The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1858-09-22
THE ENEMY WHITES A BOOK.
The Death thrOes of the Ashland
Insurance Company
PREFACE.

.
Ocr shot took effect. The glars is rat
Ting like hail, and the exhalations which
come up from the putrid carcass now but
partially exposed, are manifest through
the columns OF the last Times. The
junto make no defense. They have in
deed none to make; but they seek to
break the force of the storm which their
own mad folly, their slanderous attacks
upon others, and their own corruptions
have raised, by making an imrotent and
imtecile personal attack upon the editor
of this paper.
We shall not be diverted from our
daty or purpose by personal attacks from
these u~nclean birds. We shall pass
them by, as We nave when they have
been made from the same quarter during
the last several nonths-in silence, de.
termined not to degrade our press or
sacrifice our own self-respect by a war
fare of that character and with that en-
envy.
Our readers will bear US witness, that
heretofore we have acted wholly on the
II tensire. Let US briefly recapitul.t;,
and see if this is not true:
The Iin1tS made and reiterated the
charge that there existed a "clique"
composed of the Democratic officers of
the County, who sought to control the
nominations of the party. Degraded
and reckless of truth as that concern is,
it did not have the bardibood to prefer
any definite or specific charges against
any one Of the Democratic officers of the
County. The official and personal hab-
it's and conduct of each and all of those
officers, were too well established in the
minds of the people of the county to
make such a course expedient. Hence
these gentlemen must be destroyed by
cowardly inuendo, and a frequent repc-
tition of the stupid and pointless cry of
=" cliqueI" "~clique!" clique !" And
the organ of the Democratic party must
be destroyed by a copious shower of cheap
billingsgate and blackguardism
1t became necessary for US, then, to
show qcAere the L" clique really was,
acAo constituted it, and what were its
motives and aims. 1t became our duty
as a matter of justice to those who had
been wrongfully assailed, as we'll as a
matter of self-defense, that we should
specify, and show the character of the
Corporation which was sending forth
this usual howl of men in their circum-
stances, of " stop MiefI"
In the discharge of this duty to our
party and %ourself, we avoided PERSONAL
tics or any language that even the lead
er of the monopoly could justly take
exceptions to. We even stopped short
of an obligation we owed the people of
the county, but which the Times and
company, through the diseased heads
and hearts of their conductors, by a
fresh volley of vituperation and fabulous
charges, have compelled US to perform.
And to the discharge of this duty we
shall unshrinkingly address ourself.
Before entering directly upon our
task, it may be proper for us to say that
there are nominally connected with the
Ashland Insurance Company, as officers,
some of our best and most responsible
citizens. Their connection, however, is
merely nominal, and their names were
only loaned, by dint of hard begging, to
, give the institution character. With
| the books, the papers or the moneys, they
have no more knowledge or supervision
: than as though no such nominal relation
existed. From the organization of the
institution, some seven or eight years
f ago, it has been controlled by one nan
That man has become, during the period
named, exceedingly and mysteriously
~plethoric, while no one else connected
e with the corporation is suspected of hav
ing become richer in consequence of sucl
connection.
. It has been claimed by its manage
: that it is a Republican institution, anG
appeals have been made to the Republi
can party to sustain it on that ground.
To show whether these appeals hav'
V been properly made-to demonstrate
e whether the corporation has a just CLAIM
upon the masses of the Republican party
or to the confidence of the people gene
rally-to vindicate the Democratic par
ty from the unjust assaults which have
been made upon their candidates, will
form a subject for a future chapter.
Democratic Meetings.
Tt was in contemplation bv the Dem