The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1896-09-17
The Discordant Democracy.


lie DlSCOTudHI DemOCraCN.
III Is Doomed TO Defeat, says the Boston Herald
If it had been predicted Il year ago that
the Democratic party would 60 into the
presidential campaign Of 1896 bereft Of
nearly all its leading men of recognized
influence at the North, and with the loss
OF not few Of them at the South also, he
would have been thought wild in judg-
ment, indeed, who had anticipated for it
success. We think there is no precedent
for the present condition of affairs in the
Democratic ranks. There have been seces-
sions from parties in similar circum-
stances, but never any like this one The
party has divided in a way that takes it
out of the hands of men who have been
its active leaders for a generation, and
has put nearly all of them either in active
opposition to the candidate it has named
for the presidency or has left them in
doubt as to giving him support, or in
Iukewarm acquiescence in its action.
Where is the northern Democrat whom
the party has been i'll the habit of recog-
nizng as leader, or looking up to as an
authority or guide in political opinion,
who is to-day advocating the election of
Bryan? We confess to being unable to find
him.
The indianapolis convention represent
those of the more earnest Democrats who
are loath to carry their votes over to the
other party, but neither in itself nor in
| its proposed candidates does it represent
l the full extent of Democratic detection to
the regular party ticket in this campaign.
In the first place there is Democratic
| President and an entire Democratic cabi-
net in this attitude. Was there ever any
thing approaching a precedent for this?
In the next place there are the men of
| eminence who propose to vote for Mckin-
ley outright, and who see no need of
third candidate in such an emergency. In
! the third place there are those who have
not declared themselves either way, or
who, if they have declared for the Chicago
candidates, have done it under virtual
protest, which nullifies to a great de-
gree the influence of their support.
The decentralization of the party is
demonstrated in New England by the
vote in Vermont, but was it not
as evident to the careful observer be-
fore the election as it now is? What party
ever suffered the loss of half the leaders
that have gone from the Democratic party
since the Chicago convention and held its
own? What chance is there, then, for the
Democrats to hold their own in the cleo
ton of this year? And it must be remem-
bered that before these fatal divisions
were brought about the party was in
minority.
We are told by the supporters of Bryan
that this is to be changed at the West.
We beg to ask, why should it be? Take
the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa, and how
many Democratic members of congress
now represent those localities? just two,
and, those from the State OF Ohio. The
party starts out on that basis, and, in the
face of it would have it believed that with
the secession Of leaders all along its line,
in ratio, it may be, less than that in
New England, but still very great. it has
hopes of success. The combined Repnbli-
can majorities in those States reaches
into hundreds Of thousands and, in the face
OF this, there are scores, if not hundreds
of thousands, of Democrats refusing to
support the party ticket. Is it not idle to
hope for party success under these condi-
ditions2 a party already heavily in the
minority that begins the work OF recupeI-
ating by alternating large portion OF its
members, and those of the very flower of
its membership, is, with the view to its
success, afflicted with something like po-
| litical insanity.
But we shall be told that the Byran
/ Democrats have called i'll the Populsts to
aid them. They have, indeed, and this is
| claiming that the element most active in
their disintegration is to prove the ele