New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-05-19

| And the way he answered it was not by denial,
but by an intimation that the party's record
was at any rate not 30 bad as that OF the Re-
publcans Whatever sins the party may
shave committed he says, I" there is one conso-
"lation which every Democrat recalls with con-
"stant and abiding satisfaction. That is That
there is one political degradation to which the
Democratic party has never yet sunk. she
Inever did go into league with the fag-ends OF
a Commonwealth politics, without regard TO
antecedents or history, gathering up the Con-
"federate and the Union elements, black spirits
sand gray, and making cOnglomeratlon Ike
Hecates hell-broth of tongue of dog and toe
- of frog and supplementing it with the dis
"honest regulators of honest debts, in order to
3gain ascendency in Federal Congress- She
"never, by an open alliance with Reputation,
"befOued the untarnished escutcheOn OF
"proud old Commonwealth upon which during
"a century had been traced the story OF Il
"NatOn's glory" The insinuation contained in
this extract plainly enough is that the Repub-
licans have gone into league with the fag-
lends of Commonwealth politics" and have
gathered up the Confederate and Union ele-
ments, etc, etc. And it requires no unusual
skill in reading between lines to detect that
Virginia is the Commonwealth referred to.
The mistake in Mr.. Blackburn's statement
about his party is that it is a matter OF history
the reverse of true. For If there is one po-
litcal degradation in which it has sunk
deeper than any Other-and it must be admitted
it has tried them al--it is precisely the one de-
scribed There are no |" fag-ends OF politics
in Virginia or any other Commonwealth that
it has not sought to ago into league with"
They have leagued with Changers, Green
hackers, Labor RefOrmers, Anti Mon0pohSts,
Socialists, Communists, and in North Carolina
even with PrOhibitionists. No political :" fag-
end was ever organized for forty eight hours
without beng solicited for an alliance, either
secret or open, with the Democracy. AS tor
supplementing their combination with dis
honest regulators CT honest debts" why, there
has not been a scheme of reputation for forty
years, from the Mississippi swindle down to the
recent clamor for initiation and against resump-
ton, that the party has not either given birth
| to or hurried to nurse. The very things Mr..
| Blackburn says Democrats take consolation in
not having done are The things the party has
been actively and conspicuously doing for
great many years. The last boast of the gen.
tleman from Kentucky is that the party never
| befouled the untarnished escutcheOn Of a
"proud old Commonwealth upon which during
"a century had been traced the story of
Nations glory" Oh it didn'tP How about
the period between 1861 and 1865 7 Who
was tracing the story of Nations glory on the
proud old Commonwealth untarnished
escutcheon during that time?
| After Backburn's performance we are pre-
pared to have Colonel IngersOll come
out and console himself with the reflection that
there is one degradation to which he has never
sunk, and that is that he has never spoken
lightly of the Christian religion.