Year: 1875

SOUScCutiNc 9Sei0 0'

 machinery of politics had not then been reduced as nearly to perfection as it now is, yet the iron discipline of Jackson and the skilliul diplomacy of van Buren, seconded by the efforts of a large number of remarkably shrewd men in and out of con gress, had given the Democracy q hold upon the country which 1t seemed as if nothing could shake. The whigs were not merely in the minority, but so discouraged and demoralized by repeated defeats that, while always ready to make a gallant fight, they scarcely felt that success was within the range of possibility. Leaders, such as no party has had before or since were only able to hold the rank and file together by appealing to those chivalrous feelings and Ee- reditary antiquities which no amount of misfortune could utter iy crush. But even the leaders themselves saw small prospect of victory in the future. Yet when a chance was offered, the officers and priyates of the old Whig army were quick to see 1t and quick to improve it. They did not waste their strength in bat ting with wind mills, or allow the the enemy an opportunity to re- cover his lost ground by a flank movement. They saw where the popular nail was located, and without looking to the right or to the left, struck it squarely on the head and drove it hom in cam paign which is still regarded as the most brilliant and famous in American annals.

 How was this result accom- plished? Briefly thus: Wheth CT by Democratic mismanage- ment or not it is unnecessary now to inquire, the country was pass ing through such an ordeal of hard times as had not been endur- ed since the war of 1872. Busi- ness was prostratc, money scarce, credit rotten, and. public conf dence destroyed. All classes were suffering from combination of commercial and financial evils which, though they could not precisely understand, they were exceedingly anxious to hold somebody accountable for. That somebody the Wings. were not slow to point out. They said to the people this; "Yes, times are hard, and will be harder; prices are low, and will be lower; money is scarce, and will be scarcer; the country is sinking swiftly and surely toward universal bankrupt cy and ruin. Who is to blame? The Democrats, of course. They have been in power twelve years. They have had things all their own way. They have devised new and clumsy schemes of finance. They have been reck- less in their expenditures. They have tapped the public pocket in a thousand different places. They are rogues who have wrought all the mischief, and to put a stop to the mischief you must put out the rogues." This was the sum and substance of the arguments which battered down the walls of Dem ocratic supremacy and landed Harrison in the White House. Observe that the Wings were not such supreme asses as to prepare and submit in advance a plan for lifting the country out of the mud, and stake their fortunes on the acceptance of this plan. They did not say how they would treat the patient, and thus give the op- position a chance to pick flaws in their practice. They said; "The patient is very sick, but we can cure him. Discharge the Demo cratic doctors first, and we will produce the prescription after 

 wards" And the Democratic doctors were discharged.

 It is thirty-live years since this exhibition of political sense and strategy was given. Have Demo crats forgot it? If they remem- Der it, can they not see that an opportunityfs now offered them