Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-04-17

tion, may render them SOmeWnaG llnpa-
tient.
There Is In the minds of many a misap-
prehensiOn touching the feeling of Demo-
Gratis toward the Southern people. They
do not occupy the relation of particular
friends to the South any more than they do
to the people generally everywhere else.-
They are the champions of the Constitu-
tion, and hence its iniraction or disregard
for the purpose of operating prejudicially
upon any section of the country provokes
their hostility.
1t was not out of any special cOnsidera-.
tion for the South that the Democratic
party, in the language OF WASHINGTON,
JEFFERSON, JACKSON, CLAY and WEBSTER,
warned the people in the non-slaveholding
States against the elevation of the Repub-
lican party to the control of the Federal
Government, but it,was because it was ami
mated by tionalism-organized for and
controlled by the purpose, by influence and
legislation, to work the eradication of the
institution peculiar to the South. 1t was
foreseen by the statesmen we have named
that civil war would inevitably ensue upon
the success of a party thus organized
and directed. The Democratic party be-
lieved their teachings, and spoke and votel
against it, not to the end that the South
should be benefited; but to the end that
, Civil War should be averted, and our
people spared the inflction of an intol-
cradle public debt. The Democratic
party, in speaking and voting against the
success of the Republican party did not
speak for the South; they spoke and voted
against internecine war, and consequently
they spoke and voted against calls for men
to offer up their lives on the field of battle
against conscriptions-against maimings-
against maltreatment in loathsome prisons
against massacres-against spreading
over the land Provost Marshals-against
Revenue Assessors and Collectors-against
taxation on every conceivable thing
against military inquisitions-against cruel
imprisonments by the decree of irresponsi-
BILE military commissions.
Not to befriend the South, did the Demo-
cratic party in and out of Congress, plead,
in the winter of 1S60-l, with the then tri-
umphant Republican party to give their
assent to such a compromise as should ena-
BILE the Union men In the South to thwart
the secessionists in attempting to with
draw the Southern States from the Union.
They plead thus to preserve the Union and
to maintain peace and its blessings-bless-
ings as peculiarly belonging to the North,
East and West as to the South. How were
they answered by the leaders and mana
gers of the Republican party? They had
no compromises to make. They had sue
ceeded on principle, and that principle was
so sacred in its character, that could
fifty Unions such as had up to that period
given to the United States exaltation, in
calculable prosperity and happiness, be
thereby saved, it should not be compro-
missed. They disclaimed any intention of
bringing war upon the country. If the
South is not satisfied to remain in the
Union, said they, let her betake herself
peaceably out of the Union and set up for
herself. We will not compel her to remain
in it. Such an idea is repugnant to US.
We would not pin a State to the Union
with bayonets. Against all this the Dem
ocratic party protested. To themselves
they could not reconcile the idea as right
that one single inch of territory that be-
longed to the original limits of the Union,
or that had been acquired subsequently to
60 Of ha MI hu IN
administrations against the denunciations
and protests of opposing political organ
izations, should be allowed to be detached
from the Union. Unfortunately, power
. had departed from the Democratic party.
1t was not able alone to adjust matters by
compromise and the Southern people
turned to the incoming administration, and
accepted the declarations of its organs as
the voice of our people, that they would be
allowed to depart in peace, if they were
averse to remaining longer in the Union.
1t was not out of respect for the feelings
of the Southern people that the Democratic
party in the outset of the war opposed the
suspension of the writ of hdbeGs corpus !; but
because JEFF. DAVIS would turn it to the
advantage of the secession cause; and he
did it efTectually. The Democratic party
opposed the emancipation proclamation,
because JEFE. DAVIS could use it to bolster
up his then staggering cause, enabling him
to protract the contest, and compelling an
unnecessary sacrifice of men and the use
less squandering of money. The Demo-
cratic party opposed the putting of Negroes
into the army-not because it would be Of
fensive to the Southern people; but because
it would result in uselessly prolonging the
war and in the giving to it needless repul-
siveness, and would be used as plea to
confer upon the Negroes the same Civil
Rights and political privileges that are en-
joyed by White men.
To-day the Democratic party insists that
the spirit and the letter OF the Constitution
shall be carried out, and the Southern
States shall be permitted 10 resume their
rights of representation in Congress-not
as the friend of the South but as the friend
of the whole country, so that its peace,
prosperity and happiness may be pro-
NOTED.
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