The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1877-02-08
Democratic Decisions.

Democratic Decisions.
Editors Of the Tiyg,naan
| From time immemorial the world has hat
its decisions, and the realities of life have
| been quite subordinate factors in civilization
at least to casual observation it has so ap
peared; and decisions and all sorts of ignes
fatui and hobgoblins have held strong mas
terry over mems minds. Your poet may lif
| up his voice for truth and reality and thu
marrow of things, but your come and e
world hugs its Gelusions and is content. II
must have its fun and to cheat it makes il
laugh but it destroys you for deceiving it
Napoleon, after few years Of facts and I'M.
bounded success, came to think that Jelu
| sions ruled the world, and he was destroyed
Mr.. Barnum, king of showmen, says: "The
world longs to be cheated;'' wherefore he
administers his ''woolly horse' and numer
GUS successful humbugs and becomes ricl
and plethoric and as J ct survives, and seeks
an Office in order to represent Democracy in
| public way. is it not in the eternal fitness
| of things?
Modern Democracy lives and moves and
has its being in the aelusiye medium. 1t is
the Barnum of political parties, and as with
| all humbugs, it constantly, and with noise,
protests that it is genuine, with its tongue
| in its cheek. 1t has all sorts of decisions.
1t deludes your respectable citizen with its
Of Of
my, and governmental reform; here it be-
comes grand ard poetical, a very epic, and
then, Janus faced, it turns with smiles upon
the mob while it teaches it s'bioody nstruc-
tions" as in Ohio, Indiana, and elsewhere.
But is it not justified? 1t would have votes,
and office, and plumber Democracy is ford
of delusions; for seventeen years now it has
|sYegetated upon them. We may be pardoned
for speaking somewhat. strongly for it has
exceeded ordinary limits; it has become glut-
tenous. 1t resembles the animal called the
Wolverine. This .creature is said to gorge
itself, and then to press its body between
two trees in order to be able to return to its
repast. The " olverene does not take to de-
lusions however; it is only your modern De-
mocracy that initiates upon such ETHEREAL
food. and for so long time has it subsisted
on this diet, that the fabric of its being has
become identical; like the Scotchman, whose
generations of oatmeal have made him as
dry, crusty and unpalatable rs his favorte
hammock.
With such an exclusive diet Of decisions
as it has ndnlged itself for SO long period,
it is not surprising that We to-day find it i'll
the poets lines, ''rhe wine of life is drawn
and the mere lees is left this vault to bray
Of" Even its delusions have become weak
and sclliy, and Indicate plainly enough its
bottle nursing.
Now, Il Gelusion, Democratic delusion,
if not quite lie is at least very like le
'By the mass and tits like d camel indeed. -
Some honest, undiplomatic souls may say it
is lie, and stoutly SO maintain, but we
hold, to have it set down thus, is not charit-
able, and as sort of compromise with those
users of Anglo-Saxon we prefer to accord to
1t certain high genius; IL transcendant abil-
ity, Tor stretching the truth from Maine to
Oregon; and it is only when we are in the
mood Of getting down to bottom facts, and
squarely standing there, chat we can be in
ducel to say of its delusions, us Paris used
to say. OF Napoleon's war dispatches LAS
false as u bulletin.''
But there is one receening quality in your
Democratic decisions: they are grand, lofty,
sublime, and he holds to them with a
so much the worse for facts. As he annihi-
lates u fact he becomes scornful, triumph
ant, and beats his resounding bosom. Ii YOU
call his attention to fact, he smiles CHASTITY
"a fact A fact to him is monster. What
use has he for facts? Was he not born with
out them? Nay is he not himself living
example Of the fuLility OF all facts? lie is
the representative teetolaller of the age-in
facts. All his manhood rises in revolt
against them. History TO your modern
Democrat is what it is 10 the bigoted C;ltllo-
lie, all Devils work if it does not read his
way. There is genuine history, and there
is Democratic history; human events make
the one, and Democratic delusions make the
other. They are both interesting reading.
The first makes you sorrowful; the last makes
you laugh.
1t would be Il task to enter into the history
of all the Democratic decisions, and it is
only a temporary inspiration against lies and
humbugs that induces us to enumerate even
few of them. Besides its battle.cry Of
s'Iilden, Hendricks, and Reform iJ has
this other: "A lie well stuck to is Il good us q
truth" This is the corner stone of the edi-
flee, and many overconfiding people have
come to believe, through its long persisteT-
cy in its decisions, that there is really some
thing of saving grace and worth in the thing.
One of the most serious delusions of this
great Democratic Party occurred in lS60-G1,
when its Southern wing undertook to dis
member the country, deluding itself that
the North would not resist, and if it did,
that, for want OF the great staple of the
South, king Cotton" the industries of the
North would speedily die, and the very grass
grow in the streets of her cities. 10 such a
pinnacle did their decisions reach that one
of their great orators already saw himself
knocking off his negroes at auction, at the
very base If Bunker Hill monument. In
speaking of the Democracy at this particular
juncture Of its history, we do not iaclude
the Southern people, though from the very
nature Of the case they necessarily became
identical soon after, and when they entered
into open war to defend, rs they no doubt
believed, their menaced liberties, but surely
there never was q people, in all time, 50
cruelty mislead by more unworthy and viii