The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-05-21
THE FALLEN DEMOCRACY.

The Democratic party of the country is
not simply house divided against itself;
it is fallen party-a giant hurled to the
earth in state Of paraplegia, with no
power to rise or stand proudly up again, as
in the old historic days, when it could
boast of one-half of the Union as its own,
and the other half as in a state Of moral
and political dependency upon it. In this
stricken and paralyzed condition, the once
"unterifed Democracy" presents a most
pitiable spectacle. With prospective
candidate who is the very antpodes Of
Democracy-who has strenuously fought
the Democratic party for nearly fifty years
of his life, and having no principle or policy
in common with them except only on the
transient question of amnesty, and quail
lied one at that, but animated by life
long hate of the institutions which Democ-
racy built up and cherished with SO much
paternal affection during all the long years
of its powerful sway in the country-what
a pitiable sight, we repeat, does it present!
To nominate Horace Greedy at the Balti-
more Convention is to stultify themselves
as to every principle they have advocated
since Jefferson's time, and TO split the
Northern wing of the party into hopeless
and irretrieyable division. Not TO nomi-
nate him is to raise an indignant and solid
protest from nearly one-half of the states
in the Union, which will demand his in
dorsement by that Convention as the only
means of defeating General Grant, and
which will, in all probability, split off,
from the Democracy as they did in 1860,
if the alternative of taking Greeley to de-
feat Grant is not presented and accepted as
the inspiration of the party in the APP
preaching canvass. rs... s.rs .... adj. Isl
Whatever the action of the Baltimore
Convention shall be-whether it mdorses
the Cincinnati ticket or dominates an inde-
pendent one Of its own-a split is ineyita-
bic in the Democratic party. OF course
the party would not think of nominating
him without some guarantee as to an
equivalent for the two million and some odd
hundred thousand party votes by which his
election could alone be secured. And
what pledge could he give that would salts
fy any considerable portion of the party ?
He can give none on the subject of free
trade, none on the subject Of state rights,
none on the Democratic theory Of our gov
eminent, none on the ameliorations of the
fourteenth and fifteenth amendments, none
on the measures by which the freedmen of
the South demand an equality of rights in
all things with the whites-none, in fact,
in reference to any Of the measures of the
present administration excepting only am
nesty) which the Democracy have been
earnestly combating. And then, the re-
cord of General Grant on the question of
amnesty, whether general or partial, has
been far more consistent and satisfactory
than that of Mr.. Greeley. .... ......
While the former was demanding that
the terms of the surrender Of the Southern
armies should be adhered to in their letter
and spirit, the latter was clamoring for the
exclusion of Southern Congressman from
the halls of national legislation, and for the
passage and enforcement of Ku-Klux laws
the two chief grounds of complaint
against the Republican party. aas
With our present data of forecasting the
results of the Baltimore Convention, we
can see nothing short Of another great split
in the Democratic party, such as secured
the election of Mr.. Lincoln in 1860, and
such as will secure the election Of General
Grant, beyond peradventure, in 1872.