The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1888-06-21
MARCY.
WALKER.

able ability as a diplomatist and secretary
Of war raised the credit Of this country
throughout the civilized world; or to
Felix Grundy and his colaborers, to whom
We W the liberal constitutions of the
then new states in the Mississippi valley.
tits o good thing to remind young Ameri-
cans occasionally that the Democrats of
that early day had to make the fight for
complete divorce of church and state, and
that they were abused as ''enemies of re-
ligion" and advocates of lawless license,
just as Democrats are now abused as
enemies of education" who decline to
vote for such sweeping measures as the
blair bill"
No doubt these Republicans would like
to rewrite history and leave out the facts
that the free secular constitutions Of all
the states from 1900 to 1850 were secured
by Democrats, and that 'infidel Democ.
racy" was q party cry then just as
whisky Democracy" is now; and that
the Independent Treasury was estab-
lished by the Democrats of Van Buren's
day against the frantic opposition of the
Whigs-a measure so beneficent in it's re-
suits that no succeeding administration
has dared to attack it directly. The
Democrats of those days were "Bour-
bons," we are told. Yes, they had no
Credit Mobilier, freedmen's bureau, or
Robesons and Belknaps. They did not
elect a vice president and then impeach
him as president. They did not spend
5000, 600, 900 in fifteen years on a navy
and then denounce their successors for
having no navy. They did not compel a
secretary to resign to avoid impeachment,
or expel any Of their congressman for
lying or bribery or selling cadetships.
They were bad ''Bourbons" indeed; their
hands were t~olerably clean and the public
administration so free generally from
faint that one defalcation for q few
thousand dollars startled the whole coun-
try, while from 1865 to 1885 anything
less than a million stolen attracted no
special notice.
The Democratic party Is composed Of
men. and men arc fallible; it has, there
fore. made some serious mistakes in the
course Of a hundred years. But the glory
Of the party in this country is that it has
boldly and m~anfully accepted the reproach
Of being ''the party Of the poor and igno-
rant" and has never hesitated to change
its policy when its experience showed that
the old policy was inimical to laborers.
The Democratic party has boldly avowed
the doctrine that the rich and powerful
can care for themselves, and that as far
as government interferes with production
and commerce at all, 1t should be In be-
half Of the poor and ignorant. And this
is n Of tho things that gentlemen Of the
kind abov" mentioned never will under.
stand. They never will compre'
bend the country they live In.
They are still infected with Alex
ander Hamilton's notion that "gov.
eminent should take care of the rich and
let them take care Of the poor" Their
party began with a proposition to CEN
tralize power and reduce the states to de-
partments, and denounced the Democrats
for not accepting the constitution without
a bill of rights; the Democrats laid down
tho first eleven amendments as the condi
ton of their acceptance, and when those
were accepted the Democrats adopted the
constitution In good faith and insisted on
living up to 1t, while their opponents at
once began to construe 1t into what they
had FIRST wanted 1t to be. The case was
AdwlzAbly stAtsd hy Ismes MaaaaGA In