The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1881-06-02
A FASHION SET BY A HARLOT.

pers that have labored through long
wears of toll and anxiety and ex-
pense in the advocacy of measures
and of men, doing good service in
avancing both. The judgment
reached seems to be, that the bene-
ficiaries of the party rarely give
official encouragement and aid to
these agencies which have served
them most, and that instead
the papers which have most
viHfied and abused the Party's
principles and its favOrites have
become the recipients of most
of the spoils. Andrew Jackson es-
tablished Democracy that gave life
and vigor to the government and
placed it high above the mean prac-
tees of to-day. He placed value on
adherence to principle, when he
taught that to the victors belong the
spoils. He held that the Democratic
party represented the life and prin-
ciple of free government; that
to be a Democrat meant de-
fense of the institutions hand
ed down by the fathers, sup
port of the work executed by
Washington. and adherence to the
formulated doctrines of Jefferson.
He adhered to men who ciung to the
pure and unadulterated principles
of republican government, and when
struggling and battling for these
and the agencies to represent them
that they deserved ana should have
the fruits ofvictory. Then the federal
government and state and local Dem
oeratic governments had powerful
representative in Democratic pa
pers. There was no corrupt deal
ings out of public patronage to the
press, but support was given upon
the principle that the laborer is
wo1t thy of. his hire, and that
it would be gross injustice
to deny support to the willing
advocate, giving it to wilful ma
ligners, who worship alone at the
shrine of mammon. This country
has passed through a long and dark
political period, in which the very
foundations of our governmental So
ciety have been violently shaken,
while the republic of old has well
nigh given way to the purposes of a
new party, that sought to wrest all
authority from the people, and TO give
all power to the few. For over
twenty years Democracy has been
unrepresented in the federal govern
ment, and during this time MEM
bers of the party in power have
grown enormously rich upon the
diversion ofpublic means from pub
lie purposes, while the honest prin-
ciples of n former day have been
repudiated in the interest of such
base corruption as ought TO make a
people hide their faces in shame
when the name of their country is
spoken. The reward for honest toll
in furtherance of principle, proposed
by Jackson, was improved upon, to
the extent that the victors should not
only have legitimate spOils, but that
there should be unbrideled license.
and that the public purse should be-
come the property of unscrupulous
men. whom q piratical age had set
afioat as buccaneers upon a
political sea. In adulation o.
concentrated power. in the attrac-
tiveness of private wealth as a re-
suit of public plumber, a spirit of i'll
dependence in politics and in
journalism has prevailed, as
the nearest approach to the
glittering pil@ of gold that
have created line of Monte Chris
tos. A wicked leader of fashion, in
Paris, a woman notoriously the most
deprav0d of her sex, once threw her
hat upon the floor and stamped upon
it. She at once conceived the idea
of wearing this same hat, crushed
and ill-shaped as it was, in her after
noon drive upon the Champs Elysees
and in the Bois, and next day not a
fashionable woman of Paris dared
appear upon its streets without a
hat just like this dilapidated one.
The harlot at Washington sets a
fashion, and, because she has wealth
at her disposal, obtains following
even among those who prefer to con-
denim her styles. The vast disburse-
ment of wealth from the capital has
led journals that were Democratic to
approach as near the glittering
shrine as is compatible with
home associations, and in the
transition they have become indie
pendent; in other words, they have
smashed their hats in, as best
they could, to suit the fancy
of the harlOt. This is the sort
of Independent journalism which
some of the papers insist is main
tanned by Democrats. Are they not
mistaken? Do they pretend to say
that trusted Democrats do not ap-
preciate the virtue there is in hon
est thought2 Do they insinuate
that Democratic officers fail to ap-
preclate the merit there is in con-
sistency, and that they lend them
selves to the fashions set by the
harlot? Surely not. Let none ac-
cuse them so, for certainly they
revere the name of jackson, and
despise the license that makes star
route frauds and Bradys and Dor
seys.
THE Chicago Times likens the
coming in of Malone to that of the
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