The river press., 1904-10-05
Its Professions and Promises
Compared with Its
Performances.
vERlTABLE CALAMITY PARTY
breaches the Gospel Of Discomfort and
Wastes Time in 0bstructing Wise
and Beneficent Republican
Policies. g..

Congressman J. Adam Bede tells of
znceting typical member of the party
OF promises and calamity howlcrs. The
Democrat had just come out of a saloon
when he told Belle he had been buying
some lining for his underclothes. In
reply to Bcde's query rs to how he was
getting Oh, the unfortunate desciple Of
Jefferson answered.
THAT his horse went dead and his mule
went lame,
+,.' And he lost six cows in poker game;
And blew the house where he lived away:
And an earthquake came when that was
gone,
And swallowed , the land that the house
Then the tax collector soon came round
And charged him UP with the hole III the
Bede said That his friend thought tia,
WAS carrying the single tax too far. But
if you could analyze his case and those
OF al chronic con,pIainers and kickers
YOU would find that. out OF Il hundred
OF them, at least ninety-cight ought t.
SO out and kick themselves.
Short ON Performance.
Democrats do not know the meaning
Of the word performance" when ap-
piled to doing anything for the gen.
era! yood, the advancement Of the hui
man race, or the betterment OF man.
kind: AS a 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
psychic conception or physical capacity
to perform. Its normal attitude is with
its face to the past and its back to the
1ltNrc. 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
unhlushing and inconceivable effrontery,
and say: Il did it,.
If the question Of locomotion. with
1t, depended upon the two limbs Of prom
lse and performance, it would limp
through it's course 4 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 pow
erful magnifying glass. 1t has been a
helpless victim OF promisephobia for a
hundred aud one years. and there is not
single symptom of relief in sight. The
disease is conceded by the best author
tiles to be fatal but slow death car
rics its own peculiar form of retributiye
punishment.
Founded on Mistake.
jefferson. it's father, while man OF
deep learning and consummate diplo.
macy, hated Washington, and early op.
posed the cardinal principles of the Fed.
eral Government. He organized the
Democratic party to aid him in this op-
position. Washington and Hamilton
wanted a strong protective government,
Jefferson wanted Il 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 it's peo-
pie. Being party Of opposition and
obstruction it's policy has been to preach
calamity and foster discomfort: to prom
ise everything and actually do nothing
Party Odium Under Jackson.
ii jefferson was the founder of De
mocracy. Jackson is it's patron saint. Az
ter the Jeffersonian period, 1SOl-2j. came
the Jacksonian, 1S25-4O. The signiti
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-
ton between Congress and the people. as
it werc; as a 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 healthy political spirit
was the election and reelection Of Jack
son to the Presidency. His administra-
tion paved broad way for the demor-
alizing transformation of the American
people. Under Jackson, politics were
vulgarized and American society was de.
rrived Of it's rightful influence over gov
ernment.
Partisans, Not Patriots.
The twenty years from the defeat OF
Van Baren in 1910 to the defeat Of
douglas in 1860 brought additional dis
aster and odiun upon Democratic ad-
ministration. The" strength Of the party
has always rested in the Solid South.
and the uneducated riffraff 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 Wilmot Froviso, the Compro-
mise Of 1850. the repeal of the Missouri
Compromise, for the long agony in Kan
sas. for the sensational Dred Scott de-
c;sion, and for the reconstruction of the
party on strictly sectional lines.
Rapid Moral Decay.
During all these weighty history-mak
ing years. the Democratic party was
the willing accomplice Of the Southern