Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1862-05-21
BY REQUEST.
REVIEW OF THE DEMO-
CRATIC ADDRESS,
From the Philadelphia Press, of May 9th.

From the Philadelphia Press, of May 9th
WASHINGTON, May 8, 1862.
document called the address of Democrat
ic members of Congress to the Democracy of
the United States appears in the National In
teAigencer this morning. 1t is signed by only
fourteen members of the House. Not single
Democrat in the Senate and not single Rep
resentativc from the Border States seems to
have given it his sanction. And when its
statements are examined, in the light of history
and tested by fair augmentation, even those
who have endorsed it will be heartily ashamed
OF it. No more emphatic admonition of the
purposes entertained by the leaders of the
present Democratic organization could have
been laid before the American people than this
extraordinary production. Not single ,rord
appears IN this address in feror OF the ,car for
the maintenance of the Gorernment, or in oppo-
sftton 10 the rebels eho fighting for its over-
hrow. Isit not amazing, in such a crisis as
this, while nearly seven hundred thousand
freemen are offering their lives as sacrifice
to the fag-whle hundreds of families are
mourning the loss of their husbands, fathers,
sons, and brothers, and with the record before
their eyes of the monstrous atrocities perpe-
trated upon the wounded who have fallen into
the hands of the traitors, and even upon the
dead bodies of those who died in honorable
battle that distinguished gent lemen, profess
ing to represent large portion of the people
OF the United States, should deliberately and
coldly refuse to say that the war in which we
are now engaged is just war, and that it is
being conducted to preserve the freest and
most generous Government in the world
The bravery, and the skill, and the moderation
which have extorted from hostile and foreign
nations expressions of astouisbment and praise,
do not awaken single throb in the breasts of
these fourteen democratic members of Con-
gress." Instead of this, we find studied ef-
fort to misrepresent the Administration of Mr.
Lincoln, and the freshest and panest events
of the last two years. | have not time now to
point out more than or two OF the most
fragrant instances of this Misrepresentation
The.address says:
awe do not propose to consider now the
causes which led to the present unhappy civil
war. A. filter time will come hereafter for
such discussion. But we remind you now that
compromise made your Union, and compro-
mise, fifteen months ago, would have saved it.
Repeated efforts were made at the last session
of the Thirty sixth Congress to this end. At
every stage. the great mass of the South, with
the whole Democratic party, and the whole
constitutional Union party, of the North and
Vest, united in favor of certain mendments
to the Constitution-and chief among them,
the we'll known ssCrittenden Propositions -
which would have averted civil war and main-
tanned the Union. At every stage, all propos-
ed amendments Inconsistent with the sectional
doctrines of the Chicago platform were siren
uously and unanimously resisted and defeated
by the Republican party
The best witness to refute this astounding
assertion is Andrew Johnson of Tennessee,
who, in the Senate of the United States, on