Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1882-07-01
THE CONTINUITY or PARTIES.


The pOlity of all free governments
is determined by party, and parties
are kept alive by an instinct of par
ty allegiance. AS this instinct
therefore is so potent an agency in
actuating governments for good or
evil, it becomes an important ques-
ton how the identity of party is
to be recognized from year to year,
from one political contest TO an
other.
THE NAME,
For short intervals the name of a
party is sufficient for recognition.
Since the war, till quite recent Pc
Rod, there has been no difficulty in
distinguishing the Republican and
Democratic parties from one anOth-
er; it is true that greenback theo-
ries and readjusting and repudia-
ton have of late rendered the DEM
ocratic party less easy of recogni-
ton, and the Republicans are sOrely
perplexed as to their allegiance by
the conflicting claims of Stalwarts
and half-breeds; but, down to the
commencement of these perpleXing
complications, there has been no
difficulty in defining what is a DEM
Ocrat and what Republican. The
truth is, however, that both these
names have been used is senses by
no means identical, at different pc
RODS of our history.
The Republican of the days of
Hamilton and Jefferson was not
only diverse in his convictions from
the Republican of Seward and jeff.
Davis times, but Numerically OPP
pOsite in all his convictions. The
first Republicans were State-rights
men as opposed to Capitalization,
those of our own time are central
lists as opposed to State-rights but,
in regard to these two entirely sep
arate and distinct organizations,
there could be no confusion or per-
plexity of thought as the two were
not continuous. The coalition of
Mr.. Clay with Mr.. John Q. Adams,
in 1926, completely broke up both
the existing parties Federal and
Republican, and new organizations
were set on foot in which neither
of the old names were used-men
ceased to be Federals and Republic
cans and called themselves Wings
and Democrats. The name of Fed
erar was forever dropped in politics,
that of Republican was revived
thirty years afterwards in entirely
different and even opposite sense.
The term Democrat, on the con-
trary, has been continuous, and it
becomes the more important to as
certain with care how far it has
been used in the same sense ut diff
ferent times and in different parts
of the country. Not to speak of
different shades of meaning assign
ed to it before the war, it must be
admitted that ii came to have a
different meaning after that event
from what it had before it: before
the war both Wings and Democrats
were to be found in all sections of
the country and they were divided
by their opinions on questions OF
national import such as the tariff,
the national bank, public improve
ments, &C., a Democrat holding the
same opinion on these subjects in
all the States.
1t must be admitted that the DEM
ocratic party after the war was
something widely different from
what has been thus described. In
the North, it is true, it consists of
remnants which adhered to the
ante-bellum organization; in the
| South ii consisted of all who were
opposed to the oppressive measures
imposed upon the South by the Re
publican party under the name of
reconstruction, in short it embraced
the entire white population of the
South and SO brought together men
who had been diametrically OPP
posed to one another before the war;
for example, the present writer had
been Democrat while most of the
gentlemen with whom he has acted
since the war were wings in the old
time.
These elements were kept tOgeth-
er and consolidated by the common
interest in resisting the iniquities of
the carpet-bag plunderers, and ma
ny of the younger men of the party
know no other definition of DemOc-
racy than such rs has been in vogue
since the war, and that means re-
sistence to sectional opposition of
the South.
The name then, whether it be
Wing, Democrat or Republican, is
not sufficient to determine the iden-
tity of a party or to secure its CONT
nuity.
! CONVENTIONS.
But parties have always tried TO
secure continuity of action and
unity of purpose by means of peri
Odic meetings of their leading men
for conference, and hence our con-
ventions, State and National, and
these have been and may be used
as important influences for main
tanning the continuity of party.
This. however, can only be done by
adhering infiexihly to the princi-
piles on which they were first organ
lied. Without this there can be no