The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1871-11-15
DAILY PRESS.
PORTLAND
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER Is, 1871.
Tine Lecture of the "worid."

Tho elections over, the Democratic party
beaten. broken and routed as no opposition
marty ever was before on the eve of Presl-
DENTAL election, aud knowing that its deleal
Is so general and crushing as to be apparen,
to every intelligent man in the county "-N
80 remediless that words OF hope anu nv,
would fall upon the ears Oh the ia''u'ui
hitter mockery the World IN recen' iseuo
nroceeds to free its mind in douole-leaded
Ladder fullv admitted the defeat of the party
and pointing out the causes that conspired to
nroduce it. According TO the World the
homeless condition of the Democratic party is
due wholly to the fact that its policy has been
shaped by unwise land unsafe men-that it
has done precisely the things it ought not to
have done-a sentiment in which the patriot
ic intelligence of the country heartily concurs.
Had the party taken our advice, says the
lugubrious World, all might now have been
well. In 1868, it goes on to declare, after the
October elections made it is as plain as IL
could he that the defeat of the party was IN
evitable, we suggested that Gen. olail' VIM
with his Broadhead letter had o7ershadoWeu
the canvass, be thrown overDoafd tha'
the shin might be saved, but our advice was
unbeeded and even derided. In 1863, contln-
ues the Democratic Moses, we denounced the
Tammany leaders in this city, but in return
the party raped us on the knuckles. Last
spring we declared earnestly for the "new de-
parture," but at once leading men in the
North, with large following of the party
and the almost entire South, vehementy OPP
posed it, declaring that the Democratic party
adhered to the issues of 1.-THE past. =
Hence our low estate; hence our soiled stan
dards: hence our Tammany disgraces.
Humiliation and despair make people frank
and truthful that are not so at other times,
and the World forms no exception. 1t tells a
great deal of truth, but to the closer observer
it unintentionally discloses two or three more
important facts relative to the Democratic
party.
First: The lamentation of the World indi-
Gates that it and those who follow after it are
strangers to any moral convictions in polti-
cal matters. The World adopts the same
policyin reference to great political issues that
a manufacturer Or merchant does in trade
1t learned by the October elections in 1868
that Gen. Frank Blair and his political opin
ions, which the Democratic party had espous
ed, were obnoxious to the American people
Because Mr.. Blair and his heresies were OBJ
noxious and not because they were infamous
and wrong, the World would discard them
just as manufacturer would stop running his
mills on the production of an article that the
public refused to buy. The World puts itself
in the attitude of a theatre manager who
plays low comedy, finding that high tragedy
and empty seats do not pay. The change
from a declaration that the RECONSTRUCTED
State governments are usurpations" and the
"so-called constitutional amendments are null
and void" to fully accepting both as accom-
plishedifacts, involves no more change O
principle than to throw by the coat OF las
year for another this, simply because the style
has changed. In short it discloses the fac
that the World and the Democratic leader
that hold to its policy have no principle in pc
1itical matters beyond such a course as viii
secure majority of the votes of the American
people.
Second: The sad refrain of the World, eve
advised this, but you would not hear shows
that in supporting Mr.. Blair and his revolu
tionary sentiments, in turning the cold shout
der to the ."new departure" and in adherine
to the same heresies that made it distinct
lively the pro-slavery and snti-war party, the
mass of the Democratic party to-day are in
cordial sympathy with the reactionary princi
pies of Gen. Blair, and as bitterly and firmly
hostile to the results that have grown out O
the war as to the war itself In 1862. If this i
not so, why has not the party followed tn
counsel of the World and its few select ad
yisers?