Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1863-07-02

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The Contempt in which the Rebels Hold
the Northern L" Peace +" towards.
From the Richmond Enquirer, Jan. 12.l
TWO YEARS HENCE.
In two years, as many persons hope, We
may possibly have peace-that is, always
provided We continue to repulse and de-
feat the invading enemy. The Yankee
democracy is certainly rousing itself,
and preparing for new struggle Cat the
ballot box) in the great cause Of the
"spoizs," or, as they call it, the cause OF
Constitutional Liberty. Those Democrats
are evidently beginning to raise Peace
platform for their neat Presidential cleo
ton J; and if they have the good luck to
be helped on and sustained by mure aud
more serious disasters of the Yankee aru,
in the field, there is no doubt that the
present devourers of the said spoils at
Washington may soon be so discreditsd
and decried that our enemy's country
would be ripe for such peaceful ballot-box
revolution.
1t is sincerely to be hoped that those
earnest champions of constitutional iree-
dom will be helped on and sustained in
the manner they require-namely, by con
tinued and severe reverses in the field;
and it is the first and most urgent duty of
our countrymen SO to help and sustain
that Democratic party. 1t is nothing to
US which Of their faction may devour
their "spoils;" just as little does it sig.
nifty to us whether they recover or do not
recover that constitutional liberty which
they so wantonly threw away in the mad
pursuit of Southern conquest and plumber.
But 1T is Of the utmost Importance to US to
aid in stimulating disa1ection amoug Yam.
KEGS against their oaon Government, and in
demoralising and disintegrating society ii,
that God-a6andoned country. We can do
this only in one way-namely, by thrash
ing their armies and carrying the war into
their own fresides. Then, indeed, consci,
entious constitutional principles will hold
sway peace platforms will look attractive;
arbitrary arrests will become odious, and
hateas corpus be quoted at PREMIUM
This is the only way we can help them
In this sense, and to this extent. those DEM
oerats are truly our alties, and zoe shall
endeacor to do cur duty by them.
But they evidently look for other and
further help at our hands, and of quite
different sort. No doubt they are pleased
tor the present, with the efficient aid which
the Confederate army is atfording them.
Charlottesville was God-send to them,
and the tremendous repulse at Port Hud-
son is quite plank in their platform. Yet
they understand very we'll that no matter
hnu Hluf hoir ha
beaten; no matter how completely Lin
coins present war policy may be COZ.
demned by its results, yet all this will not
be enough to enable the unterryied Demo.
eracy to clutch tho "spoils"-or as they
phrase it, to restore the Constitution of
their fathers. This, of itself would never
give them a Peace Democrat President
and Cabinet; it would only result in an
other AbolltioDist Administration, with a
new Secretary of War, and new Cons
mander in-Chief, and slightly different
programme for " crushing tho rebellion"
Those Black Republicans are In power,
after long waiting, pining, intriguing in
the cold shade of the opposition and they
have now the numer Cal preponderance 80
decidedly that they both can and will hold
on to ,he Office with clutch like death.
The Democrats can do absolutely nothing
without 1.-THE South" as they persist in
terming these Confederate states; and
they cannot bring themselves to admit the
thought that zoe Mould refuse to unite with
them Gas alas zoe used to do) in a grand
universal Presidential campaign, for q
Democratic President, pith a Peace plat
form, and the " Constitution as IL u.s." In
fact, this whole two years war, and the
two years. more war which has yet to be
gone through, is itself, in their eyes, only
Presidential campaign, only somewhat
more vivacious than ordinary.
This explains the Vallandighan Peace
Meetings in New York and New Jersey
and the ''manly declarations" of Mr.. Hora-
to Seymour and other patriots. ''Do not
let us forget" says Fernando Wood, writ
ing to the Philadelphia meeting, "that
those who perpetrate such outragea as the
arrest and Punishment of Mr.. ValIandig-
ham, do so as necessary war measures
Let NJ, therefore strike at the cause, and
declare for peace and against the aoar."
This would sound very we'll if the said
''declaring tor peace" could have any Ell
feet whatever in bringing about peace. Il
q man falling from tower could arrest
his fall by declaring against it, then the
declarations OF Democrats against the war
might be of some avail. AS it is they re-
semble that emphatic pronouncement of
MIR. Washington Hunt: 'I.et it be pro-
claimed upon the housetops, that no citizen
Of New York shall be arrested without
process OF law" There is no use in bawl.
ing from the housetops what every body
knows to be nonsense. Or this resolu-
ticn of the New Jersey meeting:
Resolved, That, in the illegal seizure and banish-
ment Of the Hon. Q. L. Valla ndgham, the laws Of
our country have been outraged, and the name Of
the United States disgraced the rights every
citizen men anced, and that it is now the duty OF
that it at and forever desist from
dseds of despotssm and crime. [Enthusia,m.l
Demand, quotha2 The startling that
Mr.. Sterne saw 10 the cage, said only, II
can't get out" 1t would have been more
''manly" to scream, II demand to get out
Il proclaim on the house-tops that | 0ill
get out !"
Another of the New jersey resolutions
throws an instructive light upon the
whole movement, and its objects.
Resolved, That we renew declaration of at
tachment to the Union, pledging to its friends,
,ohsreUer 1oune, our nnwaverins support, and to
hostility, and that, God willing, We will stand
by the Constitution and laws of our country, and
under their sacred shield will maintain and defend
liberty and rights, ''peaceably if We can, for
chilly If We must" [Great chssring.l
The phrase, wherever found" implies
that there are friends of the Union in this
Confedecracy, and the resolution obligng-
ly pledges to them the support Of the New