Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1872-07-03
TURNING THEIR BACKS UPON THE PAST.

1t has become very fashionable for DEM
ocrats to boast of turning their backs to
the past and looking only to the future.
We are not surprised that they are partial
to this view of things. 1t is not surprising
that with such past" as the Democrat
lie party has, they prefer to forget it. Ben
cdict Arnold, the traitor of the revolution
after having betray ed his country and rem
dered his name odious, no doubt desired to
forget the past, though he had little to
hope for in the future.
Aaron Burr, after having murdered
Alexander Hamilton and subjecting him.
self to the charge of treason, of which he
was acquitted under u technicality of the
law, no doubt deserved to live forgetful of
the past. Nero, after career of cruelty,
murder, robbery and RIGHTEOUSNESS, found
no pleasure in rejecting upon the past. 1t
is not natural that Louis Napoleon should
regard the past with pleasant feelings, af-
ter having plunged France into Il bloody
war with Prussia, and having lost his
throne as consequence. With those who
are blessed with an honorable record, it is
pleasant to dwell upon the past, but with
those who have been guilty of "high
crimes and misdcmeanors" the past has no
charms.
The disgracefUl record of the Demo-
cratic party in this country, for quarter
of a century past is written in characters
of blood and lighted up with the lurid
glare of burning towns and cities. The
graves of more than a hundred thousand
soldiers, and the weeds of as many widows,
with the tears and cries of twice as many
orphans, must be taken into account in
making up the dark and damning record
OF that party. -Four years of war, with all
its bloody horrors, are a part of its record.
An enormous public debt with the bur-
den of high taxes for years to come must
be taken into account. 1t would be impos-
sible to enumerate all the dark features,
which are properly embraced in the rec
ord of the Democratic party. Is it any
wonder that they desire to forget the past /?
1t is just as reasonable to expect one who
has spent years in dungeon filled with
putrid stencil and noisome odors, but who
has been released, to retrace his steps or
to take pleasure in meditating upon the as
sociatiOns of such place.
We believe Democrats when they
say that they have turned their
backs upon the past. 1t is hui
man nature to shrink from be-
holding ones depravities and vices.
Men dwell with pleasure upon the good
deeds of the past, but they naturally
shrink from recurring to the commission
of loathsome crimes, and the practice of
wicked deception. For these reasons, we
are prepared to believe an honest Demo-
crat, when he says he takes no pleasure in
thinking of the past. If they have turned
their backs upon the past, with a resolu-
ton to forsake the dark paths in which
they have gone, it is well, but if they
merely intend to draw a curtain over it,
with desire to conceal it from the world
setting in judgment on their record, it
will prove of no avail. We have reason to
believe that thi 3 last is their true motive
We are taught that one of the fruits of re-
pentance is confession of sin. We have
never heard of any confession in this case.
They have sinned and done wickedly,
and have rebelled against the patriotic
precepts laid down by the patriots who
lived in the early days of the Repub-
lie. They have not confessed their
sins or said that their change of heart was
radical enough to cause remuneration of
former sin. When they have brought
forth fruits inject for repentance" then it
is time to give them credit for turning
their back upon the past with correct
motive.