The Tiffin weekly tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1859-1868, 1865-10-05
How Shall We Vote 2

, made, a very grave issue soon will be,
that Of reorganization and he must
: look TO the antecedcnts and compost
, ton of parties to infer what their
|, probable action will be.
The Union party comprises the
: great body Of enlightened American
citizens who have always faithfully
strivcn for greater justice for univer-
sal liberty regulated by the law, and
for freedom of speech and the Press
everywhere in the country. They
have unfaltcringly asserted the rights
against privilege and aristocracy in
every form, and have claimed fair play
for all men, rich or poor, foreigner or
native, whatever their complexion
and condition, and to that end have
been constantly jealous for popular
education and every method of en-
lightcnmcnt They hold that the
Constitution is not a compact between
sovereign government, but is funda-
mental national law established by the
people of the United States and that
the Union is not Confederacy but a
nation. They believe that this ma.
tional government is supreme, that the
states are properly subordinatcd to il,
and the State rights are purely local
and secondary. Therefore they have
been steadily faithful in the great and
successful struggle. They have never
tampercd with rebellion. They have
never justified treason nor excused
traitors and in the death grapple
with rebellion they have wisely used
every power Of the government, con
scious that all extraordinary powers
were exercised under the immediate
supervision of the people, aud whose
acts merely recorded the popular will,
as the election of 1864 triumphnntly
proved.
This is the faith, aud these are the
men who compose the great Union
party, Have they forfeited the con-
hdcnco of the country?
On the other hand, the Democratic
party is composcdof those who have al
ways excused the most appalling crime
against human nature, and the most
fatal treason to tho American prinei.
pal Of equal rights, under the pre-
tense of State rights; who persist
emily cannivod at the extension and
pcrpctuity Of that injustice which has
soaked the land in blood and noccssi.
atod the debt. They have been the
Y assailants of free spccchan free press,
3 and have justified the murder and NAL
o treatment of citizcns Mo claimed to
Q exercise those rights in the Southern
0 States. Their influence has been ad.
0 verse to general education and wise
v progress and reform and their pre-.
;. dominance has been and is alway,
d most marked among the most dcbasod
| part of the population, and in the
least intelligent portions of the coun.
try, Even now their conventions
distinctly and openly in Ohio, reaiiirn
the principles Of the Virginia and
Kentucky resolutions of '9S, which
are and always have been pleaded b,
the rebels as their justification, a,
they were by South Carolina for nul
lihcation in 1893, aud which will al
ways afford an ambush for treason
until they are utterly and expressly
overthrowni or, as in Pennsylvania,
their convention deliberately declared
that the practical recognition of the
truth of the Declaration of Independ-
ence is high crime against the Con.
stitution of the United States. They
are those from whose ranks came the
chiefs Of the rebellion who de-
nounced the people Of the loyal
States are really responsible for the
way who necessarily thwartcd the
Goyornment in its efforts to subduc
il; who melted riots aud directed
mobs for whose success at the polls
the rebel chiefs and editors openly
prayed in the midst of tho war; who
solicited through foreign Minister
foreign interference in our contest =
who year ago, in their National
Convention. declared the soldiers con
quered aud tho war a failure, and
who snccred at President Lincoln as
hclplessly weak and who denounced
him as a murderer, tyrant, and harlc-
quin.
These are they who compose the
Democratic party. They are now bus
lily engaged in praising the soldiers,
whom last year they slandcrcd, and
in celebrating the re establishment of
tho Union. They are even engaged
in the pleasing process of eating tho
Chicago Platform, But what has
this party, in whose Ohio Convention
Va!landigham was chief orator, 10
whose Pennsylvania Convention Judge
BLACK was nm Annlnnded tencher Win