Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1863-06-25
rhe Coufempr in which the Rebels held
penee snenEa.

u
Peace SnenkH.
The VallandighammeTs Of this city and
vicinity are to hold ratification nett
ing this evening. We recommend that
the Secretary of that meeting, whoever he
may be, be invited to read to the motley
crowd, the following remarkable article
from the Richmond Enquirer OfJune 18th,
in which the whole tribe Of Peace Sneaks,
who are endeavOring to embarrass the
Government and thus give aid and com
fort to the rebels, are brought under the
old-time slave-drivers lash:
TWO YEARS HENCE.
In two years, as many persons hope, we
NAV possibly have peace-that is, always
providing we continue to repulse and de-
feat the invading enemy. The Yankee
HDemocracy" is certainly rousing itself,
and preparing for a new struggle lat the
ballot-box) in the great cause of the
"spoils," or, as they call it. the cause of
Constitutional Liberty. Those Democrats
are evidently beginning to raise Peace
platform for their Rert PresidentiaL election
and if they have the good luck to be helped
on and sustained by more and more seri-
GUS disasters of the Yankee army in the
field, there is no doubt that the present
devourers of the said spoils at Washington
may coon be so discredited and decTied
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 free
dom will be helped on and sustained in the
manner they require-namely, by cOntinu-
ed 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.-It is nothing to US
which of their factions may devour their
"spoils;" Just as little does it signify 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 plunder. But Il
is Of the utmost Importance to us to aid IN
| stimulating disafeetioH among Yankees against
their osrn Government, and in demoTalizing
and disintegrdting society in that God dband-
oned couRtry. We can do this only in one
way-namely, by thrashing their armies
| and carrying the war to their own ire
sides. Then, indeed, conscientious cOnsti.
| tutional principles will hold sway; peace
platforms will look attractive; arbitrary
arrests will become odious, and habedS
| corpus be quoted at q premium. This is
the only way we can help them. In this
sense, and to this extent those Democrats
are truly our allies, and we shall endeavOr
to do our duty by them.
But they evidently look for further help
at our hands, and Of quite different sort.
No doubt they are pleased for the present,
with the efficient aid which the Confeder-
ate army is affording them. ChancellOrs-
vile was a God-send tn them, and the tre-
mendous repulse at Port Hudson is quite
a plank in their platform. Yet they un-
derstand very well that no matter how
soundly their armies may be happily beat
en- no matter how completely Lincoln 8
present war policy may be condemned by
| its results, yet all this will not be enough
to enable the unterrifed Democracy to
clutch the 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 another Abolitionist
administration, with a new Secretary of
| War, and a new COmmissioner-in-C Chief,
and a slightly different programme for
"crushing the rebellion" Those Black
Republicans are in power; after long watt
| ing, piniLg, intriguing Ia the cold shade
of the opposition; and they have now the
numerical preponderence so decidedly that
| they both can and will hold on to the Of
| fiee with clutch like death. The Demo
Gratis can do absolutely nothing without
"the South" as they PERSIST in terming
| these Confederate States and they cannot
bring themselves to admit the thought that
lve mould refuse 70 uHits nth them { as alas
ags used % do1 IN grand UnirersaJ Presi-
| dentiaL campaign, for a Democratic President,
Nth a Peace platform, and the " Constitution
as tits" 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 viyaeious than ordin-
ary.
This explains the Vallandighsm Peace
Meetings in New York and New Jersey /;
and the manly declarations of Mr..
I Horatio Seymour and other patriots. I" Do
not let us forget" says Fernando Weod
writing to the Philadelphia meeting, hat
those who perpetrate such Outrnges as the
arrest and banishment of Mr.. Vallandig-
ham, do so as necessary war measures.
Let us, therefore, strike at the cause, and
declare for peace and against the lOdr"
This would sound very we'll if the said
" dclaring for peace could have any effect
whatever in bringing about peace. If q
man falling from a tower could arrest his
fall by declaring against it, then the de-
clarstions Of Democrats against the war
might be Of some avail As it is, they re-
semble that emphatic procurement of
Mr.. Washington Hunt: "Let it be pro-
claimed upon the houSstops, that no citizen
of New York shall be arrested without
process of law" There is no use in bawl-
ing from the housetops what everybody
knows to be nonsense. Or this resolution
Of the New Jersey meeting:
Resolrsd, That in the seizure and ban
ishment of Hon. C. L. Valandigham, the
laws of our country have been disgraced,
and the rights of every citizen menaced,
and that it is now the duty Of law re-
specting people to demand of the Admins
| tration that it at once and forever desist
from such deeds Of dsspOGsm ana crime. En-
| thusiasm.
Demand, quotha? The startling that Mr..
sterne saw in the cage, said only, 81 can't
get out. 1t would have been more "man-
ly" to scream, ~ demand to get out-I pro-
claim on the house tops that 1 will get
out"
Another of the New Jersey resolutions
throws an instructive lightupOn this whole
movement, and its objects.
ResolUed That We renew our declaration
/ ~ obrnor,f - ha TTn5ou vIadr5D1 20
its friends, VhereUer found, our unwaYer-
ing support, and to its enemies in Whatev-
er guise, our undying hostility, and that
! IL L