The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1865-10-24
VIZ call attention to the Copperhead 'sup
The Union Party and the De.
mOCr0cy.


The Union Party and the De-
m0crocy.
By their fruits shall you know them, and
An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit.
No party has a right to claim popular sup
port to ask that it be placed in ascendency in
State or Government and given the State or
National Administration, unless it earnestly
and honestly seeks to conserve the integrity
of the Government, the perpetuity of our
free Institutions, and the public welfare. And
Il the party has a record, if it has made for
itself ahistory, it has shown thereby the spirit
that vializes and controls it, by the which it
must be judged, and has furnished the critic
riou BY which the people will estimate the
justness of its claims to their support.
The Democracy proved recreantto liberty
amp the free principles upon which the Gov
ernm.nt is based, q decade of years before
REBEL on broke out. With increasing inten-
city it became the constant and fruitful devo-
tee of slavery and betrayed freedom and a
free people into the hands of the slave oligar-
chsts. When rebellion broke out, it followed
the prmptings of the slave worshiping spirit
that hsd inspired it since 1850, and being dis
integratea largely by the proved loyalty of Mr.
DOUGLAS, and large numbers of the party,
the Democracy itself, as party, was reor-
ganized pursuant to the congressional mani
festo of Mr.. VALIAsDIGHAN, in opposition to
the Administration of Mr.. LINCOLN, and the
effort to suppress the rebellion by force of
arms, and as the representative of the party,
the Democracy of Mr.. VALLASDIGHAM per-
mitted him to propose to the national Con-
gress plaa for the disruption of the Union,
and the construction of the fragments into
sectional confederacies. Failing in this Mr.
VALLASDIGHAN placed himself in the attitude
of reserve of rebellion, and negatively
sought to make successful the efforts of the
secessionists oy attempting to paralyze the
work of their slbjugation. He might have
been thought to be alone in this, and not a
representative of his party, had not the Chi
cago Convention as well as his own party in
Ohio, endorsed him, the latter by making him
Its candidate for Governor, and the former
by placing hin, upon the committee of resolu-
tons, and making him thus the framer and
expounder of the political faith of the De.
mocracy. This party must be judged by its
record made during the last four years, and of
this Democratic party Mr.. VALLAsDIGHAx is
q representative man.
The Union party, of which the Republican
party-organized o preserve our free institu-
tons, and the genius and theory of our Gov
ernment which the Democratic party was
sacrificing to secession slave propagandists-
was the great nucleus, increased largely by pat
riotic Democrats WHO learned their loyalty IN
the school of JActsos and DouGLAs, this
party, based upon a spirit of freedom, was
the party that stood by the Administration
and the Government during the years of the
strife to suppress rebellion. 1t reelected Mr.
LIScGLS, made Mr.. JOHNSON Vice President,
was true to its Allegiance to the country, and
our soldiers (and they were q large part of
the party and by its ,teadfast devotion to the
Union, the Southern Confederacy was extin-
guished end the nation saved.
The men, and the party that saved the
country should alone be entrusted With its
Administration. To permit now the triumph
of the Democracy, and the ascendancy of
their principles and policy in the work of re-
construction, is to commit the perpetuation of
Liberty and the Union iuo the hands ofthose
who have proved themselves unfit guardians
of them.
If the Union party maintahGits unity, it
will preserve its politiosl ascendancy, and
continue to administer in peace the Govern
ment it saved in war. B,sed upon freedom,
it will find cohesive force sufficient to keep
il intact and save it from disintegration if it
makes its principles its MISSION, and discard
ing all minor issues, and assisting all disrupt
ing agencies, continues Il labor for the con-
servation of liberty and tie maintenance of
the freedom of those whom God and the Gov
ernment have liberated. n the strife of the
late years, through its darkness and violence
comes the demonstration of Mr. LINCOLN 8
declaration that the Government could
not exist half free and hall slave. II was
desperate strnggie, but ths sstiop only lived
by the disabling of slavery. II can only live
hereafter BY slavery's death. If the non-ex
tension of slavery was sufficient platform in
1860, its complete extirpation by the adop-
6on of the constitutional amendment Is a
sufficient platform now. Upoa that let the
Union party take its stand. In Delaware, in
New Jersey, in Kentucky, where the Democ-
racy controlled, that amendment has been re.
jected. In the National Congress, Democrats
opposed it. In spirit, at least, that party is
arrayed against it. Let the Union party unite
upon that issue, and 60 steadily forward un-
til By the ratification of that charter of eman-
cipstion the work of Americas redemption
from the curse of human bondage is consam-
mated.
President JoHSsoN's address to the ne.
gro regiment, that seraneded him, has had
rather stpn4ing effect upon the Democracy
and Democratic journals. Concerning this
the Evening Post says:
1t is known that q sixty eight pounder,
or other heavy cannon, fred over the va.
tiers of a shallow bay, win kill by its concus-