Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1896-11-07
THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATS.


In congratulating the country upon
the outcome of the election, the chair
man of the republican national com
mittce very properly recognized the
service that was rendered to the cause
of sound money by the national demo
Gratis. 1t may not be possible to aScer-
tain with accuracy how many of these
democrats gave their votes to the re-
publican ticket but hundreds of thou
sands of them did so and rs Mr. Hanna
says, the value of their services cannot
he overcstimated. States were saved
to the sound money cause by them and
they largely contributed TO swell the
popular plurality of the republican can
didatcs TO unprecedented proportions.
The democrats who repudiated the
organized to fight it were actuatcd by
the highest patriotic motives. They
had been lifelong adhcrents of demo
cratic principles as eXpounded by the
founders of the party. They had con-
siStently and persiStently opposed re-
publican doctrines and policies. But
when the national convention of the
democracy turned its back upon the
traditions of the party and proposed to
debase the currency, to destroy the
right of private contract and to impair
the authority of the courts and the ex-
ecutive department of the government
to enforce the laws, these disciples of
Jefferson and Jackson saw their plain
duty to be to not only refuse to ac-
quieSce in this betrayal of the demOc-
racy, but to make organized and deter
mined war against it, The men who
participated in this movement, backed
by fully three hundred of the most in
lluential democratic newspapers, en-
braCed the foremost leaders of
democracy. Many of them had won
fame in the service of the country on
battlefields, in the cabinet and in the
halls of legislation. They gave to the
democracy It's intelligence, its character
and its claim to popular confidence. Its
victories had been won under their lead
ership When they saw the old party
dominated by uSurpers and uttering
strange and alarming doctrines. sub
versive of everything it had ever taught
and stood for, they turned away from
the grotesque and dangerous thing il
had become and declared that every con
sideration of public honor and safety
demanded that it be defeated. That
having been accomplished none deserve
h.,., t;.,,, q, I,
true and patriotic democrats and doubt
less they feel rs profoundly gratiGed as
do republicans over the outcome.
The question that naturally suggests
itself is, What is to be the future of
democracy? VIII the element which at
indianapolis proclaimed the national
democratic" party be able within the
next four years to reorganize the
democracy in accordance with the doe
trines there enunciated? Unquestion-
ably many thousands of democrats sup
ported the Chicago ticket solely on the
ground of regularity who were not in
sympathy with the platform. These
may reasonably be expected to favor
party reorganization on the old lines.
Then there are many democrats who
were attracted to the free silver cause
who must soon be persuaded that they
We're mistaken and these will be dis
posed to again array themselves under
the standard of true democracy. Thus
there would seem to be sufficient force
to reOrganize and rehabilitate the party,
eliminating from 1t everything in the
nature of populism and socialism
The element that dominated the Chi
cago convention, falsely calling itself
democratic, is doomed to inevitable dis
Indignation. The doctrines ii enunclated
will never be accepted by the American
people ana with the return of prosperity
hundreds of thousands of those who sup
ported them will learn to despise them.
In Tuesdays defeat they met their final