The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1878-03-13
Wednesday. March -. 1878.
The National Party.

III
able to include all the honest and all the
needy men of the country, and to accom-
plish all which any, honest or needy man
desires, has organized itself, put forth its
platform and is ready for business, 1t
bases its claims to popular support on its
professions of ability to relieve all the
evils which the country is suffering, to
reverse all the impolitic, dishonest and
unconstitutional legislation of the past
sixteen years, to publish money, to
create wealth by legislation and to enact
good times,by the power of congress. The
national party, protesting as it does these
aims and this ability, is humbug and
sham. 1t has neither the ability nor the |
purpose to accomplish any of the objects |
it speaks of. No man nor party, nor the |
whole body of the people can add one
dollar to the wealth of the country by |
legislation. No amount of publishing
which all the printing presses can do will
create value or make money. Legisia'
ton can indeed take from the people
money they have earned in the shape of
taxes, it can obstruct trade by burdensome
regulations until business is destroyed;
it can build up monopolies - manu-
featuring, financial or transporta tlon
but the utmost it can do for the benefit
of the whole people is to let them alone
aud let them work out their own indiyid-
ual fortunes. . This is but the enunciation
of very ancient truth, and but the
paraphase, Iand weak one of the old
maxim: that that government is the best
which governs least" but it is neverthe
less wise to refer to such primary truth, and
to such an accepted maxim when a party is
proposed to be organized for the purpose
of Civ ing everybody everything" Instead
of proceeding upon the truth expressed
in the axiom we have quoted, the national
party propose, or proposes to pretend
to propose that the national Legislature
shall make everybody happy and pros
porous: that it shall make money, regulate
the rate of interest and the hours Of
labor, and the cost of transportation; that
it shall give work to the idle aud money
to the poor. 1t isa humbug because
it pretends to be able to do these things
when it cannot; it is a sham because il
pretends to desire these things when
nothing is further from It's purposes.
Those who are old enough to remember
what the country was in the days when the
principles of the democratic party were in
practical operation, remember well the
prosperity of the people. In the matter
of labor. it may be stated as u general
truth that no man wanted work which he
which he could not collect Trade was
practically free, and though the nation was
dis6gured by the institution of slavery, yet
such was the wonderful vitality of the peo-
pie that In spite of this and of the ordinary
and inevitable misfortunes of life, the peo-
pie grew rich faster than any other people
in the history Of the world. 1t has beer
the fashion with certain class of sphilan
thropists and statesmen to denounce thu
democratic party as having sustained
slavery and promoted the cause of seces
sion, and while we are not disposed now Il
discuss the truth or falsity of this charge
we can say what is undeniably true, that
was the increase in the national wealt
and prosperity under democratic admins
tratiOns which enabled 1t to triumph owe
rebellion. 1t was because the nation ha
been strengthened by long succession {
democratic administrations that it was abb
to crush the spawn of secession, to preserv
its unity, to assert its perpetuity and t
endure the waste and agony which wa
necessarily consequent upon the d.
struction Of slavery. 1t may have bee
the proper consequence of the faults {
the leaders of the democratic party thu
it was deposed from power at the begir
ming of the war, but il certainly was tn
misfortune of the country that the re;
princlpales of the grand old party wer
obsCured by the passion and prejudices {
the evils the country suffers now are no
In the largest sense, chargeable to tn
actual effects of the war, but rather to th
wicked and unwise legislation which ha
been forced upon the country during tn
past sixteen years. Against that legisla
ton the democracy constantly protested
The most patent examples of that legis
lation are the legal tender act of 1862, tn
national bank act of 1864, the act repealin
the convertibility clause of the legal teude
act Of 1865, the act making the bonds pay
able in coin of 1869, and the forced re
sumption act of 1875. No democrat vote
for any Of these acts, and the party in it
conventions, and in congress, has CONSTANT
protested against them. The act of 1873
dropping the silver dollar from the list @
coinage, was passed under the guise of
mint act,and a few democrats were tricke
into voting for it, but the act of 1874, max
ing the silver dollar legal tender for S
only was republican caucus act, and 70
which no democratic vote is recorded
Both these last named acts have been re
penled through the action of the demo
cratic house and by the operation of tn
democratic press on public opinion. Wher
were the men ;who now compose the ma
tionaI party when these and other like act
were passed2 The Buffers and Phillips
the Magies and the Rateses and tho ,,L IL