Year: 1871

The democratic party is now In the condi-
tion Of great army 10 hostile country
broken up into numerous detachments, scat
tered about over an immense territory, with
out general-in-chief or common leader ana
without fixed plan OF operations. BY their
astonishing victory of March last 10 New
Hampshire the party leaders dattered them
selves with the dslusion that 1t was the begin


ming Of sweeping political revolution. and
that all the State elections OF the year would
run in the same channel, cleaving the way
| for an old line democratic President In 1872.
But the April Connecticut election blotted
out all such old line democratic calculations.
Then was tried the new democratic departure
of accepting s'the fourteenth and fifteenth
came the crushing exposures against the
Tammany Ring, and so on. from the Maine
aud California elections of September to the
recovery OF New York ny the republicans in
November, on the platform Of General Grants
administration; and then came, by certain
democratic organs and leaders, the agitation
of this passive, or possum policy, which, while
still under discussion, has suddenly col
lapsed.


This "possum" policy was first proposed
by the leading democratic journals of Mis-
souri,. II was the policy of carrying over the


democratic party to republican boilers from


General Grant, and Of combining democrats


and anti-Grant republicans on sort of no


party ticket in reform fight for the Presi-
dental succession. Uader Governor Gratz


Brown and Senator Carl Schurz as the leaders


of the bolting republicans, and under General


Frank Blair and others as the leading demo-


Gratis, this anti-Grappt combination. policy had


been tried and crowned with great success in


Missouri, carrying, for instance, General Blair


into the Senate. Naturally enough, therefore,


the parties directly concerned in this Missouri


experiment of sinking the democratic party in


faction Of republican boilers thought it


could be successfully applied to the whole


United States. The Missourians, in their ad-


vocacy of this policy, in this view, were at


first earnestly supported by several leading
democratic journals in New York and else
where in the East; but since the meeting of
| Congress the old line democratic presses of
the country-Eist, West and South-have
whistled the cowardly project down the wind.
So, here we are again, Mr.. Merriman, and
what are you going to do now3 The New
Hampshire democracy, the first In the field for
the next years State elections, have fallen
back into their old party entrenchments, pre-
pared, hit or miss, to stand there till called to
take bolder ground by national party con-
vention. Meantime, from the democratic
leaders in Congress we have no sign. How
ever, few days hence they will be dispersed
among their constituents for the Christmas
and New Year holidays, and then, with their
return to Washington, we may have demo-
cratic Congressional caucus which will throw
some light upon the subject 1t seems now to
be generally agreed that the party Is not dead,
but that it still lives, and that notwithstand-
ing the downfall Of Tammany and the loss Of
its prestige and financial and material aid, the
only course compatible with the dignity,
strength and general sentiment of the party, is
sill to keep the old party flg flying and ''full
high advanced" In the face of the enemy.
Unqaestionably the inducements held out by
the anti-Grant republicans for the possum
policy are universally regarded as too doubt
full, uncertain and slim to justify any further
serious thought by democrats of this sort of
new departure.


In truth, this talk of disbanding the demo-
cratic party in view Of new party organiza-
ton for 1872, this special pleading for another
change Of base on the eve OF the battle, is
preposterous. From its very beginning down
to this day the history Of the democratic party
is history of party expedients from one
campaign to another. 1t first came into power
with the glory Of General Jackson from his
glorious battle Of New Orleans; the popularity
of his war on the old United States Bank re-
elected him, and the flush times of = paper
money initiating pet State bank policy elected
his chosen successor, Van Buren. But then
came that financial reaction and the collapse
OF that inflated bubble Of prosperity in 1887,
which raised that popular whrlwind of ls4O


and which it was next supposed had finished
the democracy as an effective national organ


ization. 1t may be safely said, too, that but
for the death of President Harrison and the


detection Of John Tyler, the wings, In all


probability, would have held the White House
for two or three Presidential terms in success
sion. As 1t was, even with the popular demo-
cratic war cry of the annexation of Texas and
the desertion from the whg ticket in this State
of fifteen thousand whig aboltionists, change
in 1874 of less than Eve thousand votes In
New York would have defeated Polk and


elected Henry Clay.


That was narrow escape for the democratic


party; but it was the beginning Of the end of


the old whig party. In 18i8 Il rallied on


General Taylor, fresh from the Mexican war,


and, with the aid of Martin Van Buren,, he
was elected Van Buren had been cut out of