Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1883-07-26
Democratic Miscalculation.

Harper Weekly.
A great maRy Democrats are evidently
of opinion that if seriOus miscon luct can
be proved against Republicans, all Re-
publicanS who desire honest adminiStra-
tion and progressive legislation will at
once Join the Democratic party. This
| is an error akin to that of those who
hold that if a party Convention can be
induced TO proclaim certain policy in
| its platform, every voter who favors
that policy will Immediately support
that party without regard to the natu-
raj history of platforms, or TO the char
acter and conduct of the party, CT to the
probabilities of the situation. The sole
defect of this view is that in both cases
it disregards entirely the nature of par
ties and of politics. Those who hold
the view are very apt TO remark with
emphasis that politics is most practical
business in the world, forgetting that
that undoubted truth makes their rea-
soning unsound. 1t is because politics
is very practical business that voter
does not Immediately leave his party
when another makes a plausible pro-
fession, or when his felpw-partisans
are taken in fault. The government of
the country is carried on by the conve-
nlent agency of parties. Theoretically
they represent certain general princi-
Piles of administration, and the policy
which natHally proceeds from them.
Actually they do something more. By
association and common organized ac
tion they acquire living interest to
their members. touching their pride,
| their emulation, their personal feeling,
until party comes to exist almost for
itself, and To he sustained by u po Serful
esprit de cDI'pS. Unconsciously il thus
changes its nature, and is judged not by
its distinctive declarations, nor as an
agency for special ends. but as a body
whose claims to support rest not upon
certain abstract principles, hut upon the
general character of its membership, and
the general tendency of its conduct as
proven by experience.
A man, therefore, who las long or al
ways acted with party because of his
confidence in its practical patriotism
and wisdom abandouS it, Lot when al
other party declares its own virtue, but
only when, upon a deliberate survey of
all the circumstances, he decides either
that he can no longer trust his own par
ty to secure the objects which he has at
heart, or that some other party will
more certainly secure them. To pro-
duce this conviction something more is
necessary than to point out offeEses that
have been committed in the name of his
party, and to insist that the pledges of
better conduct from the opposing party
must be accepted as valid. Something
more is necessary, also, than to argue
that there is but simple alternative, that
a party responsible for offenses must
be abandoned, and that he only possible
practical course is to vote with the op-
position. There are obviously two pre-
liminary questions which must be salts
factorily answered. Do the facts show
that the offending party is a hopeless
offender, and that the accusing party
will do better? Until the voter is per-
suaded that his party is hopeless as an
agency of honest government, he will
naturally sustain its national domi-
nance, however sharply he may criticise
certain actions, and however resolutely
he may refuse to support certain local
nominations. And even when he de-
spairs of his own party, although he
may throw away his vote, he will GER
tainly not give it to party which has
been at the same time equally on trial
with his own, and which has equally
failed.
This is the fallacy of the Democratic
argument in the present juncture. Du-
ring the period of Republican executive
supremacy the Democ.atic party has
had majority in the House of Repre-
sentatives, if not in the Senate, and I'M
disputed control of many great States
and cities. Its appeal to the country,
therefore, is simply this: "We waive
our hideous pro-slavery record before
the war, the betrayal of trust by the
last Democratic Administration, and
our venomous Copperhead attitude du-
ring the war; and we say that the Dem
ocratic attempt to battle the peaceful
Presidential decision of 1877, our en-
deavor to starve and paralyze the gov
ernment during the extra session, cur
financial charlantry, and our general
conduct in the city Of New York, and
wherever we can control, ought to with
draw its confidence frem the Republican
party, and give i. u.s." present this is
the only Democratic cry for1SS4,and it is
certainly worthy of the career of the
party for the last generation.