New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1863-02-19
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND
THE WAR FOR THE UNION.


We do most intensely hate liars-men who
labor to sustain party or cause by setting
forth as true what they know TO be false, and
picking out fragments of fact and 30 combining
or arranging them as to make that which il
not appear as though it were. And Of all de-
liberate, wicked, abominable lies that which
asserts that the Democrats of the Free States
have accorded unanimous and hearty support
to the War for the Union--or that they did so
prior to the Issue Of the Presidents first Proc
lamation Of Freedom-is among the most fla
grant and inexcusable.
| 1t is true that, for a brief period following
the bombardment of Fort Sumter, public oppo-
sition to the War thrust upon the Nation by
armed traitors was perilous, therefore sparngly
INDUCED in. Yet it was then that nearly all
the avowed Democratic journals Of our City
The Journal Of. Commerce, Ddy-Book, The
Daily Neus, and The Freemans Journal
were either suppressed outright, their editors
sent to Fort Lafayette, or their issues excluded
from the malls, expressly because, and only
because, their editorials were plainly calculated
TO give aid aud comfort to the Shareholders
Rebellion. The Brooklyn Eagle was conducted
in the same spirit up to about September, 1861,
when it tackled and for considerable period
was almost loyal. Before this, half dozen
Democratic journals printed in the loyal Eastern
or Middle States were suppressed by military
order or mob violence because Of their open,
vehement sympathy with the Rebellion and
hostility to the efforts Of our Government to
suppress it, OF these, the Editor Of that printed
nearest us-TAs Bridgeport Farmer Conn.,
soon after made bis way into Dixie and re-.
ceived a commission in the Rebel service. The
flight of two of our City's highest Democratic
off cials-G. W. Smith and Mansfield Lowell
and their next turning up as Rebel Generals,
preceded by more than year tbs Presidents
first Proclamation OF Freedom. In fact, the Union
rOut at Bull Run, July 81, 1861, put an end
to oil hypocrisy on the part Of most Democrats,
so far as our knowledge or information extends;
and they have not since even pretended to
desire that the Rebellion should be crushed out.
They are not Disunionists-they do not desire
the permanent division Of our country-but they
do hope and expect to achieve its " reconstruc
ton, ;" not through the discontinue and surrender
of the Rebels, but through virtual surrender
of the Nation to tbem--through peace which
shall make them virtual masters Of the country,
with Slavery its guidiDg-star, and all nspira-
ions for Universal Liberty and Justice repressed
Id A., -. Nj al
tranquility and prosperity. This is the haven
for which our Democratic " aud "Conscrva-
tive" pilots are now steering, and in which we
mean they shall never lay up to dry rot that
Republic which is the best if not the last hope
of Humanity Hence, while they assert that
THE TRIBUNE is constantly changing its ground,
it never by any chance happens to take any
position in which it is not instinctiyely recog.
nized by these betrayers of Liberty as their
inplacabe foe.
We have already bcaped fact upon fact,
demonstration on demonstration proving that
the great body Of the Pro-Slayery Democrats of
the Free States have never really desired the
discontinue Of the Shareholders Rebellion. OF
this truth We call every man in the loyal
States who sees and hears 10 witness. You
who have heard hundred, five hundred,
thousand, five thousand Democrats Of the
Seymour and Parker pattern, express their
sentiments with regard to the Rebellion, say
how many or what proportion Of them have
manifested hearty desire that it be thoroughly
defeated and put down Z Strike off what you
may have heard before Bull Run and gince
Sept. 22d last, when the Presidents first Proc.
lamation of Freedom was issued, and say
whether, during the momeptous fourteen