Year: 1873

| THE SOUTHERN DEMOCRACY.


The common law defines lunauc as


one who hath had understanding, but by


disease. grief or other accident hath lost
the use of bis reason. The party known


in the South as the Democracy. which


should indeed be spelled Democracy,


comes strictly within this definition. 1tG


chief phase Of alteration is one seen in


most madhouses, and especially Illus


trated by Hogarth, in a ragged monarch
| with paper crown and stick sceptre.
These unfortunate sovereigns usually al
| firm that they were born to command.
but have been cheated out OF their birth


registry by some corrupt combination


Those physically insane derive their ap'
pellation from the belief that the access
of madness is periodical. corresponding
| with the changes Of the moon. The
political madmen are usually placid and
idle until the approach Of a State
city, parish, or federal election, when they
start up in all the e1asperation Jo


imaginary wrong and with all the en-
thusiasn Of an ideal remedy and have to


be reduced to the straight jacket of a mi


uority, before they cease to disturb the pub
! lie peace or to threaten the public safety
Our political potentates may provoke


the sigh of pity from their friends, or a


smile of contempt for their impotence
from their enemies, yet they demean them
| selves with as much authority as Lear
him self at the lowest point Of his fortunes.
Persons thus afflicted become incapable Of


conducting their own affairs; they are
very troublesome to their friends, and
even dangerous to the public. There may
be, then, issued a writ de lundtico IN.
q,lirendo, under which an intelligent COM
mission inquiries into the state Of the mind
of the alleged lunatic.


We propose torender this service to the
Southern people in respect to certain OF
its politicians who labor under delusion
as incurable as it is mischievous.


The most serious symptom OF this NAL
ady is that the persons composing the
Democracy are endowed with an exclu-
sive authority to command the party obe-
dience of every Southern man. The
Pope himself. "cribbed. cabined and con-
fined" in his palace and its purlieus. does
not believe himself more entitled to direct
Christendom; he does not believe more
implicitly in his own power to impose the
pains of temporal and eternal e1commu-
nication 'from the company Of all Chris
tians" than do the chiefs of this intolerant
clique to rule the South and to punish
with the penalties Of exclusion such South
ern men as may disobey its behests.


So confirmed is this clique in the delu-
sion of its own infallibility that it may
with fmpunity do an act which, if done
on the private judgment Of an individual.
would consign him to political perdition.
The clique has accepted amnesty with an
oath of renewed allegiance to the govern
nent. yet it censures any citizen who sup
ports the government by his vote. The
clique gave its vote and support for the
highest office to a man born in New
Hampshire; to an Abolitionist from his
cradle; to an advocate of war march to
the capital Of the seeding States; to a
friend of universal education and of uni
yersal freedom; to the advocate Of pro-
tective tariff, national bank. road.
canal. river and harbor improvements.
colleges and schools at the cost, in money
or public lands, Of the national govern
ment. This man deliberately recorded
the declaration that he did not recant or
qualify one of these doctrines, and this
clique, of what this candidate always
persisted in calling the sham Democracy,
gave him their enthusiastic adhesion and
would. we have no reason to doubt,
have vindicated their sincerity by
accepting every Office which he might
have to bestow. We are aware that the
sagacious regard to personal gain which
is thus displayed might initiate against
the theory Of political insanity. Yet,
this must be set down to that cunning
which often accompanies the most unset
tied intellect.


Immediately. however. after thus abne-
eating and renouncing every principle of
political action which had ever been taught
by these leaders, they found some be-
nighted followers who supposed that if it
were lawful to vote for one Republican
opponent Of their principles. it might be
allowed them to vote for another Repub-
lican reported to have been at one time a
believer in their principles. No sooner,
however, was this done than the leaders
of the Southern Democracy denounced
these followers as "talse to their country.
their honor" and--if it would have added
to the enorinity Of their offense in
the estimation of the cligue--of their
God. But the divinity Of that
clique was the offices from which
they had been cast out Notwithstanding
the combinations for federal Office made
by the clique. they charged certain men
holding the highest Southern certificates
of honor with the most disgraceful mo-
tives in accepting offices rendered them
by government desirous to propitiate
the South by just confidence in those
who had submitted with the same sin
cerity as they had fought. One of these
men, the incumbent Of responsible for
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