The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1877-10-04
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.


Wanting.
Extract from q recent speech by Gen. Garfield, Of
Ohio.l
Stated in the most general way, the
question between us is, which of the re-
spectiye parties is best entitled to the
sufrages Of the people of Ohio? I start
out, then, with this proposition, which
is my proposition: affirm that the
Democratic party, from its recent history
and its present attitude, ought not to be
trusted with power in this country-is
not all instrument fit to be trusted at the
present moment with the power Of the
country. II L say anything that does
not bear on that proposition to-day I fail
to make good the purpose Of my speech.
Now, I have no desire to go far into
the past, yet it is perfectly logical and
perfectly legitimate that when a party
comes before the country for its suffrage
it should stand the same form Of exam
nation into its character and record as
an individual who asks you to employ
him. When a man comes to you and
says, 81 want to be your bookkeeper; I
want to take charge Of your safe and man
age your business, and l amcompetent, /"
that is not enough for careful and wise
employer. He wants to know some
thing of the antecedents of the man who
wants to be Employed; and he wants to
know what the man has done in the past,
SO far as that past knowledge bears upon
his present character.
Now, I affirm, under my first PROPOSE
ton, this; While twenty years ago, and
for long time previous to that, the
Democratic party was a great, powerful
party of clear and well-defned opinions,
it has for the last twenty years ceased to
be party of affirmative, weIl-defned
ideas and convictions, and during the
whole of that twenty years it has not
given to this country any great affirma-
tive doctrines Of public policy that the
country has profted by, or that would
be profitable if the country had adopted;
but, on the contrary, during all these
twenty years the several great issues that
the Democratic party has presented to
the country in the form of affirmative
doctrines have been, year after year,
abandoned by the party itself; and, III
brief, almost each year Of the twenty
years last past the Democratic party has
abandoned as inexpedient
the doctrines of its previous year, and
tried some new plan to address to the
American people to gain power. 1t was,
therefore, in that way party expedient,
and not public affirmative doctrine.
Now, that this may not be set down as
a mere generality, I viii specify little.
IT you will go back for moment to the
great contest Of 1860, which marks the
dividing line when the Democratic party
went out Of power; if you will recall to
your minds for few moments what was
the central idea upon which the Repub-
lican and Democratic parties fought the
campaign of 1860, you will find it was
this: One of the great branches Of the
Democratic party held, as their funda-
mental doctrine, that the constitution of
the United States carried slavery into all
the Territories by force of its own power.
The other wing said not quite that, but
that all the Territories had right to
establish slavery in their borders if they
wished it, Every Democrat in America
that voted with either Of the branches
voted for one or the other of these two
doctrines. Now, is there Democrat in
Ohio that believes either of these doc
trines now? [ believe all will consent
that the record and the idea of that
year has been sponged out and is no
longer a living doctrine believed in
by any Democrat. Now, if you
step for a moment to the commence
ment, when the Republican party was
surrounded by secession, when the
threats of State sovereignty had gone to
that extent that eleven great Democratic
States not only affirmed their right to
go out of the Union, but their purpose
to get out of it, while it is true that a
great many noble Democrats resisted
and joined in the war to resist it, vet the
bulk OF the Democratic organization, as
such, denounced all constitutional right
on the part OF the Government to put
down the rebellion by force, and
held as early as July, 1861, per-
haps, as I get the date, that if the South
ern States insisted upon their right to
go out, they had better be allowed to
depart in peace. On that great central
doctrine, affecting the life of the nation,
the parties joined issue, and after four
years Of terrible war the doctrine Of the
right of secession in the name of State
sovereignty was burned to death under
the blazing rafters of the Confederacy,
and no Democrat in America, so far as
know, believes it to-day. So that that
doctrine of 1861 is gone, utterly gone,
from the face of our politics, as meas
ure that is alive.
Ii we come down little later, after
the war had been raging some three
years, then the two great parties assem-
bled to announce the doctrines of
that year. With almost half a
million men in the field, with the
blue line stretching from Texas to the
Atlantic, and the army surrounded as
with flame of fire, the Democratic
party, following the line of sentiment OF