Year: 1879

Yes, it is very much the old ques-


ton, after all Shall the Nation per-


ish that the supremacy Of States may


be established ? The Democratic
leaders would put the question in a
different form, no doubt But among
the rank and file of that party, every
assertion of the power Of the Nation
to defend its own existence, its laws,
it's officials, or the purity Of its cleo
tions, is regarded with undisguised
hostility. That feeling of hostility is
only the more potent because it is
rather a half unconscious impulse than
an avowed and deliberate purpose.
Half Of the Democratic party was in
arms against the Nation too long not
to be irritated by every display of the
Nations power. Another portion
sympathized with rebellion as Copper
heads too long and too heartily to re-
gard without bitterness the mighty
power which the Nation first display
ed when traitors menaced its exist
ence. Another portion, being essen
TALLY Socialists or Communists, re-
gard all government as their enemy,
and a strong government as more
dangerous enemy than weak govern
ment. Thus, many shades of motive
and forms of belief conspire to pro-
duce that bitter hostility to vigor-
Gus, self-denying National Govern
ment, which is the characteristic spirit
of the Democratic party. This spirit
finds fuller expression in the attempt
to nullify the Election laws, to cripple
the Army, and to strip the President
of his constitutional power, than it
has found at any other time since the
war.


The country has new reason for
whenever some Demo-
cratic leader, by an unguarded burst
of frankness, makes the real spirit and
purpose of that party clearer. Mr..
Southland, a former member of Con-
gress, whose boast it is that he brought
on the present struggle by his course
at the last regular session, has been
speaking with candor, and has enti-
tied himself to the public gratitude.
The extra session, he says, was only a
skirmish, and the battle has yet to
come. The Democratic party will,
perforce, become absolutely united in
the effort to repeal or nullify the
Election laws, to provide that the
Army shall not be used to enforce
those and other laws, and to put down
what he is pleased to consider the
usurpation of the Executive. He is
firm in the belief that the party must
fight to the death on this line, and
gives a pertinent reason. With the
Election laws, he says, enforced as it
now knows how to enforce them, the
Republican party is invincible. The
phrase is strong one, and Mr.. South
ard gives details. He asserts that in
ten or more districts the Democrats
would have elected members of the
present Congress but for those laws,
and that their better enforcement
hereafter will deprive the Democratic
party of a still greater number Of
members. What was done in the
Congressional elections, he holds, can
be done even more effectively in the
election of Presidential electors. What
has been done hitherto, when few Re-
publicans understood how to make
the law effective, will be done with far


greater results hereafter, now that the


recent discussion has caused Republi-


cans all over the country to acquaint


themselves with the law. In this, Mr..


Southland evidently holds the belief


already expressed by the Tribune.


The Democrats were foolish to assail


the law, and so make its powers widely


known, unless they meant to repeal it


or prevent it's enforcement.


Now, be it remembered that there


is no evidence that the election law or


the Army was used in any other pur-


pose than to prevent violence and


fraud. Yet the Democrats would


have succeeded, Mr.. Southland con-


fesses, in ten more districts, had not


this restraining power existed. The


confession becomes complete when it


is compared with the evidence elected


after long searching, by Democratic
committees with almost unlimited