Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1866-10-31
Wallace Oomforteth his Friends.

1t Is usual, after general election. LOT the
successful party, through its State Commit
tee. to congratulate the victors upon the re-
suit of their efforts This Fall we have not
only this, but the public are, in addition,
treated to the novelty of an address, under
date of October 18th, issued by William a.
Wallace, chairman of the so-called Demo
cratic State Committee" felicitating the
faithful upon their defeat or what is about
the same thing, upon the advantages they
gained in the political contest that has just
been closed in Pennsylvania ''You have
" reduced the majority of your opponents"
says Wallace, and have demonstrated the
'' strength of your organization. What
particular majority he refers to, and in what
special manner they have demonstrated
their strength, may be all plain enough to
a good calculator like w. A. W., but we are
forced to confess that we ''can't see it.
Nor is this all. Warming up with his sub
ject, William enthusiastically exclaims that
" buoyancy and hope everywhere pervade
your ranks, whilst chagrin and dismay
:" mark the visages of your opponents, and
he further confidently AYERS that ''in the
light of this exhibition of your stern de-
''votion to the doctrines of the Constitu-
" ton, ct cetera, ct cetera, the Republl-
cans read their coming defeat. Now, if
we didn't k;n0,o that William was a serious
individual and not at all inclined to evity,
we would be disposed to think that he was
''poking fun at his discomfited partizans
for the sorry figure they cut on the second
Tuesday of October However as W. A. w.
don joke, we must take it for granted that
he is not laughing at their calamities, but
in sober earnest means what he says, and
that whilst ordinary mortals, possessing less
penetrative visual organs and prophetic mind
than William, may have some difficulty in
discerning the ''chagrin and dismay'' in the
happy faces of the victorious Republicans,
and the coming defeat" he holds in such
blissful anticipation, yet these are phenome-
ma quite ''as clear as mud to brilliant in
tellect like his Wallace seems to regard it
also as matter of no little moment that his
party had to combat great odds, by the
huential and intelligent classes against their
miscellaneous aggregation of Copperheads,
Rebel sympathizers, ,deserters, and renegades
from ''the ranks of the enemy" He says
the Republicans had. the Influence of al
most every manufacturer, corporation and
T. bank" ''they had at their command a
large preponderance Of the public press of
" the State which, by the by, is not
speaking we'll of the reading propensities of
the Democracy speakers without num-
der" memories of the acar still fresh
"enough to be the means of exciting ha-
" tired "a fact that tells plainly where he
and his friends stood whilst the Rebellion
was in progress and all the advantages
" that the possession of municipal and State
power could bring, though he boasted in
a former address that power was no Ion
ger against, but with his party, and that
opportunities for fraud did not exist"
" And yet, unaided and selfdependent,
quoth Wallace, you have combatted this
powerful combination, and almost carried
" the ,State' Probably his poor dupes,
who bet large sums in full reliance upon the
correctness of his kilograms and proclama-
tions, will derive great consolation from this
important announcement The whole Com
monwealth having been resonant with their
.anathemas, no doubt their curses will now
cease, and they will be content to have lost
their money in view of having almost car
ried the State, - the majority against them
being only trihe over seUeateen thousand!
But seriously: What record William A.
Wallace has made for himself by his procla-
nations before and after the election! Hav-
ing i'll the Senate opposed the right of the
soldier to vote while serving in the field, it
was fitting that he should issue circular
directing his friends to vote deserters and
skulkers in violation of the laws of the land.
And now that the election is over and the
loyal masses triumphant in despite of ille-
galities, frauds and prostituted Government
patronage, it is more than ever appropriate
that he should attribute the defeat of his
friends to the recent memories of the war
Truly, his course and that of his party dur
ing the Rebellion have not been forgotten.
1t is record of infamy that will go down
to posterity side by side with that of the
Tories of the Revelation As long as the
Boys in Blue survive, and Patriotism is
more than name, so long will Copperhead
leaders and politicians sink beneath those
memories of the war, which they have
and will in vain seek to obliterate. And
nothing viii have stronger tendency to