Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1863-03-19

them over fifty thousand votes. Be It re-
membered that this was before the inaugu-
ration Of these measures, now said to be
condemned. Those votes were against the
war and the Critteo den resolution. AT the
last election, the same Union party placed
conservative candidates on the same Crit
tenden resolution, and they were beaten
by these same Democrats under the same
leader, by ten thousand. '-
If this election in Ohio settled anything
but the Offices, it was a condemnation
by the Democracy Of that State Of
of the Crittenden resolution. And strange
as It may seem, my colleague, Mr.. Cox,
the eternal eulogizer. of this everlasting
resolution, was among the foremost in pro-
curing this condemnation; and stranger
still, the venerable author of this resolu-
ton, in this same contest was tugging
away aiding that gentleman in this labor
of love, the strangling of his own misbe-
gotten, misconceived, misdelivered brat.
Sir, there has been another election in
Ohio final and silencing reply to all
this clamOr Of my colleague; an election
the fulillment of an old promise, and full
of the promise of o new prophecy. Two
years ago the people of that State elected
a Legislature, majority of which we're
members of the Democratic party. With
in the last few weeks that same Legisla-
ture, q majority of whose members still
are Democrats, reelected to the Senate Of
the United States Benjamin Franklin
Wade. In the teeth Of these elections and
the light shed upon them by the illumins-
ting speeches Of my colleagues, they seized
upon that embodiment Of the intensest en-
ergies Of the radical forces that are now
grasping at the throat of this rebellion,
and hurled him back into the Senate as the
naughty response of mighty State to their
childish clamor. What do you suppose
now our State thinks Of emancipation and
confscation and the arrest of traitors Do
you say to me that this Legislature was
elected two years ago2 reply that, one
| year ago it refused to elect Mr.. Wade, and
| that it was only their estimation Of these
great measures and the events that have
sprung into life since, that enabled the
Democrats of that body to overcome preju-
dices strong as life, and rise to this great
act, an act that seals Ohio to emancipation
and its kindred measures. 1t is the recoil,
the reaction in Ohio, that reelected Mr..
Mr.. Wade.
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND THE REBEL
The evils Of this war and their origin
are charged upon US. Ny colleague, Mr..
Cox, in the speech referred to, aggregated
| the ills that have overtaken the country
since the advent Of the Republican power
under fourteen bloody heads, precisely as
if they were to be charged to our account (;
as if our very presence in the midst of
peace and beauty had invoked them from
the heavens above and coDiured them from
the earth below. have heard Of disease
among men called bronze. Its principal
symptom is an intense brassiness of the
face. Here is a case of bronze. It
seems to me, also, that several other gen
tlemen over there have it more or less Sc
we're, and many ofthe cases are badly com
plicated with another prevailing disorder.
In the spring Of 1857 q Democratic Ad-
ministration succeed one equally Demo-
cratic. A Democratic President, Demo
cratic Congress, Democratic Supreme Court,
with Democratic Cabinet at home and
Democratic Ministers abroad. The army
was commanded BY Democratic Generals,
and the navy obeyed Democratic orders.
Everything was Democratic; and the sue
ceeding four years was saturnalia Of De-
mocracy. Its principles as illustrated in
these days, Teigned and worked none but
their legitimate results. No provisions Of
the Constitution; no seruples of consci-
ence; no doubt Of morality; no question
of the public good; none Of national glory ;
no regard for opinion or the voice Of after
history, interyened to check or change these
inevitable results, and never in the world 8
history was the descent of great nation
so fatal and so rapid, as ours, nor a na-
tional calamity so mournful and so pro-
found; and none certainly was ever 30
wholly and entirely due to the unaided ef-
forts, the wide, deep, and measureless de-
pravity Of those who worked the govern
mental processes. Disorder was not con-
fined to one branch of the public service, it
pervaded the whole; not limited to subor-
dinates, to bureaus, and departments, but
the three great coordinate branches Of the
Government were disorganized and de-
bauched, with scarce the form Of admins
tration left. The virus was not merely
circulating in few narrow channels, but
under o malignant poison the framework
Of the Government itself was dissolying,
and its foundations crumbling away. The
Constitution was unequal to sustain the
weight Of ruins, and the States themselves
dropped off dead and dEotton--wrenched away
| by these Democratic hands. Such state
was reached that the only remedy possible
was recurrence to first principles, and an
appeal to the untouched life and love Of the
people. Ts.lt
But who was there here with recognized
power to make that appeal2 The judges
Of the Supreme Court in a frenzy, tore
the national ermine from their shoulders,
and fed, bowling fierce blssphemies and
treason against the life of the nation.
Whole delegations in these two houses left
/ their seats TO execute the conspiracy they
had cOnoocted here, and rushed forth to
lead armies hither to trample out the little
vitality that their strangling hands had
| left in the nations heart. In the Execu-
tive Mansion still sat q feeble old man
amid the wreck of fallen faculties and the
debris Of not over virtuous life; pulling
and driveling in helpless imbecility; blind
and weak, unknoWing and uncaring, in
the hands Of the giant criminals of his
Cabinet who had turned the national pal
ace into q cave Of conspirators and mur-
derers against the national honor and ex-
istenee. And when the time drew near
for the Executive elect to assume his du-
ties, for the security of his life he was
obliged to disguise his person and steal to
the capital in the night, like a fugitive,
amid the jesrs Of these same gentlemen.
During all this time the leading gentle
men on your right, who now charge these
ills upon us, who charge Us with daily
violation Of the Constitution, and who
stand here to thwart and hinder the Presi-
dent who alone is armed with power to
crush this rebellion-these gentlemen oe-
cupied the same seats, were members of
the same Democratic party, brothers of the
same political litter with the conspirators,
seeing all these things, and in daily and
niRhtlY intercoursa RiIh the rlntfara -anS