The daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1863-1864, 1864-01-12
From the New York World
COuId the Democratic Party
Restore the Union

Examiner, depicting in strong colors the
sufferings of the South, naturally provokes
the question, why it is that people so sen,
sible of the discorragements of their situa.
ton are not nddced to abandon sinking
cause and resume their old federal relations.
There can be but one answer the states
manship of our government is not equal to
It's military success War itself is only an
instrument tits notan end, but the means
for attaining an end. Its object is to bring
such pressureIto bear upou hostile com,
muniry that they will be willing to submit
to reasonable terms of peace. Few wars in
history have inflicted such havoc, or car
ried such desoation as the one in which
we are engaged and in the usual course of
things, judged by ordinary human expert
ence, the victorious party should be able to
conclude safe, honorable and lasting peace.
That it has neither the ability nor the ex
pectaton OF doing so is, on its face, a proof
that it is unequal to the situation,
But would the Democratic party, if it
stood in the shoes of the administration,
do any better ? This is a grave question,
because, OH the answer which the majority
Of the people will this year return to it,
hangs undeniably the future destiny of the
country. 1t is true that, in any answer
which may now be attempted to this ques
ton, our reasoning must be more or less
hypothetical but it seems to US that the
case is in some aspects so clear that We may
nevertheless proceed upon very solid
ground. On one side we have facts and ex'
perience to 60 upon for it is incontestable
that we have inflicted suffering enough up-
on the southern people to bring them to
terms. if this were an ordinary war, and
our national authorities had the ordinary
sagacity, prudence, and savoir fare Of
victorious government. But what reason
is there for thinking that the Democratic
party, if in power would do any better p
The case seems to us so plain that II is al
most idle to argueii # the relative military
situation being precisely what it is, the Ia
mented Douglas were alive and were now
President if Mr.. Gushing, or man of
equal mental resources, were Secretary of
State and General Scott Secretary of War,
we do not believe there are ten men in the
country whose opinion is worth regarding
nfa nd MI
within three months. If there could be
such change of administration, or one at
all resembling ii, the mass of the people, in
both sections, would be exalted at once in
to state Of hopeful expectation. They
would look for an early peace, a restored
Union, and such general aud sincere pa
cifcation as would render it safe to reduce
our armies TO moderate peace establish
ment. The present difficulty is, not that
we have nor sufi GENTLY crippled and hum
bed the south for victory to bear its appro
pirate fruits, but that this administration
Is politically inca pable of making n just,
magnanimous, an d satisfactory peace.
But why could a Democratic admins
tration deal with this problem mora sue
cessfully than that of Mr.. Lincon2 The
reasons are various. In the first place, the
Democratic party has never given any coun-
tenauce to tue twenty years crusade against
southern institutions kept up by the aboli
tionists. The South, in negotiating with a
Democratic administration, would have No
fears of being entrappedinto a false position
and circumvented by perfidy. They had
some experience of the good faith Of Mr.
Lincoln and Mr. Seward in the spring of
1861, when Judge Campbell, of the Supreme
Court, was the intermediary between the
South aud the government with the knowl- |
edge and privity of Judge Nelson, of this
state. The war would probably have been
avoided had it not been for The strong radi,
cal pressure upon Mr.. Lincoln, and the faith
lessness of his Secretary of State. Even
if the administration had adhered to the
constitutional policy professed in Mr.. Lin
ooln's inaugural, the South would natural
ly recoil from an attempt to arrange this
controversy with the same officials who de-
ceived tnem with false professions in the
very crisis of these difficulties.
But Mr.. Lincoln has made peace impos-
sible unless the South will consent to the
destruction of the most valuable part Of
their property and the subversion of their
industrial sys TEN. Whateve. may be the
cash value of this property, every dollar of
it is an argum ent against submission ad-
dressed by Mr.. LiGcoln to the self.interest
of the South. The Southern people know
that the Democratic party does not approve
of this policy; that they have steadily pro
tested against it as a fagraut violation Of
the Constitution. II the Democratic party
were in power, The question would be sim
ply between further resistance on the one
nand, and submission to the same Consti-
tuition under which they formerly lived and
prospered. on the other. Whate-er forfeit>
ures have been operated by the necessary
result of the war, would be adjudicated
upon by the courts in obedience to estabI
she'd preoedents, and not determined b.