The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-08-31


cute New Yorker has discovered the
recipe for the pills which so wonderfully pro-
longed the life of the celebrated Methuselah.
These pills are recommended to any gentle
man who wishes to add two or three CEN
turtles, more or less, to the ordinary term of
human life. They are a new thing in phar-
macy, we dare say, and will have great run,
but they have long been known in politics.
Boys yet in their teens have already seen
them produced on at least three different oc-
casions. Indeed, since the war placed the
Democracy hopelessly in the minority, moth
ing has been more common than lof some
prominent Democratic patriot to proclaim
that he has discovered the genuine Methuse-
lah pills which will infallibly cure his parry of
the fatal habit of not living into which it HI
fallen. In 1866 it was supposed that the
Philadelphia, arm-and-arm Convention, with
it's affected tears, elaborate sentimentalism
and well contrived emotion, was the true life
prolongng medicament-the genuine Methu-
selah pill of the period. So much confidence
was expressed in the efficacy of that remedy
DdlJ -NioO AeC
ing all of those in Johnson's Cabinet with
one exception, swallowed it eagerly in the
hope of sharing the Democratic Immortality.
Indeed it did look for few weeks as if the
political armament was breaking up and
complete revolution were to ensue. And to
those who remember the enthusiasm of those
days, the general stampede of office-holding
and selEseeking Republicans to the johnson
ranks andth loss of Seward, Chase, the
Blairs, Doolittle, Dixon, McCulloch, Randall,
Welles and hundreds of other leaders by the
Republican party, the present crisis seems of
comparatively small moment. The johnson
movement persisted in its own native nothing
ness-it went out in smoke, leaving many
an old political hulk stranded high and dry
forever.
Next came the great Mr.. Vallandigham's
specific of the year 1971-the ''new depart
ure' Methuselah pill. Last year at this
time the words "new departure" were to be
met with in the columns of Democratic
papers as frequently as ''Horace Greeley"
and 'clasping hands" are found now. Every
body knew and said and sung and wrote that
the Democracy had not departed and had
no intention of doing so. Still they fondly
cherished the delusion that there was some
magical efficacy in the words "new depart
ure" as in Abracadabra. They thought it pos
sible to conjure the Republican party out of
power by dint of mere verbal juggling. The
series of wonderful Republican successes all
over the country in the fall of 1871 attest the
complete failure of this new departure that
was mere phrase and not thing.
In the compounding of the political Methu-
selah pill of 1872 the Blairs, Senator Fenton
and the Tammany Ring took the leading
part. 1t is advertised as an entirely new dis
covery, but it is obviously the "new depart
ure" pill of last year with Greeley kneaded
in to make it palatable to Republicans.
There is still wanting, however, as before,
the essential element Of departure. The
Democracy stood stock still and let Mr.. Gree
ley and his few followers come to them. 1t is
of no use to refer to the words of platforms to
disprove this fact, when we have the more
simple test of acts. Did not the supporters
of Camden for Governor of West Virginia
seek to deprive the negroes of one of the
most valuable political rights which they now
enjoy? Were not these reactionists almost
to man friends of Horace Greeley, and did
they not have the support, encouragement
and applause of Horace Greeley and the
Democratic party? This is the most nause-
ating pill yet. Men who have attempted to
swallow it have already become fearfully sick.
Each one has made for himself an analysis
something like this: