Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 June 1871 — The Change of Front. [ARTICLE]

The Change of Front.

Tn tbudonmtnt of the principal and aamnrtal aims which ha pro slavery. cop porhaad Democracy has k pi s'eeaily b ▼lew tor the past twenty -five years i* not only made reluctantly and awkwardly, but with evident insincerity. Nothin* but the Impossibility of ecWeving a po lltioal vfc o*y, except through a decrptive platform, lnduoes the managers of the Democracy to propose an abandonment oftheir long -cherished Intention to. overthrow the obnoxious amendmenU to the oonetltation. The retraction of a heretic, made as the penal fires begin to acorch him, may be a very politic and life saving measure on hit put, but we have never been taught to regard his reluctant and oona rained abjuration as n very valuable tea imonial for the truth I self, nor even as a proof ot a sound and reliable conversion. Ra her than go through the agonies of final disaolu ton, the Democratic party may consent to at 1< ast profess an abandonment of its most destructive and per nicious measures, but the making of apro--fossioo is one thing, and a change of pur pose and character qul e another. It la not ih the power of party leaders like Vallandigham io change th« character and. tendencies of a groat political parly. They not only do not wish to direct the energies of the Democratic pasty in a patriotic and reformatory direction, but they could not do it If they would. They can change the professions of the party, but they cannot change its conviction* by re* - ' arranging the words jof the nary creed. One of the old prophets askeu: “ Gin the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard bis spots * Then may ye also do good that ue accustomed to do evil." The animus of a great body of men cannot be radically changed by tljc mere manipulation of political managers. Were the purpose of Vallandigham ever so hones ly entertain ed on his own pari he could not restrain the mischievous tendencies of his party when once it should be restored to the control of the government Only by a radical and honest change in the interests, convictions and feelings of 'he party can the heresies it has tenaciously held hitherto be forev< r put aside. The logical tendencies, not of a party platform, but of the real convictions of a party in power, will be carried out, let its professions or pre-determinations be what they may. It was by no means the purpose of the Republican party, at the outset, to do for the country the great and glorious things It has done. It aid not In tend to-attempt the abolition of slavery—it was even ptedg< d not to attempt its destruction. But events it could'not avert or control harried it forward with an irresistible momentum to a point it never dreamed of reaching. But it is to be observed that it followed the tine of its real conviction* It could not do otherwise. The Democratic party, when it adopt* d the policy laid down by the Southern oligarchs, did not design to go the lengths it finally reached in servility to slavery. Had General Jackson been asked if the party of which he was the head would ever consent to the treacherous repeal of the Missouri Compromise, would he not, with his wonted emphasis, have declared it impossible, and would he not have considered the question itself as an insult? Yet that party did perform that act of treachery. Did Stephen A. Douglas believe that his consenting to repeal the Missouri compromise limitation of slavery, would prepare the way for, and make inevitable, the Breckinridge doctrine that the constitution carried slavery into all the territories without reference to the will of the people? Yet bis party was carried there with a momentum he could not with stand. Did James Buchanan ever dream that be should ever be made to say that the constitution gave the President no power to coerce a seceding or rebellious State into obedience to the constitution ? If in the days of Franklin Pierce, even, he had been asked if he could take such a position, he would have said: “Is thy servant a dog that he should do this thing?” The logical tendencies of party convictions are not easily resisted—much less turned into opposite channels. The Republican party contains the ele- 1 ments which make up apatriotic, loving and progressive party. The Democratic party is arrayed against it because of opposite sympathies, tendencies and convictions. It is the same party it was in in the days of the struggle for slavery extension, and more recently for the overthrow of the Union. When the Ethiopian by mere will power changes his skin to the whitenest of the Caucassian race may the Democratic party, being accustomed to evil, learn to do good through the change of its platform of words. Let no man be deceived. The Ku-Klux of the South are the real exponents of the real animus and aims of the Democratic party. And the tendencies of the party are such as no leaders can ever hope to control into a beneficial and patriotic direction. —Toledo Blade.