New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-04-04
SNULLA VESTIGIA RE1RORSUXp

This was what Robert TOOmbs, once DEM
Ocratio leader, telegraphed the other day to
William r. Morrison, now Democratic leader
in Democratic Congress. "Nula vestigia re-
trorsamr: no step backward. What wonderful
fitness of things Is there herei With what adj
niirable judgment was the vehicle of this sepul-
chral utterance chosenl The age In which Rob-
ert Toombs lived and moved and exercised an
influence seems so long gone, so far back in the
mlsts of the past, that the dead tongue he chose
to speak In seems somehow little more dead
than he. Both are so obsolete And William
r.. Morrison, startled by the ghostly inter-
ruphon, might very we'll have drawn from the
same source to express his own emotions, NUT
tering saun ouique" as he recognized the ap
positeness of the language to the man.
But does the living leader know what this
political ghost means when from Stygian shades
he wires him in the mother tongue of the Caesars
the injunction to take no backward step7 1t
seems plain enough that he has reference to the
tariff question. No one living or dead has COM
municated with Mr.. Morrison on any other sub
iect for many months. Does he mean that Mr..
Morrison is to take no step backward on that
question as it now standsi Then of course he
on the backward step of horizontal reduc-
tom Or does he mean that Morrison having
invented a tariff measure which has no possible
chance of becoming a law, and can serve no
other earthly purpose than to distract and dl-
vide the Democratic party and insure its defeat
in November is to take no backward step from
that position but insist on its being made
party issue7 That would be very much like
the Robert ToOmbs who survives in the memo
ries of some oF the older members of the pres
ent generation. We incline to the opinion that
this, notwithstanding the obscIrrity of the
language and the ambiguity Of the phrase, Is
what he did actually mean. For this was
always his fashion to lead his party into some
utterly untenable position, and then conjure
them in all languages, living, dead and prOfane,
to stand fast, not yield an inch, take no step
backward, die in the last ditch. Because OF
such counsels, and their being followed, the
Democratic party has been where it has for
twenty-five years, and he himself is where he is
now, mumbling Latin to a generation that has
forgotten him.
Take no step backward Why, that Is the
CRY set up years ago by the slaveholding dig
archy that controlled the Democratic party and
themselves in the doctrine of State Rights they
met the efforts made by Southern men to get rid
of slavery by gradual emancipation with the de-
termined purpose not to yield an inch. The
slave power-of whose dOmineering spirit and
bullying disposition Robert ToOmbs was for a
dozen years prior to 1850 a conspicuous repre-
sentatve-not only took no step backward, but
became aggressive and each year set its foot
with logged persistence a little further to the
front. At length 1t laid its hand on Kansas.
BY the violence OF Border Rulfanism, the
frauds Of Federal officials and the cOnnivance
Of the Buchanan Administration it held Kansas
by the throat, and for the moment was IN pos
session. Then above the gale of Southern
passion and Northern protest the voice OF Rob-
ert Toombs rang In the same old Roman "Nulld
pes'igia rehOrSum." "No step backward" was
the order given the Border Rutiian invaders.
But they fell back all the same, and Kansas was
saved. "No step backward u cried the slave
driver as he cracked his whip over the Demo
cratic party when some Of its leaders, alarmed
by the symptoms Of a revolt at the North, hesi-
tated and would have tempOrized. "NO step
Backward howled Toombs and Wigfall and
the whole mad gang who had threatened
secession IN the event OF hepuDllCdh cuCCtno III
1860. Whip and clamor did their work The
Democratic party tumbled to defeat and dis
grace at the North, to rebellion and ruin at the
South.
For twenty-five years now this party has hab-
itually set itself against every movement that
has been made in the direction of material pros
perity and enlightened progress. At every new
point of departure, whether the suppression OF
rebellion, prosecution of the war, emancipation,
acknowledgements reconstruction, currency,
finance or what not, this party has planted It's
boofs at an angle and sworn by all the saints
from General jackson down that it would never
take backward step. And so 1t hasn't. But
the country all the same has marched on and
right over it, Tho Confederacy Of which Rob-
ert Toombs was one of the inventors and found
ers and shining lights never took backward
step. But it died in its tracks nevertheless.
The Democratic party never steps backward.
But the country moves it aside and marches on.
II will be well for Mr.. Morrison to consider with
some caro- this ghostly message in dead
language from dead leader out of dead past.
Il suggests great deal. "No step backward ="
Well. why not7 With the intelligence, habits,
instincts and tendencies of the mule, why not
his mOttOP .-..
imam Tup n arr CCIpE