The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1864-04-13

number and dangerous in its reckless aspira
ton for success. 1t was said by maximis
of the olden time, that the honest men of ;
nation were too strong for the rogues
| but he lived in-too early age to see the de
monstrations of cur later times. That conven
! tion perceived the imprudence of placing II
fnomination any man who had been conspicu
GUS in his opposition to the great principles
which had so often been sustained by the peo
| pie at the ballot-box in the defeat of theil
candidates. They had learned -shrewduess by
experience, aud following its suggestions, ig
nored the claims of their statesman, who, in
their extensive dealing in political affairs, had
made records by which they might be judged
! So the hopes of our learned Secretary oi
State and of the accomplished Secretary of the
Treasury, whose back only is green while his
head is supposed to be ripe, both of whom ii
was understood aspired to the nomination,
were adjrdged to be too conspicuous to insure
success and this 1 give as a part of the solu
tion of the problem of the presidential milk in
the Lincoln cocoanut.
The effective element employed in the cam
paign was nti-slavery-unmixed and undul-
terated misunderstanding to no consequen-
ces, except to defy them, embarrassed by none
of the ordinary questions of State policy or
political economy. Reason and argument
cism.
When these struggling Democrats cried out
for Douglas and the Union, and admonished
them that their success as a sectional party ar
rayed in deadly hostility to the constitutional
rights of the Southern States would lead to
the disruption of the Union. they returned on.
ly SCOTS for answer, and stimulated their idol
airy by worshi2ping short pieces Of rails as
the veritable rails which their candidate had
split.
When the unfortunate rupture occurred in
the Charleston convention, the Republicans
hailed the event with great Joy as harbInger
of their success. What effect it might have
upon the stability of the Union was with them
an inferior consideration !; they only contem-
plated its effect upon the election.
Under these circumstances, which are well
known to the country, the Chicago nominee
was elected by minority vote of the people
of the United States. That his election was
a triumph of northern sectional principles is
none the less true because it might have been
prevented by the cordial coaction of the south
ern with the northern Democrats. That ceali
ton was prevented by the supposed perma-
nent predominance of abolitionism in the
North. Nearly all of the free States were un-
der Republican rule, and had enacted legisla-
tion against the constitutional rights of the
South It must be admitted, because it is
true, that the arrogant and unlawful invasions
of the predominating party in the North hal
led the southern people to believe that under
that predomiuance they could by no possibilr-
ty enjoy the guaranteed privileges of the Con-
stitution. In this they were undoubtedly
right, but they were wrong in the belief that
the conservative principles of the Democracy
were Frustrated beyond the hope of redemp-
ton in the North l believe that had they
stood and acted in good faith with the north
ern conservatives, who were friends alike to
all sections of the country, victory would ere
long have rewarded the common effort and
purged the northern eounsels of the abolition
malady. The election Of Douglas, if it had
not settled the slavery controversy, would at
least have beaten down the demon, and the
country would have been comparatively quiet
for while. We, therefore, of the free States
who never sought to abridge the rights of any
section, or to interfere with its local institu-
tions, have much more right to complain of
the detection of the southern people than have
those who by long and persistent practice of
aggression upon them provoked them to their
criminal act.
The President elect in dne time took upon
himself the functions of his high Office with
many of its political ideas which Americans nat
urally derive from the principles of our Gov.
ernment and although of strong abolition
proclivities 7he seemed to have little conception
of the extreme requirements which would be
made of him. by the party to whom he was in
debted for bis position. He seemed to see
this Goveth9ent as organized under, and with
powers limited and defined by, written Con-
stitution. The miserable subterfuge of war
power, by which sworn officer could inno-
comfy violate his oath, and hold in contempt
all the laws of his country, had not then been
invented. He saw not, becouse there was
l.. L nd
the plain dictates of the Constitution. So,
when civil war ensued, the people were called
upon to incur the hardships and dangers of
the long march, and the battlefield, and all
that constitutes 'tthe tug of war;" to srestore
the Gnion,' which still existed in law, although
1t was broken in fact-not to pave the way for
a new regime which should open the terrific
ries of the South to northern plunderers it
was to "cnforcs the Constitution and the laws
which were claimed on all hands to be as OBJ
ligatory upon the people OF the seeded States
as they have ever been. "To put down the
rebellion - all and each of these Iorms of ex-
preston imported the enforcement of simply
constitutional authority over those subjects
who were in rebellion against Government
to which they, ike other citizens, owed alle
glance And the President promised and as
sured the people over and over, and declared
to the world through his minister of state,
that the war should be prosecuted for that
purpose, and for no other. The President
seemed to be sincere in these pledges to
keep them was only his sworn duty. The
people who love the Union and were willing
to incur every necessary sacrifice for its pre-
servation rendered to the avowed Union policy
of the President their united support. The
military skill and ability of the country apper-
tanned principally to Democrats, who prompt
ly rendered their services to the Government.
ard the conservative and unsectional men cf
the States rallied to the standard of the Union,
Half million men might as well have been
had as seventy-fve thousand at the first call.
Such was the spirit of the war then-such
was the spirit of the Presidents proclamation
then. Alas to what unknown quarter has
that spirit fled !? Where is the fulfllment of
the pledge? Where is the motive to vindi-
cate the Constitution and the laws Where