Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1884-07-16
COL. Villas ON DEMOCRACY.

The address of Col Villas on taking
the chair as permanent president of the
Chicago convention hardly seems to
come up to the standard his friends had
fondly fixed tor him. It abounds in
words, but in ideas it is weak and CON-
monplace. His arraignment of the Re
publican party 10 silly and absurd, be.
cause manifestly untrue, and the whole
speech falls below the dignity and de-
mands of such an occasion.
His attempt to identity the Democracy
of the latter days with that of Jefferson,
Madison and jackson may tickle the
ears of the groundlings, but it is SO sadly
wanting in the element of truth that it
lacks the element of force.
The colonel knows, or ought to, that
when the Democratic party, forgetting
all the teachings of its early leaders de-
generated year by year, under the lead
of the slave power until it came to be a
mere plant fundamentally of that pow
er, content to execute its behests no
matter how unreasonable or unpatriotic,
it finally reached a position which forced
the real followers of Jefferson, Madison
and Jack son to leave it and unite with
the remnant of the old Whig party in
forming new organization, which took
the name of the Republican party.
The colonel knows, or ought to, that
of the pro-slavery Democracy OF
1851-54 which. attempted to dishonor
freedom aud to enthrone human slavery
in this Lation; which in 1864-'65 en-
| deavored by civil war to dismember the
| republic and to destroy free government; !;
which later On sought to obstruct the
work of reconstruction, ,land to ruin the
| financial credit of the government, and
which has brought about solid South by
trampling the ballot-box under foot, is
not and can not claim 10 be the party OF
Jefferson, Madison and Jackson without
absolute contempt of historic accuracy.
The Democracy of the last thirty years
has been the party of perverse ideas. 1t
has simply lived on in blind mCckery of
craftsmanship, deriving the only vitality
it has maintained from the foolish and
self-sacrifcing determination with which
it has antagonized the prevailing senti-
ment of the age, and the progressive
civilization 1t has been during all
these years so strangely constituted TAX
ing managers and rank and file together
that it has remained substantially in
tact while advocating the wrong side of
every great national question, from the
| repeal of the Missouri compromise in
1854 down to the present time. If there
| is one exception to this proposition the
colonel ought to be able to point it out.
Amy other party would have gone to
pieces half dozen times by it's own
obstinate perversity. To speak of such a
PARTY as the party of Jefferson is toinsult
common intelligence, and to refer to it as
the hope of the friends of free govern
ment is the supremest folly. If free
government depends on the Democratic
party of this country, with its ruffian
foot rudely planted on the sanctities of
the ballot box in nearly half the nation,
then free government is 10 a bad way.
If purity of political methods is compelled
to look to such party for its mainte-
nance, then purity of political methods is
in bad way. If only within the folds
of Democracy are to be found the seeds
of enlightened craftsmanship, then the
common people may be permitted some
surprise that it has found no higher ex-
hibitions in the congress of the United
States than they have seen during the
recent session, or during the six years
from 1875 to 81 in which it had control
of both the house and the senate.
The colonel would do well to give a
little attention to the record of his party
before he indulges in indiscriminate
praise of Democracy or indiscriminate
assault upon the party of progress.-Miz-
iOaakee Sentinel.