piling them, that others may have the full benefit thereof, in guiding their political actions through life.

About twenty years ago, he compiled a similar work called "Why We Are Democrats," and much of that he may now desire to make use of in order to carry out his present intentions. He cannot expect to reach even a moiety of such as he could desire to influence, still when once words are spoken or printed, they go out into the world on a mission, and no one can estimate the good results that may flow from their utterance. As such we send them out, with the hope that great good results may flow from their publication.

Hon. William Allen, once a Democratic leader in Ohio, and a noted United States Senator, subsequently in his old age elected Governor, once uttered such a beautiful description of Democracy in the abstract, that we cannot forego the pleasure of inserting them here again. He said "Democracy is a sentiment not to be appalled, "corrupted, or compromised. It knows no baseness; it "cowers to no danger; it oppresses no weakness, fearless, "generous and humane; it rebukes the arrogant, cherishes "honor, and sympathizes with the humble. It "asks nothing but what it concedes; it concedes "nothing but what it demands. Destructive only of "despotism, it is the sole conservator of liberty, labor "and property. It is the sentiment of freedom, of equal "rights and equal obligations. It is the law of nature "pervading the land. The stupid, the selfish, and the "base in spirit may denounce it as a vulgar thing; but in "the history of our race the Democratic principle has "developed and illustrated the highest moral and intellec"tual attributes of our nature. It is a noble, a sublime "sentiment which expands our affections, enlarges the "circle of our sympathies, and elevates the soul of man, "until claiming an equality with the best, it rejects as "unworthy of its dignity, any political immunities over

་

"the humblest of his fellows. Yes, it is an ennobling "principle; and may that spirit which animated our "revolutionary Fathers in their contest for its establish"ment, continue to animate us, their sons, in the im

"pending struggle for its preservation."

Thus eloquently spoke that honored and revered member of the Democratic party, years ago, who came very near being made the Democratic candidate for President by the convention which nominated Franklin Pierce.

Another honored member of the party, Hon. Geo. Hoadly, declared concerning the principles of “Old” De

mocracy.

"They are eternal-a Divine fire burning in the hearts of men. They quicken the thoughts of the statesman, nerve the arm of the soldier, and double the energies of the toiler. They are found in the self-evident truth of the American patriot who declared that all men are

created equal. Democracy is the unrelenting foe of despotism and communism, whether open or sought to be hidden under the disguise of paternal govenment. Its beneficent office in political affairs is to secure to every man the utmost possible liberty of action consistent with equal liberty to every other. It is not the office of the Democratic party to invent, but to promulgate—not to discover, but to declare those eternal principles, and to apply them to the ever-changing affairs of human society.

Old-eternal Democracy is founded on the living law of political affairs-that the largest liberty should be every man's heritage, consistent with law and order. Therefore it is that the Democratic party stands for the individual against the encroachments of the state, for the rights of the states against the encroachments of the federal government; for home rule against foreign interference and aggression. Its corner stone is the principle of the capability of individual man, with the aid of Divine grace, to govern himself, and of each

individual man united in society to govern society with the least possible interference from society with the individual concerns of man. Therefore it stands for personal liberty as against aristocracy, which stands for an impudent attempt of those who style themselves the best, to interfere with the liberties of those whom they choose, to think their inferiors.

The Democratic party dates, therefore, from every attempt to interfere with liberty; it is the resistance to that interference with liberty which means Democracy. It dates in our own government from the differences of opinion which those great leaders, Jefferson and Hamilton entertained with regard to the scope and duty of civil government. Hamilton was the regulating, ordaining, and controlling mind on the one side, and on the other was Jefferson, the philosophical statesman, who never attempted to regulate nor control, but who with great quiet energy of infusing principles, enabled popular rights to take care of themselves. From these two great statesmen arose two great parties-the Jeffersonian and Hamiltonian, and today they stand in conflict with each other as completely as at the time when Mr. Jefferson was elected.

Those two parties-one favoring a Paternal government, seeking to regulate from above-the other, Democratic, favoring equal rights, seeking to spread their beneficent influence around-these are the two hostile and conflicting views which are arrayed against each other.

When any new idea is suggested, one can tell in a moment whether the man advancing it be a Democrat in sentiment, or the opposite in his ideas, by the proposed plan of action, the manner in which the idea of control should be applied. The men who believe in the precepts. of Jefferson, who believe that each man is clothed with Divine endowments with the largest measure of liberty which is consistent with law and order; that each man is the best judge of what he believes will benefit himself, so far as, in so doing, he does not interfere with the liberty and rights of others."

These sentiments meet a proud response in the hearts of millions of Democrats and yet how many really know what Democracy means? They are members of the party which bears that ennobling name, and promulgates these glorious sentiments of free government among men; they are enthusiastic in its support, but they have given the matter too little thought, have spent too little time in their investigation to be fully informed of the very principles which they profess to love, revere and support.

They have had opportunity to know but little of the reasons which influenced the founders of that party when first organized, and when its great leaders first began to administer government in accordance with its doctrines. Believing that many who have hitherto opposed its principles and its policy would be glad to have an opportunity to review the grounds upon which the faith of the American Democracy rests, the writer has prepared the following pages as a brief compend of those principles which have controlled the actions of eminent Democratic statesmen in the past, and which now prompt the actions of the honest, true-hearted faithful adherents of that party, -principles which its leaders must uphold and defend, if they would be instrumental in perpetuating, not only the great party to which they belong, but the government itself, which was so firmly established upon those great principles of human liberty, and which, as a system, is the very corner stone upon which the whole fabric rests.

CHAPTER II.

DEMOCRATS SHOULD INFORM THEMSELVES.

Democrats cannot be too well informed on the subject of their party principles. They should, by studying them, secure themselves against division in their ranks. It is simple justice to themselves, to be so properly informed; it is due their manhood; due the dignity of American citizens, that they have knowledge on this subject, in order that they may render a clear, logical, and concise reason for every political action they perform-for every ballot they deposit. All have not had the opportunity so to inform themselves; they have not access to the depositories of this knowledge, and must depend upon political speeches delivered during heated campaigns, or from the columns of political newspapers, published by leading and eminent Democratic leaders; hence it is that a calm, deliberate discussion and statement of the elementary principles of Democracy, in their homes and by their firesides, is what the voters so much need, that they, too, may learn of those principles, which actuated the founders of the great Democratic party, when they first expounded them to the voters of the country; and that they may by their intelligent votes favor that party with their support, which for a century, whether in or out of power, has more or less influenced the administration of public affairs. A statement of those principles, gathered from authentic sources, published in a compact and convenient form, with such explanations as may suggest themselves, it is believed will supply this need, so that all who aspire to