St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1892-08-13


4 agree that the whole matter shall be
considered consultation and no mat
| ter which dose the patient takes he
gets no better and each collects his fee.
Right
j Was it not said s. one high up in
i tie councils of aTlie governing class
! (sic)," well select both candidates
j then let the damn fool people elect
i which they please 2"
! A political party is either the con-
crete result of individual education
and environment of sufficient nuIn-
Der of persons in State, basing their
i theories principally on retrospective
history and ideas; or is it the express
ion of that general advances thought,
in nation or groups ofnations, indica-
tive of the evolution of government
and consequent evolution of individual
conditions or it may originate purely
in the necessities ofa people ; or, finally,
4 a party may have its origin in COM
bination Of this advance thought and
1 the necessities of a people.
i AS the outgrowth of retrospective
thought, the party would most natural
+ " be the result OF individual education
under particular form of government,
begetting the theory that that partie-
ular form or a near approach to it is
the best.
i Thus believed Washington, Hami1-
ton and others, founders and leaders of
the Federal Party. Educated under
Monarchy, seeing that it had endured
while the Republics Of the past had
risen only to fall, they drew the tenets
of their political faith from the Old
4 World, moving for a strong general
government, with limited powers to
States and people.
/ Wise and pure these men undoubt-
edly were; but from education and
/ personal environment above referred
to, they failed to appreciate that edu-
cation in State craft and the principles
of free government, which their COM
patriots all around them and their an
cestors for several generations had un-
dergone in their contests with the
/ Crown and chartered companies.
jefferson, on the contrary, and his
party coadiutors, did apprehend this
education of the mass of their fellow
citizens hence the breadth Of the Con-
stitution, the liberality of our suffrage
and the guarded sovereignty of the
States.
Political parties all have mission,
but the mission of some is only mega
tive, that of others positive. The par
ty having negative mission is OBJ
structiye, nothing to do but oppose
the other. Tt may politely be called
conservative and is always the enemy
of progress and always retrospective in
its thought and spirit.
The party with a positive mission is
progressive, has something to teach.
and do; always represents advance
thought and the necessities of people,
because the two things are the insep-
arabic constituents of individual and
societary evolution.
4 party, with originally positive
| mission, may be changed into one of a
negative mission, either by the COM
pletion of IT'S work, or by refusing TO
carry that work to its legitimate and
| logical end.
The mission of the Republican par
| ty and its successor, the Democratic
party, was positive, to-wit: to still
further educate and confirm the mass
Iof American people as well as other
| nations, in the principles and practices
of free popular government.
The mission of the Federal and Its
successor, the Wing party, was mega
tive; that is, simply to oppose the
Democratic party, while 1t was carry
ing out its work of education and con-
| frmation or, to familliarly illustrate,
the Fedral- Wing party filled the office
of the sand bag for the Democratic.
party to practice and harden its mus
cles upon. The Federalist was the ex-
preston of an attempted compromise
| between the effete systems of Eastern
privilege rule and the young, vigorous
manifestations of Western liberty.
Federalist- thought was retrogressiye.
or at best, conservative, and had no.
thing to contribute to the necessity of
the times hence the negative mission.
Democratic thought, on the contrary,
was progressive. contributed to the ev-
olution of government, was in touch
with the necessity of the times, and
hence its positive mission.
Right here / wish to digress far
enough to say that when say Party"
| / do not mean some self-existent inde-
pendent being, responsible to no one,.
having great bag full of gifts, good,
bad and Indifferent, la Santa Claus,
to give to good, bad and Indifferent
children at its own sweet pleasure, as.
seems to be the idea with some small
editors of big Dailies," as for instance
the following from the Appeal-Aya-.
lanche, which is an echo from all the.
sbig" papers ssThe Democratic party
has always been friend of the people,
and has ever shown itself ready and
willing to secure such legislation for
the benefit of the people as could be
asked for in reason" And so of the
@Big papers" of the other g. O. 2. /
Who, what and where are these high
mightiness, these two parties that are
ever ready, willing and waiting to do
so much for the dear people? Bosh
By party mean just what these
editors and erstwhile leaders, will ere
long find out the people of this country
mean. that the people constitute the