Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1873-07-04
The Dead Democracy.

Every few weeks the Republican journals
preach II funeral sermon over the dead and
gone Democratic party. They act as pail
bearers and exhibit all the trappines Of woe
But it wont get out of sight, itrcfuses entrance
TO the tomb whose ponderous and marble jaws,
we are led to believe are prepared for its re-
eeptiou. The chief ca6se Of its demise it is
asserted was its course during the war. The
Rorid disposes of this feature as follows:
Their pretencss1hat thesDemocracy have be-
come irretrievably unpopular and odious is
not sustained by facts. The canses assigned
for this alleged loss of popularity are the
course OF the party during the war and its OPP
position to the reconstruction measures. But
wheE these causes were still fresh and recent,
when they were most operative, Chief Justice
Chase, the ablest Of the old Republican leaders,
was willing, nav anxious, to accept Demo-
cratic nomination for President. The glowing
Goals of those then burning but now defunct
controversies had mob gathered cinders 10 COW
er them yet a Republican statesman who
stood high in public confidence was ready to
identify himself with the Democratic organi-
cation and bea. its banner to victory
There colld not be more solid or more
e oquent refutation of the pretence that the
Democratic party sinned away its day of grace
by its course during andimmediately after the
war. When the time came round for the next
Presidential election, there not merely
one but several old and trusted Republican
statesmen who were willing TO commit their
political fortunes and their reputation to an
association with this odious, moribund Demo-
cratic party. Mr.. Greeley accepted, and half
n dozen other distinguished Republicans would
have accepted the Democratic nomination for
President. Among the candidates for the hon
or were Charles Francis Adams, David Davis,
LYMAN Trumbull, and Gratz Brown. There
were as many more who would have competed
in the list of candidates if they had received
any encouragement. In the face oftfese facts
it is mere selfrefnting folly to assert that the
course of the Democratic party during the
war has made 1t insuderaby odious. That
argument comes too late. Since Chief Justice
Chase wanted and since Mr.. Greeley accepted a
Democratic nomination for The Presidency,
the party has laid no new stumhling-blocks
in the way Of Republican recruits. Both in
1868 and 1872 the Democratic party was de-
feated by bad nominations and by the corrupt
use of Federal patronage, not at all by its
course during the war, which is the only rea-
son given by the advocates of dissolution why
j: cannot hope 10 succeed in 1876.
In any rational estimate of political strength
or pu bile opinion, we must consider the opin-
ion of the enlightened, educated classes. The
negro votes must be counted, but it is absurd
to weigh them. 1t is an incontestible fact that
a majority of the white citizens of the United
States are Democrats. The returns of the last
Presidential election prove it. The negro vote
Of the country is considerably larger than
Grants popular majority, and if the Disguised
Democrats who sullenly refused to support
Mr. Greeley had come to the polls, the result
of the white vote would have been still more
striking and instructive. To say that polit-
zeal party which has the confidence of ma
iority of the white voters is irredeemably nm
popular and has fallen so low that it can new
er expect to rise, is silly extravaganza which
Democrats laugh to seorn.