New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-04-19
oOLD DEu0CRluC PRINClPLES0

| The Honorable Thomas W. Hendricks has
| lately been represented as swapping wisdom
/ by the broadside in a cheerful and I'M
/ restrained way with an Intelligent reporter.
| We are told. however. that when the
! Ex-Governor was asked Whether it
! twas not time TO rcOrcanize the new
Democratic party on the old Democratic
| principles" ne lost his artess spirit Of ut
| tcrancc, and replied with smiling evasion /:
"Well that will do for talk perhaps, in the
| canvass Possibly the great man could
| form no precise conception OF what his qucs-
/ toner was reaching after. Certainly Mr..
/ Hendricks himself is old enough to re-
/ member with viyidncss several distinct
sets Of "Old Democratic principles and he
| might well be puzzled to know what particular
body Of political doctrine was referred to.
The party which originally favored the Con-
stitu.i0n As opposed to the Articles of Con-
iederation-that is, the party animated by the
spirit of national unity as against the spirit
of local MISUNDERSTANDING generation be-
came the party of extreme State Rights As
interpreted and advocated by Calhoun. The
party which gained possession OF the Govern
ment by demanding the enlargement of
political rights aud the extension Of the suf
fragp, a few years later was seen struggling
to restrict the suffrage to class. The
party which proclaimed most v0cifcrously
its sympathy for struggling races in
the Old World soon adopted rs its ear
dinal doctrine that in the New World
only one race was entitled to the enjoyment
of any political or social privileges Since
Mr. Hendricks became Il mature and nHoXI-
BE Democrat he has heard himself argue in
favor of coin rs tho only constitutional
money. aud in favor OF uttcring more depre-
ciatcd or rredcemable promises to pay, 50
that coin would be driven out of circula-
ton and kept out lie has raved against a
United States bank, and he has urged the
adoption OF scheme to make the United
States Treasury itself q bank of issue and the
only issucr of paper currency. He has OPP
posed all subsidies and grants for internal I'M
provement, voted for river and halbor grabs, and
now wants o construct thousand miles of leyees
and build a Southern Pacific Railroad. I'm
short, Mr.. EIendrick, can select any principle
or any set Of principles toward which he may
feel temporarily inclined, label them "Old
Democratic" and justify the Trademark
by some portion OF his own and of his partys
record.
But after all it is safe to assume that the
"new Democratic party" VIII not ascend to a
very high antiquity in search of - old Demo-
"cratic principles" for present use. The
complexion of Mr.. Randals committees makes
it certain that on financial questions the
Democracy OF to-day will rcpudate every
thing which the old party held in the period
of its victorious growth. On all questions
growing out of the constitutional relations of
the States to each other and To the General
Government, ana questions which involve the
quality of the allegiance due to the United
States by individual citizens, the new
Democratic party will be loyal to
the Southern idea. 1t has openly
proclaimed its intention to undo the legi.la-
ton of the past eighteen years. That is, it
adopts the State Rights doctrine in it's most
offensive form, and practically denies the
constitutionaliTy of the laws enacted to insure
and enforce results of the victory of the
General Government over the insurgent States.
That the people of the United States consti-
tute an absolute nationality, apart from any
State distinctions, that the primary allegiance
of the citizen is to the Nation, and that all
citizens are to have guaranteed to them equal
political rights, were principles finally deter
mined by the late war, If any principle was
ever settled by any war. And yet 10
every one of these principles the new
Democracy, under tho domination of the
Solid South, is openly or insdlously hostile.
If Mr.. Hendricks had chosen to deal frankly
with his interviewer he would have said that