The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-08-08
a POLITICAL PARALLEL.

Ihe Attacks on Mr.. Douglas in 1850 and
Those Now Being Made on Mr.. Blaine.
"Gaths" New York Letter.
Only three weeks have ensued since both the
presidential candidates were brought out In
that time nothing has been more distinct than
the rise of the Republican party in the face Of
intestinal attempts to destroy it. The Demo-
cratic party was destroyed while still a useful
and peaceable instrumentality twenty four years
ago by band of men who claiming to be the
sole guardians Of the slavery interest, really
were resolved not to allow Mr.. Donglas to be
President, They had, however, a great oc-
casion, and may add provocation, for that di-
vision. Slavery was almost the entire property
OF the South; it was involved with everything
they knew about; it was their labor, their aris-
tocracy their social organization, their sense Of
independence, their protection against insubor-
dination and massacre. No man who intelligent
~ reJolces in the end of slavery need overlook
the apprehensions of the white people, They
proved baseless in the main; the true massacre
the people suffered was in the civil war from the
Union forces; they could not save their capitals
IN slaves, and ultimately they found that they
mud hardly been robbed, because new and better
conditions appeared under the protection of free
dom. Nevertheless, the retirement of what we
must call the traitors from the Charleston and
Baltimore conventions was the immediate cause
of the war. 1t left the Democratic party with
its ranks open for the new Republican party to
march through and then the portion which had
broken the Democratic party up made war against
Mr. Lincoln's government The secession from
the Charleston and Baltimore conventions had
all the Importance and moral countenance of
great section of the Union too proud or too weak
to accept conditions from the anti-slaverv sec
ton; but the secession, if so it can be called,
from the Chicago convention of 1884 while less
honorable than that of 1860, and already coming
out in its full and small proportions was Just as
malignant, and meant that few men who have
made no impression the great body of the
party should put a brand whenever they liked
on popular favorite, and drive away from the
public councils and honors persons they disliked.
There was a revolt against Douglas in 1860, and
he was described by the old Mason and Preston
arlstocracy as man who habitually consorted
with Irishmen and with his interiors They put
on as much moral frill when they broke this
Union up as when they or their successors delib-
erately left convention because it had nom
mated Mr.. Blaine, who had not obtained his
strength through their organs and by their leave
Douglas was described as a drunkard Catholic
the chief of the foreign rabble, iingo man and
agitator, an uneasy fellow: and thus some moral
apology was striven to be made for an act of
both party and public treason tremendous in its
consequences.
Mr. Blaine can not be described as a drunk
ard as the father of bastards, as a bad family
man. The only charge made against him is that
opportunity his genius opened before him. The
attacks on him were all based on things of half
a generation ago, which have been gone over
again and again, and were used against all the
leading men of that time, against Garfield,
Bingham, Henry Wilson, Dawes Judge Kelley
and indeed everybody of prominence in the
prime of the Republican party's power, when its
own deserters had become malignant and des-
perate in their attempts to overthrow it. Here
some editor had gone off because he had not re-
ceived an Office, and there some editor had taken
offense because he was not consulted, and yon-
der some professional orator had become sleep
less because he did not get all the patronage in
his State, and he conceived the phantom
called civilservice reform as a means
of getting even. This class of people, deluding
others with better natures, forced the tragedy
of 1872 which broke Mr.. Greeleys head and
heart as the tragedy of 1860 had left Stephen
A. Douglas one Of the best regulations in Amer
ica yet laid him in the grave.
Sometimes malice achieves its end and some.
times I have observed that when great men are
broken down by hypocritical cabals their ruin
becomes their glory. It only needed a Guiteau
to lift Garfield above the long fogs and msts Of
envy and Misrepresentation We saw lying on
the bed of pain courage and gentleness which
charmed the world, and yet that man had been
familiar with people of Guiteaus heart for
twenty years. The assassin in some form had
never left his side. We never could have had
him revealed except through his death, which
had all the elements of the Christian and the
great pagan in it, the martyr and the warrior.