THE

UNITED STATES REVIEW.

SEPTEMBER, 1855.

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.

ITS PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE.

CRADLED in the storms of the last few years of the eighteenth century, and rocked by the hurricane that swept the country at the election of Thomas Jefferson; nursed upon the principles of our beloved Constitution, and swearing eternal hostility to every form of tyranny over the mind of man; rising in its might and majesty over place and power, having nothing to give it vitality but the glorious principles it professed; knowing no enemies but those of the country and the Constitution; acknowledging friendship with no faction, and scorning all sectional jealousies and distinctions, the Democratic party has, for more than fifty years, swayed the destinies of the nation, borne her flag in terror and triumph over land and sea, secured honor abroad, fostered prosperity at home, spread our country's area from ocean to ocean; and although sometimes driven from the helm by faction, with the most untiring vigilance it has stood by its principles, and when the usurpers were ready to despair, again came forward to the rescue.

In every political difficulty, in every sectional strife, in every war with a foreign power, either within or without the bounds of our territory, the Democratic party has been the party to

which the people have looked for guidance. Its faith, its doctrines, its measures, have been those of patriotism, of constitutionality, and of safety. Thus, when the war of 1812virtually the second war of Independence-was fought, the men who staked their lives, and fortunes, and sacred honor on its justice and success, were the Democrats of those days-not the men of the Hartford Convention, but those of Perry and Lake Erie, and of Jackson at New-Orleans. No Democrat was heard cursing James Madison, and praying for the defeat of the American army; no Democrat was characterizing the war as "unnecessary" and "God-abhorred;" no Democrat was heard to hurra when news was received that an English detachment had achieved a victory. All this was left to Federalist and British Abolitionists, who subsequently became Whigs and Anti-Masons, and are now to be found, with all their old predilections, in the lodges of the Know-Nothings.

But do these men-even these, now dare to repeat that Jackson was a "coward" for protecting his fellow-citizens, the American army, behind cotton-bags? Do they now dare to repeat the assertion, that he was a "murderer" for fighting the battle of the 8th of January, and thus preserving the "booty and beauty" of New-Orleans from pillage and ravishment? Do they now denounce the principle and conduct of the war, and refuse to share in its glorious results? No-they now not only confess that the Democratic party was right in all these particulars and that the war was just, but they also attempt to hide their own participation in the opposition, as well as all connection with the party against whom these charges have been made and proven. It is a tacit, virtual condemnation of themselves, and a sounding vindication of the Democratic party.

What jeremiades were sung over the United States Bank; how hopelessly the country was ruined, the currency unsettled, business prostrated, and the government bankrupt;-and all by the course of the Democratic party! Not many years have passed, yet the erection and organization of such a bank has long since been an obsolete idea.

When, during the administration of James K. Polk, it became necessary to fight the Mexican war, the Democratic party was found heart and hand engaged on the side of their country; while the old Federal-now modern Whig-Native-Abolition party, true to their ancient instincts and prejudices, denounced it and every one concerned in it, in the most bitter manner. Language was too weak to express the state of their feelings on

the subject. The sentiments of Thomas Corwin, the leader, in whose wake yelped all the pack, need not be repeated here; they will never be forgotten; they will make Corwin all but as infamously immortal as Benedict Arnold.

Can any one of those, who at that time felt so self-confident, and spoke so dogmatically, now call the territory justly acquired in that war, as indemnity for the past and security for the future, "a barren waste"? Has any one of the hundred objections to the soil, the location, the fertility, been realized? No. But again has the party, proudly and justly called Democratic, vindicated, in the results, its measures and its action. Millions of acres, and hundreds of millions of gold are the contributions of the Democracy to the extent and prosperity of our well-beloved country!.

When the stormy session of 1850 called all good men to rally round the Constitution, Where stood the Democratic party? Firmly where it had ever stood; holding fast to the principles upon which that noble instrument was founded; and Clay and Webster left the old Federal, or modern, motley, multinominous party, and came over to the Democrats. For that act they were denounced throughout the length and breadth of the land as traitors. Traitors to what? Traitors to the men who were fast becoming traitors to the Constitution. "The bad man's censure is the good man's praise." No higher compliment could have been paid to the position of the Democratic party. Men who had before uniformly opposed the Democratic party, but who loved their country and sought to uphold its constitutional provisions, came over and clasped hands with them in the approaching arduous, but glorious struggle. The Democratic party made no sacrifices, no compromise of its principles; there was nothing in the course it had pursued inconsistent with the character of our liberties; and the Whig party subsequently, in a convention, national in its magnitude, adopted its measures as a part of its creed, and declared those principles to be correct. Another most important concession to our principles and policy.

