Year: 1872

Principles, not men," was once q
motto in politics in the American Repub-
lie. But, with at least one class of voters,
that motto is now thrown aside as thing
of the past. Instead of battling for the
success Of principles which, if carried in
to practical effect will cohduce to the
prosperity of the country, we behold a
great party yield up its organization,
cast to the winds forever the principles
for which it has long, and often VIC
toriously contended, and taking up the
rallying cry of d faction of their lifelong
enerhes, hope to win victory where the
spoils Of office is the only reward which
can be looked for and the only thing
achieved. Yet such is the situation in
which the Democratic party is now plac-
ed by the action of their convention at
Baltimore. The time honored princi-
pies" of which we have heard so much,
especially Of late years, are no longer
urged as an incentive 10 the rank and file
to once more close up the column in or
der Of battle. Instead, they are told by
their leaders to come forward to the sup
port of one with whose political sympa-
thies they can have nothing in common,
and if they ask why they are called upon
to do thing so utterly repugnant to
their ideas Of political right and wrong,
the parrot-like answer is Anything to
beat Grant ~


There may be reasons, sound and log
ical, why Democrats should give their
support to one Republican tor the sake of
defeating another Republican. But if
there are, they are certainly not manifest
ed as yet. We are no worshiper,
and think no more Of General Grant than
we do Of any other Republican whose
services have been such as TO entite him
to recognition and reward at the hands of
the Republicans Of the nation. To us
Grant is simply the representative Of Re
publican principles, constituted such by
the representative Republicanism of the
Union, ssembled at Philadelphia. His
defeat would be, of course, defeat of
Republicanisn while at the same time
it would not be Democratic victory
This may seem paradoxical, yet it is not,
for there is no Democratic party or Dem
ocratic principles to be reared upon the
ruins Of Republicanism. The platform
adopted by the Cincinnati Convention,
although substantially endorsed at Balti-
more, certainly finds no honest adherents
in the Democratic ranks. The second
resolution, against the re-opening Of the
questions settled by the three last consti-
tutional amendments, is of itself enough
to damn it in Democratic opinion, and
the same can safely be said Of the sew
cnth and ninth resolutions. What Dem
ocrat Of the stripe Of Voorhees,, Randall,
Van Trump, or any Of the Southern
wing, where the chief strength of tho
party lies would, if elected to Congress,
support measures designed to carry out
the spirit Of the three resolutions we have
named 2 Not one-for it was upon the
issues involved in these three resolutions
that the two parties have mainly differed.


By" beating Grant" then, as we said
before, the Democrats gain nothing but
share in the spoils of office. Perhaps,
too, we should add, that by electinga ma
jority in the lower branch of Congress,
they may be able to block the wheels OF
government for the next two years, which
is about all it could hope to effect. But
with eithe" Grant or Greeley as the Ex-
ecutiye, there could be little hope for
the approval OF any Of the schemes which
Democrats cherish in the secretness of
their thoughts, and thus with that party,
as with their Liberal" allies, it is n
question, not Of principles, but of men.
They support Greeley because he is weak
vascillating and bolter they oppose
Grant because he is firm, decided in his
administration of the law, and the regu-
lar nominee Of his party. What wonder
then, that the idea Of supporting nom
inee on such terms as these fails to arouse
any enthusiasm among old line Demo
Gratis, who have stood by their party
alike in its weakness and in its strength =?
" Anything to beat Grant ~ may be a
good watch word with time serving, weak
kneed, eleventh hour Democrats, who
remained in the Union organization Just
as long as it fattened them on office and
left it when they found themselves
played OUT" but it has few charms for
those who, AS Democrats, bore the heat
and the bulden of the day because they be-
cause they believed the principles of their
party should be the ones which should
govern the land.


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The Shasta Courier thus illustrates how