Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-09-03

| SII iON, ana the party of "OE
NUNciATIoN." We quote from Sen
ator Beveridge in the Saturday Eve.
ming Post:
an all free countries. there art
Fundamentally two parties-the part,
Of construction and the party Of op
positions: the builders and the critics
Those among the people whose in
stinct is to create something, plant
something, make something, form one
party; and those whose nature is &c
oppose, protest, criticise, form the 9th
Ter party.
In this country the party of con-
struction is the Republican party-the
party of opposition is the Democratic
party. shall, said, in substance
Charles Francis Adams, in speech in
Boston on August l of the present
year, support the Democratic ticket
because | wish to see the Democratic
party the party of opposition He
could better have said that he would
support the Democratic ticket because
/. the Democratic party is the party OF
| opposition
"Of course, such party is valuable
/ even necessary. Possibly the forces
i of construction would build too rapid
F. ly if the forces of opposition did not
delay them. But heartily agreeing
| that party of opposition has its uses,
!, is it the party for young men? Youth
! is constructive. Young blood is the
blood that builds There is some
thing so unnatural that it is uncanny
in the spectacle of young man in q
state of habitual opposition.
| THE years of his active manhood,
when his veins are full of power and
purpose, are the years when in his
personal life man ought to be ae-
mplishing something substantial,
affirmative So should he also in his
political life. But who ever heard of
+, a young man largely succeeding in
anything whose life was chronic OBJ
| lection an habitual criticism?
THAT the Republican party has been
and is the party of construction. and
| the Democratic party the party of OPP
3, position as Mr. Adams calls it, is
proved by historical fact and present
common knowledge. Consider ex-
Republican party-measures that will
be instantly recognized as landmarks
of American progress in the last hail
century, as witness:
THE homestead law. giving practi-
cally free homes to free men-the
measure which peopled the mighty
West and gave to the republic mill
lions of homecoming citizens; or
That historic group of measures
growing out of the Civil War and i'm
mediately following it, of which the
Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments
to the Constitution are the most not
able; or
The national banking laws. by
which convenient means of supply
ing uniform currency To the people
was established; or
THE resumption of specie payments
and the consequent defeat of schemes
of reputation which would have
destroyed the nations honor; or
The various protective tariff laws
which have changed the republic from
distinctively agricultural country to
the greatest of manufacturing nations;
or
THE legislation and craftsmanship |
flowing out of the Spanish war. by |
which the republic acquired the mos. |
important archipelago in the Pacific |
ocean, the control of the entrance OF |
the Gulf of Mexico. and has governed
those acquisitions with brilliant abil |
ity; or
The great Plat amendment estab- |
x-lS. IL. ,gtl. ha
making easy the developments of the
future-the most conspicuous example
of constructive legislation since the
Constitution was framed.
Thus we have a series of mighty
creative acts, every one of which
marks tremendous and permanent add
vances of the Republic beginning a
the very birth Of the Republican party.
$50 much for the Republican party's
L constructive work yesterday and the
day before. = oil
The Conservative Party VS.. The Radi-
l. cal Party.
THE Republican party is not only
the party of construction, it is also the
party of conservatism; and the Demo-
cratic party is not only the party of
| opposition" it is also the party OF
| radicalism.
| Considered abstractly, this is
| contradiction in terms. We should
expect the creative party to be the
radical party, the party of protest to
be the conservative party. That the
| converse is true in this country is ex-
| planned by the origin and history OF
the two parties. For example, the
Wing party was the conservative party
before the Civil War; and before the
Wing party the Federal party of Ham,
ifton, Washington. Marshall and
Adams was the conservative party On
| the other hand, before the War the
radical party was the Democrats
party; and before the Democratic
! party, the Republican party (as it was
| then called) of Jefferson and his as
sociates was the radical party.
| But the Republican party, created
| by the moral awakening of the Nation
which preceded the Civil War, alb
sorbed the Whig party practically in
| its entirety. Thus the largest single
body of Republican voters who elected
| inpaln was tho historical papsarya !.