Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1864-11-30
THE WAR DEMOCRACY.

'oAlAdi6 'he AeSOiuI4VuS paSseu supporting
the present Administration. That dis
patch was hooted at by the Copperheads
on this side of the land as bogus. By
Overland Mail, we are in receipt of the
New York Sun of the I'd inst, containing
the proceedings of that Convention. Every
loyal State was represented thereat, and B.
D. Roosevelt presided. General John A.
Dix, Hon. Edwards Pierrepont and other
speakers, addressed the body.
Hon. Edwards Pierrepont made a speech
of nearly two hours. He commenced BY re.
| ferring to the origin of secession, saying that
the South had always desired the election Of
Mr.. Lincoln for the purpose of having pre-
text to secede. He then at great length re-
viewed the New London speech Of Hon.
Robert C. Winthrop. Reference was made
to General Mcclellan, and a large number Of
his dispatches read and severely criticised.
He conceded to Mcclellan, however, all
private virtues. There was no hope Of the
South being recognized by foreign powers,
| judging from Davis speech at Augusta. He
concluded his speech in the following Ian
guage: Davis army is nearly exhausted.
When the war began there were less than
four hundred thousand fighting men in the
Confederacy, according to the census. That
number must be very small now, yet they
have no thought Of returning to the Union.
Before this war ends they will free and arm
the slaves. OF that I have no doubt. Then
the end draweth nigh; then the bitter ques-
tons about which we have been puzzled so
| much will be solved; then will begin the faint,
| 4 lnnoy iuhB nf rTln
Slow, very slow, the dawn will open, feeble
| in its first CLEAN; only the eye Of faith can
discern it, but it will surely, finally expand
into the heavenly day of Union and Of peace.
| l have reason to believe that soon after the
election propositions will be made to the
Southern States to lay down their arms and
return to the Union, with assurances that
they shall have every right which the Con-
stitution and the laws can give them. But
| as read their destiny they will not return ;
they will spurn the offer; they will arm the
slaves and fight on, dragging their slow
length along" From the seaports taken, and
the military posts fortified, will radiate lines
of trade and increasing communication.
Mexico will be an outlet for many rebels;
Europe and the Isles Of the West Indies will
receive some, and by slow degrees peace will
! be restored-a peace worth all it will now
costa peace which no son of ours will ever
see broken. There is nothing personal in
this coming election; it is not a contest be-
tween Lincoln and Mcclellan. 1t is contest
between two great contending principles
between free and despotic government; and
! clearly presents the question whether the
prosperity, the happiness, and the greatness
of our country shall be preserved or forever
destroyed
General John A. Dix, who was received
with great applause, was then introduced, and
said:
The Democratic Party had its origin in the
two closing years Of the eighteenth century.
| Its organization has had an efficient and I'M
broken existence for sixty-six years. For
more than quarter of a century it bore the
name Of Republican. This designation was
| exchanged for that of Democratic under the
popular impulse given to its practical mea-
sures and its abstract opinions by the politi-
| cal school of Jefferson. For nearly half
century it was a bold, manly, upright, con-
sistent and fearless exponent of its organic
principles. 1t had, in its early stages, that
best OF all Conservative accessories-the op-
position of party 1.-THE Federalists) as truth
full aud as resolute as itself. Whenever the
public honor or the public interest was in
peril, it was always the first to rush to arms;
always the last to quit the field never con-
senting to lay aside Its armor till the coun-
try's cause was indicated. Controlled and
illustrated in all its acts BY lofty and disin-
terested spirit of patriotism, it gained, and
for more than forty years preserved unim-
paired, the respect, the confidence and the
support of the American people. In lS4O 1t
was overthrow under the influence Of a great
commercial crisis, but not until a section Of
| its followers, more sOlicitous for their own
interests than the welfare Of the country,
had adulterated its creed and its policy by
the introduction Of maxims and measures at
war with its fundamental principles. 1t was
at this juncture that its opponents, having
become demoralized by a long-continued Sc
ries of defeats adopted as a rule for the selec-
ton of its candidates for the highest offices
the principle of availability, instead Of talent
and experience, laying the foundation of
far more pernicious and pervading system of
decentralization. The success Of the opposi-
ton candidates, thus selected in 1910, was
followed BY the success Of the Democratic
candidates selected on the same principle in
1874. From that period there has been
gradual deterioration in the qualifications OF
those who have been put forward to fill pub
lie ofice-not merely in the highest official
positions, but in all the departments of the
general Government, and in the States. The
legis lative as we'll as the executive branches
have participated in the general deprivation.
For this scheme Of political management,
having immediate party success, and not the
permanent welfare of the country for its OBJ
iect, both the principal organizations are
alike responsible. And it is impossible to
conceal the humiliating truth that the evils
the country is now suffering, beginning in
loose and unsteady administration Of the
public affairs, and ending in reasonable
attempt to overthrow the government, are all
due to incompetency and inexperience. A
great government demands, as an indispen-
sable condition of success, great qualities in
| those who control and direct its movements.
1t is under this system of political manage
ment that we have been plunged into war
larger in its dimensions, and pregnant with
more important consequences to the human
race, especially to the cause of stable govern
ment, than any intestine conflict in the an
nails of society. 1t concerns not merely the
stability Of our political institutions, but
those who commenced it assert the right of
any member Of a social compact to repudiate
it at pleasure, though framed and ratified
under the most solemn sanctions which COM
munities Of men are capable of exchanging
with each other.
The very essence of the contests an asser-
ton on the one hand and denial on the other
of the right of single party to Social Or
ganization founded on mutual agreement to
destroy it without the consent Of the other
parties. If the affirmative of this proposition
could be maintained, it would bring into con-
tempt q principle which lies at the foundation
of all individual as well as public contracts,
and lead to a dissolution Of all the bonds Of
human society. Ifthe Southern States, after
calm deliberation, and after carefully con-
sidering all the consequences, had decided,
with the consent Of the others, and with full
recognition Of theirreoponsibility to the Union
to withdraw peaceably from it, there are
many of us who would have preferred separa-
ton to civil war. But when a portion Of the
States, openly renouncing their obligations
to the Constitution and the Union, COM
menced parricidal war against the Govern
ment, insulting the national flag, Selling
arsenals, mints and revenue vessels, and
finally attacking one OF the public forts gar
risoned BY national troops, and compelling it
by famine and overwhelming superiority Of
numbers to surrender, no man, unless lost to
all self-respect, and all sense Of the national