The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1878-09-04
The DUTY orDcmoerats.

AhiA6 VI NAAA y 49,
ing, there are important duties rest
ing upon two classes Of voters. The
Democrats who are such in name
should be absolutely steadfast They
should not fondle ephemeral parties,
There was never a better time for
Democrats to hold fast. It has been
many years since the inducements
we're so great to cling to the Demo
cratic organization. This is not the
time for Democrats who are really
Democrats, to desert their posts, to
abandon the ship, to desert the field,
to run Of after some strange doctrine,
or if not after some strange doctrine,
after some new machinery, some new
party. The Democratic party is to-.
day almost lifted up from the earth,
And it is about to draw all men unto
HI, to borrow the expression Of an
idea from the new Gospel. Ben
Bdtlet may talk about National
party,,nss third party bearing any
name, but he now processes no party
allegiance, One of the duties ofreal
Democrats in this hour is to cling to
the slowly but surely conqueridg au,
thority, the Democratic idea, in fore:
most question of finance. There is
another duty resting on non partisan,
Independent voters, on men who care
nothing for party but everything for
measures. These men owe it to the
course they advocate to inquire after
the truth touching the question that
most concerns them.
We insist that the Democratic
duty bids men within the Democrat
ic party stay there. We insist also
that the desires of men outside the
two great parties, whether they call
themselves nationals" or "Green-
backers' or "Currency Rcformers,"
or "Labor Rcformers, "&c.,are foolish
| if they do not avail themselves of the
vast and costly machinery ready
made to their hands, the mechanism
of the Democratic party. The duty
is that Democratsin name and pro-
fession should not appear now to fall
ter, and that the Democrats who are
Democrats from interest, though not
acknowledging allegiance to party,
should vote at home, and not throw
away their sulIragqs on a party with
out power.
Under the Democratic rule the pco-
pie of this country were happy and
prosperous for eighty years prior to
1861. Taxation was moderate and
times were good. All classes shared
in the general welfare, and there was
..o-,. on.l mood fnr oil Tho advent
Of the Republican party precipitated
a war that cost thousands Of millions
of treasure and at least million OIL
lives. But this was not all. We
were left a mountain of debt and an
army of corrupt oHice-holders. The
Republicans had control Of the treas
ury, and with this and the assistance
rendered by the eighty thousand in
torested men under government pay.
and the practice Of the most gigantic
frauds, they have ever succeeded in
keeping in power. The financial
misery we suffer at this time is due
to the corruptions of this party, and
no part oft is chargeable to the Dem
ocratic party. The Southern States
were plundercd by carpet-baggers to
the verge Of bankruptcy, but as fast
as they came back under Democratic
control their prosperity has revived
and social disorder has ceased. The
Democratic party Of the nation is
pledged to stop official corruption
and tighten the burdens of the peo'
pie so soon as it regains control Of the
government. AS a guarantee that it
will redeem the pledge it points to
its record before the war, and to the
changed condition of affairs in the
States Of the south where the party is
in power, particularly in the plumber.
ed States Of Louisiana and South Car.
olina. Further than this it calls at.
tention to the fact that during thelast
four years the Democratic House Of
Representatives has forced a roduct,
ion of nearly fifty millions a year in
the public expenditures, despite the
opposition Of Republican Senate
and the sneOrs of the Republican
ma