Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1880-09-23
Sectionalism.
IN. Y. Times.l

IN scNtTh recent lftmOCratlC conventions
the chairmen have ventured to congratulate
the members that they belonged TO a party
which was organized in every State in the
Union. We do not believe that in most
cases the authors Of this remarkable senti-
ment really know what is the significance Of
what they appear 20 think is something to
be very proud Of. Either they are too Young
to remember. or else they do not think that
their hearers will remember when it was
that boasts Of this kind originated in the
Democratic party. But there are men who
do remember il with shame and Indignation
1t was during that dark and iisgraceful pc
Rod before the war when the Democratic
party was the party Of slavery. when its
leaders in the North bowed in mean submis-
sion TO the dictates Of Davis and BENJAMIN
and Slidell; when the terrible crime and
evil Of slavery found no Democrat bold
enough or homes: enough to raise his voice
against IT, Then it vas, when no man who
did not belong to this ignoblc party could
live IN the slaye-holding States, when the
pistol and the bowie knife we're the simple
weapons Of Democratic supremacy in the
South. that the Democratic speakers and
writers IN the North giorsing in their shame,
yenturcd TO boast that theirs only was the
party oi the mon. because in vide section
Of the mon theirs was the only one allowed
to exist. Al that time the crack OF the SLAVE
drivers whIp vas heard in every Democratic
convention. \ dcspoiism absolute a.
that of Russia, and infinitely more contempt
iblc reigned everywhere throughout the
South and IN the South and ever, where in
the North that the Democratic party was
found IN numbers sufficient 70 Yield il
footing. Free speech and free press
we're as unknown south of Mason and Dix
ou's line IN the heart Of Persia, and in
our Northern cities they existed only where
the Democratic party was not strong enough
to put them down. They are vet Young
ren who can remember when the man or
woman who dared in public to say slavery
was wrong and should ~ abolished was ex-
posed to Insult and outrage in the CITY Of
New York. and in many other cities 10 the
peril Of life. II there were any manlincss
leit in the Democratic leaders; If they had
learned never 80 poorly The lesson of our
great = al II they had any real love for the
principles Of equity and justice which under
lie our system Of government. they would
blush to recall the time when their party
was the abIest tool Of miserable, vulgar
and disgusting tyranny.
They would see, also. tina, their boast Of
to-day is identical IN meaning, in spirit and
in the circumstances which give rise TO il
with that which the Democrats made twenty
or thirty wears ago. Now a. then. there are
States in which none but Democrats can
form an active political organization. Now
as then. j, is the white Democrats Of the
South. bent on establishing their absolute
mastery over the communities in which they
live, who suppress all opposition. Now, as
then, the rights OF manhood and the more
specific rights recognized by the Constitu-
ton are violated without scruple by fac
ton OF passionate men, for the most part
ignorant and unframed in the practice Of the
virtues Of civil life But the crime against
freedom which is involved in this state OF
things TO-DAY Is even more striking and less
excusable than il was quarter of a century
since. Then the Southern Democrats were
living with slavery. They had inherited II
and had not founded it, They saw no way
Of getting rid Of II had they wished to do so,
and knew not how to exist without it. 1t
Was the basis OF Southern society. The de
fence of il became the shibboleth by which
the true friend of the South was recognized.
Free speech was morally impossible where
slavery existed, for the property in slaves
was property in sentlent beings with brains
and hearts, capable Of being aroused TO in
surrection, and of oyerthrowing not only the
fabric OF society of which they formed the
groundw ork but the home of every member
Of that society. A tyranny as severe, as un-
scrupulous, peryadlng, and as outrageous
slavery itself was a condition to the ex-
istence of the South as 1t then was.
But now slavery has been DESTROYED. The |
slaves are free, and in the main are perfectly
orderly, quiet and respectful of the rights of
others. No insurrectlon, nor anything re-
sembling one. is to be feared Yet the same
class which maintained a tyranny of the past
maintains a like tyranny now, though on !
smaller scale, and the same party in the |
North which boasted that it was allowed to |
exist in the South when existence was pur-
chased BY silence or subseryiency rs to slav-
cry, which makes like boast now when an
equally shameful price is TO be paid. And |
now, as then, with peculiar impudence and |
sophistry, the party which is suppressed in a |
certain section because it sustains the prin- |
ciples Of the Constitution is sneered at as |
sectional, while the party which tamely ae-
knowledges the gravest violation of those |
principles in that section arrogates to itself |
a national character. 1t is. perhaps, not TO |
be regretted that the old issue between this !
sort Of sectionalism and this kind of nation |
alsm, is again raised. 1t would have been |
better for the country if the costly lessons
of the war had been better learned, and |
there had been no possibility of such gross
peryersion of ideas. But since there is such |
a perversion actually displayed, the country |
will have another opportunity of deciding |
between the true and the false, and the more |
the issue is pressed by the Democrats the |
more sure and lasting the decision will be.
A story is going the rounds of the Eng