The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1863-08-05
TO Northern peace Democrats.

SentineZ IF the 23d
OF all the formal expressions of public opin
ion which have come to us from the United
States, we have noticed but one that has q kind
word for the people of these Confederate States.
True, they all claim that we are one people
with them that we belong to the same eoun-
try and the same Government; and, in short,
are their brethren. But the dominant party
breathe out against US nothing but slaughter
and destruction, and denounce US with as much
demopiacal fury
..As all the tends from Heaven that fell,
Had pealed the banner-cry ofHell."
They intend to have us again by sheer brute
force. They disdain the very thought of con-
ceding SO much as a civil word to the 'vile
Rebels p' They intend to have us that they
may crush US and destroy us. They scout
with fury any compromise short of this They
are filled with rage at the bare mention of it.
The rumor has gone out that Seward thinks
the time has come when he may, with some
hope, try upon us his hypoeritical blandish-
mentS and his false pretensions-neyer falser
than when he swears-never less secure than
when he pledges his sacred word of honor
But the very mention that Seward proposes to
address us conciliatory words, no matter how
hollow and treaeherons, has thrown his follow
ers into a paroxysm of rage, and they are de-
nouncing him almost as f%uriously as they de-
nounce US. 81
The meetings Of the Democratic or Peace
+ arty have not gone 50 far as--this GaeJ-a1-
tnUunc6 76@-War as .wickedly and ineficiently
conduc(ed, apdthsy=d the
best means CT securing reunion. Wal they
consider as hopeless to effect that object. But
they have not, In any other instance that we
remember, spoken as in the New Hampshire
Democratic Convention, presided over by ex-l
President Pierce, and doubtless animated by
his sentiments. ~
The New Hampshire Democrats, addressing
the citizens of the Confederacy, pledge us that
if we will come back into the Union they will
co all in their power to gain for us such guar
antces as will secure our safety. This p-opo-
sition we believe to be as frankly made as it
is courteously expressed. We believe it to be
an honest proposition; for Franklin Pierce
and Willard f llmore, and few others, have
pursued a course that commands confidence in
their sincerity. We credit a simple word of one
of them sooner than we would as many oaths
as could be sworn in u week by the men who
promised that the peace should be preserved
at Fort Sumter, and the existing status main
tanned, at the very time that they were sending
thither the material of war.
We respond, therefore, to the New Hamp-5
shire Democrat with courtesy and respect
But we tell them what they must know, when
we say to them that they are powerless to Sc
cure for US those guarantees of which they adj
nit the necessity. LESS Indn llIcc years dSOy
when the late Union WAS in the very throes of
dissolution, the States which now form the
Confederacy sought, in the spiritof conserva-
ism and forbearance, to avoid disruption, with
an importantly that now appears to us anna
zing. We would then have accepted terms
which our own better judgments told us were
Inadequate, and to which nothing but the ex-
IRENE reluctance to dissolve the existing or
der of things could have reconciled ms. When
-. Ill I.4I - = -4~ ~ noEAS uS- tromhIo |
to think that we offered to take the Crittenden
compromise. All.
But Cancellation on our part was met only
by contumely and defiance by the Republican
majority. They were warned OF the necessa-
ry and inevitable effect of the course they were
pursuing, but they treated the warming with
contempt and scurrility.
In that decisive hour, the Democrats OF New
Hampshire. hnHe1er willing, could do us no
good.
We had to take care of ourselves. Falling
back on our sovereign. rights, and calling upon
God to vindicate us, VIC assumed a seperate
national life. From that time, the men who
%wilfully destroyed the Union, have been as
sailing us with all the engines OF destruction.
They have evinced toward US a malignity
which has seldom been paralleied in human
history. IF it were in their power, they
would turn the montains and pour the seas
upon us. They would cover US with consum-
ing lava. They would sink us with the earth
quake and oyerwhelm US with the storm
They devote us, so tar as they can, to the des-
olation of fire and sword -3d -
Do the New Hampshire Democrats suppose
for ore moment, that we could SO much as
think of reunion with such a people? Rath
er, tell one to be welded to a corpse! Rather
ioin hands with a 6end from the pit We ex
hausted Cancellation before We separated
Thenceforth, there was no room for so much
as a thought of reunion. We had buried our
dead out of our sight, and the mourners had
become comforted. Since that time our false
allies have been our vindictive foes. Thu
blood of many thousands of martyrsi is between
them and us. A thousand feelings of horror
repel the bare idea of a renewal OF association.
Let not the Democrats of New Hampshire,
or such as think with them, deem us bitter in
these remarks. Let them put themselves in
our places. They know how yillainously we
have been treated. They know that to have
submitted to Lincoln's tyranny, was to have
taken the yoke forever. We should have
been considered as consenting slaves, and even
our unavailing friends would have deserted us:
Since that time the only greeting OF kind
words which has come to us from tbs North,
the New Hampshire men have rent, All, or
nearly all beside, has been contiagratlon sW ford,
demoniac denunciation, and brutal menace of
destruction. Could a dead loye be expected
to revive again in such a fire ? Let not the
New Hampshire men press US. We are glad
that they have seen fit to manifest a human
feeling We respond to them in that. But
between the United States and the Confeder
ate States the best. that the future can bring
is friendly relations.
This cruel war may stop if the North so
wills it. And when those in the United States
who are disposed to deal fairly with us shall
gain the rule, we may in time begin to bury
the many bitter memories which now add en-
ergy TO our rcsentmeats, and may make with
them treaties that shall be mutually advanta-
gcous. Perhaps hereafter good will may be
revived again. But Union-never let it be
mentioned. Never, never. It is impossible.
Let the Democrats at the North content them
selves with securing the next best thing. Let