Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1866-08-22
Tbe DooIitfIe Convention.

The much-talked of convention Of played
out political trimmers came of according to
programme, at Philadelphia, last week.
Doolittle, of Wisconsin, was made presiding
officer. The management of the affair was
adroit, and the real designs of the leaders of
the movement were kept on the background.
Such men as Randall, Cowan, Doolittle and
Raymond were put in front to fill the more
prominent positions, while the reconstruct
ed" rebels of South Carolina, Georgia, and
other secession States were told that the SEN
timent of the North was yet a little too ten
der for them to press too far forward Poor
V~allandigham went there to be 'recog-
nized." The Ohio delegation labelled him
genuine, and tried to pass him in, but little
Raymond turned up his punctiIlious pug and
declared he wouldn't stand it. Randall and
Cowan ~buttonholed the big Ohio Copperhead
and begged him for the sake of harmony
and bread and butter to retire to one side
He vacated the wigwam under protest, de-
claring himself as decent and patriotic as
the rest of them. In that he was quite right.
They wanted the Convention to be controlled
by time-servers and jugglers, and o~ut-spoken
men like Vallandigham were not to be trus-
ted. The address and re~solutions-an alb
stract of the first, and the latter in full, We
give lsewhere-aremostl harmless generali-
ties, penned so as to neither favor or con-
denim anything very strongly. If the old
line Democrats can endorse the resolution de-
claring slavery really abolished, and seees-
sion a political polacy, we shall be glad Of fit,
as showing that ever such stubborn political
numbsculls as they, may be taught some
thing and made to take a step forward We
have but little hope, however, that any con-
siderable portion of the Democratic party
will endorse the Cowan and Raymond plat
form, and give up all their long cherished
p~rejudices and belief in the divinity and i'm
mutabilIty of slavery. And if possible, a
severer ordeal is required of Democracy"
that is to drop their old appellatiOn of 'Dem-
ocrat" and merge all in the "National I'm
ion Party" Although for years there has
been nothing of the ancient virtue of that
organization attached to it, and the "Demo.
cratic party" have existed only in name,
there are thousands of its unthinking rank
and file, who in giving up the name would in
stantly lose their political identity.
Taking the great Philadelphia pow-wow
as a whole, it will amount to but little Of
practical consequence. The Southern peo-
pie will still hate the Union and detest the
doctrines of universal liberty. The North
will not be eajoled into an entire oblivious-
ness of the wickedness of traitors and the
sad. irreparabie consequences of the REBEL
ion. The loyal men may strive to forgive,
but can not so far forget the terrible lesson
of the war as to freely and unsuspectingly
trust rebels and their abettors to make the
laws and administer the government Of this
country. The labors of the Philadelphia
Convention viii prove a f~ruitless attempt to
bury the vital issues of Republicanism under
a rotton compromise. The day of tempo
rizing expedients has passed.