| Show DEMOCRACY AND republicanism 6 IT is a question with a great many who make a study of social and political politic al economy as to just where the dividing line between the two great parties es of the united states is situated the parties exist not merely in name hot bt in active organization and now and then a little outbreak of a declamatory nature shows that the lines are still mentally defined besides men hers bers of each party still vote in accordance with their fealty as partisans congressmen and state legislators are classified in the main as being either democrats or republicans and nearly all public officers arbone are one or the other but what for is asked where are the issues up upon n which they are arc divided and what is the the real distinction there w was not one measure voted on in the forty ninth congress Congressi that was carried or failed through a strict party vote as was the case so frequently the first ten years or more following the wat war and it would seem that with the complete extinction of the few struggling embers of the great conflict there was really no distinction of a national character between the two organizations at all the attempt to rally the republican forces upon the issue of a high protective tariff a scheme so ably engineered by mr blaine and his aids came as near to making the point of separation visible as anything could just now but while the overwhelming of republicans were for proteCt protection iOD and a corresponding proportion of democrats were either cither free traders or tariff reformers it was also apparent atiat there were great numbers of men in either party not in accord with wih the majority of their brethren on this issue lor for instance the principal parliamentarian on the floor of the house samuel J randall ls Is a staunch high tariff man while his confrere conf bere rere in the speaker s chair J G carlisle is just as avowed and determined a f free ree trader per contra in the senate mr HOUE hoar recognized as ad one of the ablest men in that body and a straight republican looks with a fri friendly eudy eye upon the scheme for free ships and unrestricted commerce in wb which ich matter he is ai wast siane among his hia partisans while mr jonas an able democrat from Lou louisiana llana is for raising the tariff if anything and we believe that he is joined on OB this point by the republicans only the th attempt to array the contending forces on the financial issue met with no better success in fact not quite so much for in this respect neither re be blicaus Pu nor democrats recognize leadership or discipline each entertaining hit bis individual views speaking them and voting accordingly without fear of the party lash and the same might be said as regards our foreign relations internal commerce etc 1 senator Se Dator sherrain Sher manst raan still I 1 11 clings to what little is left of southern disturbances oppression of the negi negroes oeS etc but it is very much like caucho panza tilting at a windmill the effort does himself no good and but bat serves served to amuse others this is the way it appears on the surface of thin things s but there is 18 a real wide and distinct line line of demarcation which will always exist and which ena enables bleff the democratic party to maintain its organization as its opponents one after another triumph ump for a season then wither and finally pass away forever halt half a dozen organizations have sprung up since it was brought into existence and while most of them have for short periods held the reins of A power they have invariably succumbed to the inevitable and left democracy as strong as before it received their assaults like gibraltar it yields art though for a time may obscure and the mad dash furiously against I 1 it the clouds pass away and the ane waves relapse into t their heir wonted quia quietude leaving leavin the old ro rock whery where it was ws unhurt ana unmoved the issue upon which it lives is popular government the fabric upon which it is based is the constitution of the united states it is the party which adopts as its platform the principle that that government is best beat which governs the least and that there shall be no strong central source of authority all opponents to these doctrines may come and they may go eo but to oppose them is to flourish but for a brief season if at all the democrats are defeated when they depart from these principles because they then cease to be democrats the party is a great and grand one no matter if at times its powers are misdirected and its principles misapplied as has been the case so often and so recently as poor utah has reason to complain |
