Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-09-19

gave its moral support, its political shoul-
der and large part of its military strength
to maintain system that was the worst
enemy possible for free labor to have
slave labor"
You, sir, know, or ought to know, in
deed, you do know, that while the free |
laboring man was given the ballot-rather |
he won it by wrestling selfgovernment |
from the grasp of England in the most un
equal of wars-a given number of slaves |
were counted in the basis of representa-
tion, and votes were cast accordingly"
"You know, Mr.. Grady, or ought to
know, that the Democratic party, with
which you are affiliated and whose trumpet
you are blowing to-day, had no existence
when this Government was founded The
attempt to impress an aristocratic idea
upon the newborn free Government was
not met by devoted Democrats as you
systematically asselt-such Democrats, at
least as you would have your hearers be-
lieve constitute the party of the present"
Mr.. Grady needs to turn back the pages of
his history and read of the issues between
the Federalists and the Republicans of
that day and the growth and development
Of parties therefrom. The first great
political parties of the country were
the Wings and Tories, antedating and
continuing through the revolutionary
war; shortly after its close the Demo-
cratic party sprang up, and it was COM
posed mainly Of Tories, and doubters and
sticklers as against the Wings, who stood
forward for independence and strong ma
tional government. The Democratic party
of that day started in by opposing Con-
gress as we have it, and contesting against
the idea of a national government. In its
succeeding years it took the place of the
aristocratic class in Virginia that Jefferson
made it his mission to destroy. 1t came
very near defeating the ratification of the
Constitution; it exalted statehood unduly.
and brought on discomfort, dlsquiet, and,
in at least one State, open and pronounced
resistance to the new form of government,
until Hamilton and Randolph denounced
its turbulence, Madison bewailed its op-
preston and injustice, Elbridge Gerry de-
clared the party to be "the worst of all po-
litical evils, and Jefferson himself, claimed
as Democrat, repudiated the title.
We cannot here even sketch the career
of the Democratic party; but when Mr..
Grady, with rhetorical burst, robes it in
his eloquence with the regalia of special
friendship for labor, it is sufficient to refer
to the fact that it was and remained the
enemy of free labor because the conservator
of involuntary servitude; that there was
no genuine Democratic President until
Jackson, who found the country prosper
Gus in peace, with home industry pro-
tected, tariff in force, and the first strug-
giles of modern Democracy directed toward
notification by States of the authority Of
the nation. That since that time the
Democratic party has uniformly been the
enemy Of labor, because
l. Itopposed the broadening of the area
of free soil, and endeavored to fasten slay-
cry upon an even half of all the territory
of the United States
2. 1t opposed at all times, and still does,
and voted solidIy against the homestead
law-one of the greatest blessings ever
visited upon poor men-and every move
ment to encourage the distribution of the
public lands among the home-builders of
the nation
3. supported and encouraged rebellion,
denied the power of the Government to
quell it, declared the effort to effect It's
suppression a failure, and did battle for
measures to put down the bars between
pauper and home independent labor.
4. 1t exalted State sovereignty to the
verge of the dissolution Of Federal unity.
5. This "friend of labor" made war upon
the tariff erected in 1924 to protect labor
from unfair competition, and has kept
hand in glove with the doctrine of free
trade ever since it sought in South Caro-
lima to nullify the revenue laws of the
Federal Union.
6. 1t has led in no moral or economic
reform for the betterment of the condition
of the workingman or any other. 1t has
uniformly been the party of obstruction
and opposition.
Mr.. Grady, when he is next disposed to
eulogize the Democratic party, the modern
form of which really dates but from Ben
toms time, should pause to glance over the
| history Of the nation, and whenever he
finds the party proposing or defending any
measure for the benefit of labor he should
stick pin in it and make note of it, that
the world may be enlightened and dis
cover that of which it has as yet no
knowledge.