The Springfield herald., 1904-09-16
RECORD OF THE DEMOCRACY
Its Professions and Promises
Compared with Its
Performances.
yERITABLE CALAMITY PARTY
breaches the Gospel Of Discomfort and
Wastes Time Ia Obstructlug Wise
and Benef flcent Republican
Policies.

Congressman ]. Adam Bede tells OF
meeting a typical member Of the party
of promises and calamity howlers. The
Democrat had just come out of n saloon
when he told Bede he had been buying
some lining for his underclothes. In
reply to Bede's query as to how he was
getting on. the unfortunate disciple of
Jefferson answered:
And he lost six cows in poker game;
Then hurricane cnme. on u summers day.
And blew the house where he lived, away;
And an earthquake came when that was
gone.
Then the tax collector soon came round
And charged him up with the hole In the
Bede said that his friend thought that
was carrying the single tax too far. But
il you could analyze his case and those
OF all chronic complainers and kickers
you would find that, out of hundred
Of them, at least ninety-eight ought to
60 out and kick themselves.
Short on Perform auce.
Democrats do not know the meaning
of the word performance" when ap-
Piled to doing anything for the gen.
eral good, the advancement of the hui
man race, or the betterment OF man
kind. As party it has been trying
to write it for more than full round
century, and yet it has not succeeded in
forming the first letter. To do anything
constructive or of permanent benefit
seems utterly beyond its moral and
psychic conception, or physical capacity
to perform. Its normal attitude is with
its face to the past and its back to the
future. 1t never sees an opportunity un.
til the issue has been permanently set
tied by the Republican party md public
sentiment. Then it will stand up, with
unblushing and inconceivable effrontery,
and say: II did it,
II the question of locomotion, with
it, depended upon the two limbs of prom
Use and performance, 1t would limp
through its course u loathsome deformity.
The promise leg would reach several
times around the earth and then to the
moon, while the performance membey
could not be found, intact, with pow.
erful mngnifying glass. 1t has been a
helpless victim of promisephobia for a
hundred and one years, and there is not
a single symptom of relief in sight. The
disease is conceded by the best author
tiles to be fatal, but n slow death car
ries its own peculiar form of retributive
punishment.
Founded on.a Mistake.
Jefferson. its father, while man OF
deep learning and consummate diplo-
mncy, hated Washington, and early op-
posed the cardinal principles Of the Fed
eral Government. He organized the
Democratic pnrty to aid him in this OPP
position. Washington and Hamilton
wanted a strong protective government.
Jefferson wanted weak Government
that would govern the least" Founded
on the idea of resentment, resistance, ne
CATION, subversion and an academic and
false conception of personal privilege,
the party has quite naturally been
"forninst" all sane measures directed
toward the healthy progress of the coun-
try and the real advancement Of its peo-
Pile. Being party of opposition and
obstruction it's policy has been to preach
calamity and foster discomfort; to prom
Use everything and actually do nothing.
Party Odium Under Jackson.
II Jefferson was the founder of De-
mocracy. Jackson is it's patron saint. Al
ter the Jeffersonian period, 1SO1-25, came
the Jacksonian. 1S254O. The signih
cance of the Jackson era of Democracy
lies in the fact that he was able to build
a machine from the rabble or the less
educated classes. that enabled him act
ually to assert his claims in conflict with
the Constitution and against the idea
of Republicanism. He assumed a posi-
tion between Congress and the people, as
it were; as patriarchal ruler of the re-
public. The curse of Jackson's ad-
ministration was that it weakened re-
spect for law. The first clear symptom
of the decline Of a healthy political spirit
was the election and reelection of Jack
son to the Presidency. His administra-
ton paved broad way for the demor-
alizing transforma ton of the American
people. Under Jackson, politics were
vulgarized and American society was de-
priyed Of its rightful influence over gov
ernment. std
Partisans, Not Patriots
The twenty years from the defeat of
Van Buren, in 1S40 to the defeat Of
Douglas In 1860 brought additional dis
aster and odium upon Democratic ad-
ministration. The strength Of the party
has always rested in the Solid South,
and the uneducated riffrah of our great
cities. During the years mentioned the
Southern Democracy pursued policy of
territorial expansion, not out Of patriotic
or broad motives. but for the sole pur-
pose OF increasing the number of slave
States, and thus preserve the sectional
balance in the Senate. These years are
memorable in history for the struggle
for territorial acquisition, the struggle
over the Wimot Proviso. the Compro-
mise OF 1850, the repeal OF the Missouri
Compromise, for the long agony in Kan
sns, for the sensational Dred Scott de-
cision, and for the reconstruction of the
party on strictly sectional lines.
Rapid Moral decay.
During all these weighty history max
ing years. the Democratic party was
the willing accomplice of the Southern
Shareholder in his efforts to perpetuare
the institution OF human slavcSy and to
extend slave labor Mt the expense of free
labor. The sacrifice of principle neces-
STATED by this relationship led to rapid
decay. The party ceased to produce
great leaders. Men of conscience and
courage, like Thomas II. Benton, left
it. The significance of this period is the
illustration il gives of the disastrous re-