Rensselaer Union, Volume 1, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 September 1869 — The Democratic Bourbons. [ARTICLE]

The Democratic Bourbons.

wi - —rt - ■** * - hi nave aireaay mentionea the stnig gift in the Democratic party between th* CM and the new spirit.between the dogged retention of the old doctrines and policy "she signs of the contest abound on every aide. The different tone of the platforms in the various States, and the character and ahtocodento /of the candidates of Which we spoke Met week, ail reveal the want of a common conviction and a common purpose in the party. It begins to appear, however, that the progressive wing of the pdrty yields to the Bourbons, and that one more effort will be made to protong the angry debate out of which the war sprang. Thia contest in the Democratic party began with its organisation under Jhckson. General Jackson was substantially a Jeffersonian. He was in favor of a restriction of government to the lowest terms, and although he approved a tariff for defense, he was opposed to a national system of internal improvements and magnificent enterprises. Long before General Jackson thought of the Presidency, Mr. Calhoun, whose general political philosophy was much leas sound tlian Jackson’s, had fixed Ids heart upon it. His instinct indicated to him his chief rival, and during the Presidency of Monroe Mr. Calhoun was hostile to “ the hero,” who did not suspect it. Jackson's election presently made Calhoun his open enemy. The first contest between them was the nullification movement of 1832. Jackson was honestly a Union man, and heartily despised as well as disbelieved the Southern theory of the government. His proclamation was as admirable and sound as Webster’s speeches, and he made preparations to keep the peace and enforce the law. In the latter resolution his party supported him. But in his Message of 1832, previous to the proclamation, he virtually recommended the policy that Calhoun demanded. From that moment the Calhoun element in the Democratic party grew stronger, until it absolutely controlled it, and the war that was always latent in that element broke out. The conduct and event of the war proved that the people rejected the Calhoun theory while they destroyed slavery, ' for whose protection the theory was urged. The Democratic party, as a' party, passively opposed the war ; and at its end the party organization remained. The internal conflict was therefore inevitable. There were the party traditions, the 'Southern alliance, anil the hatred of the negro, with the old party leaders, apologists of slavery, and supporters of the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions—in fact, the Calhoun men, on one side; and on the other, the fresher element of the party, young proselytes who held philosophically to the limited functions of government, and who insisted upon abandoning the plainly closed issues of the last generation. Of this wing the New York World became the organ ; a journal skillfully and intelligently managed, but whose tone of light mockery has always paralyzed its influence and destroyed its power. In the Democratic National Convention of 1868 the two wings of the party met and tried conclusions. Calhoun reappeared in the flesh as Wade Hampton, and he swept all before him. The New York managers had secured the meeting of the Convention tn Tammany Mall itself, and intended to secure their preference in the nomination. But the wilier tfee New York plotting the more conspicuous was the triumph of South Carolina, One of the ablest and most honorable of New York Democrats, Henry C. Murphy, reported the platform, and the New York trick of nominating the New Yorker, Horatio Seymour, succeeded. But Mr. Murphy's platform was repudiation, and Mr. Seymour, who had opposed repudiation at Tweddle Hall, accepted as his own the repudiating platform of Tammany. The question of the campaign, therefore, was simply whether the people would surrender the results of the war, and the election of General Grant was the answer. The progressive wing of the party was. compelled to submit to • the Bourbons of the Convention, and their hopes of the prompt abandonment of oid issues and a bold flash at the future in the nomination of Mr. Chase being baffled, the progressives made a show of falling into line; but after the premonitory thunder of Maine and Pennsylvania the World called for a change of front, which was a confession of inevitable defeat. It came, and the new men naturally supposed that it would instruct the Bourbons. But they forgot that nothing can instruct the Bourbons. The World hailed the nomination of General Rosecrans in Ohio, urged that of General Hancock in Pennsylvania, and rejoices over that of John Quincy Adams in Massachusetts. It has stringently set forth that common-sense demands acquiescence in what is actually accomplished. But it pleads in vain. The Bourbons conquer. General Rosecrans, in declining, echoes the World; and the Bourbons nominate in his place Vallandigham’s candidate, Pendleton, the chief national representative of repudiation; and in Pennsylvania Asa Packer, an extreme Bourbon; and answer John Quincy Adams’ speech, advising a general renunciation of old issues, byyhe stolid declaration of the platform that they change nothing. Not content with condemning the war by replacing Rosecrans, a Union general, by Pendleton, a Vallandigham Copperhead and repudiator, and, by preferring Packer tft Hancock, the Bourbons now begin to demand the head of the chairman ? of the National Committee, who opposes repudiation. They will not demand it in vain. Exerywhere, also, the Bourbons insist upon opposition to the Fifteenth Amendment, and the refusal of equal rights to the colored citizens. It is the reaction nationally attempted last year at which they now aim in the separate States. And so complete is their victorv that the World itself, whose one principle of partyaction since the surrender of Lee has been the abandonment of issues that were plainly settled, attempts to prove that Mr. Pendleton's proposition to pay the bonds in currency is not bad faith, and that the negro contest must be continued. The passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, which the World opposes, would formally close the great debate of the last generation; and the acquiescence in equal suffrage in this State by the adoption of the new Constitution would open the way for the consideration of new issues. The Bourbons have conquered the. Wyrld, which has surreadered every advantage that the result of the Presidential election gave it. It hurrahs for Pendleton and hurrahs for Adams. It is like-hurrahing for Jackson and then for Calhoun. As for its Democratic readers, “ Gentlemen, you pays your money and you takes your choice.” -- ftt>estion for the country then is, shall wput the negro otft" of pditus by completing the work which is nearly accomplished of securing his equal rights ? Let the voters in this State, and in every State, remember that the Bourbons insist upon fighting the same ell battle over again. We fought ifin a w.v that they remember in 1860, ’64, and 68. Let us show in *O9 that there can lie no radical change in parties until the < uestion which divides them is settled.— ILirper'i Widely. A nw days ago the following advertisement appeared in a New York paper: “ Wanted, a situation by a woman as cook in a private family; the family to be as high as a ford's family in Europe ”