Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1872-08-29
The Democratic Conversion.

THE gentlemen who call themselves
Liberal Republicans know as well as
everybody else that the sole chance of the
election of Mr.. Greeley lies in the Demo-
cratic vote. They know, also, that, the
Democratic party is well organized, and
holds principles as pronounced and dis
tinctive as the Republican. But they
think it very ridiculous to call an election
carried by the organized Democratic
party Democratic success. Their logic,
however, is more swift than conclusive.
The Democratic party has nominated Mr.
Greeley; therefore it has ceased to be the
Democratic party. This is the reasoning
of these gentlemen, and they are now en-
gagged in the rather difficult task of as
serting, against the most indignant de-
mails of the Democrats themselves, as
well as in the face of all the facts and of
common sense, that the Democratic party
has vanished by TRANSPORTATION into the
Republican.
Mr.. Greeley himself leads off in this
hopeless undertaking. He said in his in
formal acceptance of the Democratic
nomination, that in making it the Demo-
Gratis were more Democratic than ever in
taking a man who was no less thoroughly
a Republican than ever. He implied that
they had ceased to be s'sham" D Democrats,
as he has long called them, and had be-
come real Democrats-that is, Republi-
cans. And in his letter of acceptance he
says that Democracy is not now to stand
for one thing and Republicanism for an
other. But Mr.. Greeley can only speak
for himself and when he says that he is
as thorough Republican as ever, if the
Democrats agree with him, it is because
they have been converted. Mr.. Sumner
fotI0 xha ct0
of this theory is essential to his position,
which otherwise is most lamentable. He
says in his letter to the colored citizens
that the Democrats "have accepted the
Cincinnati platform. -. .and intend in
good faith to maintain it. Democrats can
not turn back" And again, in his letter
to the Speaker s'The Democrats will be
pledged as never before to the ruling
principle that all men are equal before
the law"
So the Liberal Republican Committee
of Massachusetts declare in their address,
"The Democratic party has changed.
To deny that it means to adhere to what
it says is to suppose it to be guilty of a
public fraud such as was never perpetrated
in the country, and is never likely to be-"
This universal anxiety to show that the
Democrats are converted is significant.
The painful effort is apparent, indeed,
but there is nothing, and can be nothing,
stated in proof of the assertion but the
simple fact that the Democratic party, in
its regular convention, and with it's Or
ganization perfect, knowing that it's votes
are the sole hope Of MI. Greeley and the
Liberal Republicans, deliberately uses
the Cincinnati platform and candidates
as a garment, as the ass used the lions
skin.
And Mr.. Sumner is willing to resort to
that most feeble of the questions which
Liberal Republicans ask, ''If the Demo-
Gratis repent and offer to help us, why
should we refuse?" AS if rafting political
party were more to be trusted than that
which stands fast by its principles, or as
if a political party ever repented. The
Massachusetts, address really seems to
suppose that there is no gospel so sacred
as the platform of a political convention,
and to imagine that party action is strict
y governed by it. In 1852 the Whig and
Democratic parties each solemnly ere
solved" that the slavery agitation was
finally and conclusively and forever
settled by the compromise of 1850, and
must never be renewed. Nobody be-
lieved the Wing party, and it was annihi-
lated. And the moment the Democrats
S'" s-ASAA 'ASoOAy oaOJ AOPSe1AON eAiO 4IAio-
souri, compromise, and began to force
slavery into Kansas.
But this is subject upon which the
Democrats may be supposed to know
quite as much as the Liberal Republicans
and nothing is more amusing than to heal
the World and other papers solemnly de
clare that they are not converted, and the
Tribune anxiously responding, "Oh. yes
you are; you know you are" Every
reader of the two papers sees the only
difference to be that the World daily frets
and sneers at the Greeley yoke, but is al
steadily Democratic as ever, while to the
Tribune Mr.. Doolittle and Mr.. Bayard
and Mr.. Thurman and Governor Vance
are suddenly great statesmen, and "Con
servaGism" at the South is the only lovely
thing. 1t is the Tribune, not the World
which has been converted. Indeed, in NJ
Democratic paper or speech has there ye
been the least sign of what Liberal Re
publicans call conversion. Of course th'
Democrats all say that they want "recon
ciliation" as they did in 1868. They wan
reconciliation" now precisely as the.
wanted "peace" during the war-that i
to say, they wish to return to power un
der the most plausible pretext.
Is the scOrnful rejection of the idea O
conversion by all those orators and paper
proof of it Is the naughty reply of tn