Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-08-10
DEMOCRATIC HISTORY.

We depart to-day from a rule we have i'm
posed upon ourselves not to encourage or en-
gage in newspaper controversies, which are
generally proftless, and copy the following
from the AralGnche, of yesterday, in order to
correct it and give to the people of this sec
ton, IN the words of the National Democratic
platforms, the position Of that party upon
national finances. The Aralaache says:
1. Our contemporary observes that lever since 1852
the law-makng power OF congress has been eX
pended for the bOndhOiders and magnates." This Is
true. The APPEAL holds the Republican party re-
sponsible for the evils growing out OF this condition
government until 1875, that party cannot escape
responsibility Tor its acts. But II happens that while
the Republican managers acted IN the interests OF
the ''bondhoders and railroad magnates, they We're
ably seconded by the Democratic managers. The
eastern doctrines have controlled both parties IT.
Democrats nominated General NJ Cleuan Iof freSl-
dent In 1884. He represented the 'bondholders and
railroad magnates." The Democratic nominee for
President in 1868 was Horatio Seymour: He Is the
hardest of hai d-mOney men-in perfect sympathy
with the "bondholdeTs and railroad magnatesn
=. Passing over IS72, when the Democrats captured
Horace Greeley whom the Liberals had taken up as
protest against the evils of Crantisnl and labe ed
him democrat we come TO 1915, when the AP-
FEAL's party again put representative leader in
nomination They had 1S64-6S-chosen Demo
Gratis I'm Democratic conventions I'm sympathy with
the ''bondholders and railroad magnates." The re-
sumption aet had been law year and half The
ruin that followed 1t was widespread; lt could be
traced by financial wrecks and in the light of COM
mercldl StagnatlOn. The APPEALS prime taV0rite
was nominaied-5amuel j. TIlden. And who was
Mir Tiideu? Simply the incarnation of the eastern
doctrine that has controlled and still CONTROLS both
Old political partiesthe most ultra cOntractl0nist
the most urgent advocate of forced resumption, the
most implacable enemy of greenbacks, the ranks of
me DemOcGatlc parry contained; Inc phrase Dond-
holders and railroad magnates" fits Mr. Tilden like
glove; lie belongs 10 tnat CLASS; Inc i APPE 5IH
ported him platform dictated by the represen-
tatives of the bOndhodets ana railroad magnates,"
l. 1t would be difficult to find the same
amount of ignorance or purposed misrepre-
sentation crammed into the same space as is
occupied by the first of the above two
paragraphs. The nomination of George B.
Mcclellan, IN 1864, did not rest upon fnan-
cial platform. At that time the whole north
was intent upon the war and upon conclud-
it as soon as possible, at any cost of life and
money Even such Democrats as Voorhees,
are upon record as willing to expend the last
man and the last dollar to save the Union.
Mcclellan was put forward by the Democrats
as their candidate, they believing that in his
hands the government would be perpetuated
according to constitutional methods. If there
was anything said in the platform as to the
currency, it was a denunciation of the
extravagant and the lavish manner
in which it was being thrown away, and
a protest against the excessive expenditures
which to-day weigh upon all the industries of
the people, in the form of a public debt,
which the bondholding Republicans tried to
make US believe was a national blessing.
M'Clelland, in 1864, represented the party
which had exhausted every means possible to
prevent the war, and when it came did every
thing possible to confine its prosecution with
in constitutional limits, and according to
modern humanitarian ideas. He did
not represent the bondholders or
railroad magnates, for they were
bitterly opposed to him, and were ar
IDENTIFY supporting the Republican party, to
which they have always adhered, because its
leading policy has been the enhancement and
protection of their bonds.
Governor Seymour, nominated in 1862 ac-
cepted and Endorsed the platform, of which
the third, fourth and fifth paragraphs are as
follows:
Sd. All money drawn from the people by taxation,
except much is requisite for the necessities of
the government, economically administered, should
be honestly applied TO such payment and where tue
obligations OF the government do not pressly state
upon their face, OF the law under which they were
issued does not provide that they shall be paid In
AL
lawful money OF the United States.
l. Equal taxation Of every species Of property &C
cOrding 70 It's real value, Including government
bonds, aid other public securities.
>. one currency for the government and the peO-
pie the labOrer and the officer holder, the penSiOner
and the soldier, the producer and the bOndholder.
1t would be difficult for a National of this
day to make a platform more thoroughly or
sweeplnCly greenback than that. Upon that
stood Horauo Seymour-one OF the cleanest-
handed, clearest-headed of men and noblest
patriots. No matter what his views had
been before the war on hard money, he ac-
cepted the situation, and, like the statesman
that he is, pledged himself to deal with it in
the spirit of the platform to which he had
given his assent before he was nominated
Thus, in the very first convention of the
Democratic party after the war, those senti-
ments found expression which, pushed by the
western Democracy, have since grown into
paramount issues, for the enforcement of
which Democratic senators and representa-
tlves labored and voted at the last session of
congress. We have thus, we think, conclu-
slYely disposed of the AraldHche's ignorance
or purposed misrepresentation of current
history, and have shown that the financial
question did not enter, as primal question,
INTO the M'Clellen canvass, and that Sey-
nour, 50 far as the national finances are coz
cerned, stood upon a very good greenback
Platform.
?. We, too, will pass over the Greeley can
Yass, which ended so dramatically in the death