Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1890-10-02
DEMOCRACY'S WEAKNESS.
IT HAS NO NORTHERN LEADERS IN co,

GRESS.
Belford's Magazine Free Trade).
The Democrats party, nationally
speaking, while advocating the juSter
and sounder policy, either can not or
will not avail itself of its ablest men.
The character and intellect of the party
in the North have for the most part no
share in its administrative or legislative
life. The strongest defense of the pres
ent Democratic national policy comes
not from the party's accredited North
ern representatives, but from Northern
institutions of learning and the North
ern Independent press. Do but COM
pare the relative ability and Importance
of Northern Democrats and Republi-
cans in the Federal Congress. In this
chief representative body of the Union,
how woefully deficient in superior men
is the Northern Democratic delegation
| in both Houses. OF the fifty seven
Northern Democratic Representatives,
not more than half a dozen are able to
cope in debate with the one Republican
delegation from the State of Maine.
They are, with few notable exceptions,
either mute mediocriSts whose names
are unknown outside the capital or their
own representative districts, or pro-
fessional demagOgues whose official ele-
vatiOn is to their party a standing re-
proach. In the Senate, whose few
Northern Democratic members might be
supposed to be the strongest and ableSt
men of the party in their respective
States, all save one are so obscure that
an almanac must needs be consulted to
know who they are.
Never before has the Demcratic party
of the North been in such condition
of intellectual poverty at the Federal
capital. Against the five or six North
ern Democrats able to take up the gage
whenever it is thrown down to them,
there is whole phalanx of able and
trained Republican debaters who look
with contempt upon the successors of
Thurman and Hendricks and Kerr and
Morrison and Hewitt. For while mon
ey and machine politics have lowered
the average standard of ability among
Republican legislators, they have not
been able to deprive the Republican par
ty of the services of a score or more of
men, any one of whom possesses enough
of the quality of intellectual leadership
to compel attention throughout the
Union whenever he may have aught to
say. If partisan advantage has become
the main object of contention between
political parties in the North, the advo-
Gates of greatest ability and reputation
are certainly retained by the Republican
side.
This assuredly is sufficient cause for
party weakness at any time; but for the
last quarter of a century it has been ac-
centuated by the preponderance of the
South in Federal legislation during
Democratic ascendancy. Ability and |
character must of necessity make them
selves felt in the business of legislation |
as in every other business. This was il
lustrated during the late Democratic |
administration. Mr.. Cleveland was
obliged to depend chiefly upon Southern
Senators and Representatives as leaders
in all Congressional action. Mr.. Car
Isle, from among the fourteen Repre-
sentatives of his party from the great
State of New York, could find no one of
sufficient character and capacity to be
entrusted with more than the chairman
ship of a second-rate committee. All
the Northern Democratic Senators and
Representatives. who distinguished them
selves as the defenders of the princi-
plies of their party were to be counted
upon the fingers of one hand. Yet their
party possessed working majority in
one branch of Congress, and very near
ly one in the other, through the whole
of Mr.. Cleveland's administration.