The Portland daily press., 1880-07-26
A Northern Democrats Views.

The latest lifelong Democrat who has come
out for Garfield and Arthur is the Hon. Philo
S. Orton of Wisconsin, one of the foremost
citizens OF the state, and frequent Democrat
ic candidate. He has taken his present step
solely because he believes the success of the
Democratic party, controlled as it is at pres
ent, would be a serious injury to the nation
The following extracts from his letter deserve
the consideration of thoughtful citizens of both
parties;
Whatever the Democratic party might have
been in the past, it is essentially and absolute
ly the party of the south to-day. OF the 1856
electoral votes required to elect a President
this fall, the Democratic party count the 1873
vote from solid south, made up of the states
which seeded, or wanted to secede and dared
not, solid in advance for its candidate. The
other forty-seven votes they hope to get in the
north. Thirty-five of them they confidently
expect from the city of New York, for the
State of New York outside the city is as strong
ly Republican as Wisconsin. The remaining
twelve votes they hope to receive from some of
the doubtful northern States. 1t is said the
Democratic candidates are northern men, but
is 1t not true that the sonth was compelled to
nominate northern men in order to give an as
surance of success at the election? 1t
matters not who the President is if he is con-
trolled by the south. The record of the Demo-
cratic party in Congress for the last four wears
has justly excited lthe suspicious of northern
men. The promises to the people made in the
Democratic platform of 1876, of civil service
and revenue reforms, and upon which the peo-
pie acted in giving the party control in Con-
gress, are entirely unfulflled. Civil service
reform has gone no further than to unreasona-
bly, restrict appropriations, by which the eff
cheney OF the service in some branches has been
greatly impa ired, and large appropriations to
cover deficiencies have been made necessary
while millions have been thrown away for the
improvement of rivers and harbors all over the
nation. Revenue reform eliminated in the
selection of Mr.. Randall as Speaker of the
House, protectionist of the most determined
sort, by whom the House was so organized that
no measure for revenue reforms would be re-
ported from the committee to which it was ne
cessarily referred. While great part of the
time of Congress has been occupied in the dis
cusSion of measures unsought and unasked by
the north, and of interest only to the south
such, for instance. as amnesty to Mr.. Davis the
repeal OF the test oath, and the repeal of the
election supervisor law-which were urged
with a zeal worthy better cause, their forced
approval by the President being attempted by
tacklng them to appropriation bills. AT least
one OF these measures was urged through Con-
gress upon the old ante-bellum idea of State
rights, denying to Congress the power to exer-
else any control of elections even when Mem
bers of Congress and President were to be
elected. jeff Davis said but short time ago
that the principles of the confederacy were
.oeOAhNt UOSduoC llSut. DCyOuu uouUt ILLS Is
the opinion of the great mass of the white
population OF the south. They failed on the
battle field to maintain these principles, and
now seek the same object, substantially. by
political manipulations through the Democrat
ic party. This practical question then pre-
sents itself to every honest voter in the north
Is it wise or just, and ought the American peo-
pie to place the republic in the control of this
party of the south? Will the national credit
be safe in its hands? Will the national treasu-
ry be safe in its hands? Or will not rather its
doors be thrown open to satisfy the greed of
thousands of southern claimants whose loyalty
can be easily established to the satisfaction of
the southern party? Will the principle that
the republic is nation be honestly respected
and acquiesced in by people who individual
ly believe that it is lie, established by might
and not right? Is the right of all classes of
citizens at the south to vote respected SO that
their elections can be considered fair and in
telligent expression of public sentiment? or are
snch results simply dictated by class, desper-
ate for political power? Win the north be
true to the noble history it has made, now to
pass the government over to the control of the
very men who fought to destroy it? Will this
be Just to the memory of those slain in its de-
Tense? To ask the north to yield to the
south any of the substantial results of the war
is asking too much This would be an outrage
upon the patriotism which secured these re-
suits. 1t would be an evidence of weakness
and q virtual admission that the north and not
the south were in the wrong in that great
struggle which am not disposed to admit.
A Matter of Short Cake.