Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1871-07-27
POLITICAL HISTORY.


tory of the Democratic party in late
number of the New York Sun Those
who have watched the late policy and
acts of this party for number OF
years past, will recognize the truthful |
ness of this brief sketch:
The fundamental article in the creed |
of. q genuine Demo eraey is a hearty
recognition and heroic defence of the
equal rights of all classes of the people.
Every political organization which
stops short of this, yet presumes to
call itself Democratic, is sham and a
fraud, and ought to be treated accord
ingly. A real Democratic party must
be progressive one, because it will
find occasion at short intervals to
apply its principles to a new order of
things. While its cardinal doctrines
will, therefore, ever remain the same,
its measures must frequently charge
Viewed in the light of the latter, its
history will necessarily be character
lied by a series of new departures,
which will sometimes be so conspicu-
Gus as to practically amount to reor
ganization.
The general course of the Demo
cratic party of this country has been
an illustration of these propositions.
Especially has it been a party of new
departures Coeval with the foundation
of our Government. it mildly opposed
! the Administration ofWashington, was
! intensely hostile to that of Adams, and
in 1901 took new departure under the
lead of Jefferson, who was a genuine
| Democrat, and, considering his times
and the section of the Union where be
lived, marvelously free from the pro
slavery taint which, long years after
ward, ruined the party he founded
He repealed the alien and sedition
laws, thwarted the centralizing tenden
cy Of the Federal Government, resist
ed the aggressions of England, and be-
qucathed e Madison and Clay, his
most eminent disciples, the task Of
carry ying the country through the war
with that power.
The war of 1S12-15 being over, the
halcyon rule of Monroe inaugurated
an era of good feeling, during which
the Federal party expired and the
Democratic party split into factions
Near the close of the Administration
of the second Adams it reorganized,
absorbed a large fragment of the old
Federal party, and, under the lead of
jackson, Benton and Van Buren, took
up new departure, and applied Demo
cratic principles to a set of issues not
dreamed of in the days of Jefferson
1t curbed the arrogance Of the United
States Bank, put down notification,
and near the end of Van Buren's Ad-
ministration detected and repudiated
: an embryo plot for the ultimate annex
alton of Texas to the United States,
} the pet scheme eff John G. Calhoun,
/ who was always the enemy of Jackson
and who the Hero of the Hermitage
declared ought to be hung for his nulli-
fcation and disunion conspiracies.
Calhoun nursed his wrath to keep il
/ warm. He aided to defeat Van Buren, s
re- election in 1910 and his renomina-
tion in 1874, impelled the corrupt Ty-
Ter and the supple Polk to consummatc
the Texas plot, and by subtle metaphy-
: sizes about State rights, and by ringing
t the alarm bell in the ears of the slave
holders, finally brought the Democratic
party into subsection to the slavery
propagandists. Here was new de
parrure in the wrong direction, which
proved to be the road to ruin. The
real Democrats Of the North were res
tive under the yoke, and tried to con
/, ceal their apparent detection from
!, Democratic principles by talking abou
the compromises of the Constitution
and the preservation of the Union
while the ultimate aim of the Calhoun
: school was to either nationalize slav
cry or break up the Union. In pursu
: ance of its purpose to rule or ruin, i
spurned the teachings of Jefferson anC
Jackson, sacrificed Van Buren, Benton
i Wright and Douglas, strewed the lint
of its new departure with the debris o
Democratic principles and the bone:
1 of Democratic leaders, and finally shiv
e cred the Democratic party into frag
e ments, and plunged the country intC
civil war.
D So much for the new departure il
/ the interests of the slavery propagan
e dists. Is it not high time that th'
Democracy took up another line of de
parture-a departure from the slougl
of pestilent heresies wherein Calhoun
: Davis, and Toombs whelmed them, t.
: the solid ground of principle WHEREOF
, stood Jefferson, jackson and Wright
: who did not believe that Democrac,
: and slavery were Synonymous terms
! ! Such step is new departure. anr
: : why not call it by that name?
"