Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1900-08-30
GRAND DEMOCRATIC PARTY.
Jefferson Formulated the Declare.
ton Of independence.
A BIT OF POLITICAL HISTORY
The Democratic COnventiOas Of 1899
Drove All the COrrupting Influences
In American POlitlca to Mckinley.

The democratic party rests npori the
great basic principles of popular govern
ment. Its founders were the men who
solved the problem of self-goverhment in
the western world. Jefferson was the
master spirit and guiding genius who
formulated and drafted the Declaration
of Independence. He and his cO-wOrkers
prevailed in the convention that adopted
the American Constitution, and they
afterwards guided the destinies of the
young republic for more than quarter
of century. The success of the repub-
lie, which is the marvel of the world, is
the success of democratic principles.
Slavery, an inherited evil and utterly
at variance with democratic principles,
was an institution so widespread and
powerful that the original government
could not be organized without giving it
recognition, and it remained stumbling
block in the pathway of the nations pro-
gress until democratic ideas had gained
sufficient strength to finally strangle it..
When Lincoln was leading the crusade
against slavery he invoked the Declara-
ton of Independence and accepted JEFF
ferson and his teachings as guide. The
party of Lincoln embraced in its ranks
far greater number of original democrats
of prominence than it did of wings.
The war for the preservation Of the
union engendered a period of pecnlation,
and while the patriotic and loyal men Of
the country were in the field bearing
arms in defense of the union the charac-
ter of the party of Lincoln became COM
pletely changed through the accession Ct
all sorts of jobbers and public plunderers
who found that their interests could best
be promoted by acquiring influence in
the party in control of the government.
At the cessation of hostilities, when the
great mass of the people were rejoicing
that victory had crowned our arms and
that the union was safe, catering to the
patriotic sentiment of the country to up
hold them, corrupt combinations were
formed to raid the nations treasury,
secure grants of public domain and to
plumber the conquered states through
carpet bag governments. The corrupt
and pernicious combination of CONNER
cial bodies and organizations who sought
to enrich themselves through govern
mental favoritism, with politicians who
sought to enrich themselves as carpet
baggers in the South, held sway for many
years by stirring up the animosities OF
the war and appealing to the passions Of
the people.
Thus it soon became evident to many
patriotic men who were the leaders OF
the republican party, that a condition
existed and was growing into alarming
proportions that BODIED danger to popular
government and free institutions, that
the party OF Lincoln had become COM
pletely dominated by commercial and
political brigands who were criminally
using the power of the government to
enrich themselves.
The protest against this state of things
had become SO strong that in 1872 large
portion of the distinguished statesmen
whose service constitute the glory of the
party left the party. 1t will
be remembered that an Independent re-
publican convention assembled at Gin
cinnati in 1872 and nominated Horace
Greeley for the presidency. The con-
vention was composed OF about seven
hundred delegates, all OF whom had been
formerly conspicuous for eminent SER
vices in the republican party. The list
embraced such distinguished names as
Charles Francis Adams, who was our
minister to England during the war,
Lyman Trumbull, of Illinois, Carl Schurz,
and others. The independent republican
at Cincinnati marked the
DeSlIlulIk VI lIIC ICtuIH W Viz NCiuoNA0tAN
fold of the great men who left the party
before or during the war,
and the accession to the party Of many
other eminent men who were formerly
affiliated with the wing party, who be-
came alarmed over the menace to our
institutions OF the new order of things
that was SO rapidly developing.
The evil influences that alarmed Gree.
ley, Trumbull, Julian, Schurz and others
in 1872 continued to grow and expand
and wax rich off land grants, franchises
and special privileges. The Independent
republican movement in 1872 and the
Endorsement of Greeley's nomination by
the democrats warned them Of dangers
to he avoided, and from this time forward