The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1880-01-15
A Democratic Paper On the Democratic
iH. Party. s.a.f

For forty years-ever since the clos
of Mr.. Folks administration-the his
tory of the Democratic party has beel
q history of pig-headed combat agains
the inevitable. The annexation o
Texas gave q new impetus to agitation
upon the slavery question, both at tn,
South and at the North, and the ten
dency of public opinion to divide on tn,
geographical line between the free anl
the slave sections became strong anC
persistent. The predominant Southern
idea was to extend the area of slavery
the predominant Northern idea to ex
tend the area of freedom. Influenced
by these conflicting ideas, parties be
| gan to assume the sectional character
the South Uersus the North. Under the
diaphanous pretense of regarding slav'
| cry as State institution, not to be
brought into National politics, North
efn politicians styling themselves Dem
ocrats espoused the Southern idea, and
that party, at the North, simultaneous
ly began to grow "small by degree.
and beautifully less" Nevertheless,
such was their political stupidity, they
could not see the pit of destruction to
which. as party, they were Fastening.
They persisted in giving to their organ
ization the character of . pro-slavery
propaganda, and in more sharply de-
fining, year by year, the irrepressible
conflict between Northern civilization
and Southern barbarian. This was the
real issue in every Presidential contest
from Polk to Buchanan. The crisis
that had so long been approaching was
est of slavery, of the Missouri compro-
mi ho Evof In q
gigantic political blunders, of which the
latest is the incomparably stupid blum
der in Maine. .I
These grand blunders may be pre-
sented numerically, in their his toric or
der. as follows: .-..-
Blunder 1. Repeal of the Missouri
compromise. ... - t
Blunder 2. Attempt of the Buchanan
administration to establish slavery in
Kansas.
Blunder 8. Rebellion of the Southern
half of the party.
thy by the Northern rump with their
Southern confreres. ..r
Blunder 5. Opposition by the North
ern rump to the emancipation policy.
Blunder 6. Hostility to the war poll
cy manifested in the peace programme
Of 1854. D..
Blunder z. Re-embrace by the North
ern rump of their Southern confreres
after the war. .-
Blunder 8. Opposition to the politi-
cal enfranchisement of negroes.
Blunder 9. Opposition to the war
amendments of the Constitution.
Blunder 10. Opposition to the can
diAaou nf Gro uf for Prosidanf
Blunder IL. Party solidi6cation of
the South on the old pretense of State
sovereignty and "white mans Govern
ment."
Blunder IL. Rejection by the solid
South party of Hayes conciliation pol
ICY -.
= Blunder IS. Attempt to reopen the
Presidency squabble of 1876 by the
Potter inquisition.
Blunder IA. Southern war-claims raid
ON the National Treasury.
Blunder Is. Espousal of the green
back fiat money programme OF National
fraud.
Blunder 16. The reactionary pro-
gramme to " wipe OUT the National
election laws and other legislation Of
the war. .... ...... 5-
Blunder IL. The extra session to
carry forth that reactionary pro-
gramme.
Blunder 1S. Ratification and fulfill
ment of executive usurpations in Louis
lana and Florida, and attempt to COM
init like usurpation in Oregon. ir-fR
Blunder 19. Preparation and defense
of like executive usurpation in Maine.
This is far from being complete list
= L.
last twenty-five years. To give a full
plete history of the course of the party
during that period.
The greatest blunder of all was not
the extra session, nor the rebellion of
the Southern half of the party in 1861. |
It was the attempt of the party to out
live the rebellion. By its laundering
course from 1848 to 1860, it had become |
an organization for the single purpose
Of protecting and promoting the South
ern slave-holding interest. 1t was es-
a'pro- slavery party, controlled
and directed in all its policies by South
ern slave-owners. Its conventional |
leaders affirmed and reaffimed the pes
.ilent State-sovereignty doctrine of JEFF |
Ierson and Calhoun as the fundamental |
.enet of their party creed, because that |
doctrine was seen to be essential to the |
of slavery. So of every doc
,rine upon which the party laid great |
emphasis in the Presidency campaigns |
rom 1848 to 1860, it was the slavery in
;erest expected to be served by their |
application. The first gun of the re-
,ellion was the death-knell of that in
crest, and ought to have been regarded
,y the Northern leaders as the signal
or the dissolution of the party whose
mission to defend that interest was
hereby ended. The death of slavery
vas the removal of the foundation on
which that party had existed since
he annexation of Texas. 1t was
he annihilation of its reason to be.
The continuance OF its organic and
lominal being by its office-seeking lead
RS was the most stupendous blunder in
III their laundering career. 1t was an
attempt to combat the inevitable with
,ut a rational motive or a single polit-
cal object which it was possible to
rain. 1t was the attempt of a political
,ody to survive after every spark of
political life had been knocked out of
t. 1t was the supreme act of party
tupidity. in comparison to which all
ubsequent acts of stupidity are
lwarfed. 1t was the one grand blum
Ter whose towering magnitude of blum
leripg overtops all antecedent and all
ubsequent blunders of the Bourbon
politicians. -d
Politically, that party is dead-has
,een dead ever since the destruction of
lavery destroyed the last reason for its
xistence. 1t exists only as a political
,ody without soul or principle of life,
whose organs 60 on performing their
lctions by mere force of habit, as the
limbs of q corpse are said to do upon
he application of a galvanic battery.
There is no conscious action; there is
'nly the mechanical contraction of
muscles in ways that the same muscles
when the thing had life.
What is done Is no more than q combs