Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1865-10-31
nu,Ier. Dickinson a. Co.

From the Mobile Register. edited by John Forsyth
We have always believed that Gen. But
Ter was as deeply implicated in the respon-
, sibility of those political blunders which
Immediately preceded and brought on
the late war as any other one man, WIN
the exception, perhaps, of the late Mr.
Yancey. Every sagacious man IN tne
nation saw in the years 1888 ana lo6O
that the Democratic party had become
the solitary barrier to sectional OUT
break and n violent disruption OF the
Union. Its bearing and integrity was
therefore, vital question OF consideration
and solicitude TO every man who loved MS
country and its peace. =.
IL is curious fact while the writer OF
these lines, who has been under the pan
of this Government as "rebel," was vast
ing his strength and energy to preserve the
Democratic party and through 1t the lnteg-
rity of the Government, General Butler,
who has gained so much eclat for his ''loy-
alty," was taking the very steps that were
sure to lead to the destruction OF both. we
were both members of the National Demo-
cratic Convention which met at Baltimore,
and we shall never forget Gen. Buffers
farewell speech to that body, when he an
nounced that he was about to 'secede" from
it and pass to the Breckinridge standard
then flying over aconvention of the pre-,
cipitation party in the same city. He said
in effect that the convention which he was
about to depart from was not sound on the
question of Southern rights then at issue,
and that the territorial sovereignty heresies
were offensive to his constitutional olfac-
tories. ~ -
He eshook the dust from his feet and went,
and shortly afterward Gen. Gushing fol-
lowed him into the camp OF the Immediate
"before breakfast" secessionists. This step
from two distinguished and leading Massa-
chusetts Democrats did more to give back
bone to the movement to divide the Demo-
cratic party and put an out and out sec
tional candidate before the people than
anything that could have happened. 1t
gave an Odor OF nationality to movement
before that clearly cliquish and sectional.
1t was the last feather that broke the camePs
back. 1t was the sealing of the election OF
Mr.. Lincoln, and the prelude to dissolution
and sectional war. Great tconsternation and
surprise of those South who witnessed and
who knew of Gen. Buffers course in that
memorable political struggle, to find him
booted and spurred and sword in hand to
take part in the war that ensued. ''
He had fairly indorsed the cause of the
Southern quarrel bounded the South on
the brink of disruption, advised it, Curtius
like, to leap into the guilt, and then comes
out to shoot and bayonet and hang the peo-
pie who took his advice and carried out the
logic of his own politics. We thought he
might at least have kept neutral in that
fight. He was as fairly committed to the
Southern side Of the quarrel as Daniel 5
Dickinson of New York, who once declared
that so profound were his convictions OF
the justice of the Southern cause in its con-
troversy with abolition, that should war
ever be declared he would be bound to draw
his sword on the side of the South. Mr.
Dickinson's words were written in the
sand. During the past four years we have
known him as the bitterest and most true
ulent of the radicals. 'N'