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![handle is hein.trials/adds0001 and id is 1 raw text is: MODERiN
DEMOCRAC&Y.
THE EXTENSION OF SLAVERY IN OUR OWN TERRITORY OR BY TIM
ACQUISITION OF FOREIGN TERRITORY WRONG MORALLY, POLITi-
CALLY, AND ECONOMICALLY.
SPEECH
OF
HON. JUSTIN S. MORRILL, OF VERMONT.
0
Delivered in the House of Representatives, June 6, 1860.
Mr. CHAIRMAN: The struggles of men in
power to maintain their positions-to cling to
the sceptre-have been marked in all history.
The genial robes of office cannot be torn from
men long in public stations without seeming
rudeness, if not actual violence. The petty con-
stable, defeated at the last election, lingers at
Helena with his disease of the heart, as much
as Napoleon himself. Louis Philippe departs
from Versailles with no more reluctance than
John Tyler from Washington. Men in office
seldom retire but on compulsion. Parties do
not submit to ostracism without a contest. In
France, such epochs are the mile-stones of
revolution. In England, the struggle is not so
convulsive, but there the tenacity of life among
placemen is tough and unyielding. Neither
Sir Robert Peel nor Lord North, neither Wel-
lington nor Palmerston, quit their posts with-
out a lingering look behind. They have disso-
lutions of Parliaments, fierce agitation, and
monster meetings, but at last they yield to the
popular wish of the nation, and with no unpa-
triotic attempt to break their fall by pulling
down the glories of their empire.
In our own country, the bitterness of party
warfare is proverbial and quadrennial, and
within a few years the motto has been to give
no quarter. To the victors belong the spoils,
and the vanquished have no rights which
white men are bound to respect. Such being
the fate of defeated parties, it is not surprising
that it should not be contemplated with com-
placency, and explains much of the ferocity
which conspires the ruin of the reputation of
opposing party organizations and party men,
rather than accept the doom which awaits de-
feat. In such a warfare, the soldiers of great-
est audacity in consistent and persistent slan.
der become entitled to the places and pensiQns
of the highest grade. The Democratic pary,
deeply skilled in this low art of political war,
have driwni their sulsistence so long from the
National Treasury, tOat, when it seems imper-
illed, it is construed into an invasion of vest d
rights, and they declare their readiness to dery
their allegiance to the Union so soon as thei
services shall be declined by a majority of ihe
people. Democratic theory is constitutiol
and conservative while it contributes to the
ascenidency of a particular dynasty; but if, y
the same legal processes, another party or set
of men is inaugurate,], it becomes fanatical, an
open and palpable violation of constithtionql
rights; and, in short, a despotism to be reslst~d
by all the grave responsibilities of a revolution.
The Democratic party, from its long con-
tinuance in office, puts forth the claim of abso-
lutism and hereditary succession, and knows
not how else to obtain a livelihood. It rather
fears the alternative of a fair day's work for a
fair day's pay. It clings to legitimacy of Dem-
ocratic office-holding, and sanctions the doc-
trine that the Democratic party can do no
wrong. The loss of office, like the loss of aris-
tocratic appendages by the old French nobility,
drives modern Democracy to the brink of 4es-
pair and terrible gesticulation.
A party like this, it is evident, has outlived
its usefulness, and cannot retain the confidence
of freemen. Having lost the moral supor of
the country, it has propped itself up and main-
tained a hobbling existence by an unexampled
abuse of the public patronage. At last, 4 is
even false to itself, and has not that hoxlor left
which usually enables even the most reckless
men to agree upon a division of spoils.
A party which has no philosophy which binds
it to its own record from one year to the next,
will not only relax from the traditions' of our](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.trials/adds0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)