The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1873-08-21
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.
One of IT'S Most Influential Or%H Is
Pleads for Hts Disba Ii Il snenG.

From the St. Lous Republican (Democratic).
! 1t requires a tremendous effort OF reason
| ing on the part of sturdy Democratic par
| tisan of the old school To convince himself
| that the most effective way to destroy the
! Republican party is. first, to destroy the
| Democratic party; the conception may be
| beyond the reach of the logic in which the
! battered old partisan was trained, and he
may live and die without ever trying to
! grasp it, and yet it is probable that TIA 2
| Younger men who have come on the stage
within the last twelve years and who must
| be expected to direct our politics in the next
| decade, will not only perceive this idea, but
make it the agent of a new revolution and a
new era. They may see that IL is the con-
slant panOplied presence OF the DemOcrc-
racy before the Republican party that pre-
serves the rigidity and compactneSs of the
latter and benumbs the disntregating forces
which. if they had full play, would burst it
into helpless fragments. They may see that
the Republican force cannot disperse, even
though it's members wish TO disperse. as
long its old beaten enemy stands ready
to cut down or capture every Strag9le r that
leaves the ranks. They may reason, too.
that, as it is the maintained organization of
the Democracy that alone cempels the
maintained organization of Republication,
and that while the Democracy is on the
field ready TO move forward. Republican,
ism must be on the field 10 resist it. not
only with the power of superior numbers,
ment--thc disintegratiOn of the Democracy
is the first and only condition precedent To
the disintegrati0n of Republicanism and,
therefore it is the upreme duty of the Dem
Ocratic party To diSpnrse and permit its ele-
ments to seek new alliances.
Your snorting old "War-horse." whose
proud boast it is that he has "never voted
anything but the straight Democratic
ticket" will not believe one word of all
this; ne will insist that the Dem ocratic
party has nothing te do but die. lighting and
to fight dying; and that If it keeps mp this
monotonous process long enough, it will,
at some remote day. succeed in carrying
New Jersey and Indiana. and perhaps Ohio
and Illinois. But there are some facts bear
ing on this question that are worth recall
ing. The Democratic party, fighting under
its own name and banner, has not gained a
single substantial advantage over its enemy
since the war; it has not recovered single
inch of the vast domain it lost in 1860. 1t
is true the five States of Virginia, Georgia,
Tennessee, Texas and Missouri. once held
by the Republicans. have been wrested from
them; but the work was not done by the
Democratic party; Virginia. Georgia, Ten
neSSee and Texas were all carried by ma
jority OF their respective peoples acting
under the name of Conservatives-Repu !
cans taking the lead in the struggle: and
Missouri was carried by Liberal Republi-
can bolt supported by Democrats, but not |
by the Democratic party. The Republicans
were beaten in Louisiana last fall, but by |
the +" Fusion" not the Democratic party-a
mum Der of Republicans, including even
some colored men, taking a conspicuous /
part in the movement. California was car |
ried by the Democracy In 1868; but il was |
lost sgain in 1870, and is In the hands OF the /
Republicans now. North Carolina was car
ried by the Democrats in 1870, but lost in |
1872. The Democracy carried New Hamp-
shire In 1870. but they could not hold it, and |
10 slipped from their grasp two years later,
and is firmly held by the Republicans now.
The Democracy have managed to carry
Connecticut by precarious majority sew
eral times since the war. but they could not
hold it, and at this day the State ia Repub-
lican. In all these weary twelve years the
Democratic party has met with nothing but
1efeat-the tlansitory local success which
it gained here and there being turned
against it at last; and all the substantial
conQuests of territory from the ruling party
that have been made at all in this time, are
'he work OF an opposition to Repu blicanism
hat has assumed other names and hoIsted
1ther banners than that of the Democracy
These indisputable facts seem TO have a
meaning which, however uninteIligible to
'ld-fas pned partisans, i plain. enough to
effective young men. They demonstrate
hat the defeat of the Republican party is
'ery practicable enterprise, but they strong
y sugg est that the Democratic party ia NOT
he agent that will accomplish it.
IL Is necessary In this train of reasoning
o keep IN view the material distinction
here Is between an abandonment of the
democratic party organization and an apos-
acy from the main doctrinaI points in the ,
Democratic political faith. The people who,
lpon once pretence or another arUne | ,
gaInst the disbandment OF the party. dis
ANONYMOUSLY confOund that policy with the
postacy from its principles, and this thew ,
o at one wilfully and ingeniously and for ,
he purpose of misleading the popular
nongnt away from the true and into false Z
lew Of the proposition,