New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-09-21

the adventurous aid OF oath-DOunu sOcleIles
and the charm with which secrecy and
passwords and grips and that kind OF
machinery always invest any move
ment, political or other. The Greenback
or National movement has not, so far as
is known, been aided by secret organizations,
and by so much has lacked the advantage OF
the earlier delusiOn. But otherwise it runs on
all fours with the strange infatuation which IN
1854 and 1855 fairly carried the country Oft
its feet. There was the same unreasonlng
dissatisfaction with existing things then as
now, the same hostility to known political
leaders and managers, and the same DISPOSE
ton to elevate the laboring men and give
them the chance to make and unmake laws
and the influence in legislatures to which their
numerical strength entities them. That was
a crusade against a class; this is no less
That was great uprising expressive
of widespread discomfort, and great many
incompetent half-thinkers felt equal to the
highest responsibilities and duties OF states
manship, until they undertook them and
discovered to themselves and their too con-
fident supporters how great mistake they
had made. The craze was shOrtlived, but 1t
lived long enough to disintegrate the old
Wing party and make the bridge on winch
the majority of that party and great numbers
of Democrats went over to the new Republican
organization.
The parallel between the political situation
at the time the sands of life were running
out of the old Wing party and the Know
Nothing or American party was rising up ike
young giant IN Its place, and the
present, when the Democratic party seems
TO be melting away before the inToads of the
Greenback or National party, is too plain to need
pointing out There is in the new Organiza-
ton the same blind and unreasOning zeal that
characterized the KnOwNOthing movement
the same class of men are coming to the sur
face upon the first waves of its successes, and
with the same delusiOn about the powers OF
Government and the rights and privileges OF
classes. while the masses of the Democracy
are running after it az the old Wings ran al
ter Know NOthingism, and the same sort OF
old fogies are resisting the tide OF affairs
and trying to convince themselves that
there is really something in the old
party besides its name. All the signs
of the times are pointing to just such polit-
zeal revolution rs happened in the period re-
ferred to, when the new men astonished them
selves with their own successes, and until the
wave broke against Virginia, and the party
met its first serious reverse at the hands OF
Henry A. Wise, put their Democratic adverse
ries fairly in n panic OF fright. Before the
new movement the Democratic party in Maine
has already succumbed and fallen to the fatal
third place in the field. In Massachusetts
thew are routed in convention and put
10 flight with what few remnants of
the faithful remained. before they have
had an opportunity TO draw up their
lines. In Connecticut their most trusted and
influential leaders hold a council of war on
the eve of their State convention, and finding
out the strength of the new movement among
the delegates, make up their minds that 1t Is
hopeless fight, and incontinently take to their
heels, abandoning the field TO the heretical
faction, which in turn becomes alarmed at
its own success and i'm sheer fright offers
compromise. All through the West and South
it is the sa ne story of concession aud surren-
der, until it has come about that this great
Democratic party is nowhere of any account,
except as IL has actually abandoned its Drin-
ciples and its traditions, and gone over bodily
to the Greenback movement
Thus far clearly enough the new party is IN
the track of ITS forerunner of twenty-four
years ago, and the Democracy shows all the
signs of dissolution that marked the disap-
pearance of its old antagonists the Wings from
the field of political strife. If like causes in
varlably produced like results in politics, we
might we'll look for a general breaking up of
the Democratic party following the manifest
tokens of 1t in Maine Massachusetts, and
Connecticut. But in opposition to this view
il must be remembered that it is an old and
well disciplined and reasonably compact
organization that has survived repeated prophe-
cies of DIS hutiOn, and in spite of errors
and crimes which would have sunk any other
party under the odium of popular detestation,
has kept its head above water and come up
smiling after every reverse and disaster for a
fresh tussle for power. But whatever hap
pens-whether the new party succeeds in
swallowing up the Democracy or the latter
worries along and holds its own place as one
of the great parties of the cOuntry-there is
for Republicans but one duty, and that is to
maintain against both firm and united front
They are in effect one in motive and one in
purpose, and whatever form they take, or UNI
der whatever name they appear, are equally
the foes of honest administration and good
government.
OUR COAST DEFENCE.