The Rock Island daily Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1872-1873, 1873-09-10
Frnm I'M. sL I.nnL. R.rrhIl.n1


The Democratic party never realizes how
nearly dead it is till it comes t. make
platform. Plattorm-makiugi is supposed to
be a formal, easy matter of course work:
but in fact it calls for large amount Of
vitality. To live party, with am object
before it, the making of platform is the
easiest thing in the world it makes itself
But to a half dead party, with a great hi,
tory behind il, and a blank before it. moth
ing Is 50 difficult The first prerequisite ia
platform building is that the party shall
know what sort of a platform il wants,
This essential condition the Democracy
lacks it does not know and cannot tell
what II wants It cannot decide what il is
against. n short time ago it imagined il
had at least one enduring anchorage in the
Constitution, but It has welluigh lost even
that for, when II declares tor the cnu-
sututlDu a. 10 Is IL finds that IL i indoors
ing the whole constitutional OF anti-consti-
tutlonal policy of the Republican party.
That party has put all it, leading acts into
the constitution and made them parts Of il.
IL has amended the constitution to conform
u its own platform The constitution as il
Is Is very different thing from the consti-
tuition rs II was-a fact which the stubborn
and irascible Democracy, after refusing 10
admit, for several years, is being forced Ia
admit at last. The constitution as il is is
the old constitution with the Republican
platform appended IN it as an amendment.
aud when the Democracy attempts b. re
ayow Its devotion To- the constitution. it
hnds that It Is not only proclaiming the
platform OF ITS opponents, but cOudemuing
IT. own. IL Is declaring it, devotion 10
abolition, to negro suffrage To the pay
ment OF the national debt, and to nearly
every other great doctrine and measure
which il once mortally opposed Even as
a constitutional party, then, the Democracy
has lost its virility, since the very milk
which 1t draws from the constitution is
strained through hostile paps.
If there is one doctrine that the Demo
crazy imagined it knew all about it is that
Of State rights but it is beginning to find
out that it does not know what it thinks
even Of that familiar subject and, what i,
more, it is ceasing to talk about it, The
Democracy once held that the improve
ment Of interior rivers was above the con-
stitutiOna authority of Congress the
States might improve the sections of rivers
which ran through, or past them, but Con
gress could not In 1916 Mr.. Calhoun,
who was the Democratic oracle Of his day,
got a sight Of the Mississippi riverat Mem
phis, and, in Difference 10 the claims of
that majestic stream, modified the Demo.
cratic doctrine on this subject 50 far as o.
admit that Congress might properly as
sumo the work of improving a river which
ran through or past three States, but il
could not come below that limit How
changed our opinions on this subject now
There is not Democrat, in the Mississip
ri Valley at least, who does not think, moi
only that Congress may improve every i'm
portant navigable river, but that it oughi
10 do it. Nay, the Democrats of Virgins
and of the West think that Congress ough
to construct a canal from the Ohio to The
James Underwater, exclusively through the
two Virginias, and Hon. r. NJ. I. Hunter
an old State-rights Democrat Of the Cal
honn school, publicly advocates the meas
ure. So, too, of the proposed canal from
the Tennessee river through Georgia t.
the Savannah river, and the Fort st. Phil
lip canal IN louisiana Western Demo
Gratis aud Southern Democrats earnestl,
demand that Congress should construc
them, without ever caring that it would b,
a frightful infringement of the Democrat
ic doctrine Of State rights Of fifteen year,
ago.
Take the question of banks; As late a.
1868, we had no banks, or bank note,
possessing authority outside the State ii
which they were established aud issued
VIC had only wilderness Of notes ISSUED
by different banks in thirty odd State
which were perpetual fraud on the PEG
pie. We had this miserable monetar,
condition, because the Democracy hell
that Congress had no right to establish
national banks, and that the several State
alone could furnish currency for the coun
try. This was the soundest sort OF Demo
cratic doctrine years ago but what Demo
-. crat holds it now?
Take the subjects of the tariff, taxin
EoFernment bonds and specie payment