Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 January 1871 — Characteristics of Democracy. [ARTICLE]

Characteristics of Democracy.

The dcmlingheratic party occupies the ascendency in the Indiana senate. Some time iifled the Chicago Republican recommended a calomel cocktail to work off the Tribunt when it was in a bad way, but such a mild doae would have little effect on the Indiana legislature. Nothing but an ergot sling will ever act it at labor properly. Wo announce now that our candidate /or the. nexk Presidency is the ouo named, by tho Democratic National Convention.— li'inainar Democrat. , Yes, ns stuttering Sant would say, “lfer sets tliar like a young r-r-robiu with his bill open, r-ready to a-s-«wal)er anything dr-dr dropped in, whether it 'b a worm or a t t-t*-tMOld.**-~ Our opinion is that the I. I>. &C. railroad will never lie built so long us Mr. Ridenour controls the company.— He lacks both enterprise ami good faith.—ltKNbM-i-AKii Union. This seems to be the general opinion along the line. A change will soon be made which will insure the building of the road at no distant day. fie of good cheer neighbor.— Vet phi 'Journal. I.ord grant a change if we never get the road. We see by the Congressional Globe of the 4th instant that Vice President Colfax “presented a memorial from citizens of Jasper county, Ind iana, praying that a pension be granted, to Phineas Thornton, a surviving soldier of the war of 1812; which was referred to the commit* tee on pensions.” t It is Mr. Colfax’s care and attention to the interests of the' people that has won him the love and respect of the nation.

, Southern politicians are making an effort to resuscitate that interesting relic ol the paleozoic age of politics, IJerschel V. Johnson, for the purpose of presenting him as a candidate for Vice-President on the next democratic ticket. The scheme is most likely to succeed; for the democratic appetite for defeat is only equaled in intensity by the democratic aptitude for blundering. When you have hit upon the most absolutely stupid thing possible to be done in any given case, it is safe to wager that that is precisely what a democratic*National Convention will do. The obstinacy with which parties at the South cling to their old political hacks is saddening. Worth and capacity, they e\ idently believe, are not to be found among ihe rising generation, or in the person of any mortal not politically born before the deluge of 1881. Give them a chance to choose a senator, and they fish up from the ooze ol the retired flood some decayed fish like Vance, sure to be caught at. the entrance of the Capitol by the irondad skimmer. Or offer them a chance of victory with a candidate who has not been half-pulverized in the secession thrashing-machine, and a certainty of defeat with one who has and the choice falls inevitably and unhesitatingly on the latter. Chicago Repub/icun. That is just about as near the condition of the Southern democracy as may be described; and that party is not a whit better oft’ up here in the North. Democracy is tho same throughout, the United States, and the difference of locality docs not modify its prominent characteristics of paleosaurian l’ogyism, open-mouthed stupidity and idiotic blundering. As an illustration of this fact we have only to refer to the proceedings of our own State legislature where they have a majority for the first time in eight years. Instead of going to work in a dignified manner to curtail the public expenditures, to modify or repeal obnoxious laws and inaugurate other promised reforms, they w hile away the time with buncomb speeches and interrupt business by that kind of parliamentary sparring that has become a chronic nuisance with Indiana legislatures. It is true they,excuse themselves by referring to precedents established at former sessions when the republican party was dominant. Btit this is worse than no excuse at all for not'only have they denounced such action themselves, but the people have also shown their disapproval of it by electing these quondam reformers to take the places of the first blunderers. The democracy of Indiana never had a better opportunity to distinguish themselves than they now enjoy, and they never wiff havengaip it they should live a thousand years. Should the present legislature prove conspicuous for dignity and wisdom the democracy will stand a fair chance of carrying the State #t the next Presidential election. But if present appearances jndfeate anything republicans need'

have no fears, on this score, as n continuance of the policy they have mntignratcd will so thoroughly disgust the masses that regeneration by fire will hardly serve to reinstate them in public iavor.