All the pet measures of the various parties opposing the Democratic for the last fifty years have gone by default. Occasionally the ghost of some one of them stalks abroad, like the shadow of that same "old coon" by moon-light, but the distant crowing of the cock, or the rising of the morning-star frights it back to the shades. Among them we may enumerate the United States Bank, the Bankrupt Law, the Tariff, the distribution of the public lands among the States, a system of

internal improvement by the general government, and even minor subjects of legislation have long been determined by the people in favor of the views of the Democracy. Thus we see that the Bank has been abolished, the Bankrupt Laws repealed, a Revenue Tariff established, the proceeds of the public lands go into the national Treasury, and the idea of a general system of internal improvements by the general government utterly exploded. The independent Treasury-the much-abused, and then little understood, Sub-treasury, is now, and has been for years, in successful operation, and no sane man thinks of its repeal.

But upon this particular branch we need not dwell. Each one of the facts we have mentioned is but the text on which much might be written, illustrating the wide difference between the doctrines and measures of the Democratic party and those various parties heretofore acting in opposition. Such, however is a brief sketch of the past history of the Democratic party. We shall now turn our attention for a short time to a consideration of the position it occupies at present.

Every party which has heretofore risen up in opposition to the Democratic, has fallen before the force of public opinion. No matter under what name or guise-no matter how specious its pretenses or how magnificent its schemes; when tested by the magic of the Constitution it has crumbled into dust. No party, save the Democratic, has uniformly opposed despotism. and oppression, in whatever form; and no other party has ever unwaveringly scorned to unite itself with factions and "isms." All others have either been disbanded, given up the combat, or, having affiliated, been swallowed up and destroyed by the combined foes of popular sovereignty.

Faithfully has our party fulfilled the promises of its beginning. Broad and national in its practices as well as in its professions, in its ranks the weak are strong and the helpless able to assist. It proscribes no man for his opinions, civil or religious; it welcomes to its ranks the oppressed, and raises them to the standard of manhood and citizenship. If every other party has fallen before the concerted attack, or been subsidized by the specious promises of spoils and power, made by intolerance and bigotry, the Democratic party, though sometimes overborne by numbers, has ever promptly renewed the conflict, determined to secure victory only on its own terms, ever disdaining the volunteer alliance of degrading factions, and only relying for success upon its own dignity, purity, and patriotism.

Within its ranks are the heroes of many hard-fought fieldsmen who never desert their posts nor their principles. Yet never has there been a period when it behooved them more to stand firmly to their professions. Defection stalks boldly through the land, and men's hearts are failing them for fear. While the Whig party has gone over, body and soul, into the lodges of the Know-Nothings, swearing hostility to the principles of the Constitution, leaguing itself to oppression, and joining_hands with Abolitionism, Fanaticism, and Disunion, the Democratic party, with a front unawed by majorities and undismayed by desertions, flings defiance in the teeth of the unprincipled combination, and planting its foot on the Constitution, eagerly looks forward to a triumphant victory in the coming struggle.

Again, in former years, and on other trying occasions, not one tenet of its creed has been yielded, not a promise has been made to secure mercenary recruits; but on all sides we see the good and true men of the country crowding to its ranks, professing their faith in the honesty, purity, and integrity of its principles, and asking to fight, as volunteers, under its battlestained but time-honored and victorious standard. There is something sublime in the position which our party so nobly maintains; it gives a glow to the breast which no man can know save him who has long and ardently followed the fortunes, exulted in the successes, and lamented the defeats of the Democracy.

The present struggle against Know-Nothingism is the most arduous it has ever been called upon to meet. It is enough to engage an enemy in the dark, but when, in addition, that enemy professes to be exclusively American in its views and feelings assuming that in its keeping are all the patriotism and the proper nationality, and that all who oppose it necessarily favor something foreign or anti-American-against such combinations and such professions and assertions, false and wicked and unfounded as they are, the contest becomes doubly trying. But the lion's skin is already falling and the ears of the ass begin to protrude. As long as silence and darkness prevailed, so long success seemed comparatively certain. When, instead of professions merely, the public began to have some knowledge of their principles, the people's natural love of justice revolted at the gross outrage sought to be palmed off upon the American people.

The attempt to characterize the Know-Nothing party, is utterly hopeless. Nothing so dangerous and so outrageous