Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1871-06-30
A NOn.pepartIng New Departure.


md threatening position, and declare its
Issent to the beneficent and fundamental
,hanges which have been effected by the
Republican party. Such declaration, in
Iced, will be no reason for restoring the
party to power, not only because 1t is not
made from conviction, and merely for the
purpose of attaining power but because
he party contains the chief moral and
political elements of hostility TO the gov
and its principles. The only
credit due to Mr. Vallandigham who has
now become the leader of the Democratic
party which wishes TO profess acquies-
cence in the situation, is that Of perceiving
that the sole chance for his party is at
least TO assume a virtue But his platform
Is not yet that of his party; and il is not
clear that IL will become so. The North
ern chiefs insist that it is senility and in
sanity to think of anything else. But the
fact in the history of the
Democratic party Is that its Southern ele-
ment has always controlled it, and for the
reason that 1t was the element of real con-
and we have yet to sec that the
situation is changed.
After the Democratic National Conven-
ton of 1868 had assembled, and before its
were made, Southern Dem
ocrat remarked that the nomination of
Judge Chase would be surrender which
would dissolve the party. General
Grant" he said, "would, in that case, walk
over the course" There was a very differ
ent opinion, however, among many New
York Democrats. Their reasoning was
that to nominate a man who had been
conspicuous Republican leader would in
evitably demoralizc the Republican party.
But If the reasoning were correct, it was
applicable to their own friends. Had
Judge Chase been the candidate, the Dem
ocratic traditions would all have been
abandoned; every Democratic rallying cry
would have been silenced; not an
orator would have alluded to the
past; slavery could not have been
justified; the "nigger" could not have
been revied the war could not have
been denounced; the "usurpations of
the Republicans could not have been con-
demned; the rescue of the constitution
could not have been proclaimed for ifthe
constitution had been violated, if the war
was unjust, and its conduct a tyrannical
usurpation, nobody was more guilty than
the Chief Justice. To sneer at "the
gorilla" and cheer for his colleague, the
Secretary of the Treasury, tospit upon un-
constitutional legislation and vote for the
father of the legal tender, was something
so preposterous that, however plausible as
party trick, il was impractiCable if there
were any party conviction. The South
ern Democrat and his friends prevailed,
and the convention appropriately and log
ically nominated candidate who had vir-
tually said, as Mr.. Dickinson was never
weary of repeating, that he would see the
Union dissolved rather than slavery dis
turbed.
AT the present time, when the Ohio lead
ers have declared their acquiescence in the
amendments, three things are observable:
that Mr.. Pendleton was president of the
convention, and that the resolutions favor
form of reputation; that the party or
gans Of the new departure declare that the
acquiescence is not in the amendments,
but in the judicial construction that may
be put upon them; and that vital ele-
ment of the party in the Southern States
emphatically rejects the movement. If
party were, what some of the New York
Democratic leaders naturally suppose it to
be, mere team of draught animals, TO be
this way or that at the pleasure of the
drivers, such tricks at the nomination of
an old Republican or the sudden abandon
ment of the party position might be prac-
able. But the very hedging about the new
departure, the bitterness Of the attack
ling about reputation which betray the
show that the Vallandigham
leaders do not feel themselves to be mas
tiers of the situation.
The Republicans have their troubles,
but no such fatal gulf as this Democratic
difference divides them. Kentucky, for
instance, is a model Democratic State. The
real principles and traditions of the party
are their most vigorous and most cherish
ed. The character and promise of Demo-
cratic ascendency can be satisfactorily
studied in the State of Kentucky, as in the
city of New York. Now Mr.. John G.
Carlisle, the Democratic candidate for Lieu
tenant Governor in that State, says that
the new departure platform, instead of
laying the question of the amendments,
merely raises it for the whole campaign;
that the amendments are not dead issues,
and that "the courts" have power to try
their validity. Mr.. Alexander Ii. Stephens
announces that the Fourteenth and Fif-
teenth amendments are not valid. Father
Ryan, in his discourse over the Confeder-
ate dead at Mobile, upon which occasion
he was introduced by that active Demo-
crat, "Admiral" Semmes, remarked that
the lost cause "is not a false cause, but
true and noble one, and ought to be cher
ishcd it is a cause which remains to be
vindicated by succeeding generations"
Jefferson Davis's speeches are already ia
mIliar; and Henry S. FoOte says that he
has no doubt of Davis's mischievous hopes.
Some of the Southern papers assent 10 the
new departure as the only chance for
Democratic restoration, but others reso-
lutely denOusce it as an utter betrayal of
Democratic principle.
Such facts are significant. They are not
less significant because the friends of the
new departure decry them as idle rhetoric
and the rawlings of dead men. Moreover,
they are not to he pooh-poohcd III patti
otic desire that there should be universal
fraternity and harmony And this for a
twofold reason-tbat this Southern senti.
ment must be conciliated or coerced by the
Democratic leaders, and that the smooth
reference to the decision of the courts by
those whose aCquiescence is in its nature
suspicious, shows how the union is to be
sought. The hOllOwness of the professed
acquiesctnce, therefore, Immediately ap-
pears. If the Ohio Democrats accept the
amendments as valid, they agree that they
bind the Supreme Court as much as the
President. If the Supreme Court can
pass upon their validity, 1t can pass upon
the validity of the whole constitution
lic puIitllo ONult mas ltbhtbIo duthoiily
over single clause of the Fourteenth
Amendment than over every clause of the
instrument. II may OF course, in an ac-
tion properly brought, declare its view of
the meaning of the amendment; but it is
the validity which Mr.. Carlisle says it may
decide, and which MIR. Stephens and his
friends deny.
1t will be well for the country il the
Democratic party heartily acQuiesccs in
the situation. But it must not expect the
obscure declaration of some of its leaders,
even when united with bitter vitupeation
of the leaders who differ, to be accepted
as the frank adhesion of the party to the
amended constitution and the restored
Union.-HaIper'S Weekly.
California Cherries.