Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1880-01-16
A Democratic Paper on the Democratic
PARTY,

Texas gave new impetus TO agitation
upon the slavery question, both at the
South and at the North, and the ten
dency of public opinion to divide on the
geographical line between the free and
the slave sections became strong and
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
ern politicians styling themselves Dem
ocrats espoused the Southern idea, and
that party, at the North, simultaneous
ly began to grow "small by degrees
and beautifully less" Nevertheless,
such was their political stupidity, they
could not see the pit of destruction to
which, as a party, they were fastening.
They persisted in giving to their organ
ization the character of a pro-sIavery
propaganda, and in more sharply de-
tining, year by year, the irrepressible
conflict between Northern civilization
and Southern barbarism. This was the
real issue in every Presidential contest
from Polk to Buchanan. The crisis
that had so long been approaching was
precipitated by the repeal in the inter-
est of slavery, of the Missouri compro-
mise-the first in o continuous series of
gigantic political blunders, of which the
latest is the incomparably stupid blum
der in Maine.
These grand blunders may be pre-
sented numerically, in their historic or
der, as follows:
Blunder L. Repeal of the Missouri
compromise.
Blunder 2. Attempt of the Buchanan
administration to establish slavery in
Kansas.
Blunder 8. Rebellion of the Southern
half of the party.
Blunder 4. Manifestation of sympa-
thy by the Northern rump with their
Southern confreres.-
Blunder 8. Opposition by the North
ern rump to the emancipation policy.
Blunder 6. Hostility to the war poll
cy manifested in the peace programme
of 1864.
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 g. Opposition to the war
amendments OF the Constitution.
Blunder 10. Opposition to the can
didacy of Grant for President.
Blunder IL. Party solidifcation of
the South on the old pretense of State
sovereignty and "white mans Govern
ment."
Blunder H. Rejection by the solid
South party of Hayes Cancellation pol
icy.
Blunder 13. 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.
Blunder II. The extra session to
carry forth that reactionary pro-
gramme.
Blunder IS. Ratification and fulfill
ment of executive usurpations in Louis
lana and Florida, and attempt to COM
nit like usurpation in Oregon.
Blunder 10. Preparation and defense
of like executive usurpation in Maine.
This is far from being complete list
of Bourbon blunders committed in the
last twenty-five years. To give full
list would require volume, or COM
plete history of the course of the party
durin g that period.
The greatest blunder of all was not
the extra session, nor the rebellion OF
the Southern half of the party in 1861.
1t was the attempt of the party to out
live the rebellion. By its blundering
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.
sentially pro slavery party, controlled
ern slave owners. Its conventional
leaders affirmed and reaffimed the pes
tilent State-sovereignty doctrine of Jef
ferson and Calhoun as the fundamental
tenet of their party creed, because tha
doctrine was seen to be essential to the
perpetuity of slavery. So OF every doc
trine upon which the party laid grea
emphasis in the Presidency campaigns
from 1848 to 1860, it was the slavery in
terest expected to be served by theil
application. The first gun of the re
bellion was the death-knell of that in
terest, and ought to have been regarded
by the Northern leaders as the sigma
for the dissolution of the party who's,
mission to defend that interest wa
thereby ended. The death of slavery
was the removal of the foundation ol
which that party had existed sncI
the annexation of Texas. 1t wa
the annihilation of its reason to be
The continuance OF its organic an,
nominal being by its office-seeking lead
, ers was the most stupendous blunder il
all their laundering career. 1t was al
> attempt to combat the inevitable with
, out a rational motive or a single polit
! ical object which it was possible Il
! gain. 1t was the attempt of politica
, body to survive after every spark o
7 political life had been knocked out o
it. IT. was the supreme act of part,
! stupidity, in comparison to which al
! subsequent acts of stupidity ar
a dwarfed. 1t was the one grand blum
der whose towering magnitude of blum
= deriDg overtops all antecedent and al
!. subsequent blunders of the Bourbon
e politicians.
4 q Politically, that party is dead-ha
E been dead ever since the destruction O
slavery destroyed the last reason for it
: existence. 1t exists only as politica
body without soul or principle of life
: whose organs 60 on performing thei
4 actions by mere force of habit, as tn
limbs of a corpse are said to do upo
!, the application of a galvanic battery
!. There is no conscious action; there
: only the mechanical contraction c
: muscles in ways that the same muscle
r contracted when the thing had life
What is done is no more than a comb