Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1871-05-04
THE PRESIDENCY.

The Democratic party is in such a state
of decentralization, the differences between
its Northern and Southern wings SO wide
and persistently antagonistic and SO many
of the leaders of both aspiring to the nomi-
nation for the Presidency in 1872, that it
is not even good nonsense or pardonable
folly to presume that harmony can be
reached in this union of disturbances, or
that any man will be nominated who shall
be able to amalgamate these factions, much
less achieve the honors of the chief officer
of the Government. One thing is evident
beyond all discussion, that upon the Dem
ocrats of the North will fall the burden
of the conflict against the Republican par
ty in the Presidential campaign of ~, on
the sole account of its numerical strength.
They will furnish the candidate from the
two-fold reason that every prominent
Southern Democrat is disqualified from
holding Office by his connection with the
rebellion and that the democratic nomi-
nee must have some sort of an Union re-
cord to recommend him to favor in those
sections which have not been inundated
and horriGed by Ku Klux occupation and
violence and do not esteem loyalty the
synonym of political meanness and aban-
donment of social virtues and civil obliga-
tions.
Difficulties, as unsurmountable as those
already mentioned, will beset the DemOc-
racy in drafting a platform suited to all
places. times and circumstances The
ideas, theories and policy that prevailed
in the South during the Calhoun era OF
State Sovereignty have, BY no means, beer
r~elinquished. History, experience and
the logic of the sword have not anninilated
the dogma, that the Federal Government
is a unity, only SO far and so long as the
component States acquiesce in a co-opera-
ton and union, and as soon as one or more
of these States dissent from a fellowship
with the rest, the golden girdle is broken.
This was the argument of secession,-th
the fortress in which the devotees of the
Southern C~onfederacy. unwisely thought
themselves i~mpregnable. The delusions
and sophistries by which the people of the
South have been beguiled since the war,
the partizan exposition of governmental
delinquencies and intentions, the results
of Republican rule colored to the hue of
the blacklist ruin and the portraying of
the unreasonable advantages of democratic
re~ascendency accruing to the South, all
leading to the conclusion that the South
must furnish the platform and the candl-
date, will combine the Southern element
to dictate and demand this distinguished
honor. This uncompromising imperialism
will throw a fre-brand into the ranks of
the Northern Democracy, who having the
battle to fight, must persuade the people
of that section, that Democracy can alone
save the endangered republic" by ignor-
ing the past and accepting the issues of the
war, or in other words urging the better
and more winning policy of edward and
Upward instead of q retrogression to the
feudal days of political and civil inequali-
ties. when eligibility to Office depends up
on social rank and pecuniary condition.
The Southern Democracy recognize the
fact that all manner of political and civil
vassalage expired when the star of South
ern empire went down into the pillows of
blood beneath the horizon of time. They
esteem the present situation as the inexor-
able logic of events. Hard though this
lesson has been to learn, yet the advance
of the Northern Democracy has been sur
prisingly speedy. They see the necessity
of passing over the past as a grave OF de-
. plorable events and of calling into exis-
tence new issues for the future. The
dwellers amid the granite bills of New
England as we'll as he who cleaves the
stubborn turf of the Western prairie, with
the lordly prince of dollars, must have the
same and equally protective recognition.
How can these diversities be met? No
democratic genius has been able to answer
with any degree of satisfaction. The only
suggestion is this. As the Democracy is
hopelessly impotent of itself, the Republi-
can party must be scourged with a Nemesis
in the person of Hon. CHARLES SUMNER,
a candidate on the Democratic ticket.
Lightnings cease your flash and thun-
ders hush u roll. Sun steal back to
the chambers beyond the Gates of the
East, and Oh fair Moon shed thy beams
Fl at midday. Hurricans give us sunshine
and fair skies and cloudless suns give us
storms, Deserts give us water and noun
tains refuse our footsteps for want of the
D trickling gems to quench our thirst.
p CHARLES SUMNER, the Democratic can
didate of the Democracy for the Presiden-
Cyl Paradox of p~aradoxesl Take him.
He is for negro suffrage. Are you? He
He is for equality of citizenship. Are you?
He is for all the latter day amendments.
Are you? Hoppy family! Barnum's
multifarious collection of bllegerent ami
mails is no comparison.
THE KUKLUX.