Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1871-12-05
The Democratic Party.


includes many persons OF whom
what We say of the party itself can
not be truly affirmed. When wc say,
for instance, that the Democratic pol
icy was inhuman, we do not mean
nor reasonably imply that every in
divldual member of that party is cru
ell as, when we speak Of the ambi-
tious and dangerous political purpos-
es OF the Roman Church, we DO not,
In any just sense, accuse all adher-
ents of that Church of hostility to
our institutions. A party is, in some
points, but not entirely, like an ar
my. 1t has a general movement to
which every soldier must conform,
and the general direction of its
march is determined by Circumstance
es which the single soldier cannot con
troll, and to which he must submit
In country like ours the active po>
litical forces are organized in two
bodies, and it is the tendency and
spirit of each which are criticised
when the name is mentioned.
Many persons call themselves DEM
ocrats because they approve the DEM
ocratic principle. But the history of
the Democratic party shows little
regard for the principle. For a gen.
GRAFTON the organization known by
that name was body whose chief
policy was the protection, extension,
and perpetuation of human slavery
The central fact in the history of the
party is not that it advocated rev.
enue tariff, opposed the United States
Bank, and was jealous of the limits of
government, but that it cherished
slavery and caused the civil war
The democratic principle is fair play
for all men. The Democratic policy
was slavery. 1t is folly to try to es-
cape this truth by saying that the
North foisted slavery upon the coun-
try, and that the Constitution guar
anteed the right OF property in man.
II all this had been admitted, the
Democratic policy would logically
have been the restriction of slavery
in every way, drawing line of fire
around it, as General Dix said, that,
like the scorpion, it might sting it.
self to death. This would have been,
assuming that nothing more could
have been done, the natural policy of
a real democratic party-of party
that really sought fair play. But
this was precisely the policy that the
party rejected, because it was con-
trolled by the slave-masters; and it
was precisely the policy which the
party bitterly opposed as unfraternal
when it appeared as the Republican
policy.
This organized apology for slavery,
and justification of it, and passionate
hatred of its opponents, are the chief
roots of our political Generalization.
Nor will any Democrat who knows
the facts deny that his party is to-
day strongest in those parts of the
country where there is the most ig.
norance. and where the cruel faith
and feeling of the time when slavery
was supreme survive. He would not
assert that the Ku-KIux, for instance,
are Republicans nor that they in.
timidate Democrats from the polls.-
The truth is that the Democratic
party does not now represent, and
never has represented, the democrat
ic idea. Assuming that the Repub-
licans are as corrupt, and that in the
dishonesty of administration they
have bettered the Democratic exam
pie, il nevertheless remains true that
the Republican is the only party i n
our history which has ever asserted
and put in practice the democratic
principle Of equal human rights
And the latent hostility to that
principle survives, organized, in the
Democratic party. We are told to
let by>gones be by-gones. We are
reminded that the year 1871 is not
the year 1860. We are asked if there
is to be no end of the old battles, and
if we really suppose that the Demo-
Gratis wish to restore slavery. We are
pointed to Republican corruption
and Capitalization. The reply is SIM
pie: granting it all, is the Democrat
ic party as we know it, snd as it
shows itself every day, more likely
to protect and defend liberty, or to
administer the government more hon.
estly ? Certainly we do not suppose
that all good men are in the Repub-
lican party, nor that u Democrat
may not be honest and patriotic
But we certainly say that those men
sustain a party to which the most
dangerous classes in the country be.
long, and whose policy, were the par
ty successful, would be directed-as
it always has been, as it was in the
last National Convention-by the
more positive and mischievous of its
leaders. The return of that party to
power would be the menace of incal
culable evils, because it would intrust
the administration of the govern
ment, under changed Constitution,
to those who hate the changes and re-
sisted them, and who have stigma
tized them as revolutionary and void.
Ii there were even promise of great
err purity of administration simply,
it might be some mitigation of the
natural alarm at the prospect Of
Democratic ascendency. But the
traditions, the spirit, the composition
the theories, the declarations, the
arts of the party summon every citi
zen who does not think that q change
of name is change of things to work
faithfully until the party which was
the body-guard of human slavery il