Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-06-25
TIE DEMOCRATIC NoMINArIoNs.

prlSeu InaD democrats ShOulu TtjoiCe over
them, for it is long time since they have
had so respectable ticket. General Han
cock is soldier Of distinction, whose SER
| vices in the cause Of the Union haveearned
him the esteem and respect of all patriotic
men. But when that has been said of him |
all has been said. He has no political
record. He cannot be said to be in any
true sense representative Democrat. And
therefore his nomination, while affording a
guarantee for less personal campaign than
usual, viii cause the record of his party to
be the main issue in the canvass The
country cannot know anything of his ca
pacity for civil administration, but it does
know that candidate Of this kind must
in the end be controlled by the ele-
ments which selected him. 1t is not the
first time that the Democracy has sought
to conceal its own bad record and to
divert attention from its dangerous
doctrines, by nominating a man whose
most conspicuous services had been per-
formed in combating it. tits not the first
time that the Democracy has sought to
steal into popular favor by Disgusting itself
in the garments of patriotism. When it
put poor Horace Greeley at the head of its
ticket it thought that it had done Won
derfully wise and adroit thing. 1t believed
that it could clothe itself with his loyalty,
credit itself with his single-minded public
| spirit, and under cover of his virtues creep
into place and power. But these unnatural
alliances never succeed, for they never
deceive the people. The Democratic Party
has not changed its nature nor purged f!
itself of its evil record, through the nomi-
nation of General Hancock. 1t was on
the cards that the Cincinnati Convention
might nominate Tilden again, and had |
it done so the support given to
him would have been precisely the same
as that now claimed for Hancock. Crafty |
politicians may think that they have offset
the Chicago nomination by putting up a |
Union soldier, but it is not even admissible |
that in such canvass General Hancock is |
as eligible as General Garfield, for the lat
ter has record of craftsmanship to which
no parallel exists on the other side. But |
the real distinction between the candidates,
and the one which will determine the
preferences OF all thinking men, is the fact
that behind Hancock is the Democracy,
and behind Garfield the Republican party.
Against General Hancock personally we
have nothing to say. But against General
Hancock as the nominee of the Democratic
party, we shall endeavor to show that
there are insuperable objections
His military record may be taken for
granted. 1t is part of the glory of the Re-
publican party, in fact and as such must
not be furnished. But it will puzzle the
Democratic press to show how their candi-
date was vindicating Democratic principles
when beating back the rebel hosts at Ante
tam and Gettysburg, or what relation his
exploits in the service of the Union have
with the Solid South of to-day. The 10y
atty OF the officer who superintendent the
execution OF the assassins Of Abraham Lin
coin cannot be Questioned but where is the
sympathetic chord that binds him to the
party whose journals have never ceased to
denounce the hanging of Mrs. Surratt
He did his duty to his country, but it does
not follow thai the party which ndminates
him has done its duty. General Hancock's
brilliant reputation, in short, cannot be
utilized to screen the Democracy. The
latter must be judged on its merits, as it
was when Greeley was its candidate,
and while we are unfeignedly glad
that no such personal ridicule as
the hapless founder of the Tribune
was pclted WITH is likely TO be-
fall General Hancock, the scrutiny
which his party will be subjected to will
be all the more severe and searching.
The idea that he can carry any State now
counted as Republican, is assuredly de-
fusion. No voter can be deceived into
imagining that this is merely question
as to the respective eligibility of two in
dividuals On the contrary, the fact that
both the candidates are upright, honorable
and distinguished men, must compel all
citizens to look from them TO the princi-
pies they stand for, and the parties that
have put them forward. And the instant
this is done it will be seen how incongru-
Gus and unnatural is the present Demo
cratic conjunction. A Solid South repre-
scented by Union soldier is of itself po-
itical paradox OF the most hopeless kind.
A candidate whose sole distinction is that
ne fought to preserve the Union, and
a party whose main reliance is upon
the Acknowledgement OF Southern States
by men who, like Jefferson Davis, still
affirm the survival of the Confederacy,
and still aim at territorial disruption.
S1ch are among the singularites and in
consisteucies OF the Democratic situation,
and the country will not fail 70 appreciate
them at their full value The hands may
be the hands of Esau, but the voice is the
voice of Jacob. The old Democratic feat
ures loom through many DISCUSSES, and
this last desperate bid for popularity will
be no more successful than those which
have preceded it. When the Democratic
party shows its faith by its works when
it abandons force and fraud at the South
when its Southern allies renounce all de-
signs against national unity when the
party believes in and practices loyalty and
integrity; it will be time enough to accept
its plausible professions, and to admit that
it can regenerate itself by putting Union
soldier at the head of its ticket
THE DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM.
Platforms do not count for much nova
days, for the people have seen too many of
them in succession trauDled unon afIor |