which
the World opposes would formally close
the great debate of the last generation
and the acquiescence in equal suffrage in
this State by the adoption of the new Con-
stitution would open the way for the con-
sideration of new issues. The Bourbons
have conquered the World, which has sur
rendered every advantage that the result
of the Presidential election gave it. 1t
hurrahs for Pendleton and hurrahs for