southern leanings and affinities, to be sure, but less susceptible, I
like to think, than most of the states south of us to the coaxing and
soft words of Republican mischief makers. Nonetheless, we Demo-
crats would be well advised, in my opinion, to remain on the alert
for possible Republican efforts to defeat us by creating dissension
within our own ranks. Our best defense in these circumstances will
be to remain steadfast in our loyalty to the great Party which we are
honored to serve and to be a part — the Democratic Party, the Party
of crisis, the Party of the people.

Confronted as we are by grave national and international problems,
it is reassuring that at the helm of our ship of state is a Democrat
and that charting our course into an uncertain future is a political
organization that has earned its reputation by meeting national and
international emergencies.

It is comforting, too, that in an era of drastic social and economic
upheaval, requiring drastic adjustments, our interests as individual
American citizens are being safeguarded by a leadership which springs
from a political party which has remained undeviatingly the Party of
the people from the time of Jefferson and Jackson to the present day.
Any party of the people can expect castigation and ill treatment at
the hands of the diehards. It has always been this way.

We may recall that the President of Yale University said of the
popular Jefferson administration in 1801 that meant "a country gov-
erned by blockheads and knaves. " But Jefferson will always live as
symbol of our democratic form of government.

When Jackson, vetoed a bill extending the Second Bank of the
United States. Nicholas Biddle called his action a "manifesto of
anarchy", and Chancellor Kent called Jackson an "ignorant, reckless,
vain and malignant tyrant. "

Wilson, Roosevelt, and Truman fared no better. One aggrieved
millionaire in 1936 called Roosevelt "a communist of the worst
degree. "

Yet, by any correct interpretation of the record, political success
has always been overwhelmingly with those who have wavered least

— who have seen the fundamental importance of a strong alliance
with the popular position. The former presidents who have done this

— Jefferson, Jackson, Wilson, Roosevelt, and Truman — are the ones
that are celebrated in history.

As Harry Truman pointed out, the Party has won with men who
have understood that the strength of the Party lay with the people. I

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