Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1872-08-05
CAN THEY BE TRUSTED

in the letter Of Speaker Blaine to Senator
Sumner. Few who candidly read and
consider the facts stated by Mr.. Blaine
will believe that the dem ocratic party can
be trusted to uphold principles which It
has always contended against. The Al
bany Journal says: ave are told thar
there is now no difference between the
two parties on the great questions which
grew out of the war. 1t is claimed that
Mr.. Greeley's Democratic supporters have
Welded their full assent to the Constitu
ttional amendments and have fully accept
ed the situation 1t is said, that. in Mr.
Hendricks phrase, they have turned their
backs upon the past and can be trusted
with the maintenance of the amendments
and the guardianship of equal rights as
implicitly as the republican party. Is this
true Is there no difference Has the
democratic party fully accepted the re-
publican posi,ions Do the parties stand
upon practically the same ground?
AT the very outse. there is an obvious
and uamistakable distinction between their
attitudes The republican party. As the
Philadelphia platform we'll SAYS, sas-
salas the amendments leeAGSe they are
r9sat, he dsmaernric party yields 10 them
cssly because they are lae, Tue repabli-
can party believes in them; the democratic
party only Processes to acquiesce in them.
The republican party made and adopted
them; the democratic party bitterly re-
sisted them at every stage. The republic
can party will carry them out as its own
cherished work; the democratic party as
SCENTS only because it cannot help itself,
and would 60 only as far as it was forced
in their execution. Irrespective of all
present professions, it is the dictate OF
common prudence that the guardianship
of the amendment should be entrusted to
the party which created them.
But there is practical test, and one
which deserves more consideration than it
has received. of the spirit with which the
democracy accept these principles and
how much their adoption of the Cincinnati
platform means. The Cincinnati platform
was framed at the beginning of May.
The democracy promptly expressed their
assent. Even those who opposed Mr..
Greeley's endorsement indicated no OBJ
jections to the platform. Now, Congress
was in session a month after that event,
and several questions connected with the
enforcement of the amendments and with
the establishment of new guarantees were
brought to the issue Did the democratic
acceptance of the Cincinnati platform
change their course upon these questions9
Did they treat them differently from what
they had before? Not a bit OF it. The
bill for equal civil rights was pending, and
all the democrats fought it just as they
had before The bill to continue the pro-
lection to the loyal citizens of the South
against the Ku-Klux marauders was pend
ing, and every democrat resisted it just as
he did in former days. There was moth
ing in the course of the democrats upon
these and the entire class of similar ques-
tons which indicated the slightest change
in their impulses and purposes. They had
avowed their acceptance of the Cincinnati
platform as matter of form and policy,
but it wrought no reform in their practical
action. 1t was an acceptance in words
and not in deeds
The democracy declare that they ac-
cept the amendments But the amend
ments are mere utilities unless they are
vitalized by law. They may stand up
on the parchment of the Constitution,
but they are worthless without enforce
ment. Even after the adoption of the
Fifteenth amendment, the democratic leg
islature Of Georgia undertook to disfran-
chise the blacks of that State and to ex 4.
pei the black members of the Legisla-
ture. 1t became necessary to invoke the
action of Congress to rectify this outrage.
Had the Congress been democratic in
stead of republican, there would have
been no remedy. Suppose we had a
democratic Congress now, and Georgia
should attempt by imposing some ingen-
ious qualification practically to exclude
the blacks from the suffrage. where
would be the appeal and the correction ?
Would democratic Congress set the
matter right? Such considerations show
that it is not enough to declare nomi-
nal acceptance Of the amendment. And
that Mr.. Greeley's party does not give
u.s."