The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1890-12-10
7RlckED BY REPUBLICANS.

Heen Won-The Victims Becoming I'm
deceived.
When Mr.. Cleveland, in his speech at
Columbus, said that the Democratic
party will remain attached to ''our plain |
and frugal people," he gave utterance
to truth of great significance. The |
Democratic party is the especial cham
pion of the plain and frugal people OF
the country.
This general remark must, OF course,
be understood with the necessary linz
itations There are rich men in the
Democratic party as there are in other
parties. There have always been rich
men in the popular party, and there al
ways will be. No reasonable prejudice
can be cherished against wealth in the
abstract. In fact the plain and frugal
people are usually quite as DESTROYS OF
acquiring wealth as others, and in point
of fact the ranks of our mllllonalres
are from time to time recruited by the
addition of men who began life in the
vale of poverty. The acquisition OF
wealth is dependent upon the desire
that exists among men to better their
conditions, and to that desire all human
progress is to be attributed.
The plain and frugal people who COM
pose the rank and file Of the Democratic
party are not hostile to wealth, of which
they appreciate the advantages, but to
the special privileges which the wealthy
sometimes claim as their right. They
deny that special protection is due to
the rich, because the rich are by virtue
of their wealth the best fitted to protect
themselves The Democratic principle
of equal rights to all and exclusive
privileges to none," is necessarily in
the interest of the poor, who are always
in the ma jority, and can not expect to
obtain exclusive privileges for them
selves. The most which they expect,
and what they have right to demand,
is that they shall not be made the vic
| Tins of the rapacity of the rich and
powerful. The wealthy are in no spe-
cial danger, except from the spirit OF
communism, and this is very often
| the extreme position assumed by
the enemies of tho extreme pretensions
of favored classes. The most effective
antidote to communism in all its varied
forms is Justice to the masses who de-
sire, and have right to demand, an
equal chance to compete for wealth and
honors. So long as the avenues OF
wealth and preferment are open to all,
on equal terms, the growth OF commu'
nistic sentiment in a dangerous degree
is impossible, because it encounters de-
termined resistance from The sturdy mid
die class, which will not renounce Its
chance of winning the great prizes thai
are within the reach of many OF its
mem bers. 1t is only when wealth seek!
to be exclusive and to shut the dool
in the face of ambitious poverty tina
the communistic spirit assumes danger
GUS proportions Thus on the well-knowI
principle that extremes beget extremes
we find that the extreme pretension
of wealth give the greatest encourage
ment to the extreme pretensions OF pow
erty These two extremes meet in tn
demand to enjoy what others hav
earned.
The Democratic party has always re
lied mainly on the support of the plail
and frugal people of the country
people who realized that it was thei
lot in life to work and to save. At tn
foundation OF the Government it wa
so. The parties then known as Fed
eralists and Republicans were mainl
distinguished from one another by tn
circumstance that the former was th
party of caste and privilege, the latte
of equality. The former leant towar
monarchy or aristocracy, and woul
have established them in this countr
had it been strong enough; the latte
was the champion Of democracy, b
which was meant simply the rule {
the plain and frugal people that forme
then, as it forms now, the bulk of tn
population. Even under the admins
tration of Washington the name {
Democrat was applied as teri
of reproach to those Republicans repr'
sentatives of the people who were nj
gorgeous enough in attire to satisfy til
aristocratic tastes of those who assume
to be the better element. The Viii
party, which may be called the assigne
in bankruptcy of the Federalists, nun
bered among its leaders many mon WI
assumed to belong to superior cast
Arrogating to themselves the monopo]
of intelligence and virtue, they r
. preached their opponents, who largel
! earned their livelihood by manual i
Dor, as "the great unwashed" Demo
racy. Nevertheless, "the great III
. washed" we're too numerous for the 81
; vocates of caste, and so generally GU
voted them that the Wing party fo
: lowed the Federalists into involuntal
i political bankruptcy.
The successor of the Whig party, aft
= the Know Nothing episode, assumed
cast-off name of the Democrats, an
called itself the Republican party. Blu
apart from the transitory issues affordt
by the slavery agitation, this par
which called itself Republican was e
sentially the old Federal party. Sin
the slavery issue was settled the Dem
Gratis that attached themselves to it {
account of their opposition to slave,
have been returning to the Democrat
party. where they belong. The S
called Republican party is the old Fe
eral party revived, so for as its esse
tial principles and tendencies are co
cerned, and it is continually becomil
more and more so in its personnel. U
donbtedly, there are many thousands
the plain and frugal people of the cou
. try among its rank and file; it cou
not exist without them. But tn
a are in the Republican party b