The Portland daily press., 1875-08-10
lFrom Harp@'s weekly.l
False Pretenses.
The Democraticcopvention in MARYLAND bs

The Democratic convention in Marvtapd bas
adopted platform which says:
"First-We do hereby declare our rnfo,,sr.
ing devotion TO those cardinal principles of Re-
publican goyefnment enunciated bv Thomas
jefferson Ia language so clear that it cannot bs
improved, to wit:-'Equal and exact Justice 10
all men of whatever state or persuasion, relig-
1ous or political; the support of the state gov
ernments in all their rights as the most compe-
tent administrations for our domestic concerns.
aao the surest bulwarks against an ti-Republi.
casl tendencies; the preservation of the general
government in its whole constitutional vigor az
The sheet-anchor of our peace at home and
safety abroad; the supremacy of the civil over
the military authority; economy in the public
expenses, that labor may be lightly burdened;
cred preservation of the public faith; the diffu-
sion OF information, and the arraignment Of all
abuses at the bar OF public reason; FREEDOM of
religion; freedom OF the press; freedom Of the
person under the protection OF the habeas cor
pus; and trial by jury impartially selected"
These are most excellent sentiments They
are truths which the Republican pa.ty has pro-
fessed and practiced for many years, and by
steadfast adherence to them that party has
for fifteen years beaten the Democratic party.
These are the Republican principles and pur-
poses; but what has the Democratic party TO do
with them? That party ia led to-day by many
of the leaders of fifteen, ten and five years ago.
1t has been nowhere reorganized. In the light
OF truth and experience the Maryland Demo-
cratic platform is very comical. The Demo.
cratic party has steadily denied equal and exact
justice to all men; and the only organizations
that now exist in the country to maintain that
denial are Democratic. The Democratic party
held and proclaimed doctrine of the rights Of
the state governments that amounted to state
sovereignty, and ended in bloody rebellion.
The Democratic party, actively in one part OF
the country and passvely in another, sought
the violent overthrow Of the general govern
ment Tho Democratic party superseded the
civil Dy the military power whenever it was
necessary to sustain slavery. The Democratic
party by prostituting the civil service to parts-
anship, fostered administrative fraud, careless
nesses and extravaganza, of which Swartwout
and Price were the first fruits. The Democrat
ic party proposed in its national convention a
virtual breach of the public faith. The Demo-
cratic party is allied with the only sect in this
country that threatens religious freedom, as it
has elsewhere always destroyed it when 1t
could The Democratic party has been always
the tool of the interest that hated freedom of
the press and Of the person.
Thus the Democratic party has been the
steady and recognized foe of what the Mary.
land convention calls ''the cardinal principles
of republican government enunciated by
Thomas Jefferson" to which it pledges its
"unfaltering DEVOTION Undoubtedly il has Of
ten made the same professions before but the
answer is written on every page Of our politi-
cal history. While it held four millions of
men and women deprived of every right and in
the most loathsome slavery, 1t still called itself
the party Of the people, and especially Of the
poor laborng man, and Of equal rights. Mr.
Allen, who is now, az democratic Candidate for
governor OF Ohio, asking laboring men IL they
will submit to the "remorseless yoke" imposed
by "moneyed aristocracy" was, when in con-
II -
slavery, which degraded labor, denounced the
free working man as mud-sill, and made the
slaves, whom it reduced as nearly as 1t could to
mere cattle, the rivals, in the states which it
controlled and the territory that it sought to
control, of the intelligent mechanics and farm
ers of Ohio and of every other free state. And
it is Mr.. Aliens boast that he is unchanged.
The Boston Herald, in O temperate and
courteous article, says that in stating such facts
as these we forget that few northern demo-
Gratis favored slavery, and that, in any case,
slavery is gone. The Herald, however, will re-
member that northern democrats sustained to
the very last the slavery policy of their party,
whether they favored slavery cr not, and that
northern democratio President assured his
southern allies that the war for slavery would
be fought in our streets. As to the present
position Of the party. it is evident that neither
the lifelong convictions of its leading members
nor its real feeling as shown in its press and
coBduct are especially favorable to equal rights
Now the choice in 1876 lies between the repub-
lcan and democratic parties, and the claim of
the latter that it is the party of equal rights is
as much false pretense as the claim made by
some democratic papers that it is the party Of
hard money. All that we say is, not that the
republican party has not serious offensss to an
swer for, but that the great objects which are
justly most precious to good citizens are very
much more likely to be promoted, according to
all the signs of the times, by the republican
than by the democratic party. And it is the
constant statement of thistruth which makes
us seem to the Herald incapable of rising above
party prejudice We can, indeed, conceive,
with the Herald, of great party true to the
American principles OF liberty and justice. But
the republican party is certainly much nearer
that ideal than the democratic, 7-