lar fatality, still indicate the plebeian origin which they would
now so gladly disown by the term Democrats; and, on the other hand, of
Republicans, nick-named at present Radicals--somewhat unjustly; since
the term is strictly applicable only to a very limited portion of their
number.

There were men of high intelligence among the founders of the _old_
Democratic party; men who understood in many respects the true interests
of humanity and its inevitable tendency, under the influences of free
labor, free schools, and science. But with the masses, it owed its
growth to the old assumed 'natural antagonism' of labor to capital, or
of 'the poor against the rich.' It was essentially the same party as
that which was played upon by low demagogues like Cleon in the old Greek
day; by men who stirred up the poor and ignorant against the privileged
and rich, for their own selfish advantage. Of late years, more
enlightened and intelligent views have prevailed in all parties, and the
Cleons of the present day have been compelled to adventure more and more
among the lowest and most ignorant for dupes. For the workman is
gradually learning with his employer that there is a harmony of
interests and a gradual adjustment of the prices allotted to the
relative values of time, labor, brains, and capital, and that the most
serious obstacle to this adjustment is, the keeping up of a constant
warfare between laborers and employers. It is the skilled _employe_ who
becomes himself the capitalist in due time, under a peaceable and
well-organized system, as labor and brains rise in value, and the
greatest impediment to his rise is a settled state of war between
himself and the employer. Education and political equality, the
competition of capital, and the ever-increasing appreciation of
intelligence, are constantly promoting this harmony and enabling labor
to secure its rights.

It is easy to see how the ancient Democracy, or rather its leaders,
having for many years held political supremacy and shared the spoils,
actually took the place of their opponents, and, in their decline,
naturally enough, formed a coalition with the intensely aristocratic
South. Meanwhile, what became of the once aristocratic Opposition, with
its 'silk-stocking gentry,' as they were termed? Like the Democracy, it
died a natural death, so far as the active enforcement of its principles
was concerned, after those principles had no longer a foundation in the
social devel