The Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1863-1886, 1865-05-25
80 [From the London Times, April 23.l
THE TRIUMPH OF DEMOCRACY IN
. f,....-.. AMERICA. .f 4

UuimtuaeiuS sSNOHV vi. OitO VI \hS ihOot
important wars which have occurred
in human history, let us rejoice in il
as a grand triumph of an industrial
Democracy over a predacious Aristoc-
racy--of a people devoted to liberty
over very powerful body of men
banded together by the strongest tics
Ofinterest, and engaged in an enter
prise ofno loss magnitude and atrocily
than the establishment of an empire
avowcdly' and entirely based upon
slavery, and thus in permanent and
deadly hostility to every sound prin-
ciple Of morality and to every form OF
human right. No moro conspicuous
and dangerous calamity could have
happened to modern civilization than
the success Of n rebellion which had
no parallel in tho extent Of its evil
purposes, and in the long train Of mis-
chiovous consequences that must have
ensued had the purposes of its leaders
been realized in fact. 1t usually hap
pens that if bad principles animate
one section of community they are
kept in some sort of chcck, and are
often ultimately defeated, BY tho opcr-
alton of wiser and noblcr principles
co,cxisting with the former, stimula-
ting classes to resist oppression, and
maintaining a warfare of argument,
or .ofstccl, until possibility of liberty
and progress has been achieved, In
the shareholders rebellion we soc q
remarkable. effort TO eliminate the
good principle entirely from numcr-
ically great society, and to establish IL
despotism, not only over an ulfortu,
nate class Of laborcrs, but over the
uaiads of all true thinkers, and over
all the hearts capable of thrilling with
indignation at the wrongs of their
fellow men. Society in the Northern
States was deeply corrupted by tho
taint of slavery If the. rich mer-
chants of New York and Boston could
nolonger hold slaves within thebound-
aries of the States to which they be-
longed, they could virtually, through
loans and mortgages, become the pro.
prietors of negroes and half breeds
languishing intbitter scrvitude on the
plantations OF the South; and when
the interest in this horrible and i'm.
moral property was loss direct, the
Northern capitalist was still attached
to tho odious system through the pro.
tits which it was permitted to pour
yearly and dSily iHts his purse. So
strong was the slave power over the
opinions and actions of the free States
that it dominated over the elections,
and returned succession of magis-
tratcs ready to eiegrsee their country
by acting according to its bchcsts.
This condition of things went on for
many years, and tho Abolition party
was only like tho little cloud, the size
IF manss hand, seen faintly On the
horizon, itrtamatng hopo to those
among the oppressed who could read
the sign, and becoming a growing OBJ
jcct OF terror to the tyrannieal class.
As the anti-Slavery party, with at
first, little accession to its devoted
enembers, still contrived to make par
tial converts in wider circle, q great
body Of Northern citizens determined
upon compromise'-not to attack
slavery on the one hand, and not to
permit its extension on The other. Mr..
EJineoln's first cicctiom represented
this policy. lie was known to 60
,nuch beyond his party, but the pre-
else EocMA ct the political quarrel in
which his friends succeeded in win
ming the Presidential chair did not
raise tho question of whether slavery
should DO abolished, but turned upon
the smaller issue of whether the un-
settled territories belonging TO the
Union should bo converted into slave
States OF free. Both parties agreed
that the Limitation Of slavery involved
its extinction, and the shareholders re-
bellcd in order to get rid of all oppo-
sitIon to their iavorite system, and
form Government upon what they
impiously called the cornerstone
which other builders had rejected"
Whatever faults may have existed
in Northern society, tho ideas at its
foundation were sound. That all men
arc born with equal rights to freedom
is a noble doctrine of truth, inculca-
ting the highest practice Of duty
'Thata great mass of men are born to
DO tho thralls and slaves Of others,
who are to force them to labor and
rob them of tho fruits of their toll,
who arc to breed them and sell them
like boasts Of tho field-this is a doc
trine Of falschood and dovilry oneour-
aging and teaching every abuse of
licontious power, and only capable OF
being sustained by laws and practices
of the most infamous and disgust.
ing kind. To keep the slave class
down it was made penal for any one
TO furnish slave with the means of
education. The existence of autiSla-
very societies in the North, and their
prosclyting efforts, were alleged by
South Carolina, among others, why
shcraised the standard Of revolt, and
the same feelings animated the other
seeding States. Let us imagine the
SUCCESS Of an empire founded to carry
out these ideas. In tho first place,
hopeless slavery was to be the lot of
four and q half millions Of a laboring
class, and of all their descendants. In
hosecond place, no ono was TO be
permitted to make any exertions for
the reform of this system. If a man
spoke against it it was to be at the
risk Of his life. The labor of black