Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-08-14
The Logic of Latter Day Democracy

The New York World has frequently
made itself infamous-it did SO by re-
peated disloyalty during the war-it did
co in is brutal abuse of Andrew johnson
as a drunken traitor'-it did SO IN Its
;u-concealed exultation at the assasslna-
ton of Mr.. Lincoln-but it was V
more infamous than when it published, as
It did a few days since, a letter like the
following. dated at ~FultOrville, New
York. and headed: Correspondence Of
the World"
Since the people are about to have an
other Z" martyr" in the person oil me iate
doctor" Dostie, let me give you some Of MS
snteoedents. He was for some years a res
ideut of Amsterdam, where he pursued the
calling If a village barber. I, o boy at the
tIme, Remember him well. He was a man
of light build, with q sharp pale face; long
black hair floating over the collar ofa seedY
black coat; enormous Byron shIrt-collar,
unbuttoned atthe throat; and q hat having
the style Of brim affected by sports Al
together, his appearance made hiIn a terror
to small boys, and a laughing STOCK anu
butt to those of larger growth. In connec-
zion with his barber-shop, of which he was
sole proprietor and the only Journeyman, he
started a cheap bathing establishment, con-
sisting Of a force-pump and two tubs, where
in the great and small unwashed might
bathe for the small sum of six n one-quar-
Ter cents. The enterprise, however, did not
nav, and Dostie's capital in pumps and tubs
was all aloat. With no means TO pay board
and washing bills, poverty stared Dostie IN
the face, unless something should oPpor-
Il - - arawraEeaA
a remedy for Dostio's woes, and after 2
thorough course of instruction under the
village dentist. covering by count exactly
two weeks and three days, Dostie was
graduated a "doctor" of dentistry. The
doctor then migrated 10 Chicago, where |
lost sight of him, till the hero of many a
fight between a stiff board and a dull razor
turned up as O newly manufactured RadI-
cal martyr in New Orleans.
In the old tub and lather-box days 1t
would have been impossible to have found
q man of "less account" in Amsterdam than
.. Doctor" Dostie, who was generally re-
garded as a lunatic or fool. But now the
Radicals in and about Amsterdam rank the
deceased doctor" with john Brown and
the late President Lincoln, and mourn him
as a martyr" 1t is a matter Of serious
consideration whether or not, if the funds
shall be raised, his body shall be borne
through the country, wrapped in the Amer
lean dag, and finally laid down in sorrow
amid the scenes of his early tons0rial tri-
umphs. There is to be no Homeric dispute
between the rival cities, Amsterdam and
New Orleans. Amsterdam claims her soapy
son, and no doubt Congress can be induced
to make an appropriation for the transPor-
tation of the martyrs remains.
Can there be anything more disgusting,
more un-Democratic, more contemplate
than this sheer at the memory of a muir.
dered patriot? The logic of the World
would seem to be that Dr.. Dostie's MUIR
der was but a small crime, because he
used to be a barber. It is not alleged
that he was dishonest, was corrupt, was
dissipated. By not making these charges,
the World tscitly admits, what all other
accounts concur in proving, that the char
acter of the fallen Unionist was ire
proachable and pure. But forsooth, he
was once a barber, and for that reason his
murder is matter for laughter. It used to
be the idea in tie old-fashioned Republi-
can times, that to have raised ones self
from poverty to influence and power was
honorable in this country of ours, and
many an American statesman has re-
ferred to his early days Of toll and strug-
gle with greater pride than to any subse-
quent event in his career. The World
will teach us better. The latter-day De
mocracy maintain a different creed. The
same falsely-called Democracy which
sneered at Andrew johnson as a tailor
now reviles the martyred Dostie as a bar
Der. The Democrats who do this are
not Democrats of the kind of Jefferson
and Jackson. They have lost the first
principles of the old faith. They are cor
rupt and dangerous wealth-hunters and
wealth worshippers.