The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1871-09-22
The Democratic Outlook.
From the New York Tribune.

culated to cheer with hope the heart OF
the observant Democrat There may
not be very active political heat any
where, but certainly the most deadly
lively scene just now within range is a
Democratic canvass in any one OF the
States where contest is going on.
There is something CHASTITY in the SEM
blance of life which the Democracy
puts on in the field this year; it is as
though q man who is really in moribund
condition should insist upon getting
out of bed and dancing jig; it is
septuagenarian flirting with his cham
bermaid, with one foot in his grave.
The fun is desperate and the struggle
with the inevitable is bitter; but, for
all that, the subject is in the article Of
death.
In Ohio, for instance, where the
much-vaunted new departure was first
taken, nothing has come of the trick
but disaster and defeat. The candidate
for Governor met with cold reception
from his own party when he first en-
tered the canvass. AS he went on with
his absurd single speech, disappointing
the expectations of his friends and dis
gusting the people who were drawn to
hear him, 1t became evident that his
nomination was n failure. He was qui-
city shelved and is heard of no more;
whether he is a candidate none seem to
know. His withdrawal under any pre-
text is virtual defeat, and no man can
be found courageous enough to take up
the standard he has laid down. The
action of the Ohio Democratic Conven-
ton in accepting as legal the constitu-
tional amendments which had been
steadily denounced with the latest
breath of the party, was not acceptable
to the old tile-leaders of that organiza-
ton. And in the State where the De-
mocracy was to have commenced new
existence and new career, the candi-
date is a failure and the platform an
utter wreck. A similar half-hearted
support of the new departure resolu-
tons has distracted the Democracy Of
Iowa, where formidable quarrel has
only been hushed up by keeping the
sulky ones at home, where they silently
nurse their wrath. The same may be
said of California, where such old war
horses as Bolts and Weller utterly
trines of the latter-day Democracy, and
abhor their candidate, declaring that
he is only an office-hunter and mere
jumping jack in politics. The Wscon-
sin Democracy have been forced, in
their wild despair. to put forward as
their exponent and bannerbe bearer the
torlorn figure of James X. Doolittle.
This man, who but few years ago was
a Republican, is now a representative
Democrat What sort of Democracy is
that Of Wisconsin. which is proud to
claim as its highest type such king of
shreds and patches as this? His nomi-
nation only shows the desperate shifts
to which the party is reduced, when a
new convert Johnsonized Republican
is seized upon as the only available
materiable for the purpose of conduct
ing campaign 1t indicates just such
blind reaching out for relief as we
have seen in North Carolina. where the
Democracy, discouraged at the apathy
of the people and the gradual accept
ance OF prosperous peace, further COM
plicated the party by an attempt to re-
model the State Constitution. but was
met by popular verdict which effectu.
ally destroyed that revolutionary means
OF regalnlng the ascendency.
1t was not to be expected that the
party which opposed the war for the
Union could long survive its successful
conclusion. Held together by the CO.
heslve power OF expected divisions of
party spoils, it has outlived the logical
period for its demise, but not for long.
Becoming party of mere negations, it
has nothing but opposition and destruc-
ton 10 offer the country. 1t proposes
only to abolish, repeal, repudiate, and
annul; 1t offers no substitute for what
it seeks to destroy. 1t is the anarchist
which would destroy order. but reveals
no future condition of betterment-only
confusion, chaos, nothingness.
Such party cannot, in the nature of
things, long maintain even spasmOdic
existence. In all truth and eoberness.
we cannot see what possible mission the
Democratic party has to fulfill in the
country. Party organization for the
sake only of securing and dividing the
public offices cannot long exist. Aud
to this complexion the once proud old
Democratic party has come at last. The
great thefts of Tammany in New York
are an earnest of what would be done
wherever the Democracy can secure
power. 1t is public plumber, not prin-
ciple, which binds together the domi-
nant party in New York; and, whether
Gov. Hoffman's freebooters fleece the
merchants in the Bay, or the man who
boasts of owning the Legislature of New
York binds the city hand and foot it is
reckoned legitimate policy by Demo-
cratic tacticians. 1t does not seem in
reason that party so organized and
conducted should long exist. But it
needs all the hard blows that Republi-
cans can deliver upon it to bring down
to the dust of defeat this preposterous
sham, which has no longer any excuse
for being. We do not see what is to
keep this misnamed band of conspira-
tors much longer alive Only the leth-
argy of its natural foes will permit its
further success in the nation.
Progress of ST. Louis.