The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-11-11
MONDAY EvE'G, NOV. IL, 1872.
THE DEMOCRATIC ORGANIZATION.

politically sealed, since it has left the party
so utterly broken and demoralized that, to
recover its strength, it must belle nearly
all the facts and probabilities of history re-
lating to political parties in the past, wheth-
er in this country or in the more popular
governments Of Europe. 1t is true that
political parties have repeatedly arisen
from defeat, and have even evinced renewed
vigor and power after many crushing
blow, such as the Democracy received on
Tuesday last.
But it has been only when such defeated
parties were animated with some distinc-
lively vitalzng principle upon which they
entered into the contest and to which
they subsequently adhered as fixed and
unalterabe basis of action. For it is TO
these underlying principles that all politi-
cal parties owe their vitality, as well as
their organization, and when these are
gone, there is no hope of resuscitation
from the degeneracy and decay that must
inevitably follow.
Has the Democratic party, which has
just cast nearly, if not quite, three million
votes for Mr.. Greeley, reached this fatal
point of degeneracy? 1t is argued that, by
its virtual abandonment of principle in the
Presidential fight, it has lost, not only its
organization, but even the name which it
has rendered historic in the past This
would be true, without doubt, if its ADAM
donment of principle were real and not a
mere sham under the circumstances.
1t must be remembered that Mr.. Greeley
was nominated at Baltimore, not as fit
or proper candidate Of the Democracy, but
simply as the means to accomplish an end
devised in an emergency. The Democracy
found itselfin this emergency and in the hope
of splitting the Republican party instead of
itself, it acQuiesced in what was seemingly
necessity for the time being. Hundreds
of those in the convention from the South
had never acted in anything like good faith
with the Democratic party, and were anx-
ious, above every other consideration, that
it should disappear, go nomine, under the
ineffaceable odium which their prejudices
attached to it.
This was especially true of many who
went from this State. They hoped that
both the Democratic name and organiza-
ton would disappear in the fight, and that
new party would spring up on the ruins
of the old, which should receive the bapti.
cation, without penitence of the old guilt.
that the Wing and Democratic parties had
received in this State. These men lost
sight of the fact that political organizations
never gain any strength except as it is i'm
parted by principle. The rogue's shift of
an alias can only attach additional odium
when the trick of nomenclature is exposed,
and when openly resorted to it becomes
piece of political effrontery altogether too
brazen to accomplish any successful end.
1t might have gratifed the ambition Of
the originator of my policy in Virginia.
had the great Democratic party of the
country taken the 6 Conservative alias
which was so happily devised as a baptismal
shift in 1863. But it takes a bigger man
than we have just now got in Virginia to
successfully create new party in the
United States. johnson tried it in 1867,
with the whole federal power at his back,
and with many of the ablest statesman in
the country aiding him in the movement.
bat the effort was one of the most lamenta-
BILE failures on political record. Parties are
not created-they grow. They are just as
organic in their structure as the life of Sc
ciety itself, and without the nucleus or
germ of some first principle there can be
no functional vitality or growth to them.
The New York World even goes so far
as to attribute the defeat of Mr.. Greeley to
the fidelity of the Democratic party to its
own principles. In this we think it is mis-
taken. The result shows that General
Grant would have been reelected had the
utmost unanimity. prevailed in the DEM
ocratic ranks, and the most popular
man in the party been put forward as their
candidate for the Presidency. They could
have adopted no platform of principles,
however cardinally put, which would have
saved them from defeat at this time. Too
many Of their leaders were tainted with OPP
position to the war against rebellion to
render victory on their part possible,
even with the utmost detection that existed
in the Republican ranks.
But strongly as we are opposed to the
principles of the Democracy, we should
regret the failure on their part to rehabili-
tate their organization. The highest good
OF the Republic is to be found in the exist
ence Of two great political parties whose
principles shall be thoroughly and distinct
lively defined before the people. The his
tory of all popular governments justifes us
In the wish that such may be the fortunate
attitude of parties in this country. The
terms Republican, and "Democrat
more dstinctively define the true principles
at issue between these two parties than any
others that can be named.
The Republican party is not dislnctiyely
a radical one, any more than the Demo-
cratic party is essentially liberal one.