The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1865-10-07
DEMOCRATS.

Times the sentence in the Chicago plat
form which declared the attempt to save
the Union by wal a failure" says:
In this connection. we wish to call atten.
ton to the fact that this clause in the Chica-
80 platform was placed there by the efforts
OF a class OF men, who. by their own conies-
SION, either remained away from the polls
or voted for Mr.. Lincoln. Whatever of in
fanny attaches TO the declaration that the eff
fort 10 restore the Union by war had. after
an experiment of four years, proved "a
failure, is to be charged to the account of
the hirelings of the administration who
procured the Interpolation of this phrase.
Mendaeious falsehood! Shameless ca
Illumination of the Chicago Democratic
Convention That resolution was put in
the platform because it was the sense of
the Convention if there were II who
disSented from it. their number was so
small that they did not venture to make
the least show of their disagreement.
The declaration that the attempt to save
the Union by war was Il failure. was the
belief of every intelligent Democrat in the
Convention and it is still the belief of
every Intelligent Democrat in the United
States. The war has not only destroyed
the Union, but it has destroyed the whole
system of government established By our
fathers. 1t has forced the Austrian sys-
ten into the place of the voluntary or
free system that constituted the Union.
Show US a man who dares to call himself
a Democrat excepting the editor Of the
Buffalo Courier) who believes that the
war has restored the Union Bring the
shallow-pafed thing before us, and let us
look at him! Sir. do You call this a un-
ion of free. sovereign, and co-equal States,
where one-half is held Ike a vaSsal un-
der the point of the bayonet of the other
half! Tell US, oh, maudling aolt, is this
bloody, this Goddess piece OF despotic ma
.chinery a Tnioa Of Sorcrcign States ?
Is this aeeursed system of Provost Mar
.shals. of Military Governors, of Provis-
iopal Governors, of suspended habeas cor
pus, of military trials, of arbitrary arrests,
the Union thar was established by our
fathers Has it one resemblance to that
Union ? Is it any more ike our old I'm
ion than the relations between Russia
and Poland. or between Austria and Hun
gary are Ike our old Union Tell Us,
o, thou bloekhead, thoa thing daring to
call myself IA Democrat, what part of this
system. which the war has produced. be-
long to the old Union. PointSns to ever
one feature of the old Union in this bloat-
ed and abominable despotism! No, you
cannot. Then the war has not restored
the Union. This was true when the De-
mocraey, in Its General Convention at
Chicago, declared it. 1t is true now it
viii be true eternally. The war is ended,
Int the Union is not restored. Those
delicate anu beautiful, and reciprocal re-
lations between co. equal States. which
constituted the Union, are not restored.
That splendid system of free government
Is dessreyed. Whether it can be brousaa'l
back again Is "A problem Of the future.
Confscations, military trials, and all the
other abhorred severity nov in operation,
viii never do the work. They may settle
down and fasten upon the whole country
the Austrian system Of consolidated pow
er. bat they can never restore the Union.
The work of restoration is that of JUS
tiee. Cancellation and kindness. Union is
necessarily roitata1y. Indeed there are
but two kinds of government in the world
one of force, the other Of consent.
Ours was the government of consent. The
war has made it one of force. The force
system, taking the name of Republican
Govern saent. is the meanest and most ly-
ing despotism on earth; and On this de-
tested spot the wal has landed us. The
man who calls this monster birth of the war,
this brutal, rowdy despotism, the Union,
must be a fool or a knave. We have no
softer name for him. During every month
of the war we were rushing precisely in
an opposite direction from Lnion. We
were breaking up onion, because we were
destroying consent and establishing fire..
Oh, this was the most fatal kind of disun-
ioni It was not secession, it was destruc-
ton. The one left the principle of union
alive-the other kills It. Now that the
war is over. the Union is so far from be-
ing saved that we are quarreling among
ourselves about the best means of recon
structing" it. Did not the Chicago Con-
vention say well that the war had failed
to restore the Union? Every hour the
war lasted rendered reconstruction more
difficult. TIA thousandth part Of the jus
tiee and kindness which ge~coRsbuctfon
will require, had been employed by the
Republican party when it car into pow
er, there never would have been any
secession, except of South Carolina,
and she might have been brought back
without the shedding of drop of blood.
But no such a happy conclusion was not
desired by the party in power. The la
mcnted Senator Douglas Numbered at the
Abolition ,conspirators in hLe Senate.
"YeU WANT WAR" They got it And
o, shame how many Democrats, aposta-
tizing from every principle Of Democracy,
helped them to what they wanted Had
the Democracy let the Abolitionists fight
their own battle, there could have been
no war, and the Union would really have
been preserved. The same spirit of CON-
promise and fraternity which established
the Union in the first place. and saved it
several severe trials, would have saved it
this time. Apostat6 Democrats have been
the right hand of Abolitionism. And
now some of these apostates accuse the
true Democrats, who refused to be LIN
colnized. Of being j" hireiings of his Ad-
ministration !" Who, in Gods name, but
the .sWar Democrat was the ahireling of
the Administration 2" Who else has been
the tool of Abolition !? Hthese apostates
will now come back to the principles of
Democracy, which they SO ingloriously
deserted, we have been willing to be silent
about their great crime. But how should
we treat this assertion which accuses the
great body Of Democrats in the Chicago
Convention of being "hirelings ofthe Ad-
ministration 2" More than two-thirds of
the delegates of that Convention we're