Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1883-10-25
Premature Burial.


\ change of one per cent. of the vote
cast at the late election from the Demo-
cratic to the Republican side would have
given the State to the Republicans in all
its branches; yet the Democrats upon this
result pronounce the Republican party
dead, and for week they have been con-
Quoting funeral exercises, and assuming
that there iS.nO longer contest between
the two parties. This result, too, is at
tributed to the brilliancy and purity of
the Democratic party; its achievements in
the past and its promise for the future.
Mr.. PendletOn in several of his funeral
addresses said the Democratic party
lives because it deserves to live. and the
Republican party is dead because it de-
served to die" but he viii find, and his
party Will find. that the Republican party
is very lively corpse.
1t pulled down the Demcratic majority
in this county, as compared with last year,
eight thousand votes, and if the rest of the
State had gained in proportion Foraker
would have been elected by thirty thou
sand. and had it not been for the liquor
agitation, that disarranged party lines, the
Democratic party would have been buried
under an avalanche of votes in Ohio.
But Mr. Pendleton took care not to un-
dertake to tell why the Democratic party
deserves to live. That would not be
pleasant ground for him to travel over.
There is hOllOwneSS about it that is
dangerous.
He has been with the Democratic party
during the whole of his political life. He
was with it in opposition to the war; he
was with it in opposition to the abolition
of slavery and the enfranchisement of the
freedmen: he was with it in uphOlding
and defending the shotgun policy of the
South: he was with it in its greenback
policy, which was only another name for
reputation; he was with it in demanding
the payment of National creditors in an
unredeemable currency; he was with it
in insisting upon the unconditional repeal
Of the law providing fOr the resumption
of specie payments; he was with it in Op-
position to the National banking system;
he was with it in the support of every
measure, from 1860 down, that was calcu-
lated to destroy the Union, uphold slavery
and debauch the National credit, and he
can not now point to a single measure
adopted or supported by the Democratic
party in the last twenty-three years that
his party to-day is not afraid to refer to.
Yet he says the Democratic party lives
because it deserves to live. He makes
this assertion, too, in the face of the fact
that his party elected man Governor of
Ohio who never was Democrat, and who
distinguished himself throughout the
most eventful years in the Nations life
by opposition to all measures that Mr..
PendletOn and his party supported
ry one of them; and yet it is claimed that
because Ohio has gone Democratic by
small majority under the pressure of To-
cal question that disarranged party lines,
Ohio has indorsed the Democratic party
and its record, and by ma ajority of a few
thousand pronounced it the only party fit
to hive, and that the Republican party
must die because it saved the Union, made
freedom national, gave the ballot to the
freedmen, re-eStabliShed the States in
their places, elevated the credit of the
Government from 12 to 3 per cent, gave
the country a banking system that has
stood the test of time and of panics, and
did all this and much more in spite of the
persistent opposition of the Democratic
party. and in doing this made an imper-
iShable record to which it refers with
pride.
The Republican party, too, has not been
afraid to move forward, and a progressive
party always has positive principles. The
Democratic party, on the other hand, has
no positive principle, except that which
relates to the spoils of office. 1t is an Op-
position party, barking at everything that
is done, and proposing nothing; pulling
down here and there, and everywhere,
and providing not one stone for the Su-
perstructure. Such party will not live,
because it does not deserve to live, and
the voters of Ohio, in 1884, will send it
back to its hole to mediate upon its pre-
mature burial of the Republican party,
which has proved itstlf the only party Ca
pable OF managing government that it
saved from destruction.
The Republicans will now proceed to
get ready for the National contest in 1884,
while the Democrats will wrestle with
those local questions about which they
have no settled policy and upon which
their party is divided. They are now in a
position that does not admit of throwing
stones. In the canvass that preceded the
election they denounced the Scott Law,
and virtually favored free trade in Ii
quOrs, softening This by talking about Ii
cense which is impossible. They now
have the Legislature, and can, of course.
repeal the Scott Law. and propose con-
stitutiOnal amendment allowing license.
VIII they do it? Wait and see, and see
also what Ohio, which is temporarily I'M
der cloud, will do in 1SS4.-Cin. Com.
Gazette.