Juniata sentinel. [volume] (Mifflintown, Pa.) 1846-1873, 1870-12-21
What Will Il DO I

Ten years ago the Democratic party
was writhing in the throcs of death
The administration of Jams Buchanan
was drawing to a close. 1t was com
plete failure. During its term Of exist
ence the Democratic financial and com
mercial policy was brought to focus
and to-day, as we look back at the resnl
of that policy, we arc greatly refreshed
with the facts that it presents We zee
that the business Of the country was
prostra;ed, brought to a stand still
that the banks were either broken up OF
closed; that property. such as houses
and lands, scarcely payed the taxes and
the expenses Of keeping them up"
that the puplic credit had been reduced
TO a point lower than it had ever been be.
fore: that the Government itself wa. ac-
tually a begger on the streets of our
cities for money at IL per cent, and
could not obtain it at that.
But this is not the only notable, the
only Iepulsive feature of James Buchan-
ans administration. At its ingoing it
found the Democratic party unit; at
its outgoing it left it shattered aud broken,
and one portion of the party in actual
rebellion against the Government. Tnis
is tue. 1t lie the record, and time itself
cannot efface it. Dreadful days were
those. Appalling to the people were the
acts of the Democratic leaders The
people of the North were shocked as
they never before had been. They look
ed on with amazement at the working of
the great leaders of Ike Democratic party.
This was the critical time for President
Buchanan. He failed he turned his
face in the wrong direction. If he had
thrown himself upon the country, relying
entirely on patriotism, as did Andrew
jackson when notification reared its
ugly form, he could have most likely
paved his party from dismemberment and
the ruin of the party for ten years. What
effect such course would have had Oh
the Republican party it is not onr pur
pose here to ask. But James Buchanan
pursued no such wise course. His pa
triotism was lost in his fealty to the
great Democratic pro-slavery leaders of
the South. They were his idols. and in
their dreadful! bloody debauchery they
dragged him, his administration, and his
party to an ignoble end. The Democrat
ic leaders South gave the country the
rebellion. Its startling tocsins sounded
the dismemberment of the Democratic
party North. The mass of the Democ-
racy North would not bend to the will of
the rebel leaders, and the party fell to
pieces. The sympathizing leaders were
compelled to shrink away in silence be-
fore the popular wrath, and they for
time were not heard Of. The first init
nation that the country received that
they still lived, was when the first mis-
take occurred in the management of the
affairs of the nation. No matter what
the mistake was, no matter Of how tri- |
fling nature either, it became the target
at which the Valandinghams and the
Seymours commenced to hurl their dis
like. One mistake after another occurring,
the leaders increased their burrahs a thou
and times against them, and not once
laid down course that was favorable to
the Government. Opposition became the
political creed of the Northern leaders.
Examine their platforms of the times of
which we speak, and see their record
Their opposition gradually won back to
them numbers of their party who forsook
it when the rebellion first broke forth.
Through fault-fnding they have brought
themselves to their present strength
They have no openly avowed principles
20 give them life. Opposition is the life
blood of their organization it gathers
and holds the mass of the Democracy.
This persistent opposition to everything
done by the Government, coupled with
:he election of Ex-Governor Vance, of
North Carolina to the United States Sen.
ate, and his threats of retaliation in case
of restoration to power, and the lectures
of John Surratt, so full of denunciations
against the Government that crushed the
rebellion, and the impudent demand made
in the United States Senate by Senator
from Kentucky, that the Arlington estate
should be returned to Mrs. Gen. Lee, and
that rent should be payed for the occu-
paney of the property by the United
States and also that the bodies of the
Union soldiers should be removed, have
caused the county to ask, what will the
Democracy do, If it gets the power of
he national Government Viewing the
conduct of such leaders as Vance.
McCreery and Surratt. it ia a natural
question to ask, what will it do?