Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1874 — The Democratic Party. [ARTICLE]

The Democratic Party.

Shall the Democratic party be restored to power? No question of more momentous consequence was ever addressed to the American people. Those who are no# disposed to answer ittnftfte affirmative should first consider what the distinctive characteristics of the Democratic party were when it went out of office in 1861. We have but to recall the opening scenes of the rebellion —a cowardly, cringing Democratic President, a treacherous, treasonable Democratic Cabinet, defiant, ;., threatening Democratic rebels in the Senate and House of Congress uttering maledictions against the North and shaking off the dust of their feet against the Union as they haughtily stalked away to join the insurgent armies or to accept civil office under the Confederate States Government; wretched Democratic leaders skulking behind constitutional technicalities that the Constitution, the laws, liberty itself, might the iqore easily be stricken down. This, in brief, was the situation—the nation playing with a gigantic rebellion for

the stake of its life, and the Democratic party betting on the rebellion. Was there, during all the dark hours of the war, any suspension of Democratic hostility toward the Republican party, which, foot to foot with the foe, waged a doubtful struggle for the preservation of the Union? History has made its record, and it points to no instanee where the Democratic party rose above bitter and unrelenting partisanship to the dignity of a consideration of the superior claims of the Constitution and of the country. Witness, as the culminating act of a uniform course of carping criticism and open opposition, the resolution of the Democratic National. Convention of 1864. When the rebellion was trembling on the verge of helpless collapse, that convention, representing the principles and the personnel of the Democratic party, solemnly declared the war a failure and impudently demanded that terms of peace, fatal to the unity of the nation, be offered to the chiefs of the Confederacy Hew much better is the Democratic record since the war? Which of the amendments, now a part of the Constitution, did it support? Which of them did it not oppose with every weapon of political warfare? What act of reconstruction did the Democratic party not oppose with the most heated denunciation no less than the last resource of entreaty and argument? But the amendments were adopted, and the measures of reconstruction were supported by a vast majority of the people asfitssential to the future peace of the country no less than as acts of common justice in atonement for crimes done against a despised race in the abused name of liberty. Do the American people regret that they crushed out the rebellion, freed the negro, made him a citizen, and conferred upon him the right of suffrage ? Do they regret that they pursued the rebels “worn Atlanta to the sea,” and finally brought them to bay at Appomattox Court House ? Do they regret that they raised the flag from the dust where it was _ trailed by James Buchanan and the Democratic party in order that rebels might trample and spit upon it? If they do they are in accord with the Democratic party as it was and as it is; for no Single act of the Democratic party can be pointed to as evidence that, as a political organization, it has not been pervaded by the spirit of treason during every day and hour from 1861 to 1874. And what we mean by treason, as applied to the Democratic party, is a state of violent and unyielding protest against every fundamental act of the Republican party from the time of the arming to resist rebellion down to the adoption of the last statute growing legitimately out of the constitutional amendments. And we unhesitatingly declare that there is no evidence in the recent course of the Democratic party that it has not been and still is hostile to the Constitution as it is and inexorably bent upon the restoration of the Constitution as it was. We are .aware that few will believe it possible to circumvent the Constitution or ignore the letter or nullify the spirit of the amendments. Few will believe the Democratic party capable of a baseness so great as the withdrawal from the colored race of all the protection afforded by the Reconstruction laws, standing between them and their former owners and their, would-be re-enslavers. We are aware that in these times, when great events succeed each other in rapid, almost bewildering succession, the record of even recent history makes but small impression on the busy, preoccupied mind.. But we should not overlook the fact that only a dozen years ago a third of the entire population of the country subsisted almost solely off the enforced toil of some millions of negroes; that these poor wretches were bought and sold like cattle; that they were whipped unmercifully at the will of the owner ; that they were not unfrequently killed to gratify malice; that the black woman had no protection against the lust of the white man—in a word, that they were slaves, borne down beneath all the cruelty, oppression and suffering which that horrid condition, human slavery, implies. It will not be disputed, we think, that the great mass of the white people of the South are of the opinion still that a state of slavery is the proper condition of the negro. Jeff. Davis says so; all Southern Democratic leaders say so whenever there is not in view an immediate object to be promoted by a concealment of real opinions. The Georgia labor laws, the attempt to pass a peonage bill in Texas, and a like effort now in progress in Ar-

kansas, show plainly enough that the settled purpose of the white people of the South is practically to re-enslave the blacks. But there are many people at the North who are ready to say: “Away with the Southern question; let the South do as it pleases with the negroes; we have freed them and conferred upon them the right of suffrage; let them work out their own salvation.” To such we reply: It is more perilous to abandon the negro than to defend him; he cannot be got oat of American politics until he is fully recognized as an integral part of American politics, with rights which all White men are hound to respect. Holding the right of suffrage, but forbidden to exercise it, the negro becomes an unwilling ally of the Democratic party, forced to contribute negatively to its successes while it reduces him to virtual slavery. It was

through the negro, »» slavery, that the Democratic party retained power the last dozen years of its ante-war life; it is through the negro, deprived of the exercise or the right of suffrage, that the Democratic party expects to regain control of national affairs. It follows logically that the Democratic party is, by the very force of circumstances, the foe of equal political rights. It hopes to mount to place and power through the prac tical denial of the right of suf frage ,tb the negro; once Itt place, It will continue to disfranchise him as toe guaranty of its retention of power. To those who decline to interest themselves in the question of morals and humanity as entering into political science and political practice we desire to put the question: How long is the oountry likely to remain at peace with the Democratic party raised to power through a, studied violation of the principles upon which the late war against rebellion was prosecuted? to a successful issue With the crashing out of the rebellion Lincoln thought peace would eome and come to stay. It did come, hut 'will it. “stay” if the principles for which Lincoln strove, and the country strove, are suffered to go by the board ? This is a question of vital consequence to the capitalist, the merchant, the banker, the manufacturer, the farmer, the mechanic, the laborer —to ever/body. For when war breaks out taxes rise. War not only mows down men, but unties the purse strings of every citizen and robs him of a share of his earnings. Is there any reason to believe that the country will suffer those principles to be abandoned for the preservation of which it so recently offered to sacrifice everything but honor? If there is no doubt on this point, then there is no safety in intrusting the conduct of affaire to the Democratic party; no safety to the honor of the nation, no safety to the pockets of the people. The Democratic party means reaction; is the country ready to take one backward step? The Democratic party brings to the front those leaders who, during the rebellion, were the most pronounced enemies of the Union; is the country ready to. support men now who were willing to see the Government go to pieces then? We think not; because,morals and humanity aside, the people cannot afford to do wrong in politics even in a purely economic point of view.— lnter-Ocean, 21th