Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1862-05-16

Judge q man BY his acts, is IN old saying
that viii hold good al the world over, And
what is true of of single man Is true Of
collection of men. A society or organization
can only be judged by what it does or what
! Is members and leaders have done.
Taking the above proposition % truth
which no one viii attempt to deny, We should
like to enquire what there is in the past his
tory Of the Democratic party, that viii make
this free North any the better for it, ze-organ-
ization. From the time that Willard Fillmore
vacated the presidential chair, in 1858, till its
occupation by Abraham Lincols, in 1851, a
period Of eight years of uninterrupted Demo
cratic rule elapsed. At the commencement
Of this period, Franklin Pierce, an out-and-
out Democrat, took his seatas President, and
stated in his message that he found the
United States at peace with themselves and
al mankind. As nation, We were then at the
very summit Of prosperity. The citizens Of
every State were bound together - one man,
and the Star-Spaugled Banner fioated over q
rich. happy aud prosperous land, united by
interest and affection. The man who had
foretold the present arrangement between
the North and South would have been laugh
ed at as fool.
It is needless to recapitulate the history Of
these eight years. First, the troubles RKan'
sas forced into existence feeling ofanimosi'
ty between two sections of our country. The
aggressions of the Democratic party South,
aided and abetted by the Democratic party
North, gradually increased until . majority
Of the people repudiated the action Of the
Democratic party both North and South
Then, the Democratic party South secedes
and makes war upon the government Both
sides, fully aroused, rush into battle, and oul
previously peaceful and happy land is e1pe-
riencing war in ITS most terrible and destruc
tive form.
Was it Republicanism, or, if you please
Abolitionism that set the ball in motion
Was there Republican or An Abolitionist
in the Convention that took South Carolina
out Of the Unionf Does any man suppose
an Abolitionist's hand fred ct the Star Of
the West?-or loaded gun to lie dis
charged at the flag which waved over Sum.
ter. Every school boy knows very we'll that
the men who engineered the secession
scheme, are, and always have been Democrats
It does not necessarily follow that every
Democrat is traitor, but the leaders of that
party all turned traitors with one or two ex-
ceptions, and the first man who signed the
address calling on the people to re-organize
the defunct organization, barely escaped being
expelled from the halls Of Congress for his
well known secession sympathies.
The revival of the Democratic party at this
stage of the game means nothing more or less
than the perfecting of a scheme to resist and
embarrass the government and to protect and
cherish that root of all evil-human slavery.
A Convention of the Democracy has been
called to meet at our State capital on the 18th
day Of July. Whether the free and intelli-
gent people of Iowa will allow themselves to
be gulled by party whose principles they
have repudiated again and again, time alone
can tell.