New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-04-17
THE WEEKLY REPUBLICAN
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4Iay Democrats be RefOrmers!
From the New York Nation.

sIay Democrats be Reformerse
From the New York Nation.
We all agree that the Democratic part
has no high aims, no patriotic intentions
its purpose seems to be simply to get bac]
make its existence excusable is that Their
Is so much looseness, vulgarity and selfish
ness among the managers OF the party which
rules the country, that it may pay to kee,
up political organization for the sole office
of chronic and interminable opposition
This is the national impression about the
Democratic party, and it is the truth. Bu
our impressions about the composition o
the party need, we think, some examination
and revision. The common view is that il
rs composed Of selfish demagogues, disagree
able village malcOntents, and ''the Irish
vote" Where We do not think Of indivi
dual Democrats, and just summer before
our minds a Democrat-the typical Demo
"crat-half glance sutfices to satisfy us
that there is something bad about
the whole stamp of him, something
in his style of thought and speech
essentially mean. But let us not be
content with this impression. 1t must be
remembered that the aggregate Republican
majority in the United States is but 40, 900
out of 100000. Taking the Irish vote at
the largest possible reckoning, there should
remain an immense number of the native
voters OF the Democratic ticket who, it is
to be hoped, are better than the typical
Democrat. A State standing so high as
Connecticut for wealth and intelligence has
the two parties almost evenly balanced
We wish now to ask who are Democrats:
10 examine the composition of the party.
and to see if there be any among them who
may make material for supporters of reform
Can they be of any service against Tweed
and Murphy, the Tammany frauds, the
civil service vulgarities and denominations
or must they remain to the end Of the
chapter in American politics the sons of
Belial and the children of darkness For
some of them We think there is hope. The
managers Of the Republican party Organiza-
ton do not believe it. or at least do not
desire to believe it. They are like the old
lady who said: THE Universalists expect
that all will be saved, but We look for better
things
The Irish are the most conspicuous, fun
'damental ands inevitable members of the
party. The first Irish immigrants were. no
doubt, attracted by the name, and they
found it what its name indicated, the real
Democratic party of the country. Each
successive generation of immigrants went
where their fathers had gone before them.
They could not be said to have belonged to
the party. for, of course, they had no opin-
ions; they huddled together in it by the
common gregariOus instinct. The fact that
the Republican party seemed to be the
KNOWN othing party reinspired with new
idea, helped to perpetuate their opposition.
Antagonism to their rivals in the field of
labor, the negroes, finished whatever re-
manned to be done. 1t is certain that the
Irish immi grants will continue to be Demo-
Gratis during the lifetime of the Democratic
party-perhaps during the lifetime of any
party called by that name. The native
Americans who composed the party before
the war were acted upon by two classes of
Influences. Upon many the older and purer
enthusiasm OF the party still exercised its
spell. People who only know the name of
Democrat from its recent associations, can
not conceive what that name meant to men |
who were boys when Andrew jackson was |
PRESIDENT Io us, as we see it on the printed |
page, the word has an expression sinister |
and forbidding. To them its syllables rem. |
resented liberty, simplicity, purity. hope
Tor mankind and the belief in the devotion
and competency of the people. What
America was to the world the Democratic
party was to America. Some one told
General jackson that distinguished Ger.
man travelling here had remarked to him
that all the intellect and culture of the
couitry seemed to be on the side of the
Wings. You should have told him" ex-
claimed jackson with ire. that all the viz |
tue and integrity of the country was upon |
ours" Democrats nowadays do not take |
quite so high tone. Were Pendleton or |
Fernando Wood to make such speech, |
each would laugh at the other.
There are at the North great many peo-
pie who relied upon the South for trade
and employment. Our merchants had their
purchasers all over that country. They and
the manufacturers reaped great profits
from the want of ready money at the
South, and the large prices the planters
were willing to pay for credit. They knew
their Southern customers, and liked them
From childhood habit had used them to the
idea that over large part OF the Union
men were bought and sold. The cOnstiru-
ton was said to acknowledge the existence
of slavery, and they revered the constitu- |
ton. They revered the Union, and the |
abolltionists they regarded as the enemies |
both of the Union and the constitution, !
There were two passions which patriots |
felt lin that time-the old passion for the
Union, and the new passion to purge the |
of the impertection of slavery.
Slen were Democrats or Republicans as one
or the other Of these sentiments predoml-
mated in them. Both sentiments were no.
BILE The man who loved the Union so en-
tirely tina. he dreaded the agitation OF any
question that might in the slightest degree
endanger it. did not seem to himself or to
his family a very terrible person. If he had
personal or commercial relations with the
south, or if he were Democrat by educa-
ion and association, these things made it
al the easier for him to believe himself the
only pure politician in America.
Secession came, and the winter of 1860
and 1861 found us pretty. much all Demo
rats Some of the States modified their
fugitive slave laws; the position of the
country seemed to be that everything must
De sacrificed to the Union-which was just
he position of the Democrats before the
war. Very few people vet contemplated
he possibility of war, or believed that we
would or could invade the Southern States
nd compel them back into the Union.
md had we kept ON feeling in that way,
re could not have done it. But suddenly