Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-11-24
Mafrhnan d gunrnaL.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER "a, 1880.
What Killed the Democratic Party.


sons that have killed the Democratic party
and will render it forever impossible to re-
sumo the control of this government: 1.-THE
recent presidential election has shown there
is an invincible reason why the Democratic
party can never win national victory. 1t
is that the youth of this republic is not
Democratic. The sons of Democratic faith
ers have grown up Republicans. So long
as slavery and the war linger within the
memory of Americans, the youth Of the re-
public will continue to grow up Republi-
cans; and slavery and the war will be re-
membered as long as the public school sys-
tenn exists. The public schools have slain
the Democratic party with textbooks.
at is vain for statesmen to declare that
there were as many Democrats as Republi-
cans in the Union army. 1t is vain to
affirm that the war for the preservation of
the Union could not have been carried to a
successful close without the assistance Of
the Democratic party. 1t is idle for philan-
thropy to suggest that the attitude of that
party toward the war in the beginning was
humane one, that it was inspired by a
higher and better wish that the cause of the
conflict should be peaceably removed, and
the spilling of brothers blood by brothers
hands avoided. The Democratic party has
been ideally identified with slavery and
slaveholding. The Republican party has
been ideally identified with emancipation
and the war. Therefore is the youth of the
country incapable of being Democratic.
Therefore the Democratic party can never
win a national victory. Its old men are dy-
ing away. The boys who catch the ballots
from their stiffened hands are Republicans.
. This fact cannot be denied It will do no
good to quarrel with it. All other causes
which have operated to diminish the num-
Der of Democrats and increase the number
of Republicans are Insignificant beside this
one tremendous and invincible fact. The
curse Of slavery has poisoned the blood and
rotted the bone of the Democratic party.
The malediction of the war has palsied its
brain.
"The young wife who held the babe up
to kiss the father as he hurried to the tap of
his departing regiment has not sucked a
Democrat. The weary foot of the gray
grandmother who watched the children
while the wife was busy has not rocked the
cradle of Democrats The chair that the
soldier-father never came back to fill has
not been climbed upon by Democrats. The
old blue coat that his comrades carried back
was cut up for little jackets, but no one en-
closed the heart of Democrat. The rat
tied musket that fell from him with his last
shot became the thoughtless toy of his boys !;
but not a hand that played with it was the
hand of a Democrat. The babe he kissed
crowed and crowed for his return and its
unwilling and unanswered noises were not
from the throat of Democrat. The tear
soiled camp-letters which the mother read
aloud in the long, bitter evenings while the
boys clustered at her knees, did not fall
upon Democratic ears. The girls sobs,
blending with their mothers weeping, did
not make Democrats of their brothers. Per-
haps the father had been Democrat all his
life
"The children 60 to school. There is not
Democrat on its benches. The first reader
contains portrait of Abraham Lincoln
that kind and sturdy face never made
Democrat. In the pranks of the playground
the name silences the frolicsome and makes
the jolliest grave. That name never made
Democrat. In the pictures that light up
the geography are the firing on Fort Sumter
and the death of Ellsworth. Those pictures
make no Democrats. The first page Of the
history contains a representation of Lee at
Appomattox. No boy gazes on that and
ever after avows himself Democrat. In
the higher grades the same subtle and unre-
sisted influence is at work. The textbooks
contain extracts from patriots speeches
during the war. Those speeches make no
Democrats. The great battles are briefly
described; the narrative had no Democratic
listeners. The strain of martial music runs
through the readers, and that music makes
no Democrats. Sketches Of the great gen.
erals are given their brave deeds arouse the
enthusiasm Of the lads, but there is no Dem
ocrat among them. The horrors and suffer.
ings of the slaves are told the maddened
blood that mounts the boys cheeks is not
Democratic blood. The curse of slavery
has pursued the Democratic party, and has
bounded it to its DEATH Therefore, let il
die; and no lip will be found to say a prayer
over the grass on its grave.
"The late defeat need not be attributed
to any other cause. Other causes were al
workout they were only incidental. The
tariff was one. Sectionalism was second
Let well enough alone was third. Tn,