The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1896-07-18
WHAT HISTORY SHOWS.
The Democratic Party is Dying and
the Ends Near at Hand.

The recent presidential election mas
shown that there is an invincible rea-
son why the Democratic party can
never win a national victory. 1t is
that the youth of this republic is not
Democratic. The Sons of Democratic
fathers have grown up Republican.
So long as slavery and the war
fingers within the memory of Ameri-
can as the youth of the republic will
continue to grow up Republican:
and slavery and the war will be re-
membered as long as the public school
system exists. The 'public schools
have slain the Democratic party with
the text book.
It is vain for statesmen to declare
that there were as many Democrats as
Republicans in the Union army. 1t
is vain to affirm that the war for pre-
~servation of the Union could not
have been carried to a successful close
without the assistance of the Demo-
cratic party. 1t is idle for philan-
thropy to suggest that the attitude of
that party toward the war in the be-
ginning was a humane one: that 1t was
inspired by the higher and better wish
that the cause of the conflict should
be peaceably removed and the stain
of brothers. blood by brothers hand
avoided. The Democratic party has
been ideally identified with slavery
and Shareholders. The Republican
party is ideally identified with eman-
cipation and the IA Therefore is
the youth of the country incapable of
being Democratic. Therefore the
Democratic party can never win a
Democratic victory. Its old men are
dying away. The boys hat catch the
ballots that fall from their stiffened
hands are Republicans.
This fact can not be denied. 1t will
do no good to quarrel with it. AL
other causes which have operated to
diminish the number of Democrats
and increase the number of Republic
cans are insignificant beside this one
tremendous and invincible fact. The
curse of slavery has poisoned the
blood and rotted the bone of the Dem
ocratic party. The malediction of the
wal has palsied its brain.
The young wife who held the babe
up to kiss the father as he hurried to
the tap of his departing regiment has
not sucked a Democrat. The weary
foot OF the great-grandmother who
watched the children while the wife
was busy has not rocked the cradle of
Democrats. The chair that the soldier
father never came back to fill has not
been climbed upon by Democrats.
The old blue coat that his comrades
carried back was cut up for little jack
cts. but not one inclosed the heart of
a Democrat. The ratified musket that
fell from him with his last shot became
the thOUghtless toy of his children:
but not a hand that played with it vas
LllC lldLd vi Il NIlC a.. OipS
he kissed crowed and Screwed for
his return and its unwilling and I'M
answered notes were not from the
throat Of Il Democrat. The t~ear-sOiled
camp letters which the mother read
aloud in the long, bitter evenings,
while the boys clustered al her knees,
did not fall upon Democratic ears.
The girls sobs, blended withmother's
weeping. did not make Democrats of
their brothers. Perhaps the father
had been a Democrat all his life,
The children go to school. There is
not d Democrat on its benches.
The first reader contains the por-
trait of Abraham Lincoln-that kind
and sturdy face never made Il Dem
Ocrat. On its simple pages. in words
of one or two syllables, is told the
story of his birth and death. That
story never made a Democrat. In
the pranks of the playground. the
name silences the frolicksOme and
makes the %jolliest grave: that name
never made a Democrat. In the pic
lures that light up the Biographies
are the firing of Fort Sumter and
the death of Ellsworth. Those pic
lures make no Democrats. The first
page of a history contains a repre-
sentation of the surrender of Lee at
AppomattOX. No boy gazes on that
and ever avows himself a Democrat.
In the higher grades the same sub
tie and unresisted ~infiuenceis at work.
The text books contain extracts from
patriotic speeches during the war.
Those speeches make no Democrats.
The great battles are briefly describ-
ed: the narrative has no Democratic
listeners. The strain ofmartial music
runs through the readers. and that
music makes no Democrats. Sketches
of the great Democrats are given: their
brave deeds arouse the enthusiasm of
the lads. but there is no Democrat
among them. The horrors and suffer-
ings of the slaves T told: the mad
Gened blood that mounts the boys
cheeks is not Democratic blood. The