Turner, Ill.
When did the Democratic party originate, and what were its principal doctrines when it was in power?
L. S. M.
Answer.—We first read of a Democratic party in 1807, with such men as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison for its leaders. It is sometimes referred to by historians as the “Democratic Republican” party, and its adherents were quite as frequently termed Republicans as Democrats. Not until the first Democratic convention, in 1832, did what is now generally understood as the simon pure Democratic party assume positive shape. Thence forward it rapidly developed into the defender of slavery; the opponent of National banks and protective tariff; the advocate and administrator of the doctrine, “To the victors belong the spoils,” or rotation in office; first vigorously espoused and put into practice by General Jackson; and finally the champion of State sovereignty and apologist and abettor of secession. For a synopsis of the present political salmagundi, or olla podrida, denominated Democracy, and for the doctrines of the Republican party see Our Curiosity Shop for 1882, page 134.
WILL CARLETON, THE POET.
Junction City, Kan.
Please give us a sketch of Will Carleton, author of “Farm Ballads,” and other poems.
Lady Reader.
Answer.—Will Carleton was born in Hudson, Mich., Oct. 21, 1845. His parents, John H. and Celeste E. Carleton, were of English descent. They removed to Michigan from the East at an early day, where the father cleared the farm upon which he afterward lived for forty years. He was a man of great natural force of character, with a talent for extemporaneous speaking, and he soon became a man of influence, filling many offices of trust in the community, and contributing powerfully to the rapid success of the Methodist Church in Southern Michigan, of which he was a devoted member. He died in 1872. The mother is still living and resides with her son in Brooklyn, N. Y. She is a woman of decided force of character and sweetness of heart, and is beloved by all who know her. Her only other son having died on his way home, after a long imprisonment in the South during the late war, and her daughters being dead, the subject of this sketch is the only one of her five children now surviving. The boyhood of Will Carleton was passed in farm labor and study. At the district school he was particularly fond of grammar, and manifested a spirit of criticism that at times got him into discussions with his teachers which disturbed their serenity of temper. Frequently when the day for “speaking pieces” came around he would surprise his fellow pupils with original bits of humor, which, although intended for good-natured satires, ended more than once in schoolboy fights. Later he walked five miles daily to attend high school in town. At 16 he taught a country school of fifty-two pupils, and any allusions he makes to “boarding ’round” are born of experience. He graduated at Hillsdale College in 1869 with the degree of A. B., and for two years devoted himself to editorial work, being during the last of the two editor of the Detroit Weekly Tribune. He then returned to Hillsdale to reside, while giving more time to preparations for a literary life, and occasionally filling lecturing and reading engagements.