The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1863-09-01

Wilson ne said, ~Gen- Gushing assured me,
That If you attempt TO march against the
South, you will be hrottsed IN your tracks,"
Gea. Gushing had less than two years before
been with Davis in Frank Pierce's Cabinet
and the facts now show that Pierce, at the
head of the government, had thus early given
assurances to men meditating high treason,
that they should not be interfered with: that
any attempt to do so would he met at the
North by deadly resistance! Who can doubt
the treason of Pierce, or that in any other
country but ours he would have atoned for
his crimes with his life? 1t is sad thought,
that before Buchanan had been two years in
power the treason of the South was plotted !;
that JEFF. Davis should counsel his own State
to prepare for war; that leaders of the party
in power, including an ex-President, should
pledge aid to such traitors, and assure them
that any attempt to head them off in their
treachery should be met by force, and that
loyal men-men loyal to their flag and deter
mined to protect it with all its stars, should
be STIR ottted in their tracks,"
Now we ask candid readers to consider
where those men are now who pledged such
aid to Davis in 1858? What were they about
when Sumter was assaulted? Did they not
insist that State could not be coerced? Did
they not insist that the President could not
send troops across State lines without the con-
sent of such States? Did they not urge the
unconstitutionality of all the means put forth
TO quell the rebellion? Did they not in Au-
gusta, in August, 81, vote down all resolutions
in favor Of the war? Did they not last year
nominate Bion Bradbury in opposition to
Jameson, war democrat? Did they not nom
mate him this year? Was it not one of them
who said few weeks since in the State Con-
vention in this city, that "not one solitary act
has been done by the President tOrards the
suppression of the rebellion, in accordance
with the Constitution? And how do this
class Of men now propose to vote? Will one
of them vote for Samuel Cony? Will not ev-
cry one of them vote for Bion Bradbury? Let
the people of Maine think of these things; let
them remember that every man who pledged
aid to JEFF Davis was a democrat; that those
W "hO" iO icfOhiCd as OuI uicuus, WeTc
democrats; that they were democrats who en-
couraged him to rebel by promising him their
sympathy, aid, and fighting force!
These men stimulated rebellion by promis-
ing TO aid it. They are responsible for the
war, because they acted as the friends of the
wicked men who first drew the sword. Upon
their heads be the responsibility. Upon their
skirts be the blood OF our slain sons and
brothers. They it is who have dug the graves
of our Union soldiers. They are more guilty
before high Heaven than the traitors of the
South. And these men-so reeking with trea-
son and crime against God and humanity, and
so deeply responsible for this fratricidal war
will vote how? Who doubts ho,c they vote?
Who needs informing that they all seek the
triumph of that party of which Mr.. Bradbury
is made the standard bearer? Or who doubts
that in the success of that party, not only they
would rejoice, but all the rebels in the South
would read lesson in their favor-an evidence
that their friends at the North were about to
make good their pledges to JEFF Davis in 1858?