The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1865-06-07

ii is fortunate that we have q President
who, upon neither side, is among its au-
indeed, his support Of
General Breckenridge for the Presidency
in 1860 be reckoncd up against him. In
all else, at least, whatever may have been
his position during the war, or shall be
his course now, he is guiltess. Upon
the other hand, by our political foes, the
line os condnct Of those who opposed the
war, demanded conciliation, and insisted
that the path of peace was the shortest,
easiest, cheapest road to the Union, and
of those who, marching in the same d.
rection, but along the rugged and bloody
highway Of war. denounced only the pol.
icies of the late Administration, will be
called in question. For myself I am
ready to answer, and by the record to be
adjudged. If l erred, twas in the
glorious company of the patriot founders
of our peculiar system of government
And now, accepting the new order Of
things,.I yet enter upon no defence fol
adheriug to the last moment, to the poll.
cies Of those great men, adopted and
sanctioned as these policies we're, by the
second generation of American states
men, So far from it, L would conform
yet, as far as possible, to their teachings
and practice We may not, indeed. be
ready to follow the enthusiast who had
rather err with Plato than be right with
other men yet neither are we far enough
corrupted, l trust, to be obliged to apollo.
gize for accepting Washington, Jefferson,
Sherman, Hamilton, Webster, Clay and
jackson, as cxemplars worthy of study
and imitation. But they were wise in
their day and generation Let us be wise
in ours. Whether theirs was not the
true wisdom for US also in the long run,
remains 10 be seen; for the end is not
yet. And be that as it may, for any man
to have erred as to the advent, progress,
duration or final issue Of 0 civil war which
has mocked, so far, the prescience of the
wisest statesman of as we'll the Old World
as the New, is no d;spafagement of any
j ldgment or intellect less than divine
In any event, l beg that it be announced
that upon all questions of vaticination up
to this point, | am "paircd off, with the
Secretary of State, Mr.. Seward. But as
to the present and future, and the new
and stupendous questions which every
day will now DO developed, a public mans
position must be determined, not by his
mistakes where all have erred, but by his
capacity, his integrity and his patriotism.
The day has passed when the party cpl
thets upon either side, which were with.
out justification, almost without excuse,
even amid the rancor of civil war and
that heat Of rartizon discussion, ought
any longer TO be tolerated No man in
the Democratic party in the North OF
West, of responsible or recognlzedAp posi-.
ton, was for disunion or separation for its
own sake. But if any such there was,
false to the government Of the Union, he
was false also 70 the Southern Confedcra,
cy, else his place would hav5 been in the
ranks of her armies Some, indeed, moi
many, Of the ablest and most sincere and
honest among us-men who, today
changing their opinions are the worthest
of trust, and | speak strongly as one mol
Of their cOnyiction-believed that only
through temporary recognition of South
ern independence, could the Federal I'm
ion be restored. S.ch, too, had been the
declarations before and in the beginning
of the war, Of many distinguished mer
in The Republican party, some of them
still high in position, expressed in Ian
guage the mos; emphatic, going even ic
thC extent of permanent separation, The
record of these declarations remains bu
to quote them, or to name the authors, il
needless. The argument stands suiicien
of itself
1t is not that the Democratic party op
posed either the civil war or the puchla
policies upon which it was conducted
that is to exclude them from the conf
dcnce Of the people. Scarce a promi
nent man in the Republican ranks, un
less of Democratic antecedents, from tb,
late President down, but opposed-many
Of them with unmcasured bitterness ant
violence-the prosecution of tho foreig,
J Mexican war Devoted wholly to III
:. Union, the old Union, in any event, tn
men of the Democratic party judged o
the war and of It's policies solely by tba
standard, and upheld or opposed them at
cordingly. The party-ani l re er t
} the question because it has been made th
: subject Of recent newspaper comment
} will, indeed, certaiuly not follow tn
. "Chicago Platform" of 1854, as politi
cal text book now, any more than the Re
publican party, in its. heirs or assign.
, will adopt the "Chieago Platform" o
1860, for the same purpose in the future
, not that the former was not tho very bes
Z. practicable at the period and for the oC
casion which brought it forth; but be
j. cause, dealing in time of war, almos
wholly with questions Of policy, not priu
ciplc, It would, 10 time Of peace, be quit
. as inappropriate as the code Of Justinia
, or the journals of the Constitutional Con
gress. All that need now be asked o
. our political foes is, that IL be quote
, correctly /; the moro especially since
D though the work of committee made u
{ Of same Of the ablest and trucst men i
, tho Convention, aud adopted by that bod
. unanimously amid the rapturous applaus
/ of Two hundred thousand freomen presen
/, or at hand, it survived but eight days
! dying Of circumcision. But there is on
Q crown oi glory, at least during the terri
$ bic trials of the last four years, riches
A | n r,on,, tho. franeurnn afIfha natnnor AZ