Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1884-08-08


SAMUEL w. WILLIAMSON, of Bland.
CAMM PATTERSON, of Buckingham.
THE YOUNG MEN IN POLITICS.
Many thousands of young men through
out the country will, at the coming Presi-
Dental election, fix their political status
for many years to come. A first vote
greatly influences those that follow it..
Every four years in the last twenty. the
Democratic party has presented itself to
the young men of the country with plat
form of principles that appealed strongly
to the young, so strongly that every year
that party has approached nearer and near
er to the control of the government. AT the
last election its candidate, in popular
vote of nearly nine millions, only lacked
five thousand votes of majority. The
People of America every four years draw
yet closer to the Democratic party. 1t has
not always been because the candidate or
the platform was wholly to their liking,
but because the spirit that animates that
party is the spirit OF a free people. With
all its shortcomings, which in common
with every great political organization it
must have, the Democratic party has been
as true to the people as the needle to the
role. With few mlllionaires; with no
wealthy leaders, made such by traffic in
politics; with ranks made up from the
mass of the working people of the Union,
the Democratic party has never wavered
in asserting the utmost freedom within
the limits of the law. There are in its
following no privileged classes. no advo-
cates of centralized power, no aristocracy
of office-hoIding classes, and no ''best peo-
ple' to Jay down the law for the whole
people. Such party presents an open
road to all men and especially the young.
1t is the party of the truest courage eve
exhibited by any political organization in
modern times. At the end of the civil
war the Republican party was in the con-
troll of the government and was loud in
assuming for itself the salvation of the
Union. The long list of Democratic gen.
erals in the Union army, the thousands of
Democratic enlisted men in it's ranks
were ignored, and the Republicans set
about connecting, in the public mind, the
name Democrat with the term rebel. To
be ignored in the national government
and barred from the highest position down
~ -lI nc lowest, it was only needed to have
been a Democrat. With the Democrats
of the South still more repressive meas
ures were used, the bayonet not being the
only or the seYerest of them. It is fact
that at the N orth in the face of the pro-
scription and at the South in the face of
the bayonet and the provost martial, the
Democracy for twenty-three years have
steadily and unflinchingly forced their
way up to within a.handful of being ma
jorty of the American people. In no 9th
er country, under no circumstances so
adverse has any political party by the
courageous faith of its members in the doc
trines they held achieved such victory.
It is such party as the young, filled with
red blood and high hopes, picture TO
themselves as the true representative of
chivalry.
In victory as in adversely the Demo-
cratic party has proved itself an honest
guardian of the national interests. Of all
the investigations for which the Ameri-
can congress has become SO famous or in
famous since the civil war, none has
touched or even pointed to the Demo
cratic members thereof. Whether in the
majority or IN the minority, those who
acted for the Democracy in Congress have
been unstained. No Credit Mobilier net,
and no one of the many similar irvestiga-
lions has brushed the skirt of the honest
Democracy. Composed of the great mass
of the laboring masses of the people. the
motto of these masses has been carried
out by the representatives they elected;
that wealth to be come by honestly must
come by toll. No extravaganza in govern
ment has been traced to Democratic legis-
lation, but the end of every session has
showed a better record in economy than
the Republican congress that preceded it.
1t is an unusual sight which the Republi-
can administrations have exhibited for
twenty years past-those in control of and
responsible for the government. whose in
terest 1t would be to be honest and econo-
mical, have proved corrupt, extravagant.
and wasteful; while the party that, being
in the minority and not bearing the re-
sponsibility, had the least interest, except
so far as it was the representative of large
body of the people, has ever thrown its
weight in favor of honesty, economy, and
good government. In making his first
political alliance such party should lave
irresistible attractions for young man.
About two-thirds OF the American
U nion is in the possession of the Demo-
cratic party. 1t has made political con-
quest of this great territory simply by the
force of its principles. By its principles.
we mean those that are vital in defending
and conserving the Liberty of the people.
In defence of that liberty it has, in season
and out, been the bold, outspoken, tena-
cious opponent of Capitalization. 1t has
held, and enforced by resistance in the
halls of congress, that the liberties of
Americans depend upon closely watching
the efforts made to extend the power of
the national government over the citizen.
In the meantime it has defeated force
laws and every law emanating from the
monarchical and unrepublican spirit that
has found such deep and dangerous root
in the Republican party. No man who
has studied the history of both parties
thoroughly, can doubt that the future
freedom OF the American people as citi-
zens under republican form of govern
ment is held in the hand of the Democra-
o.x Mo runo nf IL a ru La un M loniclat i'm OF