The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-03-26

tnat year, he will discover a most START
ling resemblance between its features and
those which at this moment lower unon
the democratic rank and file from the in
ner recesses, the sanctum sanctorum. of
the Democratic council chamber. In 1874
the Democratic leaders, solemnIv declarad
the war for the Union a failure They;
demanded that 1t be stopped Rut in
order to catch the soldier vote they nom
mated popular soldier, Gen. Mcclellan.
for president. Defeat was their portion
as q matter of course. The war was not
failure. Six months later the national
arms were completely triumphant IL
Mcclellan had been elected the Federal
troops would have been withdrawn at the
moment of victory: the proposed peace
negotiations with the South would have
1aiied snort or the recognition of the
southern Confereracy: and then. the
nreah having been. started. the splendid
fabric OF the American Union would have
gone TO pieces, New England fragment
here. Pacific fragment there. and ner-
maps centuries Of struggle and temnest
OF war and ruin, repeating in the new
world the bloody and bitter experience of
the old.
In 1851 the spectre of Imperialism in the
person OF Abraham Lincoln affrighted
the dreams of the Democratic leaders az
the same spectre affrights them now In
the person of William Mckinley.
In 1864, as now, it was absolutism and
militiarism that the people must rise up
and strike down if they would preserve
their liberties. Happily, Mcclellan was
not elected. He was beaten. Four years
later. still on false trail, the Democrat
&c managers tried fiat money as an Issue.
and, nominating a sound money man.
Horato Seymour, on this soft money plat
form. they We're again defeated In 1872
misleading had reduced the party to such
straitS that 1t was ready to clutch at any
straw, and did clutch at Horace Greeley.
neither for good or for evil he was the
only straw in sight. and when the fight
was over it looked as though Democracy
was gone forever. The men who had
misled 1t were, indeed gone, but new men
arose to take their places. BY 1875 the
engines, which had been driving II back
wards instead of forward, were reversed;
fresh set of running gear was attached
and with a real leader in the person of
Samuel j. Tilden. on a sound platform OF
hard money, home rule and free trade
we carried the country by an overwhelm-
ing popular majority. From 1864 to 1876.
including the disasters of 1868 and 1872, lay
twelve years of continuous disaster Hap
PLY, they were enough to convince the
Democratic rank and file that their lead
ers were misleading them, and to raise
up issues that were both tangible and
| which the party had, it is true to face
| about and to address itself a good deal
| handicapped by it's old record, but not
| paralyzed by 1t, nor rendered unfit for
| effective service and incapable OF winning
national battles.
| Shall 1t be twelve years until the evil
work of the present race of Democratic
| leaders Is expiated and effaced and the
| party is rescued from Its present woful
plight? Are We to have another presi-
| dental campaign erected right across the
! nations highway in the vain hope OF
J blocking its inevitable progress, and Is
| this campaign. the end of which may
| easily be foreseen, to be succeeded by
another until all living Democrats are
| dead, and a new bottle labelled "Democ-
racy'' is brought out by brand new set
of leaders calling themselves Democrats,
but dispensing quite a different sort Of
prescription than those dealt out
with much confidence? 1t may be so.
1t will be so unless the Democratic
masses realize that there is no hope in
threshing over the old straw of free sill
YER and still less in declaring the war
with Spain a failure. 1t will be, III short,
unless the Democratic masses demand
| that the party return to the line of TIL
| den, which was the line of Jackson, and,
accepting the whole situation as it IS.
, Philippines and ALL stand for the national
| integrity as expressed through It's obli-
| cations, abroad and at home, the public
| credit and order dominating every affair,
| both foreign and domestic.