Litchfield enquirer., 1877-05-17
southern Democracy.

We are indebted to Hon. Wm. H. Bar num for number of public documents: among the rest the eulogies pronounced on the late Andrew Johnson by. his fellow Senators, on the 12th of January, 1876. We are chiefly interested in the address of Mir. Key, then U. s. Senator from Ten neses; now. Postmaster General. It is 8 well written address. excellent in tone, and creditable as literary effort. He thus describes the entrance of the future Pres ident into the State of whose history he became such an important part:
 In September, 1926. in hls 18th year, Mir. Johnson arrived at Greenville, Tenn, accompanied by his mother. An old wood en cart, drawn by worthless horse, car ried all their worldly goods. He could scarcely read, and could not write.
 Mr. Key insists that Andrew Johnson was not demagogue:
 His preiudices in favor of the feebler ranks of population became a mental hab- it before he was able to raise himself into more liberal and enlightened companion ship. Of this kinship with the humble he was never ashamed, but it produced in him distrust of the leaders of society and parties, and led to the utterance of sentiments on some occasions which were charged to be agrarian in tendency, and caused many to allege that he was a dem- agogue. MT. Johnson was neither an agra rian nor denagogue.
 The old Democracy of this country was the radical party-the ''levelers"-of its day. It sympathized with the people of France against their hereditary persecu- tors while the Federalists were mere Rnglish Tories in their support of the aristocratic party in the great fight of People vs. Privilege that made the. last decade of the last century such memor- able epoch in history. These party char acteristics have become so modified by time that the Conservative of 1877 is the great-grandson of the Democrat of eighty years since. This remarkable change is largely attributable to the championship of slavery by the Democracy of the mid de period. in sharp contrast with the Abolition tendencies of Jefferson himself. Then, natural causes tended to the same result Democracy became an hereditary instead of personal faith. The Jewellers" of Jefrerson's time were generally men of the people, fighting what they considered the usurped privileges of wealth. and sta ton. These men of the people founded families that now hold hereditary wealth and station, while they still profess the creed of Democracy. Hence prrvate in- terest and social station have made of many modern priests of Democracy as thorough arlstocrats as ever followed Ad- ams or Hamilton. Just as the religion of poverty and the people preached in the New Testament has become a prop of Privilege in many European countries, the radical party founded by the Aboli- tionist Jefferson became the chief prop of slavery in our time. When Andrew John son, began political life, however, De- mOcracy still meant democracy, and the apparent 'agrarianism" of the conserva tive president was as much owing to his early political as to his early social life.
 We read the apology of Tennessee Democrat of our generation for the ''agrarianism" of a Tennessee Democrat of pas. generation witA sgsSial jE jnteEsss sSas sort. seems likely to have controlling influence in the nation for some years to come. h it to be the Democracy of Jef- fersOn, of Calhoun, or of Lincoln? There is something of the old Jeffersonian spirit still left in the Democracy of the North, but Calhounism - the rankest ai- istocratic creed ever enunciated in Amer ica- seemed to have completely sup planted it at the South in the period just before the war. Will the rising politi- cians of that section still cling to Cal. hounism? If so, we fear the country must look forward to years of dead conserva. tism, if not of sharp reaction. Mr. Key seems, however, a sort of Jeffersonian re- vival of type that recognizes the neces. sity of constant progress towards complet- CT popular forms and improved administra- ton; and protesting a creed of cautious >radicalism such as the Northerner might term Lincolnism. We sincerely hope this is the kind of Democracy that will prevail in some, at least, of the Southern States. A few years, or perhaps even a few months, will determine.
 The Collapse Of our Architecture
 The architecture of the country is sym pathising with the general collapse of business. When the roof of the New York POst-Ofice fell. everybody, coroner's jury and all. attributed it to Mullett, late Archi- tect Extraordinary of his late Excellency, President Grant. But here is the dome of the splendid Winnebago County. Ill. courthouse. which Mullett never saw, tumblihRi fin. also, and crushing number of operative masons (so-called, we believe, to distinguish them from Freemasons); and nobody knows whose fault it is.
 It is a solemn thought that the first leg islature we put into our new capitol might be niashed into an indistinguishable, ho- mogeneous mass of legislative wisdom, without even giving the Sheriff time to pronounce the solemn ''God save the Commonwealth" of final adjournment. Perhaps, under the circumstances, it would be as well to send up lot, this fall. that we shall not greatly miss if the new dome does fall in. If they come back alive. we can send better ones in '7S.
 We are glad to see that our selectmen are providing against any architectural collapse in the midst of Litchfeld. They are replacing the old posts of the town room with six stout iron pillars, such as not even the legal weight of the entire District Court could bring down. From a nasty, OGtside survey of the building, we are pretty certain, also. that the stately ''dome" of our temple of justice cannot