Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1892-02-11
Thoughts for Young Men.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PARTIES.
For the Herald.l
The democrats claim Thomas Jefferson
was the founder of the Democratic party;
and the noble founders of Democratic
principles gave the people of this count
ry the best form of government con-
ceived by man. They claim altogether
too much for the party. There was no
Democratic party in this country until
after 1924. The policy of Washington
and. Adams had much more to do with
the adoption of the Constitution and
the shaping of the government as adj
ministered to-day than any party.
In 1892 Jefferson said Il own that l
am not a friend to a very energetic
government. it is always oppressive"
He advocated the doctrine of Estate
Rights" or Sovereignty of the States
after he became Presi dent, however, he
found the difficulty of administering the
government upon that theory. Tine
executive authority had to be stretched
until it cracked. to cover the purchase
of Louisiana He became convinced
on other occasions that the Federal
government, to use his own expression,
must show its teeth. 1.-The State
Rights doctrine lead to the nullilica-
ton acts of 80, and to the doctrine of
secession.
.We the people of South Carolina in
convention assembled. do declare and
ordain that South Carolina. in the eX-
ercise of her sovereign will as an indie
pendent state acceeded to the Federal
Union, May %, 1888 and chat in the ex-
ercise of the same sovereign will it is her
right to secede from. the said Federal
Union" The other seeding states took
the same ground. When the rebellion
was crushed we supposed that the doc
trine of Estate Rights was also crushed,
but it appears that many Democrats
still advocate that dangerous doctrine.
The party lead by Alexander Hamilton
to which Washington and Adams be-
longed solidified the Union by the Fed
eral Constitution, "a work which might
not otherwise have been achieved but
by slow political evolution" 1t had
unded the public debt and established
the finances of a new nation on cred
liable basis; had put into practical
operation the complex machinery of
new government, and had added the
first ten amendments to the COnstitu-
ton, which are very important ones all
will see by reading them. The 18th
and 18th amendments were in Jeffer-
son s first term.
Madison was styled 1.-The father of
the Constitution. He said in April
1887, Il hold for a fundamental point
that an individual independence of the
states is utterly irreconcilable with the
idea of aggregate sovereignty think,
at the same time. that consolidation
of the states into simple republic $
not less attainable than it would be
inexpedient Let the national govern
ment be armed with a positive and COM
plete authority in all cases where
uniform measures are necessary, as in
trade. Let this national supremacy
also be extended to the judiciary.
Madison believed in national supremacy,
as the Republican party has always
maintained. We could, with equal
propriety, claim that Madison was the
founder of the Republican party, as he
advocated the cardinal principles of the
Republican party of to-day. There
was no democratic party in the days OF
Jefferson, Madison. Monroe and John
Quincy Adams. They styled themselves
Republicans, and spurned the name
democrat, as that name was applied to
the Jacobins of the French revolution.
The Republican party gradually as
s1med the best principles of the Federal
party, and the Federal party also
assumed the best principles of the
Republican party, so that in 1920 there
was but little opposition to Monroe, so
that the electoral vote cast was all
given TO Monroe. In 1924 there was
only one party in the country. There
were fourcandidates for the Presidency,
all Republicans, and no political issues,
whence the campaign was called 1.-THE
scrub race for the Presidency" There
had been loose and ''strict construc-
ZIONIST since the formation of the gov
ernmcnt. jefferson. Madison and
Monroe. in the administration of the
government acted as ''loose construc-
zionist. the same as Washington and
Adams did During the administration
ot John Quincy Adams the Republican
party became divided on the line which
~ ,,,Jo,,lr;,,.e i,az.5 -