The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-04-18
The Democratic Leaders,

In this very skeptcal and very credulous
age, an age which disbelieves, all that is old
and improbable and believes all that is new
and impossible, which rejects the Hebrew
Scriptures and accepts the book of Mormon,
which refuses to put faith in the miracles of
Jesus and hastens to put faith in the miracles
of Mrs. Hardy, which holds that Francis Ba-
con wrote Hamlet and that John did not
write the fourth gospel-in this age of para
doxes people may be brought to believe that
the leopard through some process of natural
selection can exchange his rather gaudy and
much maculated garment for some quieter
fashion in furs, and that the Democratic par
ty can throw aside all its convictions, emanci.
pate itself from the sway Of its prejudices, es-
cape the results of its education, do away with
its natural tendencies, and become liberalized,
progressive, and fit to be entrusted with lead
ershp But even those who cherish this all-
dacious belief will acknowledge that leader
ship necessitates leaders, and cannot exclude
from their consciousness the fact that the
policy of the Democracy will be shaped by
its chiefs, chiefs who, like the old kingly race
of France as described by its mightiest op-
ponent, have proved themselves men that
learn nothing and forget nothing. With this
consideration in mind it is we'll to enquire
who, in case of a Democratic success, will
hold the great offices of administration and
direct the party in Senate and House.
Tt is not purposed here to much inquire in
L. tto Io1,, ofo 80 H. a.
chiefs. or to examine those charges, freely
brought and in some cases amply sustained,
made against the honesty of many of them.
1t is their political character which now in
vites scrutiny. Naturally and of courtesy
the men named in connection with the presi-
Dental nomination first claim attention.
Foremost among these, not in availability
but in talents and personal worth, is Senator
Bayard of Delaware, man of unquestioned
integrity, high culture, and great ability, but
man who is the most conspicuous represen-
tative of class of statesmen whose favorite
dogma has brought untold misery upon the
country. As regards the currency and other
problems OF economic science Mr.. Bayard
holds noble position; but the cardinal arti
Gle of his creed, the article to which all 9TH
ers are subordinate and auxiliary, is the
heresy of State rights. He is pledged to
the theory of ''strct construction"
He believes in ''limited powers of
the federal government,-so limited in
deed that the power Of self preservation is
not numbered among them. He believes
that the national government has no right to
coerce seeded state, that the raising of
armies and of revenue to suppress the rebel
lion was extra unconstitutional, that the three
great amendments are illegal, that the negro
is an inferior and subject race, that the course
of the government since 1860 has been one
long mistake, and that all the evils from
which we suffer are to be attributed to an un-
just and unconstitutional war. Like him
are the others of his class. His senior, Sena.
tor Thurman, stands high in character and
ability; but he is the bitterest and most re-
dictionary of the statesmen of the school of
Calhoun; he is man who believes that the
orthodox theory of the American system of
government is to be found in the resolutions
of '9S, and who regards the power to coerce
''sovereign state' as dangerous latitude
narianism. Governor Tilden of New York
should perhaps rank both these men, for he
is their equal in intellectual power and their
superior in practical politics; but suspicion
of shrewdness at the expense of good faith,
of expediency at the expense of principle,
attaches to him and depresses him in the
scale. Yet one point of his political faith he
has never been accused OF lightly holding.
Whatever his sins he has never been charged
with surrendering the dogma of strict con-
struction to the end Of achieving political
success. He may have banded with un-
worthy men to carry an election, he may
have countenanced corruption to raise CAM
palgn fund, but he has never wavered in his
loyalty to the resolutions of '95 and the South
Carolina construction. To him, as to Sena-
tors Bayard and Thurman, the fatal objec-
tion OF Calhounism applies.
There is another group of Democratic pres
identlal candidates, embracing the men of
expectancy, and headed by Governor Hen
drlcks OF Indiana, a leader who can look more
ways than Hindoo idol, and who is the
lndla-rupber man of American politics. He
is the most conspicuous example of the time
serving politician now before the public, and
bis principles set as loosely upon him as the
outWorh paternal coat does upon the youth
ful shoulders of tae hope of the family. His
creed varies with his geography. In Alaba'
ma ne defends free trade in the interests of
the cotton field in Pennsylvania he speaks a
good word for protection in the interests of
the coal held. In Indiana he breaches the
cult OF the rag-baby and turns to the building
OF the American Bank Note Company as the
temple OF his faith; in New York he adores
the metallic dollar and faces the mint to pay
bis devotious. But even he holds to one
dogma everywhere, in Alabama or Pennsyl-
vahia, in Indiana or New York, the dogma
that among the reserved rights of a state is