The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1871-11-04
Choose We.

view of the ''New Departure"
"Where rs the necessity of adopting
a platform that needs gan explanation
to understand it, and long arg,i-
nent to show that it is not madeup
of Radical principles %
The questioner is greatly disturb
ell, as well he may be, as the utter
decentralization and Ill scrupulous-
ness which now, and las fer
years, characterized the Democracy
of the North. He is evidently
ashamed of the reckless disregard OF
principle, the unscrupulousness
which prompts the leaders to rush
into any and every expedient which
promises success to their ticket. lie
knows that the enlightened Demo-
crat of to-day, who loves consisten-
cy and truth, who believes IN a
clear and well-defined code OF party
principles, cannot contemplate the
moral of the Democratic party, as 1t
now exists, without experiencing a
revulsion Of feeling, causing the
blush of shame and disgust to man
tie his cheek. The writer of
this same paragraph thinks that to
make q political canvass on q Re
publican platform, as he interpzets
the 'sNew Departure" to be, is pre-
suning on the ignorance and stu
p;dity Of the people, and is a losing
game. We candidly agree i'll that
sentiment, and are glad that some Of
the Democracy, at least, are begin
ming to speak out against such mis-
cradle hypocrisy and duplieity. IN
dividuality and consistency arequal-
ities as necessary to party dignity
and independence Of character, as
individual manhood. \ party
whose real characteristics and fun
damental principles are diabolical.
should never hope to hide its cloyen
feet beneath cloak of consistency
and truth. Hypocrisy is too much
like its father, the devil, to remain
Iong unexposed. Hence the attempt
of the Democracy to cover up its de
for1nity under a Republican mantle
of consistency and established poll
cy, will react upon itself to the bene-
fit of the Republican party. Dem
ocrats cannot fail to see, that if the
departure" is right, the Republi-
can party has been right from, the
beginning, and will naturally con-
clude to join the party that has been
uniformly consistent and faithful to
its principles This being the logic
of the ''New DEPARTURE as argued
by this journalist, aud others, how
are they to relieve themselves of
this dilemma ? Thiswriter answers,
by Coming back to clear Democrat
ic principles In other words, the
Northern Democracy, having back
slid from the faith, and gone after
strange gods, must return to the
faith from which it departed, and
"do its first works over again."
And where may that true faith be
found those ssclear Democratic
principles 20 We answer, among
Southern Democratic politicians.
This backsliding In the Northern
Democracy has nearly all of it trans
pired, since the "clear Democratic
principles" were all concentrated in
the late effort of tie Southern De-
mocraey to overthrow the General
Government. Secession and rebell-
ion were the legitimate fruits of
"clear Democratic principles The
protection and extension of human
slavery, the doctrine of states-rights,
and an aristocracy based on colorand
a property qualification, were the
fundamental doctrines of ssclear
Democratic principles which cul-
minated in the late rebellion. 1t |
cannot be successfully controverted, |
that previous to the rebellion, South |
ern Democracy made the platforms,
and controlled the general policy of