Evansville daily journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1863-1866, 1864-02-04
What Copperheads said of washing.

~re- ~ ton.
Simple-hearted and honest-meaning
people. unconscious that the "world is
given to lying, and who are disposed to
accept grave charges against the integ-
rity and ability of public servants as
truth-especially if those charges are
made by politicians or appear in papers
to whom they have generally looked for
political information-naturally conclude
that " something is rotten in Denmark
when they read paragraphs like the fol-
lowing rs
The Administration of Abraham Lin
coin has been the most ealamitous in the
history of any civilized people. Never
before was national grandeur and felicity
so suddenly destroyed; never before did
ruin so swiftly overtake people never
was destruction so hopeless.-DaytOn
Empire.
- Democratic papers TEEN with such par
agraphs every day. Their object, of
course, is to make the Administration of
Mr. Lincoln odious to the people Some
we doubt. not, look even further, and
seek to strengthen the hands of the reb-
u els. As we said before, honest people
cannot conceive of heart so black and
brain so mischievous as to inspire and
coin falsehoods of such baseness; and
hence they are apt to conclude /" there
must be something in it," "where there
is so much smoke there must be little
fire." " a President ought to be above
suspicion" and SO on; never dreaming
that the best man our nation ever pro-
duced-the Father of has country-was
traduced and villifed in precisely the
same way, by the same class of polti-
clans, and with just as little reason.
Indeed, reckless as are the Copperhead
sheets of the present day, none of them
have dared to make the same charges
against President Lincoln, that were cir
eulated against President Washington
by Copperhead papers of his day, who
then, as now, stealing the livery of heav-
en- to serve the devil in" denominat-
ed themselves Democratic organs f,
Impossible p we hear some honest
Democrat exclaim. mo man was mean
enough to SANDER Washington" Yes,
there were, any number of them, and
they did it all the time in the name of
Democracy We cite a few paragraphs
as a sample of the language and style
adopted by papers in discussing the char
aeter of Washington and the merits of
his Administration The aurora "a
Democratic paper it called itself-was
published at Washington. It's columns
were devoted to abusing Washington, as
the columns Of Democratic papers are
now devoted to the abuse of Mr.. Lin
coin. What is quite remarkable, the
abuse Of the two Presidents is similar in
3 character and manner In both eases
the traducers claimed to be friends of the
people, and were laboring to preserve
their liberties from the encroachments
of despots who were seeking, in defiance
of all law, to establish monarchy upon
the ruins of liberty Having given a
specimen of the Dayton Empires arti-
cles above, We now copy paragraph
from the aurora. We trust our read
ers will compare the two. Speaking OF
Washington, the aurora said:
IT ever a nation was debauched by a
man, the American nation has been de-
bauehed by Washington. If ever ma
ton was deceived by man, the Ameri-
can nation has been deceived by Wash
ington. Let his conduct; then. be an
example to future ages. Let it serve to
be warning that no man NAV he an
idol Let the history of the Federal
Government instruct mankind that the
mask of patriotism may be worn to con-
ceal the foulest designs against the lib.
critics of the people"
Jefferson himself records that by at
tacks ike these, Washington, with all
his selfpossession and equanimity, wa.
at times goaded almost to madness. On
one occasion, says Jefferson, an allusion
being made to some recent libels, By
Secretary Knox, Washington got into
one of those passions when he cannot
command himself; ran on much on the
personal abuse which had been bestowed
upon him; de6ed any man on earth to
produce one single act of his, since he
had been in the Government, which had
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