Morning journal and courier., 1884-06-04
chargeabIe to the party in power, which has not been sided, abetted or initiated by

chargeabIe to the party in power, which
 has not been sided, abetted or initiated by
 the party in opposition.
 Democracy lived for sixteen years on the
 memory of what it was before 1860; it has
 for eight years done little else but point to
 what it claims to 1have accomplished in
 1876. And now, after one National con
 yention deliberately set aside the claims. of
 the ''old ticket" to renomination, the party
 displays to che country it's poverty alike of
 men as Of principles by vociferous de-
 mand for the nominee of 1876, already be-
 come palsied old man, to whom half the
 activities of the world are as dream. At
 the meeting of the Democratic State committee yesterday even the Tammany
 delegation had no candidate but Iifden,
 and yet it is but four years ago since Tam
 many formally arraigned Tilden of Ia re-
 course to system of bribery and corruption
 happily without other example in our histo-
 ry, !" and declared that ito support s1ch
 man again would render those supporting him aecessor1es after the fact to a crime so mean that it concealed itself in ciphers and so enormous that the corruption of Verres, the venality of Robert Walpole, and the Vul-
 gar rascaiity of the Ring depredators of New
 York pale into insignifcance in comparison
 with it." The State convention, which will meet ct Saratoga on the 18th of June to elect the deles ates already ''slated" by the party bosses, ought to be able to designate the kind of candidate who will be strongest in New York. But so far as can be at present sur missed, it's first choice will be a man who could not serve if he were elected, and its second 8 vulgar type of Wall street specula- tor who might be thought of in connection with a public house bar and 8 seat in the Board of Aldermen but is hardly conceiv- able nominee for President of the United States.
 The real weakness of the Democratic party is to be found in what seems to be the seat of okn all hT1t Lad m sion of the 153 electoral votes of the solid Sonth ready to be cast for any candidate, standing on any platform, who bids fair to secure forty nine electoral votes from north ern States, is demoralizing influence Par ty government, in the proper sense of the word, hardly exists in any of those sixteen States where the votes will, with tolerable certainty, be cast or counted, for the nomi- nees of the Democratic convention. The l free discussion of the principles of local, State or national government is not unknow VII, but the change of party majorities as the re- 1 suit of such discussion is neither expected nor desired. Between the stolid. unresson- l ing Democratic majority in tho South, ready to sacrifice any principle and submit to any humiliation for the sake of success, and the 1 cunning, interruptions leaders of the Democ- racy in the populous centers of the North, the history of the party has become one of cowardIy makeshift and disreputable expedi- ents. There is no pledge that 1t is not ready 1 to take, and none that it has not dishonored It serves the purposes of 8 club with which | Independent Republicans may beat some sense into the heads of their party leaders, but it serves no other. Instead of recogni- l zing that it is merely the instrument of cor l rection, it's managers continually make the mistake of crediting the periodic successes of 1 the party to it's own vitality. But for the I cohesion that is maintained by the ''eolor l line'' in the South, the party would have
 gone to pieces long ago. Its brains are out, | and it has not had, in the memory of living man, much conscience to lose, and, on the whole, the best thing that can happen to it is | that it should die. Then we should probably 1 find parties divided on live issues and there | would be an end to the anomaly of two great political organizations competing for public l approval on the ground that the one is not | quite so bad as the other.