Huntsville gazette., 1891-08-01
THE PARTY or PATRIOTISM.

Sentiments Which Have Moved the True
Friends Of the Union.
a distinguished union soldier, who
has been voting the democratic ticket
for some years past. has been greatly
agitated by the recent open display OF
disloyalty in the southeast.
He declares that madness and blind
ness have again stricken the southern
people"
There are many others who are
equally disturbed by this revival Of
reasonable sentiment in the southeast
But, like Mr.. Curtis in his recent edit
orial on this sentiment, they fail to trace
this subject to its source. There are
many who are patriotic enough to say
that they will never vote the demo-
cratic ticket again until the democratic
party publicly and officially repudiates
and condemns these seditious senti-
ments which have been so Industrious
Iy propagaSod and cultivated in the
hearts and minds of the present south
ern generation.
Now it is a perfectly palpable fact
that the democratic party in it's princi
Piles and policies has encouraged and
stimulated these peculiar political her.
estes of the southeast
''State rights" SO emphasized as to
destroy all federal authority, unless
that authority happened to be in the
hands of the democrats, is the first ar
ticle of faith in the democratic creed,
and this dangerous doctrine-taught,
not in the spirit of concession and com
promise, but in hostility to the union
as the foundation of federal authority
has served to stimulate and strengthen
the seditious spirit that seems SO nat
ural to the southeast.
Jeff Davis is now made the patron
saint of the southeast, and he is held
up to the young for emulation. Ac-
cording to an associate justice of the
supreme court of the United States,
placed there by the only democratic
president who has been elected since
the war, jeff Davis walks the earth
welding a sovereignty greater than
any ruler of the earth. and an ex-con-
federate general told us only a few
days ago that Appomattox only ITEM
porarily" settled the great struggle.
Is all patriotism dead in the demo-
cratic party of the north and east and
west? Why, then, is there not word
of reproof for such reasonable senti-
ments in the democratic press?
The true patriot will necessarily at
tach himself to those principles that
are purest and most productive of gen.
eral peace and prosperity. He will act
with that party or political organiza-
ton which has accomplished most in
the past, and is calculated to promote
best in the future the great ends a
social union.
Now, it is an indisputable fact that
this glorious union was formed and es-
tablished for the social and religious
amelioration of man. 1t was founded
upon human rights, and all its original
constitutional and statutory enact
ments were for the purpose of securing
to each of its loyal citizens a free but
lawful exercise of those rights. The
union has ever remained the faithful
guardian of the political and religious
liberty Of its citizens, and as long as it
continues true to this sacred trust com
mitted to it by the original founders of
the nation and trainers of the constitu-
ton, no American citizen can be deemed
a true patriot who fails to love, cherish
and support the union.
Now, it is an equally indisputable
fact that the principles of the fathers
of the revolution, which were crystal
lied in our national compact. with those
notifications required in adaptation to
the necessities of our progressive his
tory. are the principles alone of the re-
publican party. If not found there
they can be found nowhere. The dem
ocratic party has always been the party
of disintegraticn and disunion. Their
first principle Is resistance to federal
authority. 1t was this innate demo-
cratic hatred of the authority of the
federal government in restraining the
sclfshness and injurious action of the
individual states that led the democrats
at an early date to blazon their party
banner with estate rights and that
finally resulted in that mad revolt
against the constitution and the union
which drenched this fair land in fra
ternal blood.
Thus we are prepared to say that the
republican party is the only party of
pure and essential patriotism.
This may be called sentiment, but it
is well to remember that sentiment
rules the world. 1t was sentiment that
animated the revolutionary fathers to
resist the encroachments of Great Brit
ain; it was sentiment that inspired the
millions of American freemen to stake
their all for the preservation of the
union in the war of the rebellion.
The love of God, of man, of home and
of country are all sentiments, and we
confidently predict, in view of the long
cherished and repeatedly expressed
reasonable principle of the democratic
party, especially in the southeast, that
the republican party has before it, in
the approaching campaign, another
glorious victory, unless the sentiment
of patriotism has died out in the Amer
lean hearth. Y. Mail and Express.
A REPUBLICAN POLICY.
Gross INSTRUMENTATION of the Democrats