The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-04-06
HOPES,

considerable of a demagogue, much of
a philosopher. a deal of a hobo, and
ever and always an optimist. It has
survived a hundred defeats, some. OF
them disastrous enough to kill a dozen
parties, and yet IL is vigorous and virile
today, and confident of victory at the
next election. There never was such
political vitality as the old party dis
plays. and the strange part Of it is that
1t a not a doubt that in the ~fullness
of time 1t will send the republican par
ty to the boneyard to which it consign-
ed the federaiist party Of Hamilton and
the WING party of Clay, to say nothing
Of the know-nothing party that swept
the north and east in 1854.
No other party could have survived
the split at Charleston and the war
record of the democracy al the north.
It was on both sides of that great
struggle-sending t the front McClel-
Ian n Buell.. Grant and Rosecrans,
Thomas and Hancock. and scores of
other generals. while denouncing the
conduct Of the war in party platforms,
in stump speeches, and in editorial
leaders.
But it survived. and in 1874, with
much of the south under bayonet rule,
1t swept the cOuntry-it was the era
Of Tilden, of Thurman, Of Bayard. of
Hendricks. of Morrison of Randall.
They led the party out of the wilder
ness. n in 1876 the popular majority
of Tilden was a quarter of a million.
Twice Grover Cleveland held the of
fee of president; twice the democrats
controlled the senate since 1851, and
eight congresses since that date have
been presided over by democratic
speakers. In 1898 the Ole party had
the world in the basket and could not
agree on the disposition of it. There
was another split-as fiat political sui
eide as ever was Ordered-and the par
ty was sent to the wilderness in 1894
and has been there ever since.
Again, as ever, hope sustains it. 1t
expects to carry the election this year.
and many republicans are of the same
opinion. Massachusetts is sure to mug
wumD in November, and when Massa-
Sachusetts mugWumpS the country in
Variably turns democrat.
But what will the democrats do with
the sixtieth congress if they get it?
That is a question the angels could
not answer.
There is much truth in those parts
of the editorial which refer to the
wonderful vitality and recuperative
power after defeat of the party. and
also of it's inability to use to advan-
tage the victories it has won.
If the Post will turn to the conduct
of the republican party toward the
south in reconstruction days it will
find much of the reason for the
great tenacity and revivifying quail
ties of the democratic party. The re-
publican party Of those days forced
the south to become solidly democrat
ic and thus laid a rock bottom foun-
dation for that party to repeatedly
build upon, after each successive
superstructure had been destroyed by
defeat cyclOnic in force.
In reconstruction days "old line
wings" of the southern states were
driven into what is now called the
democratic party by the conduct of
republicans-many of them not be-
cause they loved the democratic, but
because they hated the republican
more. With many of those wings it
was a bitter pill to be forced to align
themselves with their old political
OllClllICS, LII uCLlot1dSS, u ~
was nothing else for them to do; their
patriotism and desire for preservation
of their states from utter ruin and
disgrace, and their people from deg
radiation, left them no other course.
United with their old political antag-
onists, they took up the burden of
forcing the republican carpet-bag
rule and restoring the rightful su-
premacy.
ton of the democratic party. Many
of the men who fought those battles
against republican corruption and
tyranny are still living. They have
not forgotten that the republican
party of today is their old enemy of
'6S-'70, and their sons have imbibed
much of the same feeling.
The country is again united. The
south has gotten over the disappoint-
ment at the result of the war. She
no longer bears resentment against
the north because Of the war; but
the odor of republican rottenness IN
the days following still fingers in the
nostrils of her people and their men,
cries still cling to the injustice, tyr
amy and degradation heaped upon
them by this same republican party.
and this to a large extent accounts
for the continued strength of the
democratic party in the south not
withstanding the repeated overwhelm-
ing defeats that party has met with
in national elections.
. On last Sunday Tho Daily Journal of