Rensselaer Union, Volume 1, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 August 1869 — The Democratic Programme. [ARTICLE]

The Democratic Programme.

The late Democratic Conventions have thoroughly undeceived those who supposed that the leopard would suddenly change his spots. More amusing and even ridiculous spectacles have seldom been presented to public attention; ridiculous, because there is always’something absurd in the incessant reiteration of oners that are perpetually rejected. The only alleviation of the old order is the nomination of General Rosecrans for Governor of Ohio. But as if to extinguish any hope that might begin to glimmer in consequence, Mr. Wallace, the Chairman of the Pennsylvania Convention, in calling it to order, remarked that principles, not men, are the Democratic doctrine. That, indeed, was evident at Columbus, as it was at Chicago in 1864. Then tile man was one who had been a Union soldief—the principles were surrender to the rebellion. Now the man is Rosecrans—the principles are Vallandigham. And as Mr. Wallace truly remarked, principles, not men, are the Democratic doctrine. Those who are not Democrats, however, are expected to look solely at the man. Republicans in Ohio, for instance, are respectfully requested to contemplate the Union uniform of Rosecrans while they give their votes to Vallandigham. But with this exception the men and the principles are equally familiar. Vallandigham in Ohio, and in Pennsylvania Mr. Wallace, Mr. Hughes, and Mr. Asa Packer, the candidate for Governor, are the same old Copperhead managers who conducted the business during the war. They told us then that the Government was a dark despotism because it would not let our rebel brethren depart in peace; now they tell us it is a fell tyfanny because it will not let them stay upon their own terms—the Government being the people of | the country. Then we were being taxed to inuqplate our brethren; now we are taxed to pamper bloated bond holders, who are not bur brethren, probably, because they sustained the war. Then the negro was an inferior, and this was a white man’s government; now also the negro is an inferior, and still it is a white man’s government. Then the local rights of States Vere ruthlessly invaded; now the local rights of States shall never be overthrown. In fine, now as then, in the estimation of the old Democratic managers, all is tyranny, corruption, and black despair, and universal night is at band,

unless—ah I unless—Mr. Vallandigham .and his friends are permitted to direct the taxation, to handle the money, and to control the Government; in which happy case Astnca will return to earth, and tlio hopes of mankind may revive. There were those who supposed that this party might have learned something; that inasmuch as tho country had decided that the national (kith should lie kept, and that colored citizens should vote and be no longer ostracised, those Issues would have been relinquished and battle offered upon other and more promising grounds. There were those within the party who advised this course, who recommended it last year, and who had the emphasis of rueful experience to support their counsti this year. But all has been sublimely dis* regarded. Even in the city of New York, where a year ago there was a party in Tammany Hall which seriously wished to nominate Mr. Chase, this year Tarpmany Hall, as a Fourth of July festivity, repudiates the war and its results, and after an oration worthy of a Vallandigham or Alexander H. Stephens or Henry Clay Dean, cheers for John T. Hoffman as flic Presidential candidate; while, simultaneously, as if to refresh in the public memory the claims of tbe party to the confidence of honorable and patriotic men, its late candidate for Vice-President, General Blair, extols rebels at a social meeting of faithful Union soldiers. And all this denunciation of equal rights, and praising of rebels, and demand for repudiation ana dishonor, is put forth under the name of “ Conservatismas in tho bitter hours of the war, during the tortures of Andersonville and the horrors of the battle field, it was “ Conservatism ” to palliate the rebellion and to sneer at the Government. Is there any thing .in the character of those who manage these conventions, or of the principles which they proclaim, which should persuade an honest and loyal American citizen that the just results of the war will be more respected, or the Government more honestly and economically administered, or the public honor and peace more surely maintained by the Democratic party than by the Republican? If, indeed, that party had abandoned all its defeated issues and repudiated the managers identified with all its ignominies—if it had declared' its acceptance of the situation, nominated men whose careers and characters were their credentials, and with such pledges of a changed spirit had challenged public confidence, there would be circumstances in the Situation, as there always are when a party has been long in power, that might have inclined that public confidence toward it, unless the dominant party by its Sractice as well as its profession had vinicatcd its claim to continued success. But the opportunity has been lost; and therefore the triumph of such a party with such a platform would be not only a defeat but a national disgrace.— Harper'e Weekly.