The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-02-27

received in fight with a grizzly bear, said,
in his relation of the terrible adventure -
II thought had the ugly varmint, from the
lead had fred into him; but when had
smashed my rifle over his head, and he had
knocked my knife from my hand, and had
closed on me and brought me to the ground,
felt discouraged, and gave the yell of man
who wants assistance" And is not this the
condition of the late powerful and self-reliant
democratic party? From the collapse of the
Charleston Convention of 1860 to the State
elections of 1871 the "unterrifed," confident
in the elastic and recuperatve powers Of their
party and its ''time-honored principles"
fought bravely on, still hoping and believing
that popular reaction in their favor was
close at hand, though losing position after
position, from battle to battle. Thus, foot by
foot, from one campaign to another, they
were dispossessed of their strongholds on
slavery, from the repeal of the Fugitive
Slave law to the ratification of the
fifteenth amendment, establishing negro suf-
frage as the supreme law of the land. Nor
even then did the democratic leaders abandon
their purpose or their hope of upsetting the
whole budget of radical reconstruction meas
ures, and of restoring the good old pro-
slavery constitution of Buchanan, under which
the normal condition Of ''Uncle Tom" was
slavery, and under which, as defined by the
Supreme Court the negro had mo rights
which white man was bound to respect"
The democracy had given nothing but un-
certain sounds of recognition of these new
amendments to the constitution, establishing
the equality of the black with the white race
in civil and political rights, when the New
Hampshire election of March last came off.
Their astonishing and wholly unexpected
victory in that election, however, including
three members of Congress, where they
them out They were dazzled by this
glorious result; they hailed it as the
opening of great and decisive political revo-
luton, including the complete overthrow of
radicalism and all its negro equality Outrages.
This cry from the revived copperheads of the
North was taken up even by jeff Davis in the
South, in the recital at Selma, Ala, of his
visions of the ultimate triumph Of the 'lost
cause" But while yet the democratic roos-
tiers, East, West and South, were Growing in
this fashion over the March election in New
Hampshire the April election in Connecticut
came on. The republicans, accepting the
challenge of JEFF Davis, fought their fight upon
the old war issues thus revived, and, hand
somely recovering the State they threw all
this New Hampshire democratic fat into the
fire.
Thus were the democratic leaders convinced
of the folly of fighting any longer the issues
settled by the war. Then came their ''new
departure" accepting negro emancipation,
equal civil rights and negro suffrage, as engraft-
ed upon the national constitution. But this new
and file of the party, and, instead of promoting
harmony and enthusiasm, it excited among the
sold liners" only distrust, disgust and indif-
ference. And then came the damaging Tam
many disclosures which drowned the clamors
against the corruptions Of ''Grant's military
despotism' in the general CONSERVATION ex-
cited by the stupendous robberies of the Tam
many Ring. And SO, from Connecticut to
California, and back again to the seaboard,
the defeat of the democracy went on, from bad
to worse, until the awful crushing out of Tam
many in our New York last November cleo
ton. This placed the democratic party of the
country in the position of our Rocky Mountain
hunter-disarmed, Frustrated and helpless
under the grizzly bear.
The acknowledgment of complete defeat
and the cry for assistance have been heard
through the length and breadth of the land.
General Blair, Gratz Brown and Carl Schurz
respond from Missouri, 'Lie still, we
are coming with the liberal republicans to
your rescue" Sumner, from Massachusetts,;
Trnmbull, from Illinois; Fenton and Greeley,
from New York, and some trading carpet
baggers from the South join the cheering
voices from Missouri, and the democratic
party, ''playing possum, in pretending to be
dead, is only awaiting the signal when it may
bounce to its feet again. But here, in the
very agents of relief, its embarrassments begin.
Bring him to the pinch and on the issue of
civil rights between General Grant and the
opposition alliance, Mr.. Sumner will 60 for
Grant, not because he hates Grant less,
but because he loves "Uncle Tom" more Mr..
Greeley has given notice that as the opposi-
ton league against Grant will almost certainly
ride the hobby of free trade he will not ride
with it, because he will never abandon his
hobby of protection while the rains fall and
the grass grows. There is no place for Mr..
Fenton outside the republican camp, and Mr..
Trumbull is dead weight to any party. And
how can the democracy fuse with the labor
reformers on free trade, when this new party
has declared for protection?
And what mixed ticket and platform-liberal
republican and democratic-can be CON-
pounded which will be acceptable to the I'M
] Il - !. L