The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1865-09-26
THE WAR A. DISGRACE.

for liberty and Union was failure. Ihs
Pennsylvania Democratic State Conven-
tion of 1865, with equal dehberation and
gravity, pronounced the war Disgrace
Why the came Convention should have
taken the pains to nominate an its cSndia
dates two men whose only claims TO such
honor were their participation in this dis
grace, might be mystery, were 1t not
that the Chicago convention did the same
thing in making a rebel platform and
placing on it q Union general. this arises
not altogether from a desire to take
away public attention from the hideous
record of the party, for if that were the
sole object it would be the very height
of folly to reiterate in grave resolutions
and speeches all that made that record
so offensive. But the true explanation
lies in this !; that the Democratic party is
torn by two great factions, known respect
lively as Copperheads and war Democrats.
Each must have something to fight for 40
its own. Hence the Chicago convention
gave the copperheads the platform aud
the candidate for Vice President and to
the war Democrats the nominee for Pres
ident. In humble imitation of this exam.
/ pie the Pennsylvania Democratic State
convention gives to the copperheads the
platform, and to the war Democrats
the State ticket.
/ We do not care to ask how any patriot
soldier of the republic can stand upon q
platform which proclaims his struggles
in the war disgrace, for az the people Of
this nation have,by the events of the last
four years, shown their ability, civilians
as they were, to save the republic from
/ the consequences of the treason of many
/ of their educated soldiers, it will not mat
ter much hereafter how many more sol.
diers desert the Union cause and princi.
pies, seduced by the temptations of Office
! held out by traitors. Our business is not
to lament the weakness of mind or the
/ iidiosyncracies Of such men. The people
will make short reckoning with them ae
the polls, as they did With Mcclellan and
many others who faneied that their SER
vices could obscure the villainous princi-
I pies Of the party under whose banner they
z
now is to teach the men who hold such
conventions and pass such resolutions
that the strength they fondly believe to
reside In the nero Democratic name and
to be as consequence the impregnable
fortress of the party which bears it, has
passed away from it never to return
The odium N which the old Federal
party perished was but trife compar-
ed with the terrible infamy in which
this pernicions thing yclept the Dem.
ocratio party has WaloWed during
the past ter years. The fate of the sol.
der who now goes down amid the gloom
of defeat, under such a banner as the
Democratic party carries, will be mourn
ful to contemplate. Deserted by the com.
rades he led in battle, scorned and de6ed
as poWerless traitor to good cause, he
will find his name become a bye. word,
compared With which that of the humblest
private in the ranks will be enviable.
These men may think the war dis.
grace, and having the nomination upon
that platform, that is what they empbat.
ieally do say to the world. We shall not
dispute their own claims to disgrace when
they assume it SO solemnly. They NAV
have thought the rebel cause right while
they were fighting or pretending to fight
against itj but it is an insult to every
soldier CT the Union armies to attempt to
fasten upon tho noble cause for which
they fought the taint Of disgrace. The
man who becomes the bearer of a party
standard having any such inscription
from that moment loses all claims to re-
spect as soldier. He stands confessed
before the world as one who fouoht or
pretended to fight for cause which bs
did not believe in, and whose heart wa,
with the enemy who were slauebteTina
his own men. If We had been .seFse1
only by such men, then indeed would the
war have been failure, as such 'patfiots'
must have fondly hoped it would be.
No man row should suffer himself TO be
deluded BY the belief that all parties ao-
cept the results Of the war as conclusive.
and that therefore there are no live jssus
separating us. The Democratic Ststa
Convention itself has reftted that idea in
such manner as to put it beyond all dis
pute. 1t justifes the rebellion as plainIv
as language can do so,by saying that war
existed as fact upon the adEeot of The
successful patty in 1860 to tbe seat Of
power Here the rebellion is Transmitted
into justifable defence against preued-
ltatod outrage. If this had been sotben
indeed would the war have been "dis-
grace" as the Democratic Convention
pronounced it, ard the men who believe
the former naturally enough assert the
latter. The disgrace is a logical deduc-
ton from the premise that the advent Of