The Rock Island daily Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1872-1873, 1873-04-26
Shs 9ailg Arsns.
Sentimental Politics and Mistaken History.
tFrOm the Springfield RepublIcan,I

ing ana IN gOOd ume enforcing return to
first principles IN politics, legislation, and
government, seems 20 II question Of some
considerable Importance. IL has merely
said that there Is q widespread and deep
seated distrist OF the present Democratic
organization that this distrust is the fruit
OF twenty years persistent Administering
against human rights, war policy which
the mass OF the people approved, and a
reconstruction policy in which they ac-
guessed as necessity of the country
actual situation lastly, that the continued
presence in the field Of this party prevents
Republican voters, who would otherwise
do so, from leaving the ranks, and Is thus
OF Invaluable help TO the Republican lead
ers IN maintaining party discipline. As
t'erg ProroUs dnii-'eaT party IN this c0ua-
6g has presently disappeared from car
poIf'cA ndid hof seem So rerg Presump-
tuOps or absurd 10 hint thaf IDS Democratic
organization might perhaps BE- expected 10
tgilor sit.
The New York World comments on the
above, as follows q
IL has been SO necessarily shouted. for
the last eight years, that the Democratic
party has initiated the example and il
doomed TO the fate Of the old Federalist
party that il may be worth while 10 ex-
anime and expose this unrehectinp cutlery.
We do not on this occasion. stop 10 discuss
or defend the position of the Democratic
party. in the late civil war. We concern
ourselves now only with the assumed his.
torical parallel which gives To this narticu.
lar argument for dissolving the Democratic
organization all the point and plausibility
II mas IN the fancy Of the milk-and- water
sentlnlehtlIsts who are so fond of urging
II is II true historically that the old Ped
cIal,sL party was oyerthrown and annihil
9.Vu ~ US opposition 70 the war Of 1879
IS u trqe that the old Wing party was des
ts.oyed by It's opposition 30 the war against
Lo&'o9 Ihose two wars exhaust the
Nuole llSt OF precedents, as the country
Wa engaged IN no other war from the
"uggPuon9 t the Constitution down to 1861
me mexlcan war being latest in time
and more within the Knowledge of hi,
generation, we will consider il first Wa,
the Wing partly seriously injured bv il,
vehement opposition to il? We suppos,
no lhteihgent man ever thought Of assign
ing thls as the cause, or even one of the
causes, Of the decay and extinction of the
Wing. party. In fact it carried the next
fresidential election after the Mexican
war, when II elected General TAYLOR. The
decadence and downfall of the Wing party
was owing, primarily and chiefly. to the
general acceptance by the country of the
polcy and principal measures of the Demo
Gratis ON all the great questions which had
been oontroverted between them but
secondarily and accidentally, to the rise of
the hnow-Nothing party and the Anti-Sla-
very party each Of which split and weak
ened the Wings, The two together utterly
dislntegrated that already effete party and
carried ITS members into other organiza-
IONS Its opposition TO the Mexican war
never harmed 1t in the least, as its trium-
phant election OF General TAYLOR immedi.
1ltely afterwards abundantly demonstrates.
we trust we have effectually disposed of
one ol the only two precedeuts which can
pe appealed to IN support Of the tanciful
sehtiinentahsm we are combating. We
shall De equally successful in showing that
tthc "ther which Is the one principally re-
ned on, does not bear the inference.
The Federalist party. ike the Wbig
party it, linea successor, died in conse,
quence OF the disapproval of its princi
pies by the great body of the peopie, II
received its death wound in $500. IL wears
previous IN the last war with Great Brit.
am. That war revived and prolonged its
nickerlng life for brief period by furn.
lshlng It with transient new issue after
the Old issues between il and It's opponents
had become obsolete. Had it not been for
the great quarrel with Great Britain. the
federalist party would have expired in
1905 instead Of 1916.
In 1901 the Federalists ran Charles &
lickney tor President who received only
~ Electoral votes against l62 for .Jeffer-
son who was then reelected the vote in
800 having been IS for Jefferson to 6
Tor Adams During the first four wears
after their great defeat the Federalists
mad dwindled 50 nearly 10 zero that moth
ing but the Embargo-that unpopu.
lar Democratic measure-enabled il
" 60 into the contest Of 1908 M all The
Embargo. meant as a retaliatnrv measure
against Great Britain, galvanized the dead
party into show Of life, and Mr. Pinckney
who was again the Federalist candidate
received a Electoral votes 10 100 for Madi
ssou. All but ct the ~ came from the four
New England seaboard States whose com
merce had been ruined by the Embargo
In 1917, the tederalists had the benefit of
the same New England feeling hut instead
OF running candidate Of their own, they
supported lie Witt Clinton, who had been
nominated by the New York Democrats.
and the coalition received 80 votes against
l2s for Madison, the Federalists having
been manitestly strengthened by their op-
POSITION % the war. In 1916, the First
PRESIDENTIAL election after the war, that
party appeared in politics for the last time.
1 ne war having ended, they had no longer
hving issue OF any kind, but the transient
strength and cohesion they had acquired
during Its continuance enabled them 10
make better show than they had done in
1904 before the quarrel with Great Britain
commenced. They nominated Rufus
Ming, who received 81 Electoral votes
whereas their party had been able 10
command only ~ in 1904 This historical
recital proves conclusively that instead of
the Fcderalist party having been killed by
ITS opposition "a the war, it thereby pro.
longed its existence for a considerable pc
rod when 1t would otherwise have Welded
70 the public condemnation Gifts principles.
History Is read without intelligence or any
critical search into causes when its
lessons are so mislnterpreted as they are by
the parrot-like repeaters of the stuff we
have now retuted
Even IL the statement in question were
as correct as we have proved it to be igno
rant and fanciful, it would have no appH
cation % the case Of civil war. When the
war with England ended and the war with
Mexico ended, the people of those coun-
tries did not thereupon become voters in
our politics like the people of the Southern
States. Hit were true as the Springfield
Republican alleges, that the Democratic
party, opposed the late war its voters
aud the Southern voters combined would |
make formidable opposition But the
war Is a dead question, and no political
man can either live upon, or be defeated |
BY what he or it did or forbore TO