The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1892-11-22
WITH FREE TRADERS.
olsvsland's Heart With that Sec
ton ofthe Democracy.
The RECORD Of THE VICTORIOUS
Party Reviewed by Robert Ellis
Thompson--The History of the Dem
ocratic Party is Story of Constant
Alterations in Attltude..cleVcland
Not an Andrew jackson.

Congress from the seeding states left
their seats as fast as their states left the
union. When the process was COM
plete the Democratic party ceased to
control tho senate and the house, and a
few months later the presidency. Not
once since that date have both the ex-
ecutivo and legislative branches of the
government been controlled by the
Democratic party At times it has had
the senate; at other times the house.
ln1ss5-s6 it had both the Presidency
and the house. Now 1t is to have al
three. No part of the national govern
msnt except the supreme court will lie
beyond its control,Sas tue constitution
gives it largsscope for action without
running athwurt tile judgments OF the
national tribunals. .e asyr. e .
By one Of those curious reactions OF
public opinion, which are apt to occur
in q country popularity. governed, the
American people has put its destinies
Tor the time AUTO the hands OF the party
which for the lifetime OF generation
it has kept iAsopposition.
No party ever kept its character the
same through so long o period as thirty
onesyears. The history OF the Demo-
cratic party is story Of constant alter
atoms in. attitude and principle, while
there are few leading maSims which
it has not altered. 1t always has been
theiparty that regarded government as
a necessary Ryil, which held that he
governs best who governs least, and
That in our own system the national
authority is the natural enemy OF the
people'sliberties. But apart from this
il has shifted its ground on q score o.
great questions. 1t began its existence
by takinga1 altitude Of unqualified OPP
position TO the constitution OF 1888, 1t
wanted no s,hiere perfect union" OF the
states, and It fought bitterly against
the adoptiun5 Of plan to effect tins.
Defeated indthis, it then constituted
itself the guardian OF the Constitution
as adopted, ,daclaring that its actual
authors we're on the outlook for a
chance to violate what it called "the
Federal compact" by taking moro
power TO tie nation than they them
selves had iereed it. should have. In
the Virginia and7 Kentucky resolutions
of 1898, 1t declared the right OF ma
jority OF statesi and then OF single
state, to withdraw from the UPTON be-
cause it had satisfied itself that the
National legislature had violated the
compact. Yet less than two decades
later we find it denouncing bitterly the
Hartford Convention Of Federalists be-
cause it. had gone half as lar
in.4. this. direction as did those
resolutions drafted by Democratic
leaders. The election, of 1880
brought it into power, pledged to
keep the government within the bounds
OF the letter OF the constitution. Yet
within three years we find its president
turning his back on this pledge by the
Louisiana purchase. Another pledge
was economy. There was to be no
more waste tof wars. But the country
was plunged into the second war with
Great Britain quite as much through
tho Democratic party's pusillanimous
treatment Of the insolent diplomacy OF
George Canning as through any other
cause. 1t Ind denounced the. whisky
tax as an excise tax, and therefore in
famous. 1t restored that tax and added
scores OF others like 1t to pay the OK.
panses OF the war. In our own times
we have seen it clamor for the reten-
ton Of taxes on whisky and tobacco,
and denouncing the Republican party
Tor proposing. in specified contingen-
cy, to repeal them.
Its especial plea in the contest OF 1901
was the lnSasion OF popular rights by
the Federafist party under President
Adams. Yet In President Jackson it
elected and reelected man who set
aside the express will OF the representa-
tfyes OF the people, treated Congress as
body hdGging on the skirts OF the
government, and, i'll fact, acted out for
eight Sears the imperialist doctrine
that the only true representative OF the
peopleis an executive magistrate chosen
by them.
After the extinction Of the iederalists
It found in antagonist in the Wigs.
They differed over internal improve
ments, a nhtionGl bank, and the tariff
Yet the first recommendation OF OUTLAWS
.of national money OH internal improve
ments was in President Jackson's mes
sage Of 1907, and it was Democratic
Congress which chartered the second
United States bank in 1916, and had
made the largo use OF it in restoring the
finances OF the country, after these had
been shattered by the treasury manage
ment OF the years OF the war. And in
the decade before the war it was Stephen
A. Douglas, n Democratic leader, who
set on foot the land grants to railroads
= form OF aid to internal Improvements
which went beyond all Others. Before
ii stopped, five times the area oil the
British Islands had been thus voted
out OF the public domain, either direct
lyto railroad corporations, or to states,
for the benefit OF such corporations.
AS regards the tariff, the party has
fairly boxedthe compass. Jefferson had
been a free trader in theory, as also had
Madison. But they both acquiesced in
the mild protectionist policy OF WASH
ington and Hamilton necessary to the
military defense no less than the finan-
cial prosperity of the country The war
OF 1872 made them both pretty high
tariff mon. Under the impulse they
impaired the party passed the tariffs Of
1916, 1924 and 1S2S-all three protective
in their purpose, and the two last high
" protective IN effect. But in 1883 the
party was frightened by the nullifica-
ton movement, and the three tariffs for
which it made itself responsible--1S35,
1916 and lS57---were in effect free trade
legislation. Yet President Buchanan
urged the return Of the country to pro-
lection, and it was he who made the
Morrill, tariff law in. 1851 by atiixing
his signature. High protection, low