Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1904-09-14
its Professions and Promises
Compared with Its
Performances.
VERlTABLE CALAMITY PARTY
breaches the Gospel of Discomfort and
Wastes Time in Obstructing Wise
and Beueficent Republican
Policies.

Congressman J. Adam Bede tells of
meeting a typical member Of the party
of promises and calamity hOwlers. The
Democrat had just come out of a saloon
when he told Bede he had been buying
some lining for his underelothes. In
reply to Bede's query as to how he was
getting on, the unfortunate disciple of
Jefferson answered:
"That his horse went dead and his mule
went lame,
And he lost six cows In poker game
Then hurricane came. on summers day,
And blew the house where he lived, away;
And an earthquake came when that was
And swallowed che land that the house
Then the taY collector soon came round
And charged him up with the hole in the
grOunt."
Bede said that his friend thought that
was carrying the single tax too far. But
if you could analyze his case and those
of all chronic complainers and kickers
you would find tSat out of hundred
of them, at least ninety-eight ought to
go out and kick themselves.
Short on Performance.
Democrats do not know the meaning
vi the NOIu pei IOA ilidhttf Nhth hb
piled to doing anything for the gen
eral good, the advancement of the hu-
man race, or the betterment OF man
kind. AS party it has been trying
to write it for more than a 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
evrfsli nh al nnifE
to perform. Its normal attitude is with
its face to the past and its back to the
future. 1t never sees an opportunity I'M
til the issue has been permanently set
tied by the Republican party and public
sentiment. Then It will stand up, with
unblushing and inconceivabe effrontery,
and say: Il did it,"
If the question of lOcOmOtion, with
1t, depended upon the two limbs of prom
Use and performance, it would limp
through its course lOathsome deformity.
The promise leg would reach several
times around the earth and then to the
moon, while the performance member
could not be found, intact, with a pow
erful magnfying glass. 1t has been
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
titles to be fatal, but a slow death car
ries its own peculiar form of retributive
punishment
Founded on a Mistake.
jefferson, its father, while a man of
deep learning and consummate diplo-
macy, hated Washington, and early OPP
posed the cardinal principles of the Fed
1oA Vh.a
Democratic party 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 mea ;ures directed
toward the healthy progress of the cOun-
try and the real advancement of its peO-
pie. Being a 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.
If jefferson was the founder of De-
mocracy. Jackson is its patron saint. AT
ter the Jeffers0nian period, 1SO1-25, came
the Jacksonian, 1S25-4O. The signiti-
canoe 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 aud against the idea
of Repubcanism. He assumed a posi-
ton between Congress and the people. S
it were; as patriarchal ruler of the re-
uublic, The curse of Jackson's ad-
minfstration was that it weakened re-
spect for law. The first clear symptom
of the decline of healthy political spirit
was the election and reelection of Jack
son to the Presidency. HIS administra-
tion paved broad way for the demon
alizing transformation of the American
Deople Under Jackson politics were
vulgarized and American society was de-
prived of its rightful influence over gov
eminent.
Partisans, Not Patriots.
The twenty years from the defeat OF
Van Buren, in 1910 to the defeat Of
pouglas in 1860 brought additional dis
sster and odium upon Democratic ad-
miuistration. The strength Of the party
has always rested in the Solid South,
and the uneducated riffratf Of our great
cities. During the years mentioned the
Southern Democracy pursued poIiey OF
territorial expansion, not out of patrIotic
or broad motives, but for the sole pnr-
nose Of increasing the uum Der Of Save
States and thus preserve the sectional
balance in the Senate. These years are
,,,an,arsble in history for the struggle
for territorial acquisition, the struggle
over the Wiimot Proyisc' the Compfo.
80 If 1870 the repeal Of the Missouri
Compromise, for the long agony IN nan
CO. far the sensational Died Scott de-
80 and for the reconstruction Of the
nar+v on strictly sectional lines.
Rapid Moral Decay.
During all these wel-niy history mas
T,.-,,.s-4 marty y D.