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Paragraphs are your friend...

Ridiculous. The parties have both changed dramatically - as has America - as has the world in 150 years. 150 years ago Southern Democrats were the party of small government, balanced budgets and decentralized power.

Alexander Stephens, often quoted for his Cornerstone Speech is rarely quoted for this: "If centralism is ultimately to prevail; if our entire system of free Institutions as established by our common ancestors is to be subverted, and an Empire is to be established in their stead; if that is to be the last scene of the great tragic drama now being enacted: then, be assured, that we of the South will be acquitted, not only in our own consciences, but in the judgment of mankind, of all responsibility for so terrible a catastrophe, and from all guilt of so great a crime against humanity."

--Alexander Stephens

He was hardly the only one.

“Every man should endeavor to understand the meaning of subjugation before it is too late… It means the history of this heroic struggle will be written by the enemy; that our youth will be trained by Northern schoolteachers; will learn from Northern school books their version of the war; will be impressed by the influences of history and education to regard our gallant dead as traitors, and our maimed veterans as fit objects for derision…

It is said slavery is all we are fighting for, and if we give it up we give up all. Even if this were true, which we deny, slavery is not all our enemies are fighting for. It is merely the pretense to establish sectional superiority and a MORE CENTRALIZED FORM OF GOVERNMENT AND TO DEPRIVE US OF OUR RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES.”

-- Maj. General Patrick R. Cleburne, CSA, January 1864

Lee reflected similar sentiments "I yet believe that the maintenance of the rights and authority reserved to the states and to the people, not only essential to the adjustment and balance of the general system, but the safeguard to the continuance of a free government. I consider it as the chief source of stability to our political system, whereas the consolidation of the states into one vast republic, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of that ruin which has overwhelmed all those that have preceded it."

Robert E. Lee in a letter to Lord Acton Davis expressed similar ideas in his 2nd inaugural "The people of the Southern States, whose almost exclusive occupation was agriculture, early perceived a tendency in the Northern States to render the common government subservient to their own purposes by imposing burdens on commerce as a protection to their manufacturing and shipping interests. Long and angry controversies grew out of these attempts, often successful, to benefit one section of the country at the expense of the other. And the danger of disruption arising from this cause was enhanced by the fact that the Northern population was increasing, by immigration and other causes, in a greater ratio than the population of the South. By degrees, as the Northern States gained preponderance in the National Congress, self-interest taught their people to yield ready assent to any plausible advocacy of their right as a majority to govern the minority without control."

Jefferson Davis Address to the Confederate Congress April 29, 1861

The Republicans of 160 years ago were a party of centralized power....of crony capitalism with big business in bed with government and getting massive subsidies from government, of federal deficits and debts.

The Jeffersonian Democrats who were overwhelmingly Southern dominated the Democrat party. They wanted decentralized power, limited government, balanced budgets and no corporate welfare. The regions did not change much in their political values. The parties did. New England still wants centralized power (hell, now they want global government rather than merely national). They still want massive government spending. The South still wants limited government and states' rights.

The Democrats now dominate the Northeast and advocate what they want. The Republicans now dominate the South and advocate what Southerners have traditionally wanted.

central_va: "Paragraphs are your friend..."

FLT-bird: "The parties have both changed dramatically - as has America - as has the world in 150 years.
150 years ago Southern Democrats were the party of small government, balanced budgets and decentralized power."

Are you kidding?
150 years ago Southern Democrats were the party of anti-American traitors at war against the United States Constitution, the party of Black Codes, Jim Crow, KKK, segregation and all that nonsense.

But let's be fair to the Democrats, let's go back to their Day One in power in Washington, DC., in 1801 when Thomas Jefferson inherited the Federalist government spending around $9 million per year & national debt of $83 million.
Over the following 60 years (1801 to 1861) there were 13 4-year Democrat administrations in which Federal spending increased an average of 25% per administration, such that by the end of the Buchanan Democrat administration in 1861, Federal spending had risen from $10 million under Jefferson to $80 million under Buchanan.

There were also two Whig administrations, in which Federal spending fell, on average 16%.
Over those 60 Democrat years, the national debt rose (mainly due to wars) and fell (especially under Jackson) such that the $82 million debt Jefferson inherited ended at $90 million under Buchanan.
National debt rose by $10 million under the first Whig administration, fell $3 million under the second.

So all claims that Democrats were somehow more frugal, small government or balanced budget are pure nonsense.
It was only actually true in their own political propaganda.

What Democrats undeniably were is more warlike:

Against Federalist opposition Democrats declared war on Britain in 1812.
Against Whig opposition, Democrats declared war against Mexico in 1846.
Against Republican opposition, Democrats declared war against the United States in 1861.

And that is not even to mention dozens of other minor military actions, from Barbary Pirates & Florida to Trail of Tears.

FLT-bird: "Alexander Stephens, often quoted for his Cornerstone Speech is rarely quoted for this:
'If centralism is ultimately to prevail; if our entire system of free Institutions as established by our common ancestors is to be subverted, and an Empire is to be established in their stead; if that is to be the last scene of the great tragic drama now being enacted: then, be assured, that we of the South will be acquitted, not only in our own consciences, but in the judgment of mankind, of all responsibility for so terrible a catastrophe, and from all guilt of so great a crime against humanity.'
--Alexander Stephens "

Well, first of all the word "empire" can mean almost anything.
We might remember, people said of the Holy Roman Empire that it was neither Holy nor Roman nor an Empire.
President Washington himself called the United States "our empire" in the 1790s, at which time by no definition of the word "empire" could that be anything more than a figure of speech.

Does the word "empire" imply conquered lands?
Much or all of the United States was conquered, if not by us then by, for example, the Spanish who were conquered by the French who sold us Louisiana territory.
Does "empire" imply dictatorship?
The British Empire was arguably as democratic as any nation on earth at the time, at least for the Brits themselves.

Second, I can find the Stephens' quote, but not the date or context of it -- was it pre-war, during the war, or post-war?
But I notice that after the war Stephens was elected to the US Senate and House of Representatives (5 times) before being elected Georgia's governor, in which post he died, naturally, in 1883.
So I take it that as an elected US official, Stephens did not feel like, say, a Tribune of the Roman Empire, right?

FLT-bird quoting:

"It is said slavery is all we are fighting for, and if we give it up we give up all.
Even if this were true, which we deny, slavery is not all our enemies are fighting for.
It is merely the pretense to establish sectional superiority and a MORE CENTRALIZED FORM OF GOVERNMENT AND TO DEPRIVE US OF OUR RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES.”

-- Maj. General Patrick R. Cleburne, CSA, January 1864"

Seems to me that quotes by Cleburne have been posted & challenged before.
Cleburne was actually a very attractive Confederate general, having supported offering slaves freedom in exchange for military service.

Because of that he is fantasized to have said a lot of stuff I'm not sure if he ever did.
Does anyone remember checking this out in the past?