The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-11-15
THE PROPOSED "oHANeE" AND PARTIES.

of another; more than the exchange of officials,
the discharge Of old and the installation OF
new and untried public servants. For half a
century-in fact, from its inception-the
Democratic party has held views in open hos
tility to those of the Republican party and its
forerunner. The tenets of Democracy have
been adhered to with a tenacity peculiar 10
bulldog instincts and in brutal defiance of hui
mainly and its needs. If the Democratic par
ty has ever given up any of its barbarisms it
has been only because it has been beaten like
adog is beaten to make it relinquish its grip
It hung to the Democratic doctrine of human
slavery as a divine institution, and dragged
the Nation into civil war in defense of it,
For four years it shot and slaughtered the 10y
al people of this Republic in order that slav-
cry might be perpetuated and extended. AS
General Sherman has shown, the object Of re-
bellion was not so much secession as of the
extension of slavery to all parts of the Union,
and for this they fought to the awful ex-
tremity of civil war, the burden entailed by
which still rests upon the people. Such was
the price paid to tear from Democracy one Of
its ftime-honored principles"
Another of its principles, still adhered to
and boldly proclaimed by it, is the doctrine Of
States rights, not to the degree only of main
tanning the States autonomy under the fed
eral Union, but to the extent of placing the
individual State and its authority above that
of the general government. Witness in the
solid South the fragrant defiance of national
authority in national elections. Is there a
man of years anywhere but knows that popu-
lar elections are a farce in the South; but
knows that the majority has no adequate voice
in North and South Carolina, in Alabama and
louisiana What have the people who favor
free elections to show for the thirty-seven
electoral votes and corresponding representa-
tives in Congress apportioned the solid South
Oh account of the colored voter Is there an
individual simple enough in all the land,
North or South, who does not know that the
majority of voters in the States named are
opposed to Democracy and its narrow, dan
who does not know that in a fair election
each of them would return Repub-
lican majorities and place the election
of the national Republican nominees beyond
doubt Despite this palpable fact, the Repub-
lican party, in the interest of good feeling
and in the hope that time would soon induce
a better order of things after the bitterness
of war had subsidized, has submitted to this
great injustice, relying upon the loyal and
liberal North to stand by it until the South,
in the school of better experience should
learn wisdom and come to acknowledge fell
lowship with the generous North. But in
this, as in all other things, the Democratic
party has been doggedly slow and %sullen, and
declined to learn the lesson set before it.
With no thought of forcibly insisting upon
it's rights in this question, the Republican
party has been content to turn its appeals to
the North to stand by it until time should re-
deem the South from the blindness of its
prejudice and folly.
This is the kind Of party that has so long
and so persistently demanded the 'change"
proposed. 1t could not be a simple change
of administration-it must be a revo-
luton in the polity of government. The two
great parties to the struggle touch at nopoints
in common. The Republican party, opposed
to the Democratic from 1860 to 1866, is
no less opposed to it in all essential points to-
day. The Democratic party championed
slavery; the Republican party abhorred it. The
Democratic party went into rebellion in its
behalf; the Republican party. promptly as
sumed the fearful responsibility of crushing
that rebellion. The Democratic party has
ever been the champion of free trade, a tariff
for revenue only; the Republican has made
an open and aggressive fight for protection to
American industries, North and South. That
portion of the Democratic party represented
by the solid South, and casting 153 votes in
the electoral college, still believes that the
South was right in going into rebellion, and
so believing can see no reason why confederate
soldiers should not be pensioned in common
with those who sacrificed so much that the
country might live. Influenced by this senti-
ment, held by such a great proportion of the
party, it has not dared pronounce against it
in any of its platforms since 1868. The per-
sistent coincidence in this matter means some
thing. The same sentiment permeates the
Southern wing or body of the Demo
cratic party relative to the South