The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1882-03-15
Disbandment Of Parties.

in the State of North Carolina, and at
that time Mr.. Thomas l.. Clingman was
one of its leading members and a Rep
resentative in Congress. When thirty
years ago the Wing party went to
pieces, MIR. Clingman became Demo-
crat, and when the war broke out he
was Senator of the United States.
Mr. Clingman has not been a favor
lite among the Southern Democracy
since the war; in fact, he has been
superseded by the Rebel Brigadiers
who have come to the front since that
time, and he has been somewhat soured
by the neglect. The probability of his
becoming a leader in the revolt against
Bourbonism having been commented
on, he has published q letter, after the,
manner of the Southern statesmen of
fifty years ago, and. while denying that
he proposes a revolt sharply criticises
all parties. Mr.. Cingman thinks both
parties need reformation; that many of
their practices are bad, and thinks sub
stantially that if the Republican party
would disband. then politics MIGHT be
generally improved. His opinion Is
that the continued existence OF the Re-
publican party, while it demoraliZes the
Democratic party, stands also in the
way of any general reform of American
politics. ~
7, This venerable statesman of an old
school seems to overlook the fact that
parties can only maintain their exist
ence. by the fact of opposition. So long
as the Whig party maintained vigor-
Gus opposition the Democratic party re-
manned intact; so soon as the Wing
party laid down its life the disintegra-
ton of the, Democratic party began. In
1852 the Democratic party was in pos
session of all the States in the North
and South save four. two of these
being at'the North. Four years later
it was in a minority in all the Northern
States, though, owing to the want of
unity of the opposing elements, it was
able to carry one or two of them in
1856. The Democratic party has come
down from that time to the present day
in a minority. 1t has come down with
an odium that is ineffaceable and under
stigma which it cannot escape. 1t has
during that time abandoned every prin-
ciple and policy which illustrated and
adorned its previous history, and,
though reeking with the blood of a civil
war to destroy the Union, it has clung
with wanton disregard of reason to the
incoherent, abortive and suicidal theory
that this, instead of being q National
Union, is a mere temporary agency ap-
pointed by and existing by the consent
of the several States, each separate and
independent and sovereign in its su-
premacy. To that skeleton of theory
the Democratic party has clung down
TO the last moment of its formulated
declaration of principle. All other
things of q practicable, business-like
character and of deep concern to the
material welfare of the country have
been abandoned. This theory, which
fitly represents the CHASTITY skeleton of
secession. disunion and civil war, was
the demandsof the Southern States, and
to this the Northern Democrats as
sented, for Southern votes, knowing
that not exceeding one man out of
fifty thousand Northern Democrats had
the slightest respect for any such
theory of government or any such ex-
ploded and farcical principle. The
seeming support of State supremacy by
Northern Democrats has been false,
lying. hypocritical and shameless.
In the blind belief that these North
ern Democrats really accepted the
dogma of State sovereignty, the South
ern States have been religiously voting
! tine Democratic ticket since the close of
twenty years to pass in utter neglect of
the material interests of their States.
| They have seen the Northern States al
most doubling their population; have
seen the agricultural and manufacturing
population of the North quadruple
their productions, and quadruple their
wealth, and power, and prosperity.
They have seen the labor of the North
| employed and prosperous, while at the
| South that labor has been harassed by
| intimidation, maltreated by violence
and forced to. seek safety by expatria
ton. Instead of giving to the Southern
States the prosperous growth and in
creasing wealth of freemen laboring in
| peace and security, the Democratic
party of the South has been waiting for
a resurrection of State sovereignty and
the revival of an exclusive white su-
| premacy and the disfranchisement of
he'freedmen.
In the face of these facts. Mr.. Cling
man, conceding the decentralization and
impotency of the Northern Democracy,
thinks it advisable that the Republican
party should now disband and allow
the people to reorganize new parties
There is but one event that can result
| in the disorganization and disbandment
of the Republican party, and that is the
| disbandment of the Democratic party.
So long as the Democratic party, odor-
Gus with the crime of the Civil War,
stained with the blood of the people un-
necessarily shed on both sides, disgraced
by its abandonment of all its historical
principles, and cursed with its advocacy
of everything that is scandalous and dis
honest, and still talking of State su-
I fhn
| party stand as a National necessity.
When the Rebels in 1865 laid down their
arms, the National army put way their
| guns, took off their uniforms, and each
man went back to his fields, his work
shop, or his counting-room. So soon as
the Bourbon Democracy of North Caro-
lima and the Solid South generally sha |
abandon their organizations, and the
Democracy of the North follow suit, so
soon will the Republican party, relieved
of the hepressure of opposition, also under
go disintegration. and its members
make new unions for the support of
plain. direct and living issues on trade,
transportation, commerce, finance and
navigation. Then will arise new parties
not separated by geographical lines, but
seeking the advancement of National
policies, essential alike in every section
and State of the country.
So long as there is q Solid South, so
long must the Republican party remain
intact to protect and preserve the COM
mon liberties of the whole people. Vir-
ginia has overthrown the political incu-
bus which has so long overwhelmed her.
Let North Carolina and Georgia eman-
cipate themselves in like manner. Let
them cut loose from the phantom of
State sovereignty and organize party
to promote the material interests of
their people; let them educate their
people, even with the proceeds of the
tax on whisky; let them recognize as
the highest evidence of the honorable
utility of citizen the fact that he earns
what he consumes by the labor of his
hands, and he the least useful and de-
| sirable who Is content to live as a pau