V.

DUTY OF THE WHOLE COUNTRY.

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.

Three duties of the country-Summary of the virtues of the Democratic party-Singular attempt of the Republican party, in 1861, to appropriate Democratic principlesIts return to Consolidation-Renewed appeal of the Democratic party to "timehonoured principles."

There are three points to be considered in that political regeneration which is the true hope of the South-three great duties of the country.

1. To return to the past, over the tract of the war, to re-assert the authority of the Constitution, to revive the political traditions of the country, to consult anew the fathers of the Republic, and draw from these ancestral lessons instruction and inspiration meet for the occasion.

2. To let the Negro severely alone, as a subject of political controversy, and, after properly providing for him in matters of civil rights, and doing for him the common offices of humanity, to leave him to gravitate to the condition which nature and experience shall assign him.

3. To organize into some party that shall override all sectional questions, that shall be coincident with the Constitution, and make no other test than fidelity to this instrument, developing the patriotism of the country within its limits and under its standards.

If any other party fulfills this condition better than the Democratic party, then let all patriots embrace it, whatever its name, and devote to it their names and services and fortunes. Here we have a party, brave and coherent; a remarkable party -remarkable, because it, alone, in the history of political opinions in this country, has maintained its organization since the foundations of the Government; because, it has ruled the country in long seasons of prosperity, and obtained the tests of experience and the inspirations of victory; because, it has administered the Government for much the better half of its existence; because, it is attended by the most glorious recollections in American history, and by the éclat of immortal names; because, in all times and circumstances, it has avowed the Constitution, and made it the paramount issue; because, recognizing in the vital articles of its own existence the principle of decentralization, it is constantly capable of an expansion limited only by the length and breadth of the American Union, and attending with equal steps the growth and progress of the country. It is this principle of decentralization, peculiar at once to the Democratic party, and to what may be called the political system of America, that manages and harmonizes the diversity of interests in our great Union; that secures individual rights; and that supports the inestimable doctrines of local independence and self-government. Of these doctrines an eloquent Democrat has written: "Without them the Union will be forever endangered. With them it will fulfill the hopes and

prayers of all patriots. They furnish the key to unlock the magic chambers of our future. They are the safe and golden mean between the extremes of faction "

"The wisdom of a thousand years
Is in them.******

Turning to scorn, with lips divine,
The falsehood of extremes."

The Democratic is the only existing party in the country that boasts "time-honoured principles." Judged by the results it has accomplished—and there is no juster test-it has been one of the most beneficent parties in history. When Mr. Seward boasted, in 1860, that the Republican party was about to take control at Washington, Mr. Hammond, a distinguished Senator from South Carolina, replied that the Democratic party would surrender the country " without a stain upon her honour, boundless in her prosperity, incalculable in her strength, the wonder and admiration of the world." He described the achievements of that party, continuing his reply to Mr. Seward: "We have kept the government conservative to the great purposes of government. We have placed her and kept her upon the Constitution; and that has been the cause of your peace and prosperity. Time will show what you will make of her; but no time can ever diminish our glory or your responsibility."

That the Democratic party should have maintained not only its organization, but a distinct identity for so long a period and through so many changes in our experience as a nation; and that even it should have survived the mutations of the past war, is a remarkable phenomenon and testifies to an extraordinary virtue. The party appears to-day the only permanent thing in our political history; a firm link to the past in the multitude

of changes that have befallen us. The tribute of Martin Van Buren in a posthumous work is significant in this respect: "The long continued support of a majority of the people-the only test of political merit in a Republic-has secured a preference for its principles of which it may well be proud; and the general fidelity of its members to the faith they profess is creditably illustrated by the fact that after all the changes to which its organization has been exposed, its ranks, whatever may be the case as to some of its leaders, are mainly composed of men with like dispositions with those by whom that organization was effected." It is this identity of which the Democratic party is especially proud; tracing the descent of its principles from the fathers of the Republic, the same in defeat and in victory, and even emerging from the changing and deforming influences of the past war with undiminished similitude to what it was in earlier and better days of the country.

The patriotic contributions of the Democratic party in the past are historical, accomplished facts. However it may have wandered on particular inferiour questions and thereby lost power for a time, it is remarkable that the affections of the people have recalled it, on all occasions when the general principles of the Government are to be decided. Whenever the question has been between the Constitution and the limitations of authority in the general government, the Democratic party has won on its favourite doctrine of a distribution of political power. A most curious evidence of the strength of popular affection for this peculiar Democratic doctrine is the attempt of the Republican party to appropriate it, in 1861, and to incorporate it into the immediate creed on which they came into power. How the avowals of the latter party have been falsified,

*"History of Political Parties."

and they have reverted to the worst heresies of Consolidation, the world knows and the present day bears testimony. But that Mr. Lincoln and his party did, on their first concession to power, attempt to conciliate the people by upholding a Democratic model of government, so far as questions of political power were concerned, cannot be denied, in the face of the deliberate and official language of that occasion. In the platform upon which Mr. Lincoln was elected President, and which he repeated in his inaugural speech "the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and especially of the right of each State to order and control its own domestic institutions, according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depend." Again, before the hypocritical design of the Republican party had been accomplished, it was declared by Mr. Lincoln and his Attorney-General, Mr. Bates: "absolute, despotic power over the lives, the liberties, or the property of freemen, exists nowhere in a republic, not even in the largest majority of the people."

These assertions are interesting now. They attest the essential power of a principle belonging exclusively to the Democratic school, and they suggest how faithless and criminal has been the party that attempted to appropriate it for a temporary popularity. The time has come when, again, a general appeal is made against Consolidation, when all other political concerns are sunk in comparison; and we may expect the Democratic party again to march to victory on the supreme field of controversy. It is an appeal which, if made single and dissembarrassed, has never failed of success. It comes to us now with a peculiar force added by time and circumstances. If the American people believe, as they have frequently testified