The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-06-22
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| to day: when the fate of the nation
hung in the balance, and the world
watched with breathless interest the gil
gantic struggle which was to settle the
question of republican government, as
| sembled in convention in Chicago and
resolved that the war was failure; that
our cause was unjust, and that we
ought to lay down our arms and sue for
peace. It was throwing a mountain
| into the Confederate scale to make the
Union kick the beam. 1t was a bold
and desperate interference in behalf OF
the rebellion, at the very crisis of the
I fight 1t was an insult to the loyal
| arms of the nation so vast, malignant
| and deadly, that language can convey
no adequate idea of its wickedness.
| And in future times the historian Will
record the fact with astonishment that
the Government, at the most critical
moment of its life, when few hours,
or few daysat the farthest, must de-
termine whether it should live or die,
| could permit a large body of its enc
mics to meet upon its soil in peace and
security, and publish a hagrant mani
festo in behalf of the rebellion.
Now, Edo not mean to say that all
the Democratic leaders have done all
these things, but what do say is this,
! that the men who have done these
things are combined together, and con-
| stitute the real leaders of the Demo-
cratic party. The few moderate men of
| the party have been stripped of all pow
er and influence, and are carried along
with it merely for numbers and policy,
while the living and aggressive ele-
| nent which controls it are the "SOns of
Liberty" and those who acted in sym
pathy and concert with them.
They are the men who have pervert-
ed the word Democracy, from its once
! honorable meaning, TO be shield and
| cover for rebellion, and for every crime
that attaches to Causeless and atroci-
| Gus civil war.
WHO CALLED THEMSELVES DEMOCRATS.
Every unregenerated rebel, lately in
| arms against his Government, Ecalls
himself "a Democrat. r~f- IF
Every "bounty-jumper," every "de-
serter," every "sneak" who ran away
from the draft. calls himselfa "a Demo-
crat Bowles, Milligan, Walker, Dodd,
| Horsey and Humphreys call them
selves Democrats. Every "Son of Lib
erty" who conspired to murder, burn,
rob arsenals, and release rebel prison
| ers calls himself n Democrat. John
Morgan, Sue Mundy, Champ Fergu-
son, Wirz, Paine and Booth proclaimed
themselves Democrats. Every man
| who labored for the rebellion in the
field, who murdered Union prisoners by
cruelty and starvation, who conspired
! to bring about civil war in the loyal
States, who invented dangerous conf
| pounds to burn steamboats, and North
| ern cities, who contrived hellish
schemes to introduce into Northern
ern cities the wasting pestilence of yell
low fever, calls himself a Democrat.
Every dishonest contractor who has
been convicted of defrauding the Gov
ernment-every dishonest paymaster or
disbursing officer who has been con-
| victed of squandering the public money
at the gaming table or in gold
| gambling Operations-every officer in
the army who was dismissed for cow
Democrat. Every wolf in sleeps
clothing, who pretends to preach the
Gospel, but prOclaims the righteousness
of man-selling and slavery-every one
who shoots down negroes in the streets,
burns negroischoOl houses and meeting
houses, and murders women and chill
dren by the light of their own flaming
dwellings, calls himself Democrat.
Every New York rioter in 1868, who
burned -up little children in cOlored
asylums-who robbed, ravished and
murdered indiscriminatelyi in the midst
OF blazing city for three days and
| nights, called himself a Democrat. In
| short the Democratic party may be
described as N common sewer and
loathsomee receptacle, into which is
emptied every element of treason
North and South, and every element of
inhumanity and barbarism which has
dishonored the age.
And this party, composed of the men
and elements have described, in def
ance of truth and decency, asserts itself
as the special champion of the Constitu-
| ton and the Union, which but a short
sixteen months ago it was in arms to
destroy; and proclaims to an astonished
| world that the only effect of vanquiSh-
/ ing armed rebels in the field, is TO re-
/ t,1,-, hnN tn nnt N 4, aF,nnUraGE nnn
restore them to political power. Hay
ing failed to destroy the Constitution
by force, they seek to do it by construc-
ton, and assume to have made the re-
markable discovery that rebels who
fought to destroy the Constitution were
| its true friends, and that the men who
shed their blood and gave their sub
stance to preserve it were its only enc
mics. .,
SPIRIT OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.
1t is beyond doubt that the temper of
the Democratic party is not changed or
improved since the termination of the
| war, but on the contrary it seems TO
have been greatly embittered by defeat
in the field and ut the ballot-boX. Its
sympathy with those lately in arms
| against the he-Government is more boldly
| avowed than ever, and it becomes ar
| gumentative and enthusiastic in be-
| halfof the right of secession and right
/
spirit of the Democratic party in Indi-
ana has recently received remarka-
BILE illustration that should command
| the solemn consideration of the people.
Some four or five weeks since con-
vention was held in the city of Louis
vile, composed in large part of men
who had been engaged in the rebel ar
| mics. These men assembled in conVen-
ltfon, proclaimed themselves members
.l.of the National Democratic party, and
/ declared their unfaltering devotion to
its stimehonored principles. They vim
-l.dicated the righteousness of the rebel
l'lion and declared their stern purpose to
maintain at the ballot box the sacred
principles for which they had taken up
arms Prominent Indiana Democrats
Ismet with them in conyention, mingled
their tears with those who wept over
| Southern heroes; uttered glowing eulo-
4 gies upon the memory of Stonewall
1 jackson and John Morgan, and indors-
ed their most ultra and reasonable
doctrines; and to show the complete
ideptity between this assembly of trail
tors and the Democratic party of 1ndi-
ana, the indianapolis Herald, the organ
of the party, in the broadest and most
unqualified manner, earnestly and en-
Enthusiastically indOrsedits proceedings,
4 resolutions and speeches. The members
of the convention did not disguise the
factthaE they were rebels and Northern
Democratic leaders, Believing that the
time for furnishing treason had gone
by, they now make haste to declare
that they are and have been united with
them in sympathy, sentiment and pur-
pose; and that they will cooperate
with them to the bitter end in restoring
to them what they call their rights, and
in repairing the damages done to them
: by the war. And to show that this