The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1884-03-22
She Democratic Sdpptstt.
SATURDAY, MARCH %, 1884.
A Brief Review.

of the remnants Of that organization with the
Abolitionists. The American party was s
mushroom affair into which Wings and Adolf
tonists rushed pell nell, because the adher
ents of those parties were anxious to adopt q
new name by which they hoped to obtain
power. A few misguided Democrats went
into the Know Nothing party, but fastened to
get out of it, as soon as they caught an inside
view of its hideousness. Like Jonah's gourd
it sprang up in night and persisted in a
night, the Republican party affording asylum
TO the incongruous elements of which it was
composed and blending together the odds and
ends of all political organizations hostile to the
Democratic party. In this condition of things
the split in the Democratic party between
Douglas and Breckenridge insured the success
of the Republicans and brought in the admin
istration of Abraham Lincoln, with the sec
tional war and all its accompanying evils, and
all the maladministration and corruption
which have followed. When the Democratic
party went down the peace and tranquility OF
the country went with it, and all the old land
marks of Jeffersonian administration were
obliterated. For sixty years previous the
country had been prosperous at home and
honored abroad under Democratic rule, for
the brief terms of the two Adamses were yet
dominated by Democratic principles and
measures From 1861 to the present time
Republicanism has been in the ascendant, in
so far as the administration is concerned.
And what is its record? 1t would require
more time and space than we have now at
command, to answer this question in detail.
We can only advert to the more striking in
cidents of its period of domination, now pro-
tracted to nearly quarter of century. In
that time they claim to have ''saved" the
Union, a Union destroyed only by their vio-
lation of every principle upon which it was
founded, by trampling the constitution under
foot with all its checks and balances. In that
time the fculest corruption has established
itself in every department of the Government
The Supreme Court, once the pride and the
hope of the people, has been packed for par
tisan purposes, and its ermine trailed in the
mire of faction It's mo longer regarded as the
true exponent of the principles of the organic
or of the statute law, but the supple tool OF
the powers that be, ever ready to do their
bidding, while the principles of the constitu-
ton and the laws passed in pursuance thereof,
are left to take care of themselves, or shame
lessly overridden and trampled under foot, at
the behest of party.
From this sickening view Of the Judiciary
we turn to the, Executive branch Of the Gov
eminent. A race of pigmies have filled the
Executive chair once honored by Washing
ton, a jefferson, Madison and jackson.
Pigmies in brain and pigmies in soul. One
was placed in power by the most shame
less fraud ever perpetrated upon self
governing people, Another, his successor,
by the corrupting power of money, by open
and undisguised bribery of the electors Of
sovereign state. Two have been assassinated.
and this government of the people thus put to
open shame in the face of the civilized world.
The fraudulent President knew he was the
creature of fraud, and his successor knew that
he was indebted for his election to the skilltul
use of "soap," as the money to purchase In
diana was termed, and for which the now de-
ceased President returned his thanks to the
donor And this money, it is believed, was
a part of the plumber obtained from the gov
eminent through the star-route frauds, the
perpetrators of which, though brought into
the courts and submitted to the mockery of a
trial, have never been punished. These pos
tai plumbers, following the whiskey ring and
Indian agency thievery of Gen. Grants adj
mnistration, with his Belknaps and Bah
cocks, and the black Friday scandal, make
up a record that ought to consign the Repub-
lcan party not only to loss of power, but to
eternal infamy.
From this cursory review of the doingS of
the Judiciary and the Executive, we come
to glance at the Legislative branch of the
government With the exception Of the
lower House for two terms, and the Senate
for brief period, the legislative power has
been in the hands of the Republicans since
1861 And what has been done to ameliOrate
the condition of the country? Their recon-
struction policy after the close of the war
was libel upon their position during the
war, asserting that a state could not go
out of the Union, and yet legislating said
states into the Union as though they had
been out, and upon such terms as were not
only degrading to the states, but to the Union
and the Congress which imposed them.
The sudden Acknowledgement of race utterly
unprepared for it was crime against good
government and travesty of the right of sut-
L Il tha rtt1 No
and intelligence of the people. The reckless
extravaganza that resulted in every state
dominated by the black suffragans, nearly
bankrupted them, while the extravaganza OF
Congress threatened to bankrupt the national
treasury, and made it necessary to impose
most burdensome taxes to meet its require
ments. And when the Democrats obtained
control of the House of Representatives and
cut down the estimates of the several depart
ments of the government in one session thirty
millions of dollars, a howl went up from Re-
publican Congressman and from every Repub-
lican press and rostrum, that the Democrats
were blocking the wheels of government
From 500 100000, the highest sum expended
in one year by Mr.. Buchanan, the last Demo
cratic president, the annual expenditure
reached by the Republicans is $4,000, 900,
and this vast sum not including the money
required for pensions nor for the interest on
the public debt
The wasteful expenditures of the Republic
can party eliminated in Grants second term.
They were checked by the organization of a
Democratic House of Representatives in De-
cember, 1875. Since that date reduction has
been the rule, enforced by Democratic pre-.
cedent.
If we contrast the administration of one
year before the war with the last year of Re
publican administration, taking out all ex
penditures relating to the public debt, princi
pal, interest and premiums, and excluding
pensions, taking only the net ordinary expen