The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1908-02-28
Mr.. 8oURKE COCHRAN ON DE-
MOCRAcY


speech was not printed in the Con
gressional Record until February Is.
The splendOr of this speech. its gen
eral accuracy. leads us to say that it
is a little peculiar that men who are
possessed with the beauty and gift
Of language: who. without apparent
effort can frame the most perfect and
splendid sentences. rarely possess the
greater gift OF discernment and judg-
ment
Take any Of our eminent wOTd-paint-
ers, and they all seem to be alike in
that they are lacking in the essentials
of discrimination and judgment, which
! Governor Joseph E. Brown of Georgia
said was so necessary in an essayist.
speaker, author or statesman.
These gentlemen, who have the flow
OF Ian ruage so pat. always seem to
have a screw loose or out Of joint
somewhere, which initiates very ma
terially against their otherwise mag
nidCent productions.
1t is so with John Temple Graves.
! Thomas f. Watson, Ebert Hubbard,
Claude LEngle, and it was so with
Brann and a hundred others that we
might mention.
So. this being true, we may very
well pass over the praise and more
than fulsome eulOgy with which Mr..
/ Cochran fathers the president, about
whose merits and dement's democrats
and republicans differ very totally
from one another and hold to all sorts
and variety of opinions. Indeed, the
president. like the chameleon, shows
such a variety of colors that he has
put the whole country to thinking
But we know that all democrats will
readily agree, and many republicans
will be forced to confess. that what
the brilliant New Yorker says about
the achievements of the democratic
party are absolutely true.
And what does he say of the
achievements of this party He says
a plenty and says them beautifully.
Among other things he says the fol
lowing:
Il venture the assertion that from
the very first establishment of this
government there never has been a
policy permanently incorporated into
our political system that was not Of
democratic origin The country has
often rejected democratic candidates.
but il has never accepted measure
vitality affecting the structure or de-
velOpment of our government that
was not either recommended by a
democratic president, enacted by a
democratic congress, or proposed by a
democratic convention. Even the leg
islation of the last fifty years has
been an enforcement of democratic
policies by republican politicians"
He shows that the dOtrines of JEFF
fersOn. which were democratic. were
accepted. and those Of Hamilton,
which were autOCratic, were rejected.
He points out the difference be-
tween the peaceful policy of eXpan-
sion under Jefferson in the Louisiana
purchase. and the coercive policy of
expansion as exhibited in the Philip
pine experiment by the republican
party.
He shows that the Monroe doctrine
was a democratic measure and the !
"indestructibility of our federal conf
pact" was first proclaimed and rigid
ly adhered to by President Jackson |
That all that was vicious in the recon |
struction measures was the result of
republican extremists; but that the re-
construction that was finally adopted |
based on the policy of pacifcation,
was accomplished through the leaven |
of democracy.
Upon this head he says:
Democrats insisted that the south |
was not to be treated as conquered |
territory, to be pilaged, oppressed, |
gaTrisOned: her patriots TO be pros |
ecuted; her leaders TO be fined. eXiled, |
imprisoned, hanged. but that she must
be welcomed back as an estTanged |
sister TO the sisterhOd Of states. with |
out condition or disqualification. herr
hands not bound in shackles, but left /
free 10 repair the waste Of war while !
her head repOsed securely on the gen |
eTous bosom of a reunited country"
And of the fruits of this policy. in !
stead Of those harsher measures of
cOnfiscation. prescription and execu-
ton. insisted upon by Thad Stevens
and his crowd, Mr.. Cochran says:
And, sir, never has a policy been
indicated so grandly and gloriously |
The men who had sustained heroically
in many battlefelds the right of a /
state to secede within ten years re-
joiced with the victors over the tri-
umph of the Union. And today there