Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-10-22
THE DEMOCRATIC sEE-sAw.

the tariff issue. It says: "Such shame
full recreancy to party principles has
never been exhibited in the history of
"our political contests. 1t is not merely
20 that Senator deemed worthy of noni-
''nation for the Presidency had spoken
"mincing words to propitiate the protec.
tionists, nor that prominent party organs
and party leaders have shirked the issue
and skunk away from their standard, but
"their candidate for the Presidency has
6 belied his party platform and its imme-
mortal policy by declaring in response to
"a local clamor that he virtually favors
protection as much as the rival candi.
" date. A party whose spokesman can
"thus abiure its principles in the
g face of contest that boldly chal-
''lenges those principles has sunk to the
"last stage of decentralization, and declared
"itself unfit to be intrusted with the rep
resentation of any great issue in national
"politics" This is all perfectly true, but
what is surprising is that it should not
have been discovered before. The fact
that the Democratic party has 10 princi-
pies which it is not willing to change or
repudiate the moment It thinks they are
obnoxious to the majority has been demon
strated not only from the outset of the
campaign, but from the close of the re-
bellion. The Democratic party threw off
the mask in 1861. It had always been the
party of disunion and anarchy. 1t had
held doctrines utterly incompatible with
the surviva! of the republic since 1898.
The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions
contained the justification of secession,
and their authors and adherents acknowl-
edged this. The Democrats thought they
could make secession successful and they
were mistaken. Ever since their failure
they have been trying to get back into |
power by stealing the principles of their
opponents, but they have never been able
to accomplish their purpose, because they |
had not sense enough to conceal their
stubborn adherence to their old treason
able programme They took Horace
Greeley as blind. They took Hancock
as blind. And finding that
this last dodge promised to be no
more successful than the first, they have
been pitching their principles overheard
right and left all through the campaign,
until they have not enough left to cover
their nakedness. Their course in regard to
the currency has been quite as shameless
as that in regard to the tariff. They de-
clared in their national platform that they
were in favor of honest money only, and
strict discharge of all obligations, State
and national. But the instant they thought
votes could be secured by making alliances
with the Greenbackers they fastened to
fling aside their honest money professions,
and to enroll themselves with the advocates
of fat money and reputation. Having
done this it is not to be wondered at that
they should play the same game with the
tariff Their platform squarely commits
them to the policy of ga tariff for revenue
tariff for protection, but what do the Dem
ocrats care about consistency or principle?
They find the protectionist sentiment is
strong, and Immediately they swing round
and get their candidate for the Presidency
to declare that he is just as good Protec-
ZIONIST as anyone, even though he does
know nothing whatever about the question.
They cannot at this stage of the canvass
put forward another platform, but they
have done all that was possible to convince
the country that their original platform
means nothing. In that document they
inserted high flown words about the
sanctity of the ballot. The ballot, they
said, is ga right preservative of all rights,
and its freedom "must and shall be
maintained throughout the Union.
Does that mean anything, coming from
Democratic lips? Let the solid South
answer Let the Alabama and Arkansas
elections answer Fourteen States of the
Union deprived of the freedom of the
franchise, and the party which has wrought
this intamy standing up in the face
of the nation and gravely declaring
that the freedom it has destroyed must
'fand shall be preserved throughout the
" Union !" After these demonstrations of
Democratic impudence and mendacity
nothing ought to surprise anyone. 1t has
also pretended to give in its adhesion to
the Constitutional Amendments. 1t has
done this in face of the notorious fact
that its Southern allies have already in.
troduced bill to change the Constitution
of the Supreme Court for the express pur-
pose of multiplying those amendments. The
truth is that it has trampied upon every
principle it has professed; repudiated
every doctrine it has avowed been all
things to all men; and only retained con-
sistency in its hungering after the spoils.
James Russell Lowell in the Bglow
Papers has drawn a picture of the modern
Democratic politician which might be we'll
taken as the Characterization Of the party
tV-ua9' lAa9 dSiudgo5ue, ever Teduy TO
forego any principles he has professed if
he sees his advantage in recreancy, is the
very type and model of the men who are
making Hancock's fight. Nor is Hancock
enc whit better than his managers. He
has proved himself to be as INSCRIPTIONS /
demagogue as any of them. He has
fastened to disown the traditional beliefs
of his party. He has accepted the infamy
of the solid South, and has added his
gratuItous hypocrisy to the cant of the
Cincinnati platform. in speaking of the
freedom of the ballot. There is no honesty I
nor principle left in the Democratic party, {
and the proofs of this are so abundant that
self-respecting men ought to come out
from so demoralized and degraded an or. /
ganization. The Democracy is about to
shoot Niagara. It's doom is written on its
face. Having abandoned honor and truth, !,
~ Z