New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-08-22
Democratic Elasticity.

Our esteemed friend, the venerable Petro-
leum v. Nasty, one of the most genuine rep
resentatives of the average Democratic poll
tician, with the penetration peculiar to him,
has been one of the first to point out the re-
markable elasticity of the Democratic party
as one of its most distinctive features, the one
that enables ii to outlive allreverses, and owing
to which he has actually succeeded in winning
I" the Corners" the very embodiment of ex-
treme Bourbonism, over to the support of the
"great and good Horris Greeley" For
twelve years they have fed chiefly on defeats,
have seen many of their fundamental doc
trines blown to atoms; other parties such as
the Wings and Know Nothings, have sunk in
the grave, yet there the Democrats are still
apparently as fresh and youthful as ever, and
by no means an enemy to be made light of.
and superficial observer might well wonder
why fortune-hunters and office-seekers of all
others should still flock to the support of
party, unless it has reasonable chance of
success to hold out to them as an allurement.
This riddle, however, is soon solved if we
only remember that the reverend gentleman
in becoming Difference to his own party deco
rously calls elasticity" that which the
heartless world outside of the party lines is
uncharitable enough to characterize as an alb
solute absence of all scruples and a brazen
disregard of truth, decency, and morality. 1t
is the enormous sewer, the receptacle for all
the refuse, all the offensive and waste matter
of the political body. Every outcast, every
defaulter or disappointed office-hunter, seeks
a shelter in the arms of the Democracy, which,
like those of the holy mother church, are open
to every sinner. No matter how dsreputa-
BILE man may be, he is welcome and NAV
yet obtain standing and influence no matter
how dirty job may be, it does not bring any
disgrace on him who performs it, according
to the principle that every kind of labor is
honorable, always provided of course, that
some end is reached by it. We suppose that
we hardly need to observe expressly that this
charge does not apply to such honorable ex-
ceptions as General DIX and others equally
respectable, who, though adhering to the fun
damental doctrines, yet follow its leaders only
as far as compatible with their IDEAS of de-
cency and honesty, but that it emphatically
applies to the managers, the wire pulers, and
all those who live on politics and make it
matter of speculation.
Democratic elasticity has again manifested
itself in reference to the bargain concluded
between HoratiO Seymour and Horace Gree
ley. In the Republican camp the disclosures
given by the Binghamton Republican were
triumphantly received as incontrovertible evil
dence of Mr.. Greeley's treachery, and have
gone a great length to undcceive those de-
luded Republicans who had followed him into
the Cincinnati swindle in good faith that the
movement was wholly and emphatically Re-
publican from its head to it's tail. They have
since repudiated him in disgust, but in vain
we have been waiting for one line, one word
from the Democrats in condemnation of the
other party to the disgraceful bargain, Mr..
HOratio Seymour, who acted just rs dishon-
orable part in it as Horace Greeley himself.
If Horace Greeley sold out the Republican
party, HoratiO Seymour betrayed the Demo-
Gratis by engaging himself to foist upon them
as President, man who then was quite as
obnoxious to them as Mr.. Seymour himself
is to the Republicans. Ifin 1864 or 1S6S some
prominent and influential Republican would
have been discovered to have entered, for the
consideration of the Secretaryship of State,
into conspiracy for the object of making
Pendleton, Mcclellan, or Buckalew Presi.
dent, he would, without the shadow of a
doubt, have been ANONYMOUSLY read out Of
the party. There is, however, no moral diff.
! ference; only in the former case, the attempt
would have been ridiculous, because utterly
hopeless, while in the latter it seemed to of.
fer a chance of success, and success with the
Democrats not only justifies the means
through which it is obtained, but makes q
hero of the man who employed them